How Much is "STRONG" and how do I increase my bench press

[Andyhaunt]

I´ve been training for three years, I´m 6' 2, and 220lbs. I am obviously not a genetic freak coz before I began weightlifting, I was among the weakest back in highschool (and also one of the skinniest). Even when nobody went to the gym, almost every guy beat me at armwrestling and pull ups and basic strenght feats like those. So, I really want to clarify, befrore everything that I am not genetically gifted. But, since I started training I noticed that my strength increased very quickly, and I rapidly began surpasing many people who had been training for like 2 years or something before me. So, given that I was a freakin weak, I was really happy and surprised seing those gains, without ever consuming any supplement (no protein, creatin, or anything liek that) or going on steroids.

Until today, I was really comfort with my lifts, squatting 440 for one rep and benching 320 for one rep. I´ve never been a show off (as many other people are when they lift similar weights) because I still don´t consider myself a strong beast, but I also dont think I´m weak, but this morning, training at this new gym I´ve been going since last month, there was this guy (it was one of the gym´s trainers), and he saw me doing weighted dips, and then he asked me how much did I weight. I answered, and then he told me he was 143 and that he can also do dips with the same weight I did. Then he asked me how much I could bench, I told him 320, and then he told me that I should bench a lot more for my bodyweight. I didn´t even asked him about his lifts and he just started talking about it, stating he could bench 335 or something like that. IN OTHER WORDS, HE WAS TELLING ME I AM A ****ING WEAK.
The funniest thing is that if you see that guy out in the streets, you would never imagine he lift weights, an even less that he´s a trainer. As the guy is clearly not big, I asked another trainer if this man could really bench that and he told me it was a lie cause when they train together he could roughly lift 225lbs for 8 reps.
So, the guy lied about his lifts, but he still made me believe I´m weak.

The question is, is 320lbs "too little" for a 220lbs guy like me? I know I am not strong as I know alot of people here who bench a lot more, what I want to know is if this is a poor lift given my weight. And also, how much do you have to lift to be considered strong???
And I´m talking here in average people´s terms, not in powerlifter or bodybuilder´s terms. I am talking bout people who have lifes outside the gym.

And if your answer is YES, you are weak, how could I increase my bench press, since my linear progression plateaued about three weeks ago.

I woudl appreciate your comments

[bobbyw91]

if you were happy with your lifts before, who gives a fxck. and a 320lb bench is definitely not weak by any means.

[paulpker121]

people can be d-bags

[Tyciol]

You're still stronger than most people, plus say you want to watch him

[DanielBeauchamp]

I don't consider a 320lb Bench Press weak.

[cyu]

I don't know how accurate this is, but here.

http://www.criticalbench.com/strengthchart.htm

[SDFlip]

220 > 143.

stomp his skinny ass

[pollackdrew1]

seems like a lot to me, just keep going heavy and keep uppin the weight

[Andyhaunt]

Thank you very much for your comments, they really encourage me.
Many of you say 320 is not weak by any means, but obviously it also depends on the lifter.

A 160lbs guy who can bench 320 is much more impressing than me, who is 220lbs. So, keepind in mind that I´m 220lbs, should I bench more, or less, to be considered "not weak".
The thing is that he told me I should be way stronger for my weight, more or less claiming that he was light and yet as strong as hercules (which, according to the other trainer I asked, he is not).

Edit: Oh, I think I have miscalculated the weight. Here at my gym (in Colombia), the plates are in Kilograms. My 1rm is 150Kgs, so the real weight in lbs is 330 (150x2.2). My bodyweight, however, was correctly calculated (100kg=220lbs)

[cyu]

3/4 of trainers have an IQ of a sack of potatoes. He was trying to stroke his own ego in a weird way by randomly harassing strangers, so next time he comes spewing his egotistic bull****, "accidently" drop a weight on his foot.

[tha_deuce]

I don't consider a 320lb Bench Press weak.

x2.

if you want to up your bench, what really worked for me is standing overhead press and pyramid up the weight on your bench. so reps would be 10,8,6,4,2 and weight would start out at 135 then ramping up 20 pounds from there. every other week or so add more weight (like 5 pounds at a time or maybe 10) and obviously to get to 300 plus pounds youd have to add a little more than 20 pounds at a time but 135 is a good warm up weight. i added 60 pounds to my bench in 4 months doing this.

