New Data Reveals the Strongest States in the USA

For the eighth year in a row, America’s strongest state is Texas.

That’s according to Lift Vault’s review of 2023 powerlifting data, comparing the top 10 lifters in each state to see who’s the strongest.

When Texas came out on top, we looked back at past years and saw that this has been the case since at least 2016, when Open Powerlifting began maintaining reasonably complete state-level data.

Use the map below to compare your own lifts against the average squat, bench press, and deadlift for each state’s best lifters.

If some of these feats some hard to believe, we’ve got video proof below. After all, #novidnodid. 😉

USA State Strength Rankings

Below you will find the states ranked by the average DOTS score of its top 10 lifters.

Mobile users can click on each state name to reveal more data. All weights are in pounds (lb).

USA Lifter Strength Rankings

Here you can find the relevant data for the top 10 lifters per state by DOTS.

Mobile users can click on each lifter’s name to reveal more data. All weights are in pounds (lb).

The Top 4 USA Lifters

Below you’ll find the meet recaps of the top 5 USA lifters of 2023 by DOTS score.

DOTS is a coefficient used to compare lifters across weight class and gender. It is used by the USAPL and USPA to award their “best lifter” awards in competition.

Austin Perkins

Representing Mississippi with the highest DOTS performance is Austin Perkins, who totaled 851 kg (1,876 lb) at the USAPL Raw Nationals 2023. To accomplish this, Austin strung together a squat of 691 lbs, a bench of 441 lbs, and a 744 lb deadlift at a bodyweight of just 164 lbs.

This earned him a DOTS score of 615 and arguably the most impressive lifting performance in recent history.

White Lights Media captured all nine lifts in exquisite detail below:

The Greatest Powerlifting Performance of All Time - Austin Perkins, 851kg @ 74.2kg

Amanda Lawrence

Amanda Lawrence did Minnesota proud this year, achieving an astonishing 1,422 lb (645 kg) total at IPF Sheffield 2023. This included a 543 lb squat, 287 lb bench press, and 592 lb deadlift. Both the total and the deadlift were a world record for the 84 kg weight class.

Amanda earned a DOTS score of 595.53.

Natalie Richards

Natalie Richards smashed the women’s 57 kg world record total with a stunning 512.5 kg (1,130 lbs) total. This included a 397 lb squat, 237 lb bench press, and 496 lb deadlift.

All together, she earned a DOTS score of 595.46.

You can see all of her lifts from the 2023 IPF World Classic Championship here:

Jesus Olivares

If you were wondering when Texas is going to appear on this list, here you go! Jesus Olivares set the all-time total record at the 2023 IPF Sheffield with a staggering 1,152.5 kg (2,541 lb) total.

To achieve this total, Jesus secured a 1,036 lb squat, 601 lb bench press, and 904 lb deadlift. It is the highest raw total ever achieved, breaking Ray Williams’ previous record of 1,112.5 kg by 40 kg (about 88 lb).

Accounting for Jesus’s weight of 392 lbs, he earned a DOTS score of 592.59.

Strongest Countries in the World

Don’t worry, we didn’t forget about all of the other insanely strong lifters across the globe. Below you’ll find a comparison of the top 10 lifters in each country.

International Lifters

Rondel Hunte

The highest international DOTS performance goes to Rondel Hunte, representing Trinidad and Tobago. He totaled 1,045 kg (2,304 lb) weighing 119.5 kg (263 lb) at USAPL Raw National 2023. This earned him a massive DOTS score of 601.

His mind boggling 876 lb (397.5 kg) deadlift represented a world record for the 120 kg weight class.

Here is a quick recap of this meet:

Carola Garra

We wanted to give a shout out to Carola Garra, who achieved the third highest DOTS score in 2023 (600.18).

At this year’s 2023 IPF World Classic Championship, she set a world record total of 557.5 kg (1,229.1 lb) and a world record squat of 207.5 kg (457.5 lb). This is not to ignore her impressive 142.5 kg (314 lb) bench press or huge 207.5 kg (876 lb) deadlift.

Nicely done, Carola!

Methodology

• All data is sourced from Open Powerlifting
• Data is from 2023, accessed November 10, 2023.
• Lifters must meet the following criteria to be eligible for their state
  • Drug tested = true
  • Equipment = raw
  • Age = 18 or older
  • Event = SBD (full power)
• Each lifter’s best full power meet performance is ranked within the state they represented at the time of the competition. This way, the same lifter cannot count more than once toward a given state’s average.
• The top 10 totals by DOTS score were used to calculate each state’s averages.
  • DOTS is a coefficient used by the USAPL and USPA to compare lifters across weight classes and gender with a single score. It is similar to Wilks and IPF GL points.
  • Only including the top 10 lifters per state was done to compare each state’s best lifters against each other. Including all lifters in this type of calculation would “water down” the averages of states where powerlifting is more popular and there are more low-level lifters.

About Lift Vault

Lift Vault began in 2016 as a way to make it easy to find high-quality powerlifting programs, bodybuilding programs, strength training programs, and Olympic weightlifting programs from around the Internet.

Full Data

If you’d like to browse the full data, you can find it on this Google Sheet.

About Kyle Risley

Kyle Risley founded Lift Vault in 2016 to make finding great powerlifting programs easier. Since then, the site has grown to include hundreds of programs for strength, bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, and more. He currently lives in Massachusetts and continues to compete in powerlifting.