Strength • Progress • Bone Health

A Practical Guide to Understanding Strength Milestones

Spend five minutes watching fitness videos, and you may begin to think everyone except you is squatting twice their body weight, performing chin-ups for fun, and casually bench pressing a refrigerator.

Social media is not exactly known for giving us a normal comparison group.

Most of what we see comes from fitness professionals, competitive lifters, and people who have trained consistently for years. If those are the people we compare ourselves with, it is easy to overlook how strong we have already become.

So, how strong is strong?

The honest answer is that it depends.

Why I Created This Strength Milestones Chart

I created the chart to give recreational lifters a practical frame of reference. A recreational lifter is someone who strength trains for health, fitness, enjoyment, and personal progress rather than for competition. They may train seriously and become very strong, but they are not a competitive powerlifter, weightlifter, bodybuilder, or professional athlete. Their training usually needs to fit around work, family, travel, and everyday life.

The chart includes milestones for women and men across several familiar exercises. The repetition target is listed beside each exercise because five repetitions of a heavy squat cannot be fairly compared with ten push-ups, eight Bulgarian split squats, or one impressive chin-up.

The stages are:

1. Foundation

2. Developing

3. Strong

4. Very Strong

   
   

These are coaching milestones, not medical standards, or competitive classifications.

In other words, the chart is a guide. It is not the gym police.

Why Body Weight Matters

When we talk about strength, we can look at absolute strength or relative strength.

Absolute strength is simply how much weight you lift. Relative strength compares the weight you lift with your body weight.

Relative strength = weight lifted ÷ body weight

For example, a 130 pound woman bench pressing 85 pounds is lifting approximately 65 percent of her body weight. A 200 pound man bench pressing the same 85 pounds is lifting approximately 43 percent of his.

Both people may be making excellent progress, but the lift represents a different level of relative strength for each person.

Body weight becomes even more important during push-ups, chin-ups, and dips because your body is part of the resistance. If your weight changes, the difficulty of the exercise changes too.

However, body weight does not tell us everything.

Height, limb length, muscle mass, age, training experience, injury history, technique, range of motion, and even the equipment being used can affect a lift.

A trap bar deadlift is not identical to a conventional barbell deadlift. A bench push-up is not the same as a floor push-up. A squat performed to a comfortable box is not directly comparable with a competition squat.

They can all be valuable exercises. We simply need to compare like with like.

What Does the Research Actually Tell Us?

Most high-quality strength standards come from competitive sports, particularly powerlifting.

A large 2024 study examined 809,986 performances from drug-tested, unequipped powerlifting competitions. It provides useful age, sex, and body weight data for the squat, bench press, and deadlift.

However, the participants were powerlifters. The results should not be used to tell an average gym member what she or he should be able to lift.

The study also evaluated maximum competition lifts. It did not establish working weight standards for five or eight repetitions, and it did not include exercises such as hip thrusts, rows, split squats, push-ups, or chin-ups.

That is why I do not describe every number on my graphic as a scientifically proven strength standard. Some are practical coaching milestones based on relative load, repetition quality, exercise difficulty, and experience working with recreational clients.

The chart helps us recognize progress. It does not assign anyone a grade. You can read the 2024 powerlifting study here.

Why the Repetition Target Changes

Different exercises are better suited to different repetition ranges.

For the major barbell movements, such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, a controlled set of five provides a practical way to evaluate strength without requiring someone to attempt a true one-repetition maximum.

Hip thrusts, rows, dumbbell presses, and Bulgarian split squats are often more appropriate to evaluate with approximately eight controlled repetitions.

Push-ups and chin-ups are evaluated by the number of technically sound repetitions performed with body weight.

Using one repetition target for every exercise may make a chart look tidy, but bodies are not spreadsheets. Believe me, the programmer in me would love it if they were.

What Counts as a Good Repetition?

A meaningful repetition should be controlled, repeatable, and appropriate for the individual.

For most exercises, I look for:

1. A stable starting position

2. A controlled lowering phase

3. An appropriate and comfortable range of motion

4. No bouncing, swinging, or dramatically changing the movement to finish the repetition

5. Consistent technique from the first repetition to the last

   
   

Not everyone needs to use exactly the same range of motion. A previous injury, joint replacement, mobility restriction, or body proportion may change how an exercise looks. A modified repetition is not a fake repetition. It simply needs to be performed consistently so we can track progress accurately.

