Hardy Strength Progression Report 2026

How Many People Can Overhead Press 135? Data From 4,582 Lifters Who Log Every Set

Published 2026-09-15 · Data through 2026-09-02 · 10,407 lifters · 368,505 workouts

This page is the overhead press chapter of the Hardy Strength Progression Report, built from 4,582 lifters who logged the barbell overhead press in at least 3 workouts. It shows how long the plate milestones really take, how fast the lift goes up in the first year, and what a typical lifter who tracks their training overhead presses.

How many people can overhead press 135?

Of the 4,582 Hardy lifters who logged the overhead press in at least 3 workouts, 14% have pressed 135 lb / 60 kg for at least one rep, fewer than 1 in 200 have pressed 225 lb / 100 kg, fewer than 1 in 200 have pressed 315 lb / 140 kg and fewer than 1 in 200 have pressed 405 lb / 180 kg. Of those who started below 135 and were still logging a year later, 14% reached it within 12 months. These are people who chose a strength tracking app and kept logging, so they are stronger than the average gym-goer, and the report knows nothing about bodyweight, age or sex. Claims like "only 1% of people can overhead press 135" use the whole population as the denominator; this is the share among people who actually train and track it.

How long it takes to reach each overhead press milestone

1 plate (60 kg / 135 lb): of the 3,094 lifters who started below it, 14% of those still logging a year later had reached it within 12 months, and 19% of those still logging at two years had reached it by then. Among the 365 lifters who reached it, the median took 2.3 months and 8 overhead press sessions, most of them having started close to it.

2 plates (100 kg / 225 lb) and above were reached by fewer than 10 lifters in the whole dataset, too few to chart or to put a timeline on.

How fast the overhead press goes up

How much a typical lifter presses overhead

The median best estimated overhead press 1RM among Hardy users is 49.1 kg (108 lb). A quarter of lifters are below 37.3 kg (82 lb), the top 10% are above 71.4 kg (157 lb) and the top 1% above 98.1 kg (216 lb). 0% have lifted 100 kg or more for at least one rep and 0% have lifted 140 kg or more.

Want to know where you stand? Estimate your max with the Overhead Press 1RM calculator from any recent hard set, and read the methodology for how these numbers were produced.