Powerlifting Total Calculator

Your powerlifting total is the sum of your best squat, bench press and deadlift. Enter the three lifts and your bodyweight — the calculator adds them and scores the result against your size in the same pass, which is how a meet does it.

The three lifts, in competition order

The order is fixed and not a matter of preference: squat, then bench press, then deadlift. Each lifter gets three attempts on each, and the heaviest successful one on each lift goes into the total.

• Squat. Usually the second biggest of the three. It opens the meet, when you are freshest.
• Bench press. Almost always the smallest, because it recruits the least muscle mass — chest, triceps and front delts.
• Deadlift. Usually the largest, and it closes the meet, so it decides placings under fatigue.

Worked example: 140 kg squat + 100 kg bench + 160 kg deadlift = 400 kg, which is 309 + 220 + 353 = 882 lb. At a bodyweight of 80 kg (176 lb) that scores 327.7 Wilks 2020 points, 275.8 DOTS, 56.4 IPF GL Points and 5.00 times bodyweight. Four scales, one lifter, one afternoon — which is why a score means nothing until you say which formula produced it.

The rule that can wipe the whole thing out

A total is not simply “whatever you managed”. USA Powerlifting’s rulebook requires a successful attempt in all three disciplines to earn one. Miss all three squats and you may keep lifting for individual awards, but you leave with no total — the outcome lifters call bombing out.

That single rule is why attempt selection is a competitive skill rather than an afterthought. An opener you can hit on your worst day protects the total; an ambitious one risks the entire meet for a few kilograms. The tiebreak rules point the same direction: equal totals go to the lighter lifter, and equal totals at equal bodyweight go to whoever got there first, so being aggressive late is not free either.

What the total is for

On its own the total ranks people only inside a weight class. Across classes it needs normalizing, which is what the scoring formulas do:

• Wilks calculator — the polynomial most lifters still quote, in its 2020 form.
• IPF GL Points calculator — the IPF’s official scale since 2020, anchored so that 100 points is average elite performance for your bodyweight.
• Wilks versus DOTS — how the two most common polynomials differ, and where.

To see how a total compares against published elite standards for your weight class, use the strength standards chart. For the crude version that needs no coefficient at all, the relative strength calculator divides the total straight by bodyweight — and explains why that flatters smaller lifters.

This content is informational and does not replace coaching or the rules of your federation.