DOTS calculator: your strength score for your bodyweight

A DOTS score puts a powerlifting total on one scale for every bodyweight. Enter your bodyweight and your total, pick the formula, and the score updates as you type.

Work out your DOTS score

The calculator needs JavaScript, which looks to be switched off. The score here is the worked example, and the formula below works with any calculator.

How the calculator works

It takes your bodyweight in kilograms, puts it into a fourth-degree polynomial with five fixed coefficients, and divides 500 by the result. That gives a multiplier for your bodyweight, and your total times the multiplier is the score.¹

In full: DOTS = total × 500 ÷ (A × bw⁴ + B × bw³ + C × bw² + D × bw + E), with bodyweight (bw) and total in kilograms. Outside the bodyweight range in the last row, the formula uses the nearest end of it, so a 220 kg man is scored as if he weighed 210 kg.¹ The calculator tells you when that happens.

Worked example: a man weighing 90 kg puts 90 into the men’s polynomial and gets about 773.3. 500 ÷ 773.3 is a multiplier of about 0.6466, and a 500 kg total × 0.6466 is a DOTS score of about 323.3. The same total at a lighter bodyweight scores higher, because the multiplier rises as bodyweight falls.

Where the formula comes from

DOTS was introduced by the BVDK, the German affiliate of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF), after the IPF switched to IPF Points, which don’t allow comparing between sexes. The BVDK runs team competitions in which lifters of all sexes compete on the same team, so it needed a formula that did. The formula’s author is Tim Konertz.¹

The coefficients on this page are the ones in the OpenPowerlifting project’s published code, which publishes DOTS scores for the meet results in its database.¹ No peer-reviewed paper describing how DOTS was fitted was found, so this page states the formula and makes no claim about how well it compares lifters across bodyweights.

What it doesn’t do

It gives one number and nothing else: no level, no percentile, no “beginner” or “advanced” label and no strength standard. It’s a number to set next to other DOTS scores worked out the same way, including your own from an earlier meet.

It also isn’t a test. Your total should come from lifts you actually did: a meet, or a heavy single you’re confident in. The one-rep max calculator estimates a max from a set of several reps, but an estimate put into this formula gives an estimated score.

Questions

What is a good DOTS score?

This page doesn’t set one, and it gives no standard to measure against. If you want to compare against other lifters, compare against people who lifted under the same rules and equipment.

DOTS vs Wilks: what’s the difference?

Both adjust a total for bodyweight with a formula. German lifters created DOTS after Wilks points were dropped by the IPF and IPF Points were judged unsuitable.¹ The two use different coefficients, so don’t compare a DOTS score with a Wilks score. This calculator works out DOTS only.

Can I enter pounds?

Yes. Pick lb and the calculator converts your bodyweight and total to kilograms before it applies the formula. A 198 lb lifter with an 1,100 lb total gets the same score as about 89.8 kg and 499 kg: about 323.

Is anything saved or sent?

No. The arithmetic runs in your browser, and the page keeps nothing once you close it.

If you’d rather have the training planned

At the same bodyweight, a higher score means a higher total. Progressive overload explains how training adds to a lift, and squat, bench press and deadlift form cover the lifts. If you want that written around your week, coaching to get stronger explains how it works, and apply tells me where you’re starting.