[im2manly]

When you can bench press 100lbs over your body weight or more, you are not weak by any means. There are many things you can do to increase your bench, the most important thing is to increase the frequency that you bench and you keep the reps low and weight high. So say Bench M, Incline W, Bench F heavy weight reps 3-5. Also make sure you include heavy back, delt and tricep work. Also make sure you have a strong grip on the bar to improve control and have a slight arch in your back and contract your lats to form a good base and keep our elbows in and bring the bar to below the nipple.

[Germinator2000]

why would u give a shit what he lifts? is ur goal powerlifting or bodybuilding? if the latter, u've already won. FYI, here the standards:

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLi...Standards.html

and if u've had linear progression for 2 years 49 weeks and stalled for 3 weeks, u should be pretty damn happy, thats better than most

[jwagz]

yup 3 plates is by far weak...

anytime someone has that much weight on a bench i stop to watch em...

[MistuuhMitch]

Anytime your gettin up 300+ lbs on bench your doin work. so yes you are strong

[BlueSasquatch]

If you are looking to be strong compared to average, then yes, even at 220 lbs, benching BW+100 is strong. I once read the average man cannot even do 1 pull-up. I know thats different than bench but it kinda gives you an idea of what average is.

I bench around the same as you and im 250 lbs. My lifting buddy is 170 lbs and benches 315, which is indeed more impressive than us benching 315. IMO it seems that the heavier you weigh, the less bench press you can do in comparison to a lighter weighted individual. It's not unheard of for a 150 lb man to bench 300 lbs, thats 2x his body weight, but if a person at 250 was to bench 2x his body weight it would put them at 500 lbs, which if you ask me is much rarer. Thats how i look at it when people compare bench press with me.

However are you looking to just maintain your bench or are you still in the progress of working on it, but merely in a rut?

Either way keep it up!

[tha_deuce]

anytime someone has that much weight on a bench i stop to watch em...

lol. no homo tho rite?

[dparm99]

150kg bench @ 100kg bodyweight is a very solid lift, nothing to brag about but very solid.

[user165461]

I'm sure the majority of people attending any gym would love to be able to bench 320, next time challenge this guy to a ro-cham-bo.

[Farley1324]

A three wheel bench is "STRONG". Plain and simple.

Benching 300, squatting 400 and pulling 500 (or you can say 3, 4, 5 plates)....each one of those is a serious accomplishment and qualifies as "STRONG" if you ask me. Or at least "Strong".

[Alyion]

I would consider a 3/4/5 a massive achievement and is my main goal right now.

The guy was being a prick - just ignore the ****er, if push came to shove a 220 stronger guy would steamroll the **** over him - he knows this himslef which is why he wanted to run his mouth

[musicianman]

it seems that the heavier you weigh, the less bench press you can do in comparison to a lighter weighted individual. It's not unheard of for a 150 lb man to bench 300 lbs, thats 2x his body weight, but if a person at 250 was to bench 2x his body weight it would put them at 500 lbs, which if you ask me is much rarer.

You are correct. In powerlifting and the olympics, there is something called the "Wilks Coefficient." It is used to decide who the best lifter is, regardless of weight classes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilks_Coefficient

