Is a 225 lb bench press good?
Short answer: for a 25-year-old man of median US size, a 225 lb bench press is the 89th percentile of the general population and the 41st percentile against NCAA Division I athletes. For a 25-year-old woman it is above the 99th percentile of the general population.
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Those two numbers are the whole point. Against everybody — including the majority of adults who never train — a 225 lb bench press is genuinely rare. Against people whose job is to be athletic, it is ordinary. A percentile means nothing until you name the population.
Where a 225 lb bench press lands
Percentile of an average-size adult at each age, computed with the same code the calculator runs. "General" is all adults of that sex and age; "D1" is NCAA Division I athletes of that sex, pooled across sports by head-count, with no age or size adjustment.
| Who | vs. general population | vs. D1 athletes |
|---|---|---|
| Man, age 25 | 89th | 41st |
| Man, age 40 | 93rd | 41st |
| Woman, age 25 | 99+ | 99+ |
| Woman, age 40 | 99+ | 99+ |
Modeled — estimated from indirect evidence; treat every number here as an informed estimate, not a measurement. Modeled as a blend of untrained, recreationally trained and serious lifters, anchored to free-weight bench studies of untrained adults and strength-standards data.
Bodyweight changes it — less than you'd think
For a 25-year-old man, a 225 lb bench press is the 95th percentile at 150 lb and the 83rd percentile at 230 lb. Strength rises with body mass at roughly the two-thirds power, not in proportion to it, so a bodyweight-multiple rule of thumb overstates how much size should change the standard. Above the median bodyweight the credit is halved, because in the general population most extra mass is not muscle. See the full table by bodyweight.
Questions
Is a 225 lb bench press good for a man?
For a 25-year-old man of median US size (179 lb), a 225 lb bench press is the 89th percentile of the general population — and the 41st percentile against pooled NCAA Division I athletes. By 40 the same result is the 93rd percentile of the general population, because the norms fall with age.
Is a 225 lb bench press good for a woman?
For a 25-year-old woman of median US size (153 lb), a 225 lb bench press is above the 99th percentile of the general population and above the 99th percentile against D1 athletes.
Does bodyweight change the answer?
Yes. For a 25-year-old man, a 225 lb bench press is the 95th percentile at 150 lb and the 83rd percentile at 230 lb. Strength is compared after scaling by bodyweight at roughly the two-thirds power, with the credit for being heavy halved above the median bodyweight.
How much would I need for the 90th percentile?
A 25-year-old man of median size reaches the 90th percentile of the general population at 230 lb, and a 25-year-old woman at 100 lb.
How reliable is this number?
Modeled — estimated from indirect evidence; treat every number here as an informed estimate, not a measurement. Modeled as a blend of untrained, recreationally trained and serious lifters, anchored to free-weight bench studies of untrained adults and strength-standards data.
One result is one result — any single test can be gamed by specializing. Get your overall rank across all fifteen tests, or read the methodology behind the bench press norms.