WeightTraining.NZ

Q Points

The International Masters Weightlifting Association have announced that, from 2025, they'll be using the "Q Masters points" system to standardise performance across age and bodyweight. Like its predecessor, Sinclair scores, Q points are obtained by multiplying the lifter's Snatch and Clean & Jerk total by a coefficient, which is based on gender and body weight.

The coefficients used for Sinclair were adjusted after each Olympic Games, and related to the World Record totals in the various weight classes. It's unclear to me whether IMWA plan to make regular adjustments to the Q‑point coefficients.

Accounting for Age

Meltzer-Faber coefficients (for men) or Huebner-Meltzer-Faber (for women) attempt to take account of the fact that an athlete's strength and speed generally begin to diminish after about the age of 30. They may be used in combination with Q scores (for example, in Masters' competitions) to produce age-adjusted Q points. The calculator can be used to find your Q points for a lift and (if 30 or older) your age‑adjusted points.

You can download a Q points spreadsheet here, based on the 2025 coefficients.

Reference: https://www.imwla.com/calculator

Click on the button to learn about IWF's new scoring system:

Robi Points

Rather than depending on your actual body weight, Robi points rate your lift against the current world record in your age and weight classes.

For example, at time of writing, the senior male world record total for the kg weight class is kg. A senior male lifter of any body weight within the kg class who totals kg would get a Robi score of points.

Points are 'normalized' so the world record lift in any weight class always represents 1000 points.

How points vary with total weight lifted

Formulas used for comparing the relative strengths of weight- or powerlifters of different body weights (e.g. Sinclair, Q-points, Wilks and GL points) result in scores that are directly proportional to the weight lifted. For example: An 80 kg senior female lifter gets 231.4 Sinclair points (2024 formula) for a 200 kg total, and half that number (115.7) for lifting half that total (100 kg).

Robi points, on the other hand, vary exponentially with the total - the points being approximately proportional to the cube of the total, increasing very rapidly as the weight approaches the world record. So, while a world record lift gets 1000 Robi points, the formula has been designed so that half the record weight gets just 10% of that (100 points).

For the mathematically inclined, the formula for calculating Robi points is:

Robi = 1000 × (total ÷ WR)^b

where WR is the world record and b the constant 1÷log2 (approximatey 3.322).

The exponential nature of Robi points mean they're more suited to comparing highly competitive lifters rather than relative strengths of a broad range of lifters. It can also lead to some hugh discontinuities between adjacent weight classes: For the same total, a bodyweight gain of just 100g (half a glass of water) could lose you 250+ points! Finding the value of the exponent (b) in the formula to match the arbitrary '50% total = 10% points' rule makes a nice algebraic exercise for a high-school math student, but the points are not a good indicator of relative strength.

Reference: https://iwf.sport/results/robi-points/