Reading the DOTS Score: Are You Actually Strong?

Quickstart

DOTS answers one question. How strong are you for your body weight and sex? It puts a 60 kg lifter and a 120 kg lifter on the same scale. It took over from the old Wilks score in 2020. Wilks was unfair at the very light and very heavy ends. DOTS fixes most of that.

Here are rough landmarks. They are for raw lifters with no drug testing and no gear:

DOTS 300: solid. Most people who train for a few years reach this.
DOTS 400: advanced. The top 10 to 15% of serious raw lifters.
DOTS 500: elite. Strong at any body weight.
DOTS 600+: world class. Rare, or drug-tested record turf.

DOTS is not a law of physics. It is a score with choices built in. Knowing how it works helps you read your own number with clear eyes.

The problem DOTS solves

Raw total is not fair when two lifters weigh different amounts. A 120 kg deadlift at 60 kg body weight is a 2.0x pull. A 220 kg deadlift at 110 kg body weight is also 2.0x. Both are real strength. But you can’t lay one over the other and call it even.

What you want is a score that levels the field across body weights. Then you can compare. That is the whole job of a strength score.

A few have been used over the years:

Wilks: the first one, from 1994. It ruled the sport from the mid-90s to 2020.
Schwartz-Malone: seen in older US meets. Many GymRat scores were based on it.
Glossbrenner: popular in some regions. Still seen at some state meets.
DOTS: the 2019 successor to Wilks. The IPF started using it for world rankings in 2020.
IPF GoodLift (GL): the IPF’s own score. Adopted in 2020 for IPF meets. It splits by event and is more fine-grained than DOTS.

DOTS caught on for three reasons. It is open, so anyone can use the curve. It fixes the Wilks bias at very light and very heavy body weights. And its curve stays sensible at the edges.

The formula

DOTS runs your body weight x (in kg) through a fifth-degree curve:

coefficient = 500 / (A·x⁰ + B·x¹ + C·x² + D·x³ + E·x⁴ + F·x⁵)
DOTS = total · coefficient

The values A through F differ for men and women. They are published in the DOTS spec. The idea is plain. The curve sets a body-weight bonus for each weight. Lighter lifters get a bigger bonus, heavier lifters a smaller one. Past a point, more body weight does less to explain more strength.

The 500 on top is just a scaling choice. It keeps most scores in the 100 to 700 range.

What’s different vs. Wilks

Two main things:

The curve shape. Wilks used a fifth-degree curve too. But its values were too kind at the very heavy end (over 140 kg) and too harsh at the very light end (under 53 kg). DOTS redrew the curve with a bigger, cleaner dataset. It is fairer at the edges.
Age scaling. Neither Wilks nor DOTS adjusts for age on its own. But DOTS pairs cleanly with age charts like the IPF’s. Wilks age-scaled scores were shaky for older lifters.

In real use, the two are close for a mid-weight lifter (80 to 100 kg). For a 60 kg or a 140 kg lifter, DOTS tracks the truth better.

IPF GL: DOTS’s successor (in IPF meets)

The IPF went one step past DOTS. For its own meets it started using IPF GoodLift (GL) in 2020. GL splits by event:

One set of values for raw lifting, another for equipped (squat suits, bench shirts, and the like)
One set for the classic 3-lift total, another for single-lift meets (bench only, or deadlift only)
The numbers come out on a different scale than DOTS. A GL near 100 is about world-record class for that event.

If you compete in IPF meets, GL is the number that sets your world ranking. If you just track your gym lifts over time or against friends, DOTS is the score most apps and spreadsheets use.

Kinoku shows DOTS, IPF GL, Wilks 2, and FFMI in the app. You can read the same total four ways. The web Wilks calculator also gives you the old Wilks 1 (1994) score, which is handy for matching old federation records that used it.

Reading your score honestly

A few things to keep in mind:

DOTS compares; it does not track week-to-week progress

Your DOTS rises when any of your three lifts rise. Over months it shows whether you are getting stronger after any body-weight change. But it moves slowly. Two good weeks barely shift it. For week-by-week progress, watch your lifts one by one.

DOTS does not know about doping

The charts you are scored against mix tested and untested lifters. A 500 DOTS in an untested federation is strong. A 500 DOTS in a strict tested IPF raw division is stronger still. The number alone won’t tell you which crowd you stand in.

Kinoku uses charts built from public IPF data. That data leans toward the stricter, tested-raw end. I chose this on purpose. It is a harder bar, but a more honest one for most serious lifters.

DOTS does not know your body type

Two lifters at 90 kg with the same DOTS can be built very differently. One is 175 cm and lean. The other is 185 cm with more mass to move. DOTS treats body weight as the only body number. For most use that is fine. When it matters, pair it with FFMI or a body-fat-aware score.

What a “good” DOTS looks like

These come from common powerlifting opinion and IPF ranking charts. They are for raw lifters with no drug testing:

DOTS	Typical experience level
200	Beginner. Just starting a real program
250	Novice. About 6 to 12 months of steady lifting
300	Intermediate. 2 to 4 years of steady gains
350	Upper intermediate. Your training shows on the bar
400	Advanced. Top 10 to 15% of serious raw lifters
450	Elite. A local or state meet contender
500	Regional or national level
550+	National or world, tested raw
600+	World class, tested raw

These are loose. Weight class matters less in DOTS than in raw total. But some records still bend the curve in certain weight brackets. Your own chart may be tighter by sex, too.

A DOTS 400 at a real meet means a lot. A DOTS 400 on a gym squat PR day, with a spotter and a soft depth call, is a gym number. Both are yours. Just know which is which.

Age-adjusted scoring

The IPF’s age classes add a second number that multiplies your DOTS or GL. This gives an age-adjusted score. It is how a 65-year-old with a DOTS of 350 can rank next to a 28-year-old at DOTS 400. The age factor lifts the older lifter’s score.

Kinoku’s Strength Standards tab does this too. Set a birthdate in your profile and it shows the age-adjusted score next to the raw DOTS. It is opt-in. You can show raw DOTS only if you like.

FFMI: a different question

DOTS rates strength for your body weight. FFMI (Fat-Free Mass Index) rates how much muscle you carry for your height:

FFMI = fat_free_mass / height²     (kg and meters)

These ask different things. FFMI asks how much muscle you carry for your height. DOTS asks how strong you are for your weight. Both show on the Strength Standards tab, since most lifters want both when they size up where they stand.

Drug-free lifters tend to land around FFMI 22 to 25. The upper edge is near 25 to 26 (Kouri 1995 is the key paper). Serious enhanced lifters can reach 30 and up.

Track this in Kinoku

The Strength Standards feature works out DOTS, IPF GL, Wilks 2, and FFMI from your own logs. It all runs on your device, with charts that ship inside the app. The Elite Analytics Strength tab shows these scores next to your PR timeline, your strength forecast, and your compound lift ratios.

You can also try the DOTS calculator without the app. Same formula, same charts.