The study in question has been scrutinized over the years, but 300lbs for a bench press is heavy as fuck. Admittedly my bench has always been my worst lift, but after 14 years of training I managed to press 300x4 a couple weeks ago… not to stroke my ego, but I’m in the category of “pretty jacked” and only recently could push this kind of weight.
5% actually sounds a bit high IMO - I see very few people ever benching these kinds of numbers, but I also train in normie gyms where powerlifters are infrequent.
300# benches were a dime a dozen in two gyms I trained at that catered to serious bodybuilders and powerlifters. I now train at normie gyms when I go to the gym and I have yet to see a single 300# bench at either gym. Not one. There are a lot more normie gyms than there are serious bodybuilder/powerlifter gyms. So the more that I think about it, the 5% number might be a bit high.
I think there are just way more people going to the gym to lift weights than there were in the 1980s and 1990s. And they are there for a much wider variety of reasons.
A twenty rep max squat will in my world always be more impressive than a much heavier one or ten rep max squat. Why? Because the demands (read: intensity) of a twenty rep squat means so much more. Is it possible to do a 2x bodyweight twenty rep squat?
Btw, there should be two different versions of the stronger evaluation rule - one for naturals and one for the enhanced lifters. You simply can’t compete with enhanced lifters - period.
In my younger days, I worked up to 1.5X BW 20-rep squats. And they were NOT Platz style! Single breaths for the first 12 reps and 2 breaths for reps 13-20. NO LOCKOUT!!
Is it males are getting weaker on bench (300lb bench press) due to most are not performing that exercise…i.e. hammer strength press seems to be the most popular chest exercise in my gym
Agreed. Back in the day, I had several friends (drug-free) that had no problems maxing out at 300 pounds on the bench press. Some worked their way up to 325-350.
