DOTS
Calculator

A single number that adjusts your powerlifting total for bodyweight and sex, so a lightweight and a heavyweight can be compared on equal footing. Your total in kilograms gets multiplied by 500 and divided by a polynomial built from your bodyweight. Higher means stronger pound for pound.

Under 300 you are around local meet level. From 300 to 350 you would be competitive at regional meets. Between 350 and 400 you are in national territory, and past 400 you are looking at elite company. These are rough guides, since the spread shifts with the equipment division and the federation.

Wilks was fit on older data and it showed. Certain bodyweights scored systematically high, and the men's and women's tables drifted out of alignment as women's lifting grew. DOTS refit the curve on a much larger modern dataset, which is why most federations moved over.

A lot. The formula penalizes extra bodyweight, so gaining weight only helps your score when the added muscle drives your total up faster than the penalty climbs. That makes DOTS the honest test of whether a bulk is paying off in strength.

The math runs, but the meaning thins out. DOTS was fit on three-lift powerlifting totals, so a bench-only score compares you against full totals and reads low. Use the one-rep max or percentage tools for single lifts and save DOTS for your total.

No. Gym lifts work fine as long as you are honest about squat depth and the bench pause. Treat the score as a way to track your own progress and to see how you stack up against lifters in other weight classes.