Want to know exactly how strong you are? Just glance at your Strength Score! Let’s break down how it works and what it means.
Calculating your Strength Score
Your Strength Score isn’t just a random number - it’s a carefully calculated metric influenced by four key factors:
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Your 1RM: We use your best lift from the last 3 months to keep your Strength Score dynamic and up-to-date.
1RM is your one repetition maximum: the maximum weight you can lift in a single rep with proper form. We calculate your projected 1RM based on the weights and reps you log during your workouts.
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Exercise Selection: Gravl scores eight muscle groups: Chest, Back, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, Quads, Hamstrings and Glutes. Most of them are tracked through these dumbbell and barbell exercises:
Chest: Barbell Bench Press, Barbell Incline Bench Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Incline Bench Press.
Back: Barbell Row, Barbell Row Reverse Grip, Dumbbell Row, Incline Dumbbell Row.
Shoulders: Barbell Shoulder Press, Seated Barbell Shoulder Press, Dumbbell Lateral Raise, Dumbbell Shoulder Press.
Quads: Back Squat, Front Squat, Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat, Dumbbell Lunge.
Hamstrings: Deadlift, Stiff Legged Deadlift, Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift.
Biceps: Barbell Curl, EZ Bar Curl, Dumbbell Bicep Curl, Seated Dumbbell Curl.
Triceps: Close Grip Bench Press, EZ Bar Skullcrusher, Dumbbell Skullcrusher, Single Arm Dumbbell Tricep Extension.
Machines vary wildly between brands and designs, making comparisons unreliable. Dumbbells and barbells ensure a fair, objective standard. And don't worry, only the exercises you log count towards your score. Custom exercises you create yourself don't count.
Glutes count too. One exception: if your profile is set to male and you had a Gravl account before June 2026, Glutes were left out of your score when we added them. You can put them back from the Strength Score settings described below.
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Gender: Strength capabilities differ between genders, so Gravl adjusts its standards for accurate comparisons.
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Body Weight: It’s not just about how much you lift, but how much you lift relative to your body weight. Changes in your body weight can affect your score - even if your absolute lift (and thus your 1RM) remains the same.
Check out the example at the end for a practical illustration.
Exploring your data
Your Strength Score lives on the Progress tab, at the top of the screen.
Brand new? You need at least three logged workouts before a total appears. Until then the Progress tab shows a card reading "You need to complete a few workouts before you can see your score." Tap it and, once some of your lifts already count, a Strength Score in progress sheet lists the exercises that have a score so far.
Strength Score
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Overall Score: The number on the Progress tab is the average of your muscle group scores, giving you a snapshot of your total strength. Tap it to open the full Strength Score screen: your level and how far you are from the next one, a Friends leaderboard, then your Strength History graph over Month, 6 months, Year or All.
Your score falls into one of seven levels:
Starter: 1-49
Novice: 50-99
Experienced: 100-149
Pro: 150-199
Athlete: 200-249
Elite: 250-299
Olympic: 300+
Each level has its own color, and the badge around your score takes that color so you can see at a glance where you stand.
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Breakdown: Below the graph, you'll find a breakdown of your strength by muscle group. Identify strengths and areas for improvement. Tap any group to see its history and contributing exercises. Use the dropdown next to the heading to group the breakdown By individual muscle, By plan or By muscle area.
Exclude muscles from your score
Old shoulder injury? Simply never train a muscle group with barbells or dumbbells? You can leave up to two muscle groups out of your Strength Score:
- Open the Strength Score screen and tap the gear icon in the top right.
- On Excluded from Score, tap the muscles you want left out and tap Save.
Gravl will ask you to confirm, because changing the exclusions recalculates your score - so your total, history, badges and leaderboards may change accordingly.
Weekly summary
Next to your Strength Score you'll find the Weekly Score card, showing how many points your total moved this week. Tap it to open Weekly Summary, where you can pick the week you want to review.
Up top, two tiles:
- Total Score: the average score across all muscle groups, compared to the previous week.
- Bodyweight: the weight used for that week, and how it changed.
Below them, the week's movements grouped into four lists, each showing the exercises behind the change:
- Improved: exercises whose score went up.
- Declined: exercises whose score went down, including drops caused by body weight going up.
- New: exercises that started counting this week.
- Expired: exercises whose best lift aged out of the 3 month window and stopped counting.
After those, Expiring Soon warns you which lifts are about to age out, so you know what to re-test. On a past week it's headed Expired This Week instead.
Last comes Workouts, an overview of your sessions for the selected week.
Why your Strength Score matters
Tracking your Strength Score gives you a clear, objective view of your progress. It’s not just about lifting heavier weights. It balances:
- Absolute Strength: How much you lift.
- Relative Strength: How strong you are for your size.
Gravl’s Strength Score is more than just a number - it’s a powerful tool to:
Monitor progress accurately.
Stay motivated by highlighting tangible improvements.
Optimize your training strategy based on data.
Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned lifter, the Strength Score is here to guide you toward your goals.
And because progress deserves fanfare: every score increase gets a celebration screen. If you'd rather keep it low-key, you can turn score celebrations off in Profile - Settings - Celebration settings.
HOW CHANGES IN BODY WEIGHT IMPACT YOUR STRENGTH SCORE: EXAMPLE
Initial Scenario:
- Best Lift (1RM): 100 kg (recorded within the last 3 months)
- Body Weight: 80 kg
- Relative Strength Ratio: 100 kg ÷ 80 kg = 1.25
Weight Loss:
- New Body Weight: 75 kg
- Your next best lifts (1RM) remain 100 kg.
- New Relative Strength Ratio: 100 kg ÷ 75 kg ≈ 1.33
What this means:
Even though your 1RM remains 100 kg, the fact that you now weigh less means that 100 kg is a greater achievement relative to your body weight. Your Strength Score increases immediately after logging this lift, reflecting the improved relative strength.
Weight Gain:
- New Body Weight: 85 kg
- Your next best lifts (1RM) remain 100 kg.
- New Relative Strength Ratio: 100 kg ÷ 85 kg ≈ 1.18
What This Means:
While your 1RM is still 100 kg, the added body weight makes the lift relatively less impressive. However, because we always use the best lift from the past 3 months, your score won’t drop immediately. Over time, if you don’t improve your lift to match your higher body weight, your score will eventually decrease as the initial lift phases out of the 3-month window.