Tell it the set you squatted and how far down you went. The depth decides whether the number that comes back can be compared to anything.
Estimates are for general guidance only and are not medical advice. For a personalised plan, book a free guided tour at RPM Gym.
The headline arrives with a depth attached — estimated below-parallel squat 1RM, or parallel, or partial-depth. Read the label as part of the number. A squat max with no depth on it is a claim rather than a measurement, and it cannot be set against your own figure from six weeks ago.
Reps left in reserve are added to the rep count before either equation runs, so five with two still in the tank is estimated as a set of seven. Squatters tend to round that down. A loaded bar on your back feels final well before the set actually is, and the reserve field is where that gets corrected.
The working weight for your chosen rep target inherits the same depth. That matters more than it sounds: estimate from a partial and then programme full-depth squats off it, and every working set for the next month is heavier than the arithmetic intended, with nothing on screen to show it.
The 90 / 80 / 70% rows sit underneath at 3, 8 and 12 reps. How to spread percentages across a training block is the general 1RM calculator's subject. What this page is for is making sure one fixed, defined number goes into them.
Effective reps = reps entered + reps left in reserve. Epley: 1RM = weight × (1 + effective reps ÷ 30). Brzycki: 1RM = weight × 36 ÷ (37 − effective reps). The estimate is the mean of the two. Working weight for N reps = mean of (estimate ÷ (1 + N ÷ 30)) and (estimate × (37 − N) ÷ 36) — the same average, inverted, so the working weight and the estimate cannot disagree. Depth is applied to the label only. No coefficient anywhere in the calculation depends on it.
A below-parallel squat, filmed from the side: 140 kg for 5, with one rep honestly still there.
About 165.3 kg below parallel, and those last two words are half the answer. Stop a hand's width higher on the next test and you'll get more bar to move and a larger figure on screen, none of it new strength. That is why the depth goes in the logbook beside the load rather than staying in your head.
Two answers, and you should know which one you are using. The common gym standard is parallel: the top of the thigh level with the floor at the bottom. Competition is judged lower — the International Powerlifting Federation's technical rules define depth by the hip crease passing below the top of the knee, and missing it is a disqualification rather than a deduction. This tool does not choose for you. It asks which one you did and writes it onto the result.
Above parallel or to a box, unless the box genuinely puts your hip crease below your knee. The box height is the measurement, so record it — 45 cm and 50 cm are two different lifts and they will give you two different estimates. Compare box work to box work at the same height and nothing else.
More, and there is no percentage anyone can hand you. It depends on how much higher you stop, on your limb proportions and on where your own sticking point sits, and no published figure spans that. This is why the page labels the depth instead of pretending to convert it.
Because depth is where a squat max actually goes wrong. A squat correction factor would have to be invented, and it would fix a problem the estimate does not have — on this lift the equations are not the weak link, the standard is. Two squat maxes taken at two depths are not a precision problem. They are different measurements wearing the same name.
On this lift the usual explanation is that your depth improved. Sinking two centimetres lower shortens nothing and adds a genuinely harder position, so the bar you can hold there is lighter and the estimate follows it down. That is a better squat producing a smaller number, which is exactly why the depth is recorded on the label.
Two, in practice, and the tool won't separate them for you because it only labels depth. Keep the bar position in your own notes next to the depth and the load. If you switch positions mid-block, treat the first estimate under the new setup as a fresh baseline rather than a fall.
A coach who can see your hip crease is worth more here than another equation — the strength floor in Al Manhal is where you find out which of your squat numbers is the real one. Book a free guided tour.