And while there might be a few guys like Ronnie Coleman, the strongest guy in the NFL and any othersā¦ nobody other than these 33 guys have done it in competition. Not even monster benchers like Andy Fielder or Matt Lamarque have done over 600 raw in competition.
And if you can do it in training? Well thatās not quite the same thing. Why not enter a meet and make it official?[/quote]
I had to tell his. I was training Helsinkiās (Finlands capital) only (and past) Goldās gym over 5 years ago. One of the strongest ever lived in this planet, Riku Kiri trained here. Iāve seen his deadlifting easy triples of 330 kg, and benching easy reps (he benching only raw - those days he trained only for strongman competition) - using over 250 kg:s. One guy saw him doing 2x300kg. In late 80ās he made 302,5 kg raw in competition, but he busted with steroids, and it never writtenā¦
There was bunch of guys who can bench 260-270 kilos raw, but they didnāt want compete. Maybe those āgymliftersā didnāt bench with pause, but if you can bench 280 without bouncing, you can do 260 in competition. None of those used shirt, 'cause it wasnāt powerlifting gym.
And this is ofcourse hc stuff: my working buddy helped finnish ex-bodybuilder Marko Savolainen, when he did negative bench press 220kgs for reps!( and my buddy - who benched 200kg - push hard with eccentic part of lift)
So maybe NFL-players do not need compete in powerlifting (they are millionaires), but I know, that some guys in finland can lift easily over 250kg - about 550lbs - raw
[quote]Professor X wrote:
fishbuff wrote:
im from singapore (asian) and so far, i have yet to see anyone that can bench over 3 plates a side among the gyms that i went to. im 6ā1" 260lb, can do full squat 405lb and deadlift 450lb but i cannot benchpress beyond 250lb even if my life depend on it.
saw some useful tips from a couple of posters here and i will incorporate them into my training program.
There was a guy in my gym last night who says he is trying out for an arena football team who is about your size. He got 315lbs for 15 reps. All I can say is that I am glad I grew up exposed to more than that. Someone your size should be able to do more than 250lbs. I am a little shocked at that.[/quote]
[quote]fishbuff wrote:
but are these people that bench over 400lb drug-free or āenhancedā? what are your recommendation to build up tricep strength?[/quote]
You have to approach benching with regards to your connected muscle groups man.
Look:
Shoulders + Back + Triceps + Chest = Strong Bench!!!
Itās that simple. Work the other muscle groups with as much enthusiasm as you do your chest and you will increase your bench dramatically.
[quote]fishbuff wrote:
but are these people that bench over 400lb drug-free or āenhancedā? what are your recommendation to build up tricep strength?[/quote]
Are you still looking for excuses as to why you canāt do this? Some have no doubt taken drugs, some havenāt. Personally, I take an excellent AAS stack called steak and dead pig. I take it at least twice a day.
If you train right, and get big and strong enough, you will be able to lift the weight. Not big and strong enough? Look to your training and diet.
Tricep exercises - there are about 42,000 of these on this site. Your lack of knowledge isnāt holding you back, your attitude is. Fix your attitude and Just. Fucking. Train.
[quote]Massif wrote:
fishbuff wrote:
but are these people that bench over 400lb drug-free or āenhancedā? what are your recommendation to build up tricep strength?
Are you still looking for excuses as to why you canāt do this? Some have no doubt taken drugs, some havenāt. Personally, I take an excellent AAS stack called steak and dead pig. I take it at least twice a day.
If you train right, and get big and strong enough, you will be able to lift
the weight. Not big and strong enough? Look to your training and diet.
Tricep exercises - there are about 42,000 of these on this site. Your lack of knowledge isnāt holding you back, your attitude is. Fix your attitude and Just. Fucking. Train.
[/quote]
If you training raw (without shirt), so triceps strenth are important, but not so crucial than shirt benching. It depends you muscle stability - if you had srong triceps, but weaker chest and shoulders - itās not wise to concentrate board presses or heavy lockouts.
Some of us is still fucking hard to go over 300 or 350. Itās not so easy to find a way to 400. It takes time!
(Damn! Now I want join 400 āraw and naturally- clubā!)
[quote]fishbuff wrote:
but are these people that bench over 400lb drug-free or āenhancedā? what are your recommendation to build up tricep strength?[/quote]
Not only was I (and still am) drug free, but I was 17 when I did it. Stop being a vagina.
You have to approach benching with regards to your connected muscle groups man.
Look:
Shoulders + Back + Triceps + Chest = Strong Bench!!!
Itās that simple. Work the other muscle groups with as much enthusiasm as you do your chest and you will increase your bench dramatically.