... lighter lifters tending to lift more weight according to their own bodyweight. This occurs for a number of reasons relating to simple physics, the nature of the makeup and limitations of the human skeletal and muscular system and, the shorter leverages of smaller people. This phenomena can be seen by looking at the current men's senior world powerlifting records. http://www.powerlifting-ipf.com/Records.44.0.html Note the totals section and that lighter lifters below 100 Kg bodyweight achieve totals in excess of ten times bodyweight whereas heavier lifters do not. The Wilks system is primarily a handicapping process that provides an adjusted statistical method to compare all lifters of varying classes and groups on an equal standing and makes allowances for the disparities. Wilks charts and a calculator are freely available on the website of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF). http://www.powerlifting-ipf.com/Downloads.55.0.html
According to this setup, a male athlete weighing 320 pounds and lifting a total of 1400 pounds would have a normalized lift weight of 778.26, and a lifter weighing 200 pounds and lifting a total of 1000 pounds would have a normalized lift weight of 635.8. Thus the 320 pound lifter would win this competition. As you might have noticed the lighter lifter is actually stronger for his bodyweight, with a total of 5 times his own weight, while the heavier lifter could only manage 4.375 times his own bodyweight. In this way, the Wilks Coefficient places a greater emphasis on absolute strength, rather than ranking lifters solely based on the relative strength of the lifter compared to bodyweight. This creates an even playing field between light and heavyweight lifters—the lighter lifters tend to have a higher relative strength level in comparison to the heavyweight lifters, who tend to have a greater amount of absolute strength.

[christos_swc]

Well...
If I can bench my bodyweight and a guy weighing 400 pounds can bench 320 then I guess he's stronger than me, much much stronger.
It's not an impressive lift for his size, in fact he's weak for his size but the strength is there.
When it comes to strength the absolute numbers is what counts.
Body weight and size is just a means to an end, competitive weightlifting excluded where there are body weight categories for the purpose of putting one's achievement into perspective.
Even so, the heavyweights are always stronger than the lightweights even if their technique sometimes looks clumsy and they could lift so much more if they worked longer or harder.
And don't forget that the lighter you are the easiest it is to lift your bodyweight x times.
Everybody can lift weights with the goal of getting as strong as he could be.
If the goal were to be the strongest we might as well go find something else to do.

[musicianman]

A 400-pound guy benching 320 is much, much, much more impressive than a 160-pound guy benching 160. Twice as much stress on the bones is still twice as much stress on the bones. He may be a lot bigger, but his bone density and tendon strength doesn't magically double.

Look at gymnasts. If that's not pure strength, I don't know what is.

I'm not really disagreeing with you, FYI.

[Ironlife]

A three wheel bench is "STRONG". Plain and simple.

Benching 300, squatting 400 and pulling 500 (or you can say 3, 4, 5 plates)....each one of those is a serious accomplishment and qualifies as "STRONG" if you ask me. Or at least "Strong".

Very wise words.

[glockrockin]

Any guy who feels the need to come up to you out of the blue and measure his lifts against yours prolly doesn't lift much in reality.

OP if it makes u feel better you have heavier lifts then me and I feel strong now (still working at progressing though)

[TheRealCartman]

He's a douche, you're not weak. Anyone lifting 3 plates has my respect, I want to get there and know it isn't easy.

If his lifts are true then it is very impressive but it isn't his job to make you feel weak or to show off. Think if he tries that again you have to ask for his help, have him demonstrate correct form benching 3 plates.

[Lmessiah]

if you were happy with your lifts before, who gives a fxck. and a 320lb bench is definitely not weak by any means.

your benching 100lbs more then you weigh thats good. The fact that you think ur weak means that im so tiny and weak its scary lol like little girl small and weak

[Andyhaunt]

He's a douche, you're not weak. Anyone lifting 3 plates has my respect, I want to get there and know it isn't easy.

If his lifts are true then it is very impressive but it isn't his job to make you feel weak or to show off. Think if he tries that again you have to ask for his help, have him demonstrate correct form benching 3 plates.

Thanxs.
Yeah right, if he does lift that weight he´s a beast for his little size, but again, I asked another trainer (this one was really big) and he told me he was lying as he could barely do 8 reps with two plates (I mean this guy had to help him). Two plates are still decent weight to me (for reps) and given his light weight, but it is faaaaar from 330lbs.
THe fact that he lied to compare our lifts bothers me a little, but hey, it just felt a kick in the balls when he told me, "oh, your bench is very low for your bodyweight, you have to get stronger".

Oh, I forgot to tell ya that this guy is one of those who believes that you get ripped by doing like infinite reps. More reps=More ripped..... LOL!!!!!!!

[Ironlife]

Benching 3 plates is very strong, and a great goal.