DOTS calculator
DOTS scores a powerlifting total against bodyweight so a 60 kg lifter and a 120 kg lifter can be ranked on the same list. Enter your bodyweight and your total. Higher is stronger, relative to your size.
Want DOTS and Wilks side by side from one entry? The strength score calculator shows both at once.
- Total as a multiple of bodyweight
- 5.56x
- Same total in Wilks
- 319.2
- Rough standard
- Advanced
An estimate from a published formula, not a measurement. Use it as a consistent yardstick for tracking change.
What DOTS is fixing
Strength does not scale with bodyweight in a straight line. Muscle cross-section grows roughly with the square of a linear dimension while mass grows with the cube, so heavier lifters lift more in absolute terms and less per kilogram of themselves. Any fair comparison across weight classes needs a curve, not a ratio.
DOTS is that curve. Your total in kilograms is multiplied by a coefficient derived from a fourth-order polynomial fitted to your bodyweight. It came out of the IPF-adjacent work published in 2019 and is now the default scoring system across a large part of the sport.
Reading your number
As a rough orientation for a full three-lift total: under 200 is early days, 200 to 300 covers most people who train seriously without competing, 300 to 400 is genuinely advanced, 400 to 500 places you in the conversation at regional meets, and above 500 is elite. Womens and mens scores are on the same scale by design, which is the whole point of a sex-specific coefficient.
The bands are orientation, not classification. Federations publish their own qualifying totals and they differ.
Where the formula stops being reliable
The polynomial was fitted over the bodyweight range that shows up in competition. Very light and very heavy lifters sit near the edges of that fit, where small differences in bodyweight move the coefficient more than they should. This tool clamps bodyweight to the fitted range rather than extrapolating off the end of the curve, which is where the older formulas produce visibly silly numbers.
It also assumes a three-lift total. Scoring a single lift with it produces a number that is internally consistent over time but not comparable to anyone elses.
Using it as a training metric
The useful thing about DOTS is not the leaderboard. It is that it collapses three lifts and a bodyweight into one number, which lets you see whether a bulk actually paid for itself. If you gained 5 kg and your total went up but your DOTS went down, you added mass that is not lifting anything.
Questions people ask
Is DOTS better than Wilks?
It is newer and fitted to more recent data, and most federations have moved to it. Wilks 1994 systematically favoured lighter lifters in the middle classes, which is the main thing DOTS corrects. Neither is truth; both are a fitted curve.
Does DOTS work for women and men?
Yes. There are two sets of coefficients, one per sex, and they are calibrated so the resulting scores are directly comparable. That is why a 400 DOTS means the same thing regardless of who lifted it.
Should I use raw or equipped totals?
Either, but never mix them. DOTS does not know whether you wore a suit. Compare raw to raw and equipped to equipped, or your own progress will look like a jump that came from gear rather than strength.
Can I score a bench-only total?
You can enter one and the arithmetic works, but the benchmarks on this page assume squat plus bench plus deadlift. Bench-only federations publish separate standards.
Related tools
Your total, tracked as it moves
Mekimeki logs every squat, bench and deadlift session and keeps an estimated max per lift, so the total you score here is one you can check any week.
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