Powerful
this is very powerful idea.
Where do the older lifters compete?
Powerlifting is mostly a young persons game. With that said, there are about 4.1% of entries in the meet results dataset where the lifter was over the age of 60. Are those lifters competing in the most popular federations? Apparently not. The older lifters over the age of 60 are competing in the federations that were historically prominent in the 1970s and 1980s. That means NASA, AAU, and IPL have a higher percentage of lifters who are over the age of 60.
How much stronger do powerlifters get?
Most powerlifters usually have a very short career as it’s a taxing training process that puts a lot of stress on peoples’ bodies. With that said, I wanted to look at the median dots for lifers through their career and how much their dots increased from meet to meet. Lifters make the most increase in their strength from their first meet to the second one. By meet 5, the increase in ones dots is significantly less pronouced. The increase in a lifters dots throughout their career is also visible in the following problem. The biggest increase in ones dots usually occurs from meet one to two.
Where are all the elite powerlifters?
The Dots score is a bodyweight-adjusted strength formula used in powerlifting to compare lifters of different sizes on a level playing field. A powerlifter who has a dots score greater than 400 is generally considered to be really strong. The elite lifters tend to have hit those lifts in the states of Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Ohio, Georgia, Tennessem and Illinois.
Bombing out…
In powerlifting, bombing out means failing all three attempts on any single lift (squat, bench press, or deadlift). It is not a common occurence, but certain lifters do not plan well for their meet and that sometimes leads to people not successfully hitting their attempts. In this graph, we share the percentage of lifters who bombed out in each state. The states with the highest rate of bombing out are Montana, Nevada, and New Mexico. Perhaps the strangest thing in the data is that older lifter tend to have a higher rate of bombing out. It is also worth noting that the IPL and USPA actually have higher rates of bombing out.
Powerlifter Retention: Good or Bad?
Every sport needs to attract new participants and retain those who have got exposure to that sport in the past. Powerlifting retention rates tend to be around 50%, meaning that half of the lifters who competed in a particular year had competed in the past. Is that good? I don’t know as I don’t have any retention metrics available from other activities such as pickleball, bodybuilding, etc. What do you think? The vast majority of those who enter into a powerlifting competition never compete again. In the US, only 35% of first time powerlifters ever enter another competition.
Who are the new powerlifters?
Where are the New Powrlifters?
Powerlifting has a big program. The sport is no longer attracting a high proportion of new lifters. This decline has been occuring over the past decade and is largely driven by young gen z men, who don’t seem as interested in fitness as millennials were. Furthermore, this trend is also happening outside the USA.
What is Going on with Powerlifting Federations?
The Growth of Powerlifting
The sport of powerlifting has seen substantial growth. From 2010 through 2024, the US has seen increases in the number of powerlifting meets in all but one year, with the average rate of growth being 18%. This lone exception was 2020, which was largely the result of covid lockdowns. In the latest full year, 2025, there has been a small decrease in the number of meets. The real question is whether that is an anomaly or if the growth of powerlifting has plateaued. One of the main causes for the explosion in powerlifting is that more women are participating. While women only accounted for 15% of lifters in the early 2000s, that percentage has ballooned to 36% in recent years. Another group of people contributing to the growth of powerlifting are younger folks. The amount of 21 to 40 years competing in powerlifting saw massive increases in the 2010s. As the number of meets has seen a surge, the median number of lifters who competed in each powerlifting meet in the US has declined slightly over the past decade. In 2014, there were 65 lifters who competed in a typical meet. By 2025, that has fallen to 42 lifters. This is likely the result of more meets that lifters can compete in, so the size of those meets has dropped. Are you a gym, fitness company, or other organization interested in solving some interesting data questions. Shoot me a message and let’s collaborate. Shoot me a message to mathewanalytics@gmail.com