The Best Comparison Is Still You

A strength chart can offer perspective, but your most useful comparison is your previous performance.

Progress may mean:

1. Lifting more weight with the same form

2. Performing more repetitions with the same weight

3. Using a greater comfortable range of motion

4. Completing the same set with better control

5. Needing less assistance during a chin up

6. Moving from a counter push up to a bench push up

7. Finishing your sets with more confidence and less effort

   
   

Someone who increases a deadlift from 65 to 85 pounds has become stronger, regardless of which category appears beside that number. Someone who performs her first controlled floor push-up has achieved something meaningful, even if social media forgot to throw her a congrats.

Age Changes the Starting Point, Not the Possibility

Strength training is valuable throughout adulthood. The National Strength and Conditioning Association reports that appropriately designed resistance training can improve strength, muscle mass, mobility, physical function, and independence in older adults. That does not mean a 70-year-old beginner should be compared directly with a 25-year-old competitive lifter. Age, health, recovery, training history, and joint comfort should all influence the program.

It does mean we remain capable of improving.

For adults in midlife and beyond, strength is about much more than lifting impressive weights. It supports the ability to carry groceries, climb stairs, travel, play with grandchildren, get up from the floor, protect independence, and continue doing the activities we love. You can read the NSCA position statement on resistance training for older adults.

What Does Strength Have to Do With Bone Health?

Muscles are not the only tissues responding when we lift weights. Bones are living tissues too.

When muscles contract, they pull on the bones where they attach. Weight-bearing and resistance exercises also place mechanical load through the skeleton. That load signals the body that the bones need to remain strong enough to handle the demands being placed upon them.

Put simply, bones need a reason to stay strong. Unfortunately, they are not impressed by good intentions alone.

Progressive strength training can help maintain bone mineral density and may produce modest improvements, particularly at the spine and hip. It also strengthens the muscles around the bones, improves balance, and makes everyday movements more controlled. Those benefits matter because protecting bone health is not only about improving a bone density number. It is also about preventing the falls that can lead to fractures.

Exercises such as squats, deadlifts, step-ups, split squats, presses, rows, and loaded carries can all contribute when they are selected and progressed appropriately. Weight-bearing impact activities may provide an additional bone-building stimulus for people who can perform them safely.

Walking is wonderful for cardiovascular health, mood, and general activity, but walking alone usually does not provide enough progressive resistance to maximize bone strength. This is one more reason to pick up the weights.

Of course, strong bones require more than exercise. Adequate calcium, vitamin D, protein, and overall energy intake help provide the materials the body needs to maintain bone. Depending on the individual, medical treatment may also be necessary.

Exercise complements osteoporosis treatment, but it should not be presented as a replacement for prescribed medication.

If someone already has osteoporosis, a previous fragility fracture, significant spinal changes, or a high risk of falling, strength training should be individualized.

That does not necessarily mean lifting tiny weights forever.

It means choosing appropriate exercises, learning good technique, progressing gradually, and coordinating with the person’s physician or physical therapist when needed.

Osteopenia and osteoporosis are not instructions to stop moving. They are reasons to train thoughtfully.

The strongest evidence supports combining resistance exercise with appropriate weight bearing or impact activity, balance work, and good nutrition as part of a complete bone health plan. Bone Health and Osteoporosis Foundation UK expert consensus statement 2023 review of exercise and bone density

How to Use the Strength Milestones Chart

• Choose the exercise variation and repetition target shown on the graphic.

  
  

• Record the weight used, the repetitions completed, and any assistance or modification.

  
  

• Then compare that performance with your own results over time.

  
  

You may be Developing in one exercise and Very Strong in another. That is completely normal. Our bodies, leverages, experience, and exercise preferences are different.

You are not required to reach the highest category on every exercise. Frankly, that sounds exhausting.

The latest guidance from the American College of Sports Medicine emphasizes that regular participation matters more than creating an unnecessarily complicated program.

Training all major muscle groups at least twice per week and gradually progressing over time can produce meaningful results using free weights, machines, resistance bands, or body weight exercises. You can read the 2026 ACSM resistance training guidance here.

Your Strength Has a Story

The number on the bar matters, but it is only part of the story.

Your technique matters.

Your consistency matters.

Your confidence matters.

Your ability to do something today that once felt impossible matters.

Use the Strength Milestones chart for perspective and motivation, not judgment. Record your workouts, notice your progress, and celebrate your personal records.

Keep showing up, keep lifting, and keep building the strongest version of you.