This sounds like a stupid question. Athletes that specialize in pure strength should always beat athletes that have to split their time between conditioning and strength work. That is not exactly what the research indicates. In this article we are going to review some excellent data from the USA Powerlifting Federation to see just what difference there is between pure powerlifters, and functional fitness athletes. Keep reading for more.
In the last decade the functional fitness movement has become massively popular. As a result, thousands of functional fitness athletes have also competed in powerlifting events, as well as olympic weight lifting competitions. This has brought new life to these organizations, which had previously been fairly niche sports. It’s only natural to compare the strength levels between functional fitness athletes and powerlifters, since so many athletes do both.
This article is based on some excellent research entitled, “Analysis of USA Powerlifting Federation Data From January 1, 2012–June 11, 2016.” Researchers analyzed thousands of powerlifting competition results in order to distill some very interesting bits of data. I have taken the liberty of comparing that data to data on functional fitness athletes to see just similar these two groups are.
Can We Even Compare These Groups?
This is a reasonable question as there are some differences between the two groups. First and foremost, powerlifting is a weight class sport, meaning that athletes who weigh the same compete against each other. Functional fitness is not a weight class sport. It is well known that larger athletes generally tend to be stronger athletes. I’ve gotten around this issue by comparing the weight categories that most closely match the average functional fitness athlete weights. The next issue we run into is steroid usage.
Believe it or not both sports suffer from PED usage, at every level. The USA Powerlifting federation does engage in drug testing, as do many top level functional fitness competitions. You would be a fool to say that no one is beating these tests, but I think it’s not unreasonable to say that the amount of athletes doping in both sports are likely equivalent.
All in all, I think that we can make some fair comparisons between athletes of similar size. As you will see further on, their strength numbers are surprisingly close.
Men vs. Women
First, we can make some quick comparisons between men and women. The easiest way to do this is to compare the total weight lifted for the squat, bench, and deadlift for each group. You can see that females are roughly 60% as strong as males. This makes sense, as most WODs in functional fitness have female athletes using around 67% of the weight males use. If men are deadlifting 225 lbs in Dianne, then women lift 155 lbs.
- Average Female Total (Squat, Bench, Deadlift): 621 lbs
- Average Male Total (Squat, Bench, Deadlift): 1017 lbs
- Most Common Weight Class Women: 159 lbs
- Most Common Weight Class Men: 231 and 265 lbs
It is interesting to note that female powerlifters are about the same weight as most female functional fitness athletes you would find in a normal box. The male lifters are a fair amount heavier. Most competitive male functional fitness athletes weigh around 185-200 pounds. The most popular weight classes for male powerlifters are 231, and 265lbs. This is obviously much heavier than our average. Now let’s take a look at some average numbers for the squat, bench and deadlift.
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Average Weights for Power Lifters
Before we get into the weeds we need to cover some background info on the data. All of these numbers are taken from raw powerlifting athletes. This means they are only allowed to use lifting belts and knee sleeves. They cannot use lifting wraps, squat, or bench suits. This means that the numbers you see here are performed in the same conditions that most functional fitness athletes perform them.
Personally I was surprise by how low these numbers were. I would have thought the average female powerlifter would be lifting about 20% heavier than this. This just goes to show you that your assumptions are only so good without solid data!
If you take a look at this previous article where we analyze the performance of the top 10% of athletes who compete in the Open, you’ll see that these lifting numbers are roughly analogous to a female athlete who finishes in the top 1000 in her region. Now let’s take a look at the men.
These number fall about where I would expect them. They are also a little higher than the equivalent functional fitness athletes. Looking at that same analysis linked above these strength numbers would be expected of a male functional fitness athlete who finished in the top 100 in their region. Now let’s take a look at some weight ratios.
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Weight Ratios
You might ask yourself why this even matters. Weight ratios are important as they help athletes and coaches determine if someone is a balanced athlete or not. Obviously, if you can bench more than you squat, you are incredibly imbalanced. These numbers show what a balanced strength athlete should aim for.
- Female Squat to Bench Press Ratio: 1.7
- Female Deadlift to Bench Press Ratio: 2.2
- Female Deadlift to Squat Ratio: 1.26
- Male Squat to Bench Press Ratio: 1.5
- Male Deadlift to Bench Press Ratio: 1.7
- Male Deadlift to Squat Ratio: 1.16
We can see that the female squat to other lifts ratio is higher than the male. This is easily explained, as women generally have less upper body strength, and about the same lower body strength as males, pound for pound. If a female athlete can bench 100 lbs, she should be able to squat 170 lbs, and deadlift 220 lbs. For male athletes who can bench 200 lbs, they should be able to squat 300 lbs, and deadlift 340lbs. Now let’s take a look at how much you should be able to lift compared to your bodyweight.
Here we note that men can lift more pound for pound than women can. We can also see that the biggest disparity is in the bench press. If a female weighs 150 lbs, she should be able to bench 135 lbs, squat 240, and deadlift 285. Males weighing 180 pounds should bench 252 lbs, squat 378 lbs, and deadlift 432 lbs. While these are very respectable numbers, I would bet that many of you can match these numbers, if not exceed them.
Final Thoughts
When you look at research that compares athletes who strength train and work on their conditioning you will always find that they generally are slower to gain strength and muscle mass than athletes who only strength train. Crucially, these studies are always short term affairs, lasting at most a few months.
This means that in the short term, you can’t gain conditioning and strength as fast as someone who just wants to gain strength. I have yet to see a study that says that you cannot gain as much strength as a pure resistance trained athletes in the long term.
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I like to think of it this way. If you were studying to be a doctor and a lawyer, it would obviously take longer than someone studying to be either. Once you finished you would have the capabilities of both where as your speedier colleagues would be stuck with only the one.
I think the number these pure powerlifting athletes are posting are very attainable for serious functional fitness athletes. It might take you longer to hit these numbers but you’ll be able to lift weights and go for a run afterwards which you aren’t likely to see at a powerlifting meet. Now get out there and get training!
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Good Morning Jake,
Great article. I appreciate the comparisons. I find it very interesting that the poundages you mention here, both male and female, pale in comparison to what you would see in some of the more recognized powerlifting and Crossfit competitions that most of us are familair with. It lends a bit of reality to otherwise (somewhat) outrageous poundages and PRs I hear about almost daily. Not dissing on anyone mind you. There are some genetically gifted folks that have insane lifts. My best lifts, as a natural lifter were 425 lbs bench / 475 squat / and a 600 deadlift, all at a BW of 250. Mind you, that was years in the making and I paid dearly for it afterwards. These days, I’m very happy to combine my heavier-than-average lifting with rowing, hiking, and an occasional distance run to keep me in decent enough shape in my early 50s. Once again, a thoughtful and educational article that I will pin to my favorites for every time I get the urgent to push myself beyond what is reasonable. Thanks for the good read sir.
Thanks for the great comment Scott. Glad you liked it!