OD[/quote]
never thought of it like that, sum of parts, I guess applies to bench, squats, deadlift - good way of looking at it I think -
also agree with earlier posts, definitely seeing others of similar height, weight etc lift heavier encourages me to keep aiming to lift heavier
encouragement definitely helps to push the goals higher
jon
I donāt even know what a bench-shirt is and Iāve been lifting heavy for 11+ yrs.
I benched 405 lbs. once several years ago and I havenāt been able to since, mainly due to injuries.
Iām doing the Neanderthal No More workout to correct some imbalances in my physique. Hopefully, Iāll soon be back into this elite class.
[quote]Massif wrote:
fishbuff wrote:
but are these people that bench over 400lb drug-free or āenhancedā? what are your recommendation to build up tricep strength?
Are you still looking for excuses as to why you canāt do this? Some have no doubt taken drugs, some havenāt. Personally, I take an excellent AAS stack called steak and dead pig. I take it at least twice a day.
If you train right, and get big and strong enough, you will be able to lift the weight. Not big and strong enough? Look to your training and diet.
Tricep exercises - there are about 42,000 of these on this site. Your lack of knowledge isnāt holding you back, your attitude is. Fix your attitude and Just. Fucking. Train.
[/quote]
alright man. time to STFU and train hard. keep a place for me in the 400lb Bench club, i will be thereā¦ i swear
Tank Abbott, former UFC fighter benched 600lbs. You can even download him doing this, I dont remember how old he was when he did it though, but he looked like he was in his 30ās.
Iām very late to this thread but feel like posting anyway in case anyone like me stumbles on it in the future.
I just bench pressed 360 a few weeks ago and have a goal of reaching 405 in the not too distant future.
My suggestions are as follows:
Read books about how to train from people who know what theyāre talking about. My recommendations would be Starting Strength by Rippetoe, Practical Programming for Strength Training by Rippetoe, Scientific Principles of Strength Training from Rennaisance Periodization, and Reactive Training Manual by Tuscherer. These books are all excellent and will provide you with far better advice than you can find on forums.
Technique matters. Read SS. Summary: retract shoulder blades, arch back, deep breath and hold, find appropriate grip width, bar rests on part of hand over wrist i.e. wrists should be straight or very slightly extended, lower bar to correct place on chest, push in a straight, diagonal line. Rip explains it well in SS.
The muscles involved in the bench press essentially dictate what the best exercises are to increase your bench press. These are chest, shoulders, and triceps. Chest is the most important muscle for raw bench pressing. Bench press and Incline Bench Press are the two best exercises to build your chest. Dumbell bench presses, flies, and wide grip bench presses are also excellent. Do all of them. Chest is the most important. The primary builder of shoulder strength is the barbell overhead press. See SS for technique description. Lower all the way to your clavicles and always press to full lock out. Other good shoulder exercises are dumbell overhead presses, dumbell lateral raises, and upright rows. Final muscle group is triceps. Your triceps will get most of the stimulation they need just from bench pressing, but the two best exercises to build triceps strength for bench pressing are the close grip bench press and close grip incline bench press. There are tons of other triceps exercises but these are going to be the most effective. Triceps need to be trained in both the horizontal plane and vertical plane whatever exercises you pick.
Other muscles - I find the biceps are somewhat involved in bench pressing so train them as well. Lots of people say lats matter in bench pressing, but that is really only true if you use a bench press shirt, nonetheless work them too. You need to squat because squatting causes increased growth hormone which acts as a multiplier on top of all your gains. Grip matters a little but not too much. Just work your whole body because you should.
Train your bench press muscles at a bare minimum twice a week.
Train with appropriate intensity. 60-75% in hypertrophy phases, 75-85% in strength phases. Alternate between strength and hypertrophy phases. In hypertrophy phases aim for extremely high numbers of reps. In strength phases aim to add more weight to the bar every week.
Systematically experiment to find your bodyās volume tolerances for all of your muscle groups. The more volume you can still do while being able to recover the better your results. Figure out your week to week tolerance by adding extra sets every week slowly until you fail to recover in order to engage in functional overreaching every 4-6 weeks followed by a deload. A 1 week deload should generally be more than enough to prepare you for another month of hard training. You should be making noticeable progress every month if your training is reasonably designed and you bench press is only in the 300s.
Eat enough calories to be gaining weight. Your body cannot build new muscle tissue as an advanced lifter without a caloric surplus. As a beginner or intermediate this may be possible, but it is not possible if you want to build the muscles to bench 400. If you are concerned about getting too fat, gain the weight to build the muscle, then diet it off, and repeat and tune your diet to maximize muscle gain while minimizing fat gain. This requires extreme dedication and constant monitoring of your diet, but if you just want to get stronger, eat and donāt worry about getting fat. If you donāt want to gain weight you are severely handicapping your ability to get stronger and grow more muscle.