I don’t think that there is an ideal ratio. Aiming to increase your overall strength, in rowing exercises as well as the bench will serve you well. As far as needing a 2xBW bench press and all that, it seems a bit overdone. There are plenty of great figthers who I am sure have had nowhere near that level of strength.
Of course, it could not hurt if you were INCREDIBLY strong in the powerlifts. And I do think that a raw double bodyweight bench is very strong. We’re not talking about the use of bench shirts. I don’t know many guys who can bench double their bodyweight, specifically those that start weighing around 200 lbs and upwards.
So it’s not that having excellent strength in the powerlifts would hurt you, but your time might be more well spent developing yourself fully as an athlete. This includes muscular endurance, anaerobic endurance, speed training (which you might include in training the powerlifts), and technique practice.
For the average guy (genetically speaking) trying to achieve numbers relative to their bodyweight such as those in CW’s articles, they’d have to spend at least 4 days a week of lifting for the most part, on top of training sessions to work on your technical proficiency, and cardiovascular componenets. Unless a person is a fulltime professional fighter and does not have to work for a living, I see it as being pretty tough trying to develop very impressive amounts of strength, technical proficiency, and endurance.
I’d say to look at what needs the most work. If you can’t bench your own bodyweight but your technique is excellent, then some strength training focus might be in order. Then again, if you can bench double your bodyweight but your endurance sucks, you might want to look into some conditioning. It’s a balancing act that you have get a hold of to find out what will give you the most bang for your buck in terms of training time. Good luck.
-MAtt
