225lb Bench For Reps World Record Attempt for Charity

Sooo, I’ve set myself an ever so slightly bonkers challenge of breaking the 225lb bench press for reps WR (which I believe currently stands at 53 reps). I figured, before I even seriously thought about going for this, the record would be much, much higher (like at least 70 reps).

I’ve already received a t shirt and fundraising pack from UK mental health charity ‘Mind’ and I’m thinking, once I get a decent smartphone and get my home gym looking a bit tidier I’ll start brodcasting on Youtube and see if I can make this crazy dream a reality!

Any support or advice on how to maximise my fundraising potential would be greatly appreciated, cheers:)

I just bench pressed 77kg x 70 reps btw…just to give you a sense of where I’m currently at

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No advice, but support. :+1:

That’s awesome. I’d like to see how it goes.

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Find a coach who prepares football players for the NFL combine. Start commenting about how you want to break this record in the comments area of their social media.
Publicly ask for their advices.

Basically, it’s the modern equivalent of standing next to a cool person. Link your fund raising page every time you mention trying to break the record.

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Thanks for that, I was sorta thinking of doing something very similar to that.

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I forgot to mention coach Joe DeFranco!

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“World record” is a muddy term because there’s no actual standard for that event, either for the total goal or for form. I took a quick look at Guinness records and didn’t see 225 for Reps as a category. They did have most total weight benched in one hour, 305,300 pounds, and most total weight benched in one minute 15,344 pounds - same guy holds both. He’s from Ireland.

If you really wanted to go big-time, you could try contacting Guinness to get your new event verified/certified/the whole nine. Or just do your own thing, hit 225 for lots and lots of reps, get some attention for a great charity, and whether it’s a “record” or not isn’t a big deal.

Social media and hashtags. That’s gonna be your best bet for drawing attention. Looks like your charity uses #DoOneThing, so go with that. Maybe start an Instagram and/or Twitter page specifically to post updates in your training, using that hashtag in each post. That’ll lead up to the big day with a livestream.

Their site also says tomorrow, Oct 10, coincidentally, is World Mental Health Day. That would’ve been a great day to hold the event, but it’s not a dealbreaker (unless you want to train a year for it and catch it in '21).

Yeah, thanks for your input Chris, I’ve given myself about a year to try and really smash this, I know their are guys who have benched 225 for more than 53 reps, but in all of the vids I’ve seen they are only doing partial reps.

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Where did you find the WR stats of the lift?

Google basically, lol, plus I can’t find anyone on youtube who is full repping 225 for more than 53 reps.

’ Ryback broke the NFL scouting combine record for the 225-pound bench press with a stunning 53 repetitions each during a sold-out television taping of SmackDown in Hershey, Pa., Tuesday night. The World’s Strongest Man crushed the record of 51 reps, set by Justin Ernest at the 1999 NFL combine.27 Mar 2013’.

Bro, that’s ambitious as heck. Good luck.

What’s your current 1RM?

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No idea to be honest, my 1RM probably isn’t that great in relative terms, about a year or so ago when I was lifting fairly heavy quite a bit I benched 117kg x 20 reps…being strong for reps with a moderately heavy weight just seems to be my thing for whatever reason. Once I’ve had a good go at this challenged I might have a go at competing as a powerlifter.

Also,I can currently bench 225 for 34+ reps.

How long have you been training and how close are you to your genetic potential?

That’s a pretty good number but… If your last PR after consistently training was a year ago and then had no PRs again EVER after consistently training some more, then I’m a little worried. lol

I’ve been training for about 20 years, I’ve been training sorta seriously for about 12 years (when I invested in a power rack + olympic weights). I actually stopped training completely for about 7 months about 1 year ago, if I hadn’t have done that my 1RMs in particular I’m sure would be much higher tbf. I doubt my 1RMs are ever going to be that great for a 295lb guy with my level of training experience, but my strength for reps is very good, I hit 100 push ups the other day.

Also, with regards genetic potential I have no idea, if I’d been trained/coached to get strong from age 15/16 I’d have likely hit my peak by now (I’m 36), most recreational lifters probably never get close to hitting their generic potential IMO.

100 push ups at 295 bodyweight is insane.

Dude yeah, you were born for this.

I used to have 70+ push ups at less than 200 pounds bodyweight and people already couldn’t believe it.

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If you scroll to the bottom of any of the Indigo Project programs on this site, CT made a specialization workout specially or the 225lb bench for reps test. Could be worth checking for some inspiration!

A. Push up on Swiss ball 3 x max
B. Push press 5 x 5
C. 1-arm DB clean and press 5 x 5 / arm
D. Bench press 225lbs. Aim for twice the reps you are getting now, and get there. You
can take as many pauses as you want to get there, but try to minimize the pauses from
week to week. Do 2 such sets.
E. Bench press 185lbs. 3 sets x max reps, rest 10 sec., max reps again
F. Bench press 155lbs 3 sets x max reps, rest 10 sec., max reps again

MECHANICAL DROP SET G (30 SEC. BETWEEN POSITION, 3 MIN. BETWEEN
SETS)
G1. Close-grip bench press 3 x 6-8
G2. Wide-grip bench press 3 x max with same weight
G3. Bench press normal grip 3 x max reps with same weight

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A lil cheeky update:

Just bench pressed 102kg x 38 + 87kg x 50…I’m pretty sure I can do this now, I should hopefully be ready to make my first broadcast sometime before christmas, now that I’ve started to get certain bits and pieces in place to broadcast my current bench for reps to generate interest in my fundraising efforts.

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This is a great idea! I’ll set the sponsorship ball rolling:
£1 a rep for the 1st 53, £5 for each rep after 53.

Shall we say Christmas as the deadline, and reps count if no-one else touches the bar AND you don’t drop the bar on your face!

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Another update, I’ve figured out that if I can get strong enough to bench 132kg x 25 reps that should get me strong enough to break the record (I got 117kg x 20 a few days ago + I also close grip floor pressed 112kg x 30 about three hours ago).

I’m going to go for this record next World mental health day on the 10th of October 2021 to give me plenty of time to get this just right and absolutely smash the 225 record to pieces + once I’m more or less strong enough to break this record I’m going to look into contacting news agencies to see if they’ll cover my story in order to maximise fundraising potential.

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Keep up the good work.

Meanwhile, my goal is to squat 600 before hitting forty. I’m 29.

When are you gonna post a video?

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