What’s Considered a Good Deadlift Weight?

The king of compound lifts requires lifting some substantial tin in order to hit a PB to be proud of, but how much is right for you?

Pushing ourselves to the correct intensity level in our weight training sessions is crucial for seeing the strength and muscular gains we're striving for. Load up with too few plates and we're only scratching the surface of our potential. Too many, and we're setting ourselves up for the risk of injury. So, how can we be sure of which weights to aim for?

The amount we lift is even more crucial when it comes to compound lifts like the deadlift. Due to the nature of it using multiple muscle groups, the deadlift enables us to lift more weight and therefore, as the volume increases, so does the potential for injury if we aren't prepared physically.

While it isn't necessarily the deadlift move itself that can cause injury, the total weight lifted can carry a higher risk. A study published in the BMJ on powerlifting found that exercises like the deadlift – ones that engage multiple joints – expose lifters to higher physical demands and that their injuries might be related to the excessively heavy loads coupled with inadequate rest. In other words, while deadlifts aren't to be feared, lifting with our ego spells trouble.

There are many ways to break down your deadlift goals in order to decipher a good deadlift weight that's right for you, and they mainly relate back to your lifting experience, height, weight and age. However, there are many more factors at play that could affect your lifting numbers, like genetics, muscle mass, current strength levels, injuries and training frequency.

Men's Health detail which deadlift weight you should be aiming for, so that you can lift something to be proud of, ego free.

The bodyweight deadlift is the perfect first milestone to hit on your deadlift journey. You may even find that you have the prerequisite strength to already hit this goal. If not, in your first months of lifting, aim to hit a bodyweight deadlift for 3-5 reps. To achieve this, start within your capabilities with good technique. If you are not ready to use a barbell yet, use dumbbells. If you struggle to deadlift from the floor, there is no harm in raising the weights on blocks. You can use our deadlift guide to nail the technique.

Be aware that the strength standards below are mostly testing numbers rather than training numbers. This means that they are 1 rep max weights to be achieved during a progressive training programme as an end goal, rather than a starting point.

As general guidelines, which many gym goers use as a rule of thumb, these are great goals to aim for in lbs:

Beginner: 1 × 5 @ 1.5 x bodyweight

Intermediate: 1RM @ 2 x bodyweight

Advanced: 1RM @ 2.5 x bodyweight

Mark Rippetoe is the author of Starting Strength and has outlined the following strength standards for men training deadlifts. He categorises them as follows:

Author and competitive powerlifter Tim Henriques has outlined the following strength standards for men to aim towards.

1 rep max in pounds:

Beginner - 315 or 1.5 x bodyweight

Intermediate - 405 or 2 x bodyweight

Advanced- 495 or 2.75 x bodyweight

The issue with strength standards is that they don't allow for the variables we mentioned earlier. For example, our age, injury history, height and limb length can all have a huge effect on how much we can lift. Especially the deadlift.

Our biomechanics can play a role when it comes to our lifting numbers, too. For example, if we have particularly short arms and a long torso, the conventional deadlift can be a little more tricky, making the sumo deadlift a more suitable option for hitting higher lifting numbers safely. According to an article published in the Strength and Conditioning Journal, when choosing between the conventional deadlift and the sumo deadlift, the following consideration could be made:

The main consideration to make when it comes to your deadlift numbers is that regardless of the strength standards, your number may look completely different. It's good to have goals to push yourself further and improve, however they have to be realistic and within your own capabilities.

The main contributor to increasing your deadlift will be adhering to the principle of progressive overload. This means to incrementally increase weight and reps and adjust other variables consistently over time as your body gets stronger and exercises become easier. To increase your deadlift focus on:

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