Can you bench press 297.50 lbs?

[IronFist]

Because this 14 year old can. (http://www.adfpa.com/records/national/men-teen-14-15-benchpress.shtml)

Now I'm depressed :)

Iron

[lowsweep]

geeeezzz
i thought I was doing pretty good, that kid is a monster. 297.5??!!! Thats a humongous number. I'm not even close...

[PHILBERT]

I can't even bench press 100 lb (without dislocating my shoulders) much less 300. Steroids will do that for the kid though.

Before you guys say "How do you exercise your chest" I do an incredibly unGodly amount of push ups during my workout. I can't do chest exercises without hurting myself (long story, don't want to take over thread).

Anyway, that kid will have some health problems later in life. I work out at the gym with one guy, bench presses about 250, if not more, but he is like 4 inches shorter than me because he's been doing it for so long, he had a growth problem. But this guy is built like a 1956 Chrysler. Only thing he needs to work on is his belly.

[lowsweep]

Dumbell bench press has done the most for my bench numbers, I find it a lot harder than regular bench press. DB bench seems to build my chest, shoulders, and tri's much faster than just doing bench press, i guess because of stabilisers. Try it out, I have added 20 pounds to my bench press by doing dumbell bench press once a week (sets 10-12/7-9/7-9/4-6) for only 5 weeks and I was on some pretty tough pushup programs for two years, not to mention training regular bench press before. Eat right and do the DB bench and you should be breaking 100 in not too long:)
good luck!
adam

[lowsweep]

oops, sorry, i missed the part where you said you couldn't do chest excercises. My bad

[Johnny Hot Shot]

Is over Rated. It is hardly a measure of true strength. If you want to a real test of strength ty the Snatch or Clean and jerk.

[PHILBERT]

what are those exercises you speak of Johnny? Describe them

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Johnny Hot Shot
Is over Rated. It is hardly a measure of true strength. If you want to a real test of strength ty the Snatch or Clean and jerk.

No offence, dude, but bench press is a test of bench press strength. Why does no one think it is "real" strength?

If your argument is "because bench press doesn't directly translate to punching power" I'm going to go crazy =D

Iron

[Robinf]

Fist of all, woa! 14 and can bench near 300. YIKES!

Second, has anyone ever done their bench press on a stability ball instead of the bench? It's a bit more challenging.

Robin

[Ford Prefect]

I can pin press (the top 4" of the bench movement) 300+ lbs. ;) That kid is nuts.

[Johnny Hot Shot]

Offence not taken. Although I don't belive that Bench press strength contributes very much to overall strength. It does translate to punching power but do you punch only with your chest muscles?
I still think that it is a good part of any weight routine. But for Overall strength the Best training is Olympic style weight lifting. Olyimpic style weight lifting you are using your whole body primarily your legs. As any good MA will tell you the ROOT is the "Root " of all power. Therfore if a person concentrates primarily on Pench then sure you can have an impresive bench ( mine is 320lbs for 4 reps) So?. I also train Olympic style and Have since I was In High School.

Olyimpic weight lifting helps to develop explosive strength and power not to mention that the Snatch is the fastest movement in the olympic games. My piont is that the bench press is something that has been over emphasised as a primary strength building excersise. If you are doing lot's of pushups you really don't need to bench anyway.

For more info on Olympic lifting check out This (http://www.wlinfo.com/)