I WILL be that guy and bring up the “Chuck Sipes” effect, where just because a 500lb bench wasn’t accomplished in competition doesn’t mean it wasn’t accomplished. We often run into instances where the strongest guys out there AREN’T competing in powerlifting…primarily because, I mean, why would you?
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The data is much more meaningful, because all competitors are held to a standard (even though they may change slightly from federation to federation.)
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It’s probably best that this thread was revived because I don’t think we ever really settled this important question.
Are we counting all men alive who can do it right now or all men who have done it? How many men do you think can bench press 500, but haven’t in powerlifting competition? What in the heck are these guys doing with their illegitimate 500lb bench presses, anyway?
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No doubt this is true. And even the folks who are competing in powerlifting may not have benched 500 raw in a competition but have done it to competition standards in a gym – I know one lifter personally who falls into this category. But it seems hard to the point of nearly impossible to make an accurate estimate of how many people have benched 500 outside of competition.
What I do think though is that if less than 1% of powerlifters can do it, it is a pretty rare feat.
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You would think so, but the time I spent working bar security informed me just how wrong I was. It turns out that nearly everyone who talked to me about lifting knows someone substantially stronger than me, or was at one point themselves.
We have a lot of special forces guys in the community too. These stoic killers quietly and peacefully go about their lives, only mentioning their service if you encounter them.
Some areas just have a concentration of badass, like your local bar.
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Bench 500 in a full meet, this year, or I don’t want to hear about it.
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I was not arguing against this with that quote
Not saying you were, but there are a good number of bench pressers who are relatively weak coming off of their chest but have good lockout strength. Those individuals might not be capable of a 500lb bench press that included a random pause time.
Yes: I understand this…
Again: its not what I was getting at when I asked “why would you compete in powerlifting if you are that strong”
In the case of Chuck Sipes: being awesome.
But also, to tie in to a different discussion we were having
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There are some strong motherfuckers out there. I don’t think isolating for powerlifting competition records or even lifts done under powerlifting rules does some of these people justice either.
A quick turnaround, even with a slight bounce vs lifting to commands is still incredibly impressive at 500+ lbs.
Keep in mind if you practice form and work on mobility enough, powerlifting will let you arch your back until your nipples are almost touching the racked bar anyways.
Pick your critique.
Example, even within powerlifting not all meet records carry. I was at a local meet last Saturday and only records at state level would be officially recorded. I know for sure one national record was broken with three whites, but it went down as a state record only, and has to be recorded at a national meet to count. You’d have to do a lot of subset cross-referencing here too. I did not see a 500lb bench press, but there was one same meet last summer.
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I am sure there are a lot of NFL players (maybe some rare college guys) and competitive bodybuilders that can do this but have no interest in competing in powerlifting
I have no doubt there are random unknowns that can hit 500 but I would guess it’s really, really rare - maybe I would triple the number of people that did it in competition and say 10,000-15,000 in the world can do it.
Anecdotally I remember years ago I volunteered to spot/load at a local push/pull meet and there was a very overweight mid-20s guy - he had a similar body type to Eric “Butterbean” Esch (I wish I could remember his name) there who told me it was his first meet and kept asking me questions about rules etc. then casually mentioned he was trying to bench 500 and didn’t know what to do for his first attempt.
I almost spit out my coffee and said “Man I don’t know why you’re asking me questions I better ask you for advice!”
Unfortunately he got hurt on his second attempt and had to pull out of the meet. He did get his opener in the mid-400s but it was a grinder.
I feel like there are a lot of guys though that just add 5 pounds every time they retell their story
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This is similar to the story of Eric Spoto. He was repping 600lbs in the gym, but didn’t want to compete until he KNEW he could hit 700. He wanted to break the world record in his first meet.
He didn’t manage that, but DID come close, and did eventually set a new record, ushering in an era where suddenly ALL the 700lb raw benchers came out of the woodwork.
EDIT: Actually, why am I telling the story? It happened here! Haha
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There are a few variables in most meets:
- The actual bench (its width and height from the floor)
- The crowd (which can be distracting for a few)
- The climate control, or lack of it.
- The length of the pause
Experience competing cures some of those, but a different feeling or “support” bench can be challenging, but it is for everyone else too (though it could affect your maximum weight.)
I nearly bombed at a meet that had a lower and narrower bench than I had been accustomed. I finally made my opening weight on my 3rd attempt.
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I completely agree that moving that much weight is impressive.
But from a data perspective when does the lift no longer qualify as a bench press? I am okay with a bounce and hip thrust off the bench if you include them as a bench press, but to compare “apples to apples”, a standard is a blessing.
Disclaimer: I am deeply intrenched in Six Sigma philosophy, where to claim an improvement of the “Y” in a project requires that a MSA (Measurement System Analysis) for tracking improvement in the “Y”, so that we are comparing “apples to apples.”
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For competition purposes I see the value of an agreed upon set of rules, and if a back arch that would put Olympic gymnast mobility to shame counts that’s fine if everyone is signed on.
For the question of “how many people are capable of moving 500lbs off their chest” I’m totally fine with garage strong guys doing it like Tank Abbott did in the video above.
Still not many, but probably more than estimated.
The mind is truly amazing. One person breaks a barrier and then all of a sudden, quite a few more surpass what was previously the barrier. At least in part because now it is confirmed as possible. Something similar happened with 1,000lb raw squats.
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IMO, this needs addressed and remedied. Narrowing the maximum grip width is one place that I would start.
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The IPF banned this a couple of years ago. I’m not sure if other feds followed suit. I doubt many 500lb benchers have the mobility needed to create a huge arch.
It’s hit and miss across feds but I don’t think they retroactively disqualified anything.