that's awesome.

My hero

You sir are an inspiration!

Wow. You’re giving me hope, old man. I can do 365 but I’m 41 years old and I’ve been wondering if I would have to give up the bench press soon. I have a degenerated lumbar disc in my L5-S1 section that caused me to give up heavy squats. I was feeling sad about my body breaking down.

Started working on bench press at age about 70. Gave up about age 77. Small shoulder injury. Just temporary. But then while resting I looked around my gym and started asking trainers, their clients, old 'pro's: "Is there anybody who benches, tries to max out, and doesn't eventually get injured from that?" There's nobody who doesn't eventually get injured I was told. I asked even a couple old guys who trained with Arnold during that time -- no more flat bench for them now. Dumbells now, lighter weights, incline press. My point: yeah, you guys who are in 20's, 30's -- you want your goal for three plates or more, ok. Likely doable with consistent training as I read here. In general, older people who can't/won't easily or ever recover from a bench injury, and who would like to be able to maintain 100% mobility should not be setting such a goal if they've not been there before (in their younger days). This just my opinion. Also I always had three weight goals with benching: 1) Max weight with trainer spotting me, 2) Max weight with no spotter assist, but with people nearby, 3) Max weight when training by myself, alone.

Is it hard to hit 225 on the incline?

​@@lucashenriques4242yea but more doable than 315 flat

Man u ain't lying. 225 was badass in 8th grade. I remember that day.

​@@spartacus1414I think 225 on incline is as hard if not harder. Especially when it's done strict. That means no over arching with butt coming off the bench. It changes the angle to horizontal and defeats the purpose. They might as well just do flat bench press. They're not putting emphasis on the upper pecs doing that. No momentum bouncing it off the chest dive bomb on the eccentric.

@@os7349 I did 280 in grade 10

You will dude. Keep lifting and eating. Since you’re prob naturally skinny; just eat as much as you can the day before you lift heavy and within 2 hours after your lift.

Good bro, I started at 130lbs bw 5ft 6 in, now I'm 165bw. I hit 225 for 2. Been a heck of a grind

Warm up properly, and train on good form. Trust me, it’ll help more than you think. Also prevents injuries.

Good shit bro you’ll get it in no time

Don't forget your accessories. Tricep pushdowns, shoulder raises (front, side, AND rear), dumbbell press, pec fly, machine press etc.

When did you hit 225?

@@Nowheretorun7 yep, once you're past the novice phase, the gains can be frustratingly slow, especially in the bench.

Everyone talking about where they are but not where they started! 90 to 400 over any amount of time is crazy progress. Good on your brother!

@@-Jesse.C 30+ years isn't crazy, just consistent

How many years of consistent training did it take to get to your max?

Nice numbers, what's the best weekly scheme to get to 315 quick? And what type of diet you doin?

What I don't get is how you guys in the 400 lb bench club could only do 95 lb to start. I could one-rep 135 as a teenager weighing less than that and yet decades later I'm still not double that number, though I admit I haven't been super consistent (which is typical though even among the elite lifters). I'd wager that MOST people with natural benching ability, ie a genetic capability of even reaching 315, started with a much higher max than the average person (ie well north of 135) even before stepping one foot in the gym. Of course, if a guy is big all over, in the 220 lb + range, he's gonna be capable of much more than the 160 lb guy as mentioned in the video.

I watched my son do it. I can barely lift 135. Haha. How the heck. Oh and my son and law to. I said I’ll just curl my 35s here

My grandma benched 350

@@D.M.ggww21ur son might be on gear

is this how you cope with being a weakling? @@user-xr4vg6vl2z

​@@user-xr4vg6vl2z315 is very possible naturally

I’m 39 and chasing 315. Got 295 about a year and half ago. I haven’t maxed since

Hope it was drug free..

yes sir... only a few choices are available to a young Marine boot: work out, drink out... I choose lifting. @@ukestudio3002

I agree! I remember the first time I did it and I was elated!

Once I did it, I walked away from powerlifting completely. I went from 235 to almost 300, stopped competing, and worked on my bench for over a year just to hit 405. I’ll never say it wasn’t worth it- it was my white whale- but, I had to work pretty damned hard to trim back down after, and felt like crap till I did.

405 is when you start to feel untouchable, but you realize “how In the actual fuck am I every going to get to 505 drug free!?”

Height?

