ArchEtech

225x35
315x15-18
405x4-6

I weigh 218

ArchEtech

Wrong- one rep / low rep maxes are very good, but must be used sparingly. Reps, speed reps, high weight/low reps all have their uses and train muscles differently.

Those who say bench is overrated probably can't bench €€*** - but no it is not the be all end all of exercises.

There are few lifting types of exercises that get your whole body the way maxing out the big three do - bench, squat, and dead lift.

Mr. Beanz

That's right! The major pressing movements are the ones that add size. I've seen lots of guys doing curls and other refining movements and wonder why they can't add muscle or size. The heavy major movements do as they incorporate every muscle fiber and related muscle needed to do the movement.

When I lifted I rarely ever did bicep curls. This exercise is a finishing movement. But many thought I did lots of curling since I had decent biceps. It was all from benching and heavy shoulder presses that were demanding on the biceps and triceps if done correctly.

wphamilton

As I said, "unqualified", and I fully expected qualified trainers to disagree.

But it's not generally "wrong". Your context - that of a weight training regimen - is more limited than mine is. Pushups, pullups and situps and then add specific exercises as you wish, I'm not wrong about that. And btw, I assume that "full body exercise" does include squats and dead lifts.

alexaschwanden

Half my weight.

OldsCOOL

Those are my three foundational lifts when on a gym/weight training schedule. I used to be a competing powerlifter in the 165 and 181's. Still love to bench press but I wont be on an active lifting schedule while out on the fogline during the summer months.

plasticmotif

roughly 2 and a half clowns.

or a 2 full sized clowns and one half-man or a dwarf....maybe 2 small children

BLE

Define "small children", kids are kind of fat these days. Small as in height or weight? I need to know so I can judge my clown pressing awesomeness.

Chucktown

I started weightlifting after high school to get in shape and have been stuck on it since. I never put much emphasis on barbell but I have reached 315, I prefer to use dumbbells for the range of motion and so I don't favor one side. I have recently gotten back into biking because because I was getting too big/fat for my clothes. Down 10lbs so far!

hybridbkrdr

I don't know how much I can bench press, but I can do 25 push-ups with the Perfect Push-Up. I'd say one push-up on those things is equivalent to 2 push-ups on the floor. So, I might be able to do 50 push-ups.

VaughnA

As long as they are balanced I can do 2 full sized and 2 dwarf clowns. 1 full sized and 1 dwarf is just too unbalanced to lift. But if I put one of each on each end of the bar I'm ok. I've actually lifted 2 full size and 3 dwarf clowns with one hanging in the middle. The little bugger in the middle kicked me in the junk and I dropped them all. Learned my lesson that time. Never let a dwarf clown hang near your manberries.

Sixty Fiver

My step father was a huge man with a chest you could not wrap your arms around, had massive legs, and he could swing a 30 pound sledge like we would use a roofing hammer... when I was running track in school I challenged him to a foot race and he destroyed me.

My grandfather was a beast and worked with my father in a lumber camp in the 40's and until he arrived, my grandfather was considered to be the strongest man there but told me he had never seen anything like my stepfather when it came to the raw strength. My stepfather made money taking bets on how much he could lift.

Seeing him dead lift and toss a full oil drum into the back of the truck like it was nothing made me thankful he never hit me and discovered he was quite a wrecking machine when it came to brawling... was told he was not much for punching but would just pick people up and toss them into fixed objects.

These are guys who never saw the inside of a gym and would have laughed at the "how much can you bench" although if they tried I bet it would have been impressive...in his 70's my grandfather could dead lift more than his kids and grand kids and during one building project he picked up a cast iron stove that weight 400 plus pounds and walked it up a flight of stairs.