My brother used to always ask me how much I bench. He would tell me he was benching 120 for 8 or something and I would reply I don’t really train bench.
He was super confident with this number and he managed to convince me (annoy me in) to a bench off.
In the end, he got shaky at 40kg, barely managed 50kg and was pinned by 60kg.
Turned out he was doing 120 on a chest press machine and he just assumed it would directly tramslate to the bench.
I assume a lot of guys do these sorts of weird assumptions or screwed up measures. Kinda like how every guy on the internet measures their dick size from the top of their arse crack.
I was busy over the weekend moving, so I missed the previous thread that spawned this comment, but it looks like a rollicking good time. Shame that I missed it.
Lol, sure, but you’re being modest. You just hit, what was it, an axel bench of 300x5 a few days ago if memory serves. I’d have to look back at your log.
OF course there are people who hit those numbers. I’m just naturally super weak I guess. I grow muscle pretty easily and have ever since I dialed in my diet, but my strength just increases very slowly although steadily. I really focus on higher reps higher volume and I Could probably be pushing harder weight wise because I am very focused on mind muscle connection.
When I first started working out at like 165lb 18%bf ish when I was about 18, my max bench was 95lb, which I Assume Is very low to start at. And that was for like 4 reps if I remember correctly.
I have very long limbs though I am 6 feet, I have quite heavy pulls and lighter presses.
It just seems really odd that someone with an LBM of 176lbs or so can’t bench more than 205 x 4… I feel like most people can hit those numbers at 20%+ bf.
I guess I’ll throw out some numbers that relate to a few posts I’ve read in this thread…
For myself, I benched 385 in a meet in the 181 class, and might have been good for 400 that day. The lift was not a grinder.
Chris is a hell of a bench presser, he’s definitely over 400 these days. His deadlift is excellent too, approaching 700. His squat is like 100 lbs though. lol.
Chris and I have a mutual friend named Bradley who benches over 500 in the 198 class. When he was basically a bench only guy, he considered entering a meet with the intention of totaling 1500 exactly with a 500 bench, squat, and deadlift.
Now to address the original post…
I don’t think that numbers 1-4, and 6, are hard to believe, depending on the dude’s size, of course. Combining those with a 4 minute mile would be extraordinarily rare, but the lifting numbers in and of themselves aren’t crazy. I know a guy who squatted just shy of 900 and benched over 500 when he was 18. He also put his liver through hell. I’m not going to post his name here, but it’s easy enough to find evidence of this, as he competed in meets.
In general, yea man. People exaggerate high school numbers, oftentimes by a lot. You just happened to post non-outlandish numbers. I hear crazy numbers from people all the time, because every fucking person I meet who doesn’t look like they’ve worked out a day in their life seems to want to tell me how strong they USED to be. I remember a couple years ago at the grocery store, some ultra-lanky dude at the checkout asked me how much I lifted, and then responded with ‘yea I squatted 750 lbs in high school’. I generally just smile and say ‘that’s impressive’, and go about my life. Maybe chuckle about it later. But it’s nothing to get too riled up about. Just what people do.
Believe me man I understand this. I have made threads dedicated to wondering how I can be so weak, I guess it’s just a combination of A) Genetics, B) the fact I only train for size in high rep ranges and never built a strength base, and C) I did build my physique with steroids and started my use early so perhaps that could have something to do with it, I only have worked out for 2 years, then stopped due to personal problems for over a year, than have been back at it for 7 or 8 months or so.
People have accused me of lying but I mean come on, If I was gonna BS About my stats I would definitely not be claiming to bench bodyweight for 5 reps.
I do totally agree it is very odd though. I am just super grateful that I was gifted with easy size not easy strength.
This has not prevented you from getting strong. A poster on here named Bauber, who I also know outside of TNation, trains exclusively in the 10-20 rep range. And he’s benched 400+ for 10+ reps. Sorry I’m not more specific on that, I don’t remember exactly what he’s done. But it was a huge number. Ed Coan trained mostly in the higher rep range for most of his career.
This is the actual reason why you are weak. When I was 2 years into training, I benched less than you do now.
Yeah, I suppose so. I just don’t get how people lift so much!!
What do you think about about my theory that my body contains MUCH MORE type two (slow twitch) muscle fibers and MUCH LESS of type one (fast twitch)fibers? This would make so much sense, because I grow best with very high rep ranges (12-22) and never saw much growth in the lower ones.
You’re probably correct. It’s not something that bothers me though, other people’s comments about it being hard to believe are what bothers me, even though I know I Shouldn’t let that kind of stuff get to me.
My only training goal and all that matters to me is the size I gain and bodyfat I hold.
My strength is actually up a small amount in the last 3 weeks that I’ve been cutting which is encouraging also
Thanks for your opinions though flipcollar, I love being able to get opinion from other bodybuilders that actually have some knowledge. I don’t have any people like this to discuss things with in real life.
