The formula
Wilks = total × 500 ÷ polynomial(bodyweight)
Where it comes from
Two hundred kilos does not mean the same thing for a fifty-nine kilo lifter as for a hundred-and-twenty kilo one, and that is why the coefficients exist: they are polynomials fitted to the records of each class that turn a total into a comparable figure. Wilks is the classic one, from 1994; DOTS has been replacing it because it is fitted to more recent marks. It is not that DOTS is more generous: at the extremes it gives slightly less than Wilks and in the middle slightly more, and that is exactly the correction it makes.
How to work it out by hand
- Add the three lifts for your total
- Evaluate the coefficient polynomial at your bodyweight
- Multiply the total by 500 and divide by that polynomial
- Compare Wilks and DOTS: they are different scales of the same total
What is worth knowing
How the total splits between the three lifts says a lot too: in a balanced lifter the squat is around 35 per cent of the total, the bench 22 and the deadlift 43. Straying far from that shows where the room is, and it is nearly always the bench for anyone coming from another sport. As a rough level guide, four hundred Wilks points is a solid amateur, five hundred is national standard and above six hundred you are into international marks.