Average Strength Gains: What 861 Real Training Logs Show

Quick answer: Across 861 lifters' training logs, the median lifter improved their estimated one rep max by roughly 2% per month. Lower-body lifts moved fastest: squats rose 21% between a lifter's first log and their latest, Romanian deadlifts 20%, deadlifts 15%. Bench press gained just 2.6% and overhead press 3.5%.

You have probably typed a set into your notes app and wondered: is this normal? Am I ahead, behind, or stuck?

Most answers to that question are guesses. So we measured it instead, using anonymised logs from real lifters, and some of the results surprised us.

Where does this data come from?

Gym Note Plus users log workouts as plain text, and the app turns those notes into structured sets and reps. That gave us something rare: thousands of genuine training records from everyday lifters, not study volunteers on a supervised program.

The method, in plain English. We scanned 4,307 logged workouts from 861 people who track weights. For every lifter and exercise, we compared their first logged session with their latest one, using estimated one rep max (the Epley formula) so a heavier set of 5 counts as progress even if their 1RM was never tested.

To keep the numbers honest, a lifter only counted for an exercise if they logged it at least three times across two weeks or more. Warm-up sets were excluded, pounds were converted to kilograms, and we report medians so one outlier cannot bend the headline. That left 819 qualifying lifter-and-exercise histories, spanning about 90 days on average.

One more wrinkle: people spell exercises differently. "Bench", "bench press" and "bb bench press" were folded into one group before averaging, so the numbers below describe the movement, not the spelling.

Worth knowing before you read on. The data was pulled in August 2026 from lifters who chose to log with an app, which probably skews toward people who care about progress. Spans vary per lifter, some exercises have as few as 10 qualifying people, and a "latest log" is whatever day it happened to be, strong or weak. Treat the numbers as a realistic benchmark, not a lab result.

How fast do you gain strength?

Gym Note Plus training log data shows the median lifter gains about 2% of estimated one rep max per month, with squats and deadlifts rising far faster than bench press and overhead press.

Here is the headline chart. Each bar is the median change in estimated 1RM from a lifter's first log to their latest, for the four classic barbell lifts.

Squats progressed eight times faster than bench press

0%10%20%30%

21.1%

15.3%

3.5%

2.6%

Squat

Deadlift

Overhead press

Bench press

View the data

Group	Squat	Deadlift	Overhead press	Bench press
Median change in estimated 1RM	21.1%	15.3%	3.5%	2.6%

The gap is not subtle. Squats and deadlifts climbed by double digits while the two pressing lifts barely moved, and that pattern held across the whole dataset, not just the big four.

Across every exercise with enough data, the typical lifter added about 5.6% to their estimated 1RM over those ~90 days. If you were hoping for a single "average strength gains per month" number, that is the most honest one we can give you: around 2%, with enormous variation around it.

Which exercises progress fastest?

Here is every exercise where at least 10 lifters qualified, ranked by median gain.

Lower-body lifts took most of the top spots

0%10%20%30%

22.9%

21.1%

20%

18.1%

16.7%

15.3%

15%

13.6%

10.5%

9.8%

3.5%

2.6%

2.6%

2.6%

0%

Face pull

Squat

Romanian deadlift

Leg curl

Incline dumbbell press

Deadlift

Leg extension

Tricep pushdown

Leg press

Calf raise

Overhead press

Bench press

Lat pulldown

Lateral raise

Hammer curl

View the data

Group	Face pull	Squat	Romanian deadlift	Leg curl	Incline dumbbell press	Deadlift	Leg extension	Tricep pushdown	Leg press	Calf raise	Overhead press	Bench press	Lat pulldown	Lateral raise	Hammer curl
Median change in estimated 1RM	22.9%	21.1%	20%	18.1%	16.7%	15.3%	15%	13.6%	10.5%	9.8%	3.5%	2.6%	2.6%	2.6%	0%

Pooling those groups makes the split even clearer.

Legs outpaced pressing, pulldowns and arm work almost six to one

0%5%10%15%

14.9%

2.6%

Lower-body lifts

Upper-body presses, pulldowns and arms

View the data

Group	Lower-body lifts	Upper-body presses, pulldowns and arms
Median change in estimated 1RM	14.9%	2.6%

Why do legs progress so much faster than pressing?

The data cannot prove a cause, but three explanations fit what we see.

Legs usually start further from their ceiling. Plenty of people arrive at the gym having pushed things and picked things up, but rarely having squatted under load. Untrained movements improve fastest, and a first squat log tends to be well below what those muscles can actually do.