@@DonnieDarko727with a name like “powerlifting leprechaun,” you can probably take a guess lol Strong man, though

@@BUFFALO_cougar_slayer lol I didn't look that far into him thx

@@DonnieDarko727 5’7 if you pull up on my ears

@@Brian_McWilliams lol ok

Really. I did 355 deadlift no experience first time lifting. Almost 400 squat within a few months And bench was 260 medium grip within 7 months five foot 6 205 lb. I can do this at 155 I’ve done it

@@sloppyjonuts9162 Thats fucking elite genetics bro. Dont put yourself in the position of gen pop, you are obviously outliar.

I have a 200lb OHP, 240 bench, 380 deadlift lol. Long torso, short arms, and arms/shoulders best genetics. Although deadlift is rising quickly now I'm focusing on it

@@sloppyjonuts9162 Little confused. You did 355 at 155 pounds or when you were 205 pounds?

I think it's getting more common nowadays. I see plenty of guys at the gym nowadays who can do it. At least they look like they can. I say this because I hit 315 in college and I don't feel like a physical specimen.

To put your progress into perspective, I'm 5'9 200lbs and have been training for around a decade. I hit 225 probably within the first year without much of an issue. I hit 300 lbs in 2022 and have been stuck there since... Maybe 2024 is the year though as I think I'm making some progress in this block. This is just to say that if you hit 315 within your first 3 years of training, you probably have a lot more potential!

It took me 2 years to hit 225. 1 year after I hit 315. Best I ever made it to was 350 many years later, and never made it past that (​yet) . Don't know if I will ever hit 400. I think people progress at different rates.@@Rykurex

@@Rykurex thanks man! I’ve been able to increase my max by more incline bench and dips and if I warm up my back before lifting it helps me

I bench 585 @202 pounds BW with 3 and a half years of experience, the key is to push to failer every exercise never touched any roids ever.

Great advice.

Exactly! And same goes for guys who preach doing all the main compounds. If you lift hard and hit your whole body whether it’s isolation or compound, you’ll be fine. You do you, not what some competitive meathead says on the internet.

How the fuck... my best 1RM bench was 250 at 6'4" and 260 lbs. Granted I'm a lanklord with skinny wrists. I remember in high school struggling to bench the bar, so maybe genetics are a factor. Bench was always my worst lift. Squatted 400 and deadlifted 450 for 1RM.

@@narbwow8168 same man im 6'5 240 and my best is 275 for 1, when i started at 15 i couldn't bench the bar with 10's on each side

I got 340 back when I was in my mid 20s around 2007 -08 at 195-200 lbs, 5'11", then my strength slowly dwindled over the years, now at 40 years old, I just got back up to 325 bench at about 205 lbs now. But like you said, I try to be a well rounded athlete (was a college FB runningback back in 02-05) so I've done a 495 squat and do a lot with biceps and pull-ups, shoulders, back, etc and still do a lot of running sprints and regular cardio to stay lean and keep my abs.

Nice 385lb is an impressive bench

I’m sorry but what is Deload week?

​@@ChillStudyDate Lifting lighter weight/less volume or being less intense in your workouts than you normally would.

@@AllStarHockey1331 ahhh sorta like a recovery weak?

deload/recovery is definitely underrated. I feel so strong after a week off due to travelling.

U can do it now for a single

You can probably hit 315 for a double with those numbers

If you can do 275 for five sets of five, I'm pretty sure you can do 315 for a single.

​@@SgtPUSMCHe said 250 5x5 and 275 1x5

@@GYMJAX it's prolly mental at this point.

Wait how do some ppl not like bench press? It’s an upper body movement. It’s easier to do and safer than squats and deadlifts. Plus squats and deadlifts are both lower body movements. Upper body is more masculine.

@@bobdarrick2628 you’d be crazy if you didn’t, 😃.

​@@bobdarrick2628pretty sure he said press as in over head press those are grinding baby steps to get strong in.

What was your bench at the beginning of the 9 months?

@aaronpeipert was always topping out at about 265/270 prior. Once I started eating and getting consistent I broke through.

At ~215 bodyweight too.

@@fred_vids I have a strange question. Do you think you would have been able to hit 315 after 9 months of training if you were to start training lets say in your teens? Because hitting 315 at only 9 months is kind of insane to me, I'm guessing being 46 years old helps. I'm only 18 and I've never played a sport and was never in great shape so I started pretty damn weak. I've been training for 2 years, consistently for 1 and I can't even hit 225. I'm guessing it's just because I'm pretty young and something like strength just accumulates as you age?

