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The common strength goal for natural lifters is to overhead press two plates, bench press three plates, squat four plates, and deadlift five. That’s a 405-pound squat. 180 kilos.

Those are lofty goals, and I don’t doubt you could do it. Many natural powerlifters do, but most casual lifters never get there, even after decades of training.

We surveyed 580 of our readers to see how long they’d been lifting and how much they could squat. Squatting three plates (315 pounds) is rare at commercial gyms. Most guys never get past two plates (225 pounds).

We can break the data down even further, giving you realistic expectations about how much you should be able to squat based on how long you’ve been training. I also made graphs so that you can see what percentile you’re in.

The common strength standard for natural lifters is to overhead press two plates, bench press three, squat four, and deadlift five. That’s a 225-pound overhead press. 100 kilos.

That seemed high to me, so I surveyed 580 guys from our newsletter. It turns out that if you can lift 135 pounds overhead, you’re stronger than most guys who have been lifting all their lives.

A 225-pound overhead press is even more impressive. Even among the guys who have been lifting for over a decade, only 2% of them have ever pressed 225 pounds overhead.

In the rest of the article, I’ll break it down by year, giving you realistic rates of progress. By all means, blow past them. If you train your press like a powerlifter trains his squat, I bet you can get 225 pounds within a few years.

The typical goal for a natural lifter is to bench three plates, squat four, and deadlift five. That’s 495 pounds (or 220 kilos). I think that’s realistic, in theory, but most people never even make it to three plates, let alone four, and never even see anyone deadlift five.

We surveyed 540 guys from our newsletter. Most started off deadlifting 95–135 pounds for a few reps. After a couple of years of lifting weights, most could deadlift 225–315 pounds, at which point they plateaued forever. Only around half of us ever load 315 on the bar.

Deadlifting four plates is rare, impressive, and takes quite a bit of structured effort, especially if you’re naturally thin. I suspect your genetic limit is closer to five plates, but most of the people who make it all the way there are powerlifters who weigh over 200 pounds.

We surveyed 580 guys from our newsletter. Most guys start off benching less than 135 pounds. After a year of lifting weights, they can bench 135–224 pounds, which is the weight they plateau at forever. Most guys never load two plates on the bar.

We aren’t the only ones struggling to put up 225. Jared from Outlive pointed out that guys in elite tactical units, such as SWAT teams, bench 220 pounds on average (article).

That doesn’t mean you can’t bench 225. I think you can. I suspect your genetic limit is closer to three plates. But a two-plate bench is quite good, and it requires quite a bit of structured effort, especially if you’re naturally thin.