IPF GL points calculator.
Enter your bodyweight and best lifts to see your official IPF Goodlift score.
Sex
Total
IPF GL points
59.01
Novice
These strength bands are our own guide, not an IPF classification. The IPF does not publish official GL bands.
This saves to a free account.
Strength bands
| Level | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Untrained | 0 | 40 |
| Novice | 40 | 60 |
| Intermediate | 60 | 80 |
| Advanced | 80 | 100 |
| Elite | 100 | + |
IPF GL
59.01
Current IPF meet score
DOTS
287.61
OpenPowerlifting community score
Wilks
284.29
IPF standard through 2018
The three scores sit on different scales, so a GL near 100 lines up with a DOTS or Wilks near 500. Compare each number against its own formula, never across columns.
What IPF GL points measure.
A raw total tells you how much weight you moved. GL points tell you how strong that total is once bodyweight is accounted for, which lets a 60 kg lifter and a 120 kg lifter be ranked on one scoreboard. The IPF calls its formula Goodlift, and GL is short for that.
Where Wilks and DOTS divide by a polynomial, GL uses an exponential curve. The curve was fit to real IPF competition results, and it lands so that the best totals in the world score near 100. A woman at 95 GL and a man at 95 GL are about the same distance from the top of their category, which is a cleaner mental model than the split thresholds older formulas carry.
How the number is calculated.
GL points equal your total in kilograms times 100, divided by A minus B times e raised to the power of negative C times your bodyweight in kilograms. For Classic men the constants are A of 1199.72839, B of 1025.18162, and C of 0.00921.
Take a 93 kg man with a 750 kg total. The exponent is negative 0.00921 times 93, which is negative 0.85653, and e to that power is 0.42463. Multiply by B and you get 435.33, so the denominator is 1199.72839 minus 435.33, or 764.40. Then 750 times 100 over 764.40 gives 98.12 GL points. That is a strong national level total, sitting right at the edge of the Elite band.
GL points, DOTS, and Wilks.
GL is the current IPF standard. If you compete under IPF rules, through USAPL, British Powerlifting, or another affiliate, your posted meet score is GL. DOTS comes from the OpenPowerlifting community rather than the IPF, and it still shows up on many results pages and ranking sites. Wilks ran the sport for decades before either one and remains the number most gym records are built on.
Run your numbers through the DOTS calculator or the Wilks calculator when you need to match a score to the formula a specific meet or record used.
Common mistakes.
Reading GL on the DOTS scale
A 90 GL is not a weak score because it is not close to 500. GL runs near 100 at the top, so 90 is genuinely strong. Keep each formula on its own scale and do not expect the numbers to overlap.
Mixing Classic and Equipped totals
The IPF publishes separate GL coefficients for raw and equipped lifting. This calculator uses the Classic raw values. If you compare a raw GL here to an equipped GL from a meet sheet, you are comparing two different formulas.
Trusting a stale calculator
Plenty of online tools still label the old DOTS or Wilks output as GL. This one uses the official 2020 Classic coefficients. If another tool gives you a very different result, check which formula it actually runs.
Real world benchmarks.
181 lb male, intermediate
GL ~67
S 365 / B 245 / D 455 (total 1065 lb, 483 kg). A solid total a year or two into structured training, landing in the middle of the Intermediate band.
165 lb female, advanced
GL ~82
S 340 / B 190 / D 375 (total 905 lb, 411 kg). A strong advanced total that would place well at most regional IPF affiliate meets.
242 lb male, elite
GL ~110
S 750 / B 485 / D 760 (total 1995 lb, 905 kg). Well past 100 and into world record territory for the class, the range where international lifters compete.
Why the IPF built its own formula.
Wilks was fit to data from the 1990s, and by the late 2010s the sport had changed. Raw lifting exploded, the athlete pool at the extremes grew, and the old curve started rewarding the lightest lifters too much while asking too much of the heaviest. The IPF wanted a score tuned to its own modern results rather than a borrowed one.
GL points came out of a fresh fit to IPF meet data, with dedicated coefficients for Classic and Equipped lifting and for each sex. The federation switched to GL as its single official score in 2020. For a lifter in the 70 to 100 kg range the practical gap between GL and DOTS is small, but at the edges of the weight range GL tracks current results more honestly.
When GL is not the right comparison.
Federations outside the IPF often score on Wilks. Comparing your GL to a friend's Wilks from a USPA meet tells you nothing useful. Check which formula a result used before you read anything into it.
GL also does not care whether you lift raw or in gear beyond picking the coefficient set. A 90 GL in single ply is a different achievement from a 90 GL raw, and the federation handles that split through equipment divisions rather than the number.
For day to day training the score is a rough gauge, not the target. If you added 20 kg to your squat this cycle while your bodyweight held, that is progress no matter what GL does. Track your working maxes over time and let GL give you context against the field.
Common questions.
IPF GL points run on a scale where a world class total sits near 100 for both men and women. Around 60 marks the start of the Intermediate band, meaning you have built a real total and know how to compete. 80 is Advanced, competitive at most regional meets. Cross 100 and you are into Elite territory, the range where national and international lifters live. World record totals push past 110. These bands are common training benchmarks rather than official IPF cut offs, and the trend across a training block tells you more than any single reading.
Both take your powerlifting total and adjust it for bodyweight so lifters in different weight classes can be compared, but they use different math. DOTS divides 500 by a fifth order polynomial of bodyweight. IPF GL divides by an exponential curve of the form A minus B times e to the power of negative C times bodyweight, then multiplies by 100. DOTS scores land near 500 for the best lifters. GL scores land near 100. DOTS comes from the OpenPowerlifting community and turns up on ranking sites, while GL is the score the IPF adopted for its own meets, so if you compete under IPF rules today your posted score is GL.
The original Wilks curve was fit to competition data from the 1990s, and by the late 2010s it was rewarding very light lifters too generously and short changing the heaviest lifters. The IPF wanted a formula tuned to its own modern results. GL points were fit directly to IPF meet data, with separate coefficients for Classic and Equipped lifting and for each sex. The federation adopted GL points in 2020 as the single official score across all its events. Wilks stays common in gyms and older record books because decades of numbers are built on it.
The structure is identical but the coefficients differ. Men use A of 1199.72839, B of 1025.18162, and C of 0.00921 for Classic lifting. Women use A of 610.32796, B of 1045.59282, and C of 0.03048. Because each set is fit to its own population, a 90 GL for a woman and a 90 GL for a man both represent roughly the same distance from world class within their category. That shared ceiling is why this calculator uses one band table for both sexes instead of the lower female thresholds you see on Wilks and DOTS.
The IPF GL formula runs in kilograms, so both bodyweight and total have to be in kg before the math happens. This calculator lets you type in pounds or kilograms and converts to kg for you behind the scenes. If you compute GL by hand from a spreadsheet, convert everything to kg first. A frequent error is entering bodyweight in kg but total in pounds, which returns a number that looks like a GL score but is off by a factor of about 2.2.
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