@@doug2555 I was a skinny and not stronger in my younger years. I'm no expert in this space and can't comment on all the factors that lead to failure vs success. But IMO the top two things are making sure you are in a calorie surplus, and staying consistent in the bench with applying progressive overload (adding a fraction of a pound next time, or doing one more rep at same weight, etc). Being 18, I bet you have a higher metabolism and maybe are somewhat active. Maybe not so consistent in the diet either. Also assuming you aren't drastically overweight currently, get religious on watching what you eat and the scale and make sure you are gaining a little bit of weight each week (macro factor is a great app along with a smart scale to make this brainless). IMO, the more you weigh, the more likely you are to put up larger bench numbers. Also get equally religious on your lifting schedule and logging your lifts, tracking your progression (reps, micro weight adds). I think the difference for me was focusing on gaining in teh bench and making it a priority in my life vs other things. When you are younger you have a lot of competing priorities (social, work, etc). Once you get a bit older and established, you have potentially sorted out many things and possibly have a bit more understanding and latitude to focus on what's important to you. Also you may get the means to have a gym at home where getting under the bench consistently is easier. But again, if you make this a priority (block time on your schedule), you can get to the gym and get every session in. Stay at it! Also don't try to fix everything over night... start making small tweaks to get 1% better each day and it will become a habit (read atomic habits :D )

Get it, be damn careful!

You want a nutt guitar boy?

@@BennyJeters😂

How many times a week u do ? Or bench? I been struggling with my splits a bit, I did 8 reps of 225 on the summer but this past couple of months I've had a lot of school and this past 2 months a lot too, I can do 4 reps w 225 but I been going consistent for the past month trying to get back at it, I been doing twise a week chest normally Mondays and Fridays

maybe before chasing the poundage concentrate firstly on getting your own weight down to a more pleasing number, let the bench come as it comes, as a secondary goal... your quality of life will be greater affected by your own weight than by the weight you can bench

I honestly don't get how guys who weigh 200lbs + aren't benching 315 lol, dudes at 140lbs bench 315, TRAIN MORE.

Comp 315 at 165 isn't remotely heavy.

@@sevournYou a hater that’s an amazing lift

@@mcdonaldtrump3308 hating is when you denigrate the achievements of someone more successful than yourself with jealousy as a root cause. Given that I've bench pressed 424.4 in comp at 165, the correct term for this would probably be mockery or bullying.

@@mcdonaldtrump3308 I have done 315 for 16 reps at 165. To call it warm up weight would be to give it too much credit

Plus good technique

I use flat bench for strength and incline for hypertrophy

you gotta do what's best for you... that's for sure

In my opinion I think it's better to bench press for strength. If you wanna best for size I think a smith machine can get you more consistent tension on your chest and also take away some of the fatigue demand

I do OHP and then for bench I use 65 lb dumbbells. I'm good at 65lbs, and want to grow my OHP, which is only 80 lbs. I want 100lbs someday. Would be cool to switch to dumbbells and use my 60lb and maybe 65 lb dumbbells for OHP, but I'm almost 45 and it isn't that important to me. Just trying to have some fitness.

@@Rale__and provide you with buckets of shoulder pain over time

Bro tell me your secrets please, I want to bench 225 too, I have been going to for 9 months my bench is 70 KG, I feel weak af

What was your bench frequency? And how many sets?

@@Alanliftyou should try benching 4 days a week. Frequency translates to more strength.

Im 6'3" tall and when i started i weighed 155 lbs and max bench was 135 lbs. Took me 8 years of training and at a weight of only 185 lbs i finally got 305 lbs for 1 rep (unassisted). 👍 👍

@@Alanlifttrain bench twice a week. One for high reps 4x8-10. Second day go heavy 5x3. Train shoulders heavy once a week and back heavy once a week. Don’t slack on squats cuz that’s a testerone building exercise. It takes a lot of work bt it’s worth it. Took me 3 years to hit 315 at 170 and then i turned into a Powerlifter

This is insane

To the chest?

@Jemgirly yes, to the chest. I competed in Powerlifting back in the late 70s, so I know how to bench properly. My strength level soared once I started taking creatine in the mid to late 90s.

@@olegariomartinez6807 that's amazing. I always get skeptical when I hear people's bench numbers because it often means they're talking half reps LOL I too started using creatine recently and it has helped a lot. I have been lifting off and on since I was a teenager and my bench is nowhere near yours (260 max). I'm in my early forties now but I take my training more seriously and I'm very consistent, so I'm hoping it will pay off for the rest of my days. Cheers.

i hit 300 after 7-9 months after not working out for over 3 years… its not impossible

Genetics is probably more important. The work matters but some people are just built for it.

Natural?

@@Pantelifts10 sure am. Like most lifters I've thought about using peds but I don't want the side effects.

@@sentientnutsack5197 If your goal is 315, genetics are not really that important. The average man SHOULD be able to hit 315 .

​@@jd9119Really depends on your muscle insertion points and the length of your arms. Many other factors as well. 335 is probably doable for a good deal of men. Some are really going to struggle getting close to that, though.

Bro cap

Thas amazing. You should be in the Olympics in your weight class you would be the GOAT

Bull shit lol! An 100lb female 315 bench would be world class

Nice man, I have similar build. Glad there's hope 😂

As Dr. Mike Israetel says, it’s that stretch at the bottom that helps get get those gainzZz! Or something like that lol 😆

@@davidbenning10 I have nothing against that doctor, but his gains are due to special vitamins he may or may not inject in his ass cheeks. I can't take training advice seriously from a man who is up to his eyes in juice. If you're on juice, anything you do works, or so I have heard. You could walk up a flight of stairs after injecting yourself and get a massive pump and growth in your calves. This is why bodybuilders do all those silly machine exercises with 'light weights' and call it hard work. It's just more lies they tell themselves, so they can sleep at night. If they go off cycle, they turn into soft puppies who can't get it up, or so I have heard. Nothing inspiring there. It's more inspiring to see an 80-year old granny with hip pain learn to deadlift properly, so she can walk pain-free and go see her grandchildren.

@@Fortress333 Whoa, did not expect a whole memorandum! 🤣

@@Fortress333 I don’t think you’ve seen his Myo reps videos. People, like Jeff nippard, literally break down crying. - He can teach anyone from beginner to pro something. Yes he’s juiced to the gills, he’s like 5’5 and bald. What do you expect? - Nobody on KZfaq would say Mike Isratel is bad at bodybuilding. Not dieting and certainly not training. I can understand how you dislike the use of PEDs, I do as well.

You’ll get there. Just keep hammering away.

Give it a little more time. You can use the 90% of your working weight for 5x5 and take 3-4 mins rest between sets. Do that 2 days after your heaviest bench day.

Do some other exercises for a few weeks and build those surrounding muscles

Get a good workout partner that you trust and incorporate a few real good sets of negatives every other week (at the beginning of your chest workout). You'll be surprised at your gains in just a couple months from that alone.

It's impossible to somebody who doesn't work towards it. Diet, training and rest are likely the culprits to why you can't.

@@jd9119 you are assuming everyone fits exactly in the same pattern, do you ever heard about statistics? Like mean, standard deviation, outliers and so on

​@@DusmaEduardo You're not weak man, 1-2 years for 225 is totally normal for the average person, people are too quick to judge based on extraordinary standards instead of reality.

@@qualia4673 one year is realistic for almost everybody, 6 months not much

Depends on your weight among the other factors already mentioned.

It’s probably easiest if you start lifting in high school as a guy. It’s basically like being on steroids when you are a teenager with all the hormones. It’s harder as you get older but not impossible just takes longer the older you are

You may need to be 250 if u r over 5,8, but yes I have done 640. 1x5 with 550

Get to 275lbs bodyweight ASAP by GOMAD.

@@zenitram225 good idea, do you like GOMAD better than 2lbs of beef a day?

@@griffin7274 ​​⁠640, you're a beast! my 1RM is at 518lbs now so its time for the grind

You gotta be (generally) 242 class or heavier to DL 600. I’d argue only high level athletes or serious lifters bench 400, squat 500 and deadlift 600. Your life needs to be centered around lifting and recovery, or you’re just a genetic freak of nature that is consistent.

😂

@@PAULEYBOY84 just benched 715lbs for 16 1/2 reps yesterday, squatted 805lbs for 32 reps last night. And this morning deadlifted 915lbs for 19 reps.

im 2 months old and can curl 80s is that good?

Nice

LOL

Nah, can be done within a day. Just stretch properly

At squat maybe lol

I agree, I think it's not so much that most of the general population can't get to that number but rather very few actually put in the time, work and dedication to achieve such a lift

@@somestranger9170This is key ☝️.

One question about bench press increase, what would you say is the approximate weight you should be at to hit 315 on the bench?

@@MuscleMan909 Honestly I can’t really say because I’ve witnessed guys 150 lbs hitting that weight. But I have also witnessed big guys struggle to get. It’s really all about how much training are you willing to put in to reach your goal.

When you say 330 as in hitting a PR or doing that in hypertrophy?

Same here brother, but I’m also built for benching. Barrel chest and short arms makes for a shorter distance. Sadly, I let my fitness take a back seat after high school, but I’m back at it now. Haven’t had the courage to go for a max yet, but I can do 225 for 12 reps. So hopefully I haven’t lost too much.