Pressing runs out of small jumps. Going from 60 kg to 62.5 kg on bench is a 4% leap; the same 2.5 kg on a 120 kg leg press is 2%. Dumbbell racks make it worse, because the jumps between dumbbells are proportionally huge. Hammer curls, the flattest line in our data at 0%, are the purest example.

Skill gains flatter the big lower-body lifts. Part of that 21% squat jump is real muscle, and part is simply learning the movement, like braver depth and better bracing. That is still progress worth logging, but it front-loads the curve.

Face pulls, the fastest riser of all at 22.9%, fit the same logic from the other side. Almost nobody trains rear delts before they start logging, so the runway is long.

What if you are getting weaker?

In Gym Note Plus log data, only 59% of qualifying lifter histories improved between their first and latest session. Four in ten latest logs were flat or below the first one, a number nobody puts in a headline.

That is not as grim as it sounds. A latest log is a snapshot, not a peak. It catches deload weeks, post-holiday sessions, and days someone switched to pausing their reps. But it is a useful reality check: sustained progress is genuinely hard, and getting weaker for a stretch is common enough that you should not panic over it.

The lifters trending upward in our data share one boring trait: they kept logging. You cannot fix a trend you never noticed.

How does your logging method affect what you can measure?

Whether you see any of this in your own training depends entirely on whether your log can show it. The comparison below is our own assessment of the tools, not part of the log data.

A simple plan to measure your own rate

Turn this from our data into yours over the next eight weeks.

1. Pick three lifts to watch. One squat or hinge, one press, one pull. These become your progress markers; everything else is support work.
2. Log every working set, every session. Weight and reps are enough. Skip nothing, including the bad days, because the trend needs both.
3. Get a baseline estimated 1RM this week. Take your best recent set and plug it into our free one rep max calculator. Write the number down.
4. Add small doses of weight or reps each week using progressive overload. One extra rep counts.
5. Re-check at week eight. Against our data, roughly 2% per month is typical, 5% or more per month on a lift means you are flying, and a flat line means something needs to change before month four.

How Gym Note Plus fits in

If you already log in a notebook or a notes app, you are doing the hard part. The only thing missing is that your history cannot answer questions like the ones in this article.

Gym Note Plus exists for exactly that gap. You keep typing workouts the way you already do, and it does the rest:

• Turns plain text like "bench 80kg 3x5" into structured sets automatically
• Charts your estimated 1RM per exercise, the same metric used in this analysis
• Merges your own spelling variations, so "bench" and "bench press" become one history
• Shows the first-log-to-today trend for every lift you track

Curious what your notes would look like as data? Paste a workout into the free notes to workout translator and see.

Average strength gains are about 2% per month, but the averages hide the real lesson: the lifters who progressed were the ones who could see their own trend.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good monthly strength gain?

In Gym Note Plus log data from 861 lifters, the median gain was about 2% of estimated 1RM per month across all exercises. Lower-body lifts like squats often moved at 5 to 7% per month, while bench press and overhead press typically added under 1.5% per month.

Why is my squat progressing faster than my bench press?

Squat progress outpacing bench press is normal. In Gym Note Plus data the median squat gain was 21.1% versus 2.6% for bench press. Squats have more muscle mass involved, more early skill improvement, and each fixed weight increment is a smaller percentage jump than it is on a lighter pressing lift.

How fast do beginners gain strength?

Beginners gain strength fastest because untrained movements sit far below their potential. Gym Note Plus data shows the effect indirectly: rarely trained movements like face pulls and squats rose 20% or more between first and latest logs, while familiar, well-practised presses moved only a few percent.

Is estimated 1RM accurate enough to track progress?

Estimated 1RM from formulas like Epley is accurate within a few percent for sets under 10 reps, which is plenty for tracking direction over months. Gym Note Plus, and this analysis, cap the rep count used in the estimate so high-rep sets cannot inflate the number.

Why did some lifters get weaker in this data?

About 41% of lifter histories in Gym Note Plus data were flat or negative because the comparison uses each lifter's latest log, not their best. Deloads, breaks, technique changes and lighter sessions all land in that snapshot. A single down log is noise; a three-month downward trend is a signal worth acting on.

Final Takeaways

• Expect about 2% per month in estimated 1RM once you are past the first weeks. Anything better on a big lift is a strong run worth protecting.
• Judge each lift on its own curve. A squat adding 20% while your bench adds 3% is the normal shape of progress, not a bench problem.
• Small jumps decide pressing progress. Microplates and extra reps matter most exactly where our data shows progress is slowest.
• A flat latest log is not failure. Four in ten histories dipped. The difference between a dip and a decline is whether you can see the trend.
• Log everything, in whatever tool you will actually use. This entire article only exists because 861 people wrote their workouts down.