My Road To A 500 Pound Bench Press Template

[Poppy]

I’ve been going through my gym again resorting/rearranging/cleaning. I ran across some more of my old log books and templates.

This my template for benching 500 pounds (all laminated and fancy) . It took a year…actually almost 2. I started at a bw of 220 and couldn’t get there so I ate my way to the 242 lb class. I ended up with a 605 squat and a 460 bench (might of been 462.5). It was right at 20 years ago or so. Edit… closer to 15 years ago.

As you can see, no deadlift training as I always hurt my right lat. I only trained legs once a week and that worked for me. The 600 lb squat was a pleasant surprise and byproduct of putting on the weight for my bench.

Sadly the 500lb bench just won’t ever happen…that was my last waltz.

 

[Poppy]

You can see where I’ve cut that old nasty carpet back. It’s still under the rack because I didn’t feel like unloading everything. That’ll be another day…next year.

 

[Rusty]

460 is outfuckingstanding as @John would say. That is the same as John Cena’s max bench just to put it in perspective.

 

[Poppy]

Ancient history brother. I actually forgot about the template until I unearthed it in my pile-o-crap

 

[Cluster]

Yes but Jesus im 36 and I’d love to get half of that again that helluv impressive. Can’t bench domt know why I’ve watched videos read practiced but nope. It’s my weakest lift

 

[Dirtnasty]

This is very similar to my plan right now but we doing 600 and then 650

 

[Poppy]

This may sound dumb but I’ve heard dave tate say it many times…when all other bases are covered… you just got to get stronger. Find what movements make you stronger and work those. Throw out everything else.

 

[Dirtnasty]

Also we te d to gravitate toward what works so if one lift sucks we tend to do it less then it just gets worse. My squat was bad. So what did I do I put it first in my program. Made it the priority and now I’m almost 700 pound squater my dead was great and it’s made like zero progress compared to squat but I needed this way

 

[Poppy]

That’s what I was shooting for. 500lb goal. The squat improvement was just a byproduct.

Fell short on bench. Woulda shoulda coulda

 

[Cluster]

Oh o still try. It really blows my chest…well maybe not blow up pop more like it lol

 

[Poppy]

To clarify…the one rep max on my heavy bench days was not a real max. It was a gym max for that one day. I always left a little in the tank. I saved the true max work for a meet.

 

[Aude_Aliquid_Dignu]

My squat snatch always helps me feel better about my benching.

 

[Poppy]

There’s no real good reason to bench press except to get your bench press up. Your snatch squat has way more overall strength and conditioning qualities than the bench press.

I’m not sure if bodybuilders even do the flat bench any more…in general.

 

[herrubermensch]

I’m not sure if bodybuilders even do the flