Wilks Score Calculator

Comparing lifters across bodyweight

Strength scales with body mass but not proportionally, so heavier lifters lift more in absolute terms and less relative to their weight. Comparing across weight classes needs a coefficient.

The Wilks coefficient, developed by Robert Wilks in the 1990s, multiplies total lifted by a factor derived from bodyweight, producing a score comparable across classes.

It became the standard in powerlifting for decades and is still widely used and quoted, which is why the term remains familiar even where federations have moved on.

What replaced it

The International Powerlifting Federation replaced Wilks in 2020 with a new coefficient, IPF GL points, derived from more recent competition data.

Wilks 2, a revision published in 2020, also exists and addresses some of the same criticisms with a different approach.

The reason for the change was that the original coefficients were derived from data that no longer reflected the sport, and that they were argued to disadvantage certain bodyweight ranges. Which coefficient a given competition uses depends on the federation, and comparing scores across systems is not meaningful.

The criticisms

The most persistent is that all such formulas advantage some bodyweights over others, and the direction of the bias has been argued in both directions for different formulas.

They also treat all lifters as a single population, when the relationship between bodyweight and strength differs between men and women, between equipped and raw lifting, and between age groups. Separate coefficients exist for some of these and not all.

More fundamentally, any single number that reduces three lifts across all bodyweights to one figure is making choices that some lifters will find unfair. That is inherent to the exercise rather than a flaw in a particular formula.

Using it sensibly

For an individual tracking their own progress at a stable bodyweight, the coefficient adds nothing over the raw total, and the total is a cleaner measure.

It earns its place when bodyweight changes. A lifter who gains five kilograms and adds ten kilograms to their total has improved in absolute terms and possibly not in relative terms, and the score distinguishes them.

For comparing against others, it is a reasonable rough guide and a poor basis for an argument. Two lifters within a few points of each other are, for practical purposes, comparable.

Reading a score

Rough guidance for raw lifters: a Wilks score around 200 to 250 reflects a novice, 300 an intermediate, 400 an advanced lifter, and above 500 approaches elite level for men. Women's scores follow the same scale under the coefficient, which is its purpose.

These bands are approximate and vary between sources, and they describe competitive lifters rather than gym populations.

The more useful comparison is against your own previous score. A coefficient is a tool for tracking a trajectory across changing bodyweight, and it works well for that in a way it does not work for settling who is stronger.

One practical point about which lifts are included. The coefficient is applied to a powerlifting total, meaning squat, bench press and deadlift, and applying it to any other combination produces a number that cannot be compared with anything. Scores calculated from a single lift, or from a total that includes an overhead press, are not Wilks scores whatever a calculator labels them, and they will not correspond to the reference bands. If the purpose is comparison, the input has to be a competition-standard total on the three lifts.