Calisthenics Strength Standards — Pull-Up, Dip & Muscle-Up
Enter your bodyweight and your best result to see which strength band you're in — and exactly how much added weight the next band would mean for your own bodyweight, not a generic table.
Added weight needed for the next bands (your bodyweight)
Can complete strict, full-range bodyweight pull-ups.
How this is calculated
For the pull-up and dip, the standard is expressed as a ratio: total weight moved on your best single rep (bodyweight plus any added load) divided by bodyweight. A ratio of 1.0 means a strict bodyweight rep with no added load; 1.35 means moving the equivalent of your bodyweight plus an extra 35% of it. Expressing it as a ratio rather than an absolute weight is what lets the same table apply fairly across very different bodyweights.
The dip's bands sit higher than the pull-up's at every tier. This isn't an inconsistency — the dip recruits a larger, mechanically stronger pressing chain (chest, triceps, shoulders) than the pull-up's pulling chain (lats, biceps, grip), so a given relative-strength tier corresponds to a higher load ratio for the dip. Lumping both exercises into one ratio table would misclassify one of them.
The muscle-up is scored differently: by strict consecutive reps, not added load. That's because the muscle-up is as much a technique barrier (the transition between the pulling and pressing phases, usually gated by false-grip strength and timing) as a pure strength test — a 1-rep-max-with-added-weight framing doesn't capture what actually separates beginners from advanced athletes on this movement the way it does for pull-ups and dips.
Bands are necessarily approximate. Limb length, relative bodyweight composition (a leaner athlete at the same bodyweight typically has a strength advantage), technique efficiency and training history all shift where an individual lands within a band — treat this as a general placement, not a precise percentile.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the dip let me add more weight than the pull-up at the same 'tier'?
Because the dip uses a mechanically stronger muscle chain (chest/triceps/shoulder pressing) than the pull-up's pulling chain (back/biceps/grip). At a comparable relative training level, most people can move more total weight on a dip than a pull-up — the bands reflect that rather than using one shared scale for both.
I can't do a single strict pull-up or dip yet — where does that put me?
That's the Beginner band, and it's the normal, expected starting point — not a bad result. The standard path from there is assisted or negative reps (banded pull-ups, slow negatives, an assisted-dip machine) until you can complete one full strict rep, at which point the ratio-based bands become meaningful.
Why is the muscle-up scored by reps instead of added weight?
Because for most people, the hard part of the muscle-up isn't raw strength (plenty of people who can do weighted pull-ups and dips still can't land a muscle-up) — it's the transition itself, which is a technique and timing skill. Rep count reflects how reliably you've solved that transition, which is the actual bottleneck for most athletes at this stage.
Does bodyweight itself affect which band I'm in?
Not directly — the ratio already accounts for it, since it's expressed relative to your own bodyweight. A 60 kg and a 95 kg athlete moving the same ratio (say, 1.35× bodyweight) are considered the same relative strength tier, even though the absolute weight moved is very different.
Sources
- Steven Low, Overcoming Gravity (2nd ed.) — bodyweight strength-standard tables for pull-ups, dips and muscle-ups
- GMB Fitness — calisthenics strength-benchmark guides for weighted pull-up and dip progressions
Related calculators
Disclaimer
These bands are compiled from commonly-cited calisthenics strength-standards frameworks for general placement and progress-tracking purposes. They are not a certified test and don't account for individual factors like limb length, body composition or training history — use them as a general guide, not a precise ranking.
Last updated 2026-11-02.