Plan your meet attempts in seconds. Enter your best squat, bench, and deadlift below, then pick one of the three options for each attempt. The percentage next to each weight is the real chance of making it, based on about 2.5 million attempts from actual meets.
Enter your best squat, bench, and deadlift. For each attempt you get three options, conservative, normal, and aggressive, each with the chance of making it, based on how often real lifters make attempts at that weight. Example squat options for a 200 kg best are shown below.
| Attempt | Conservative | Normal | Aggressive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opener | 175 (95%) | 182.5 (94%) | 187.5 (89%) |
| Second | 185 (92%) | 192.5 (83%) | 197.5 (73%) |
| Third | 200 (70%) | 205 (60%) | 210 (50%) |
Percentages are the chance of making the attempt, estimated from real make rates by how close the weight is to your best. Model built from millions of attempts in the OpenPowerlifting data behind Powerlifting Records.
Table of Contents
How to Read the Three Options
Conservative, normal, and aggressive are three ways to run the same meet. Conservative maximizes the chance you go 9 for 9 and post a total. Normal is how the median lifter actually attempts. Aggressive chases a bigger number and accepts more misses.
The make percentages come from how often real lifters succeed at each weight relative to their best, mined from the OpenPowerlifting competition data behind Powerlifting Records. They aren’t padded to make you feel good. A bench third at a true PR is made less than half the time, which is why the smart play is keeping your bench third within reach and saving the hero pull for deadlifts, where third attempts land about two thirds of the time.
How to Pick Your Attempts
Your opener should be a weight you can hit for a triple on a bad day, around 88 to 91% of your best. Openers exist to get you in the meet, and the data backs this up: lifters who open near 92% of their best make the lift about 95% of the time on squat and bench, and about 98% on deadlift.
Your second moves you to a solid total, around 95 to 97%. Your third is where you take the PR. Go up on every attempt, since you can’t repeat or lower a weight once the next one is called at most meets.
One more meet-day rule worth stealing: pick your planned thirds before the meet, then adjust down (never up) based on how your second moved. Adrenaline is a terrible attempt coach.
First Meet?
Run the conservative column for all nine attempts. A 9-for-9 day at your first meet beats a bigger total with misses, and you’ll learn how meet timing, commands, and warm-up rooms actually work. Check your DOTS score after to see how your total stacks up, and find your class with the weight class rules of your federation before you enter.
Related Calculators
Not sure of your current maxes? Estimate them from a recent hard set with the 1RM calculator.
