DOTS, Wilks and IPF GL calculator

All four scores multiply what you lifted by a coefficient that gets smaller as bodyweight goes up, so a 60 kg lifter and a 120 kg lifter can be ranked on one list. They disagree on how fast the coefficient should shrink.

DOTS and both versions of Wilks fit a polynomial to bodyweight: 4th degree for DOTS, 5th for Wilks. Past a certain bodyweight a polynomial turns, and the coefficient would start rising again, so each one has bodyweight limits. Outside them, the coefficient at the nearest limit is used. IPF GL uses an exponential curve that levels off as bodyweight rises, so it only needs a lower limit. It is also the only one of the four with separate coefficients for classic and equipped lifting, and for bench-only meets.

DOTS and Wilks land within 5 points of each other. Wilks 2020 is higher because it's built on a 600-point scale. IPF GL reads differently: 100 points is the level of an average elite IPF lifter at that bodyweight, which at 90 kg is a 752.2 kg classic total. So 79.77 points means this total is 79.77% of it. In equipped lifting the same total scores 66.21 GL points, while the other three scores don't change.

Take one performance and ask what total a lighter or heavier lifter needs to score the same. A lower number means the formula is kinder to that bodyweight. IPF GL here uses the classic coefficients.

For men, Wilks asks the least of heavy lifters: 685.5 kg at 140 kg, against 731.7 kg under IPF GL. IPF GL also asks the most of light men (482.0 kg at 59 kg, against 442.2–455.8 kg under the others). For women the original Wilks stands out at the heavy end: it asks 437.6 kg of an 84 kg woman, against 415.7–421.7 kg under the other three.

Tim Konertz, who wrote DOTS, gives this as one of his reasons for replacing Wilks: under Wilks, very light and very heavy men came out ahead, and women around 80–90 kg came out behind (his DOTS page, in German).

Tim Konertz wrote DOTS. The name is short for Dynamisch Objektives Teamwertungs-System (dynamic objective team scoring system). The German federation BVDK found IPF points unsuited to team scoring and adopted DOTS from 2020 for team competitions such as its Bundesliga. At the end of 2019 it decided to use DOTS for individual competitions too.

The limits and the rule for bodyweights outside them (use the coefficient at the limit) are from Konertz's page. Without them, the curve would turn back up at about 229 kg for men and 154 kg for women.

Robert Wilks's formula was the IPF's scoring method until the end of 2018. OpenPowerlifting still shows it next to the newer scores.

The limits come from OpenPowerlifting's code. The upper ones sit just below the point where each curve turns (about 202 kg for men and 155 kg for women), and the lower ones stop very light bodyweights from getting huge coefficients. I use them so results here match openpowerlifting.org.

A revised version with new coefficients and a 600-point scale came out in 2020. Powerlifting Australia announced it on 28 February 2020 as Wilks Formula 2 and hosts the coefficient tables. Because the scale changed, Wilks 2020 doesn't replace the original: a score on one can't be compared with a score on the other.

The limits are the edges of the published tables, and the formula matches Powerlifting Australia's tables to 4 decimal places.

The IPF Formula that replaced Wilks was reviewed in 2019, and from 1 May 2020 the IPF switched to GL points, calling the new method “more fair among all weight classes.”

The IPF defines GL points for bodyweights from 40 kg for men and 35 kg for women. There's no upper limit, because the curve levels off. The IPF rounds the coefficient to 6 decimals before multiplying, then rounds the points to 6 decimals, and this calculator does the same.

The coefficient document says it applies from 1 May 2020 to 31 December 2023 and recommends recalibrating every four years. As of September 2026 the IPF's formula page still links only the 2020 coefficients, so those are what this calculator uses.

Outside the IPF, OpenPowerlifting scores lifts in knee wraps with the classic coefficients and multi-ply lifts with the equipped ones, since GL has no coefficients of its own for those.