Understanding USAPL Qualifying Totals for Raw and Equipped Powerlifting

For anyone interested in competing in powerlifting, it’s important to understand how your preferred powerlifting federation works, especially in terms of what you need to do to qualify to compete in that federation’s higher-level events.

USAPL totals are minimum scores (the sum of your best successful squat, bench press, and deadlift attempts in a single competition) required for lifters to record in an official USAPL-sanctioned meet to qualify to compete in national-level competitions of the USAPL.  

With that basic understanding, let’s dive into the finer details of recording a total and how to leverage it to compete at higher levels of the USAPL.

What Is a Powerlifting Total?

As we briefly defined, a powerlifting total is the sum of your best successful squat, bench press, and deadlift attempts in competition. These vary by gender, powerlifting weight class, and age categories so that lifters in each of these competitive bands have a standard metric or criteria to meet to show an achieved level of aptitude in the sport.

Each powerlifting federation sets these totals differently. For example, the USAPL and USPA have different qualifying totals. The totals change from time to time as federations review the competitive landscape of the body of lifters to keep things competitive and standardized as the sport progresses.

Once you achieve a total, you can use it as a standard way of indicating to your federation that you have competed in a sanctioned meet, you understand the rules of the sport, and you have developed a baseline level of strength comparable to your peers.

Why Do You Need a Qualifying Total To Compete in the USAPL?

In the USAPL, as well as many other powerlifting federations, qualifying totals are used as a means to ensure only lifters of a competitive standing are allowed to compete in national-level competitions.

Plainly put, it’s a way of weeding out competitors who simply are not qualified to compete at these higher levels of competition.

While this may sound mean or restrictive to new lifters, it benefits the sport. Athletes, coaches, officiators, organizers, and fans can enjoy seeing the sport performed at the highest level, with a common understanding of the powerlifting standards, culture, and expectations among all participants.

As a result, we get a better experience as lifters and a better show as spectators when everyone competing has shown they are legit and know what they are doing. Requiring certain qualifying totals and powerlifting weights ensures that the baseline is met.

Varying competitions will have different required qualifying totals. Most local competitions will have no requirements. Some state-level competitions may have a lower bar for qualifying totals, while national-level competitions will require more impressive qualifying totals to enter.

How Do You Get a Qualifying USAPL Total?

The only way to get USA Powerlifting qualifying totals is to compete in a USAPL-sanctioned meet. This means you’ll need to find a local USAPL meet with no qualifying total requirement so you can compete and record a total.

This also means you must successfully complete at least one attempt of your squat, bench press, and deadlift in that competition. If you fail all three attempts of one of these lifts, either by judges’ ruling or by not completing the lift, you will not have a total recorded, and you’ll need to compete again.

Now, just because you have an official total, that doesn’t necessarily mean you met the minimum required total for the next level of competition you may be interested in.

If you have a higher-level competition in mind as a goal, you’ll need to make sure you can put enough kilos on the barbell for three lifts to add up to the minimum total needed for that future competition you have your eye on.

It’s also important to understand that a total is different than a Wilks score or DOTS calculator in powerlifting. These calculations compare the strength of different athletes relative to their body weights.

Interested in competing in a world-level competition? Here’s everything you need to know about qualifying for the IPF Worlds.

Equipped USAPL Qualifying Totals

For those who aren’t familiar, there are two ways to compete in powerlifting – equipped, with special singlets and support clothing, and raw, without these supporting garments.

Equipped lifters squat in an equipped singlet made of heavy canvas (either single-ply or multi-ply, each of which has its own division in different powerlifting federations).

They also wear knee wraps, which are thick, stiff bands ranging from 2-3M in length and wrapped tightly around the knee. These differ from knee sleeves, which are loose enough to be pulled over the knee.

The bench press is performed with the assistance of a supportive shirt, also in single-ply and multi-ply variations, and the deadlift is performed with the same singlet as the squat.

Because these accessories allow for more support and, therefore, more weight to be moved by the lifter, lifters compete in a separate division from raw lifters. There are also specific totals for this division.

The totals outlined below were last updated on December 1, 2021, as qualifying totals for each of the USAPL weight classes for the 2024 competitive year.

Open/Masters

Men’s Qualifying Totals

For the Open category, here are the weights you need to hit, relative to your body weight.

For Masters, you’d need a total in a USAPLT-sanctioned meet. 

Women’s Qualifying Totals

For Masters, you’d need a total in a USAPLT-sanctioned meet. 

Collegiate Nationals

Men's USAPL Collegiate Nationals Qualifying Totals

Women's Qualifying Totals

Teen/Junior Nationals

Men's USAPL Collegiate Nationals Qualifying Totals

Women's Qualifying Totals

Raw Lifting USAPL Qualifying Totals

Raw lifting, as it differentiates from equipped powerlifting, only allows the lifter to use minimal support equipment, like knee sleeves in the squat, knee wraps in certain divisions of raw lifting (commonly called Classic Raw), wrist wraps, and a powerlifting belt.

As with equipped lifting, this division has its own totals across the new USAPL weight classes as of 2022, genders, and age groups, as well as specific minimums for varying national-level competitions.

The following totals have been updated as of December 1, 2021, for the 2024 competitive year.

Open/Masters

Men’s Qualifying Totals

Older Age Groups:

Women’s Qualifying Totals

Older Age Groups:

Collegiate Nationals

Men's USAPL Collegiate Nationals Qualifying Totals

Women's USAPL Collegiate Nationals Qualifying Totals

Teen/Junior Nationals

Men's Qualifying Totals

Women's Qualifying Totals

How To Improve Your Powerlifting Total to Qualify for the USAPL

If you have a national competition in mind and haven’t yet achieved a USAPL-qualified total, hang in there. This sport is all about growth and progression. I’ve got a few tips as a coach and competitive lifter to help you get there.

You will find more specific bits of advice to help you specifically along the way, and it would be impossible for me to list all of them based on the variety of needs and challenges we all individually face. But these three bits of advice should put you on the path to identifying those needs for your situation and get you on the path to addressing them.

Stick With It

Look, the first bit of advice and the best advice I can give is to stick with it. These totals are set for a reason — to make sure lifters competing nationally are good, qualified lifters. If you don’t get the total you want in your first meet, that’s totally okay and expected!

This is a sport that takes time to get stronger and improve your skills, both in lift selection/execution and in competition strategy and game planning (including what to eat at a powerlifting meet). It takes patience and experience to get good at both of those things!

Keep going! Train diligently in the program you are following, address your weaknesses, learn from your mistakes, and give yourself enough time to be bad at the sport so you can actually get good at it!

Hire a Good Coach

The second piece of advice is to get a good coach who knows the sport and can help you navigate all these challenges. You don’t have to go it alone, and if you are set on a qualifying total for a national competition, you will need a team around you, starting with a coach!

Especially for a new lifter, a coach can easily recognize your shortcomings, what specifically needs to be addressed, and how to fix those issues. You might just look at your meet results and think, “I didn’t get my total.” But your coach can see the details and craft a plan and a program to help you.

As an intermediate or advanced lifter, the challenge to improve becomes even harder. You start spending months and even years to add just 5lbs to your lifts or your total. You didn’t get here alone, and you’ll need an expert in your corner to help you go further.

Everyone in this sport who wants to compete seriously needs a good coach.

Compete More

Finally, this sport is all about experience — both in the gym and the adaptations in your strength that come from training, as well as in competition, knowing how much more you can squeeze out when the platform is yours and judges are watching.

If you want a better total, learn to compete as much as you learn to lift in the gym. Give yourself the benefit of more experience, even in local competitions. Take them seriously, watch others you admire, and apply what makes sense to your own meet-day routines and attitudes.

Put these three things together and work hard, and you will continue to progress toward the total you want!

Final Thoughts

Qualifying totals are currency in the powerlifting world, and the USAPL is no exception. It’s a badge of honor to show what you’ve accomplished, as well as a certification that you belong in higher-level competitions.

Depending on the national competitions you want to compete in, the USAPL qualifying totals can take a lot of work and time to achieve, but doors open for you as you do!

Set a qualifying total as a goal and make a plan to work toward it so you can open the door to national USAPL competitions and compete alongside the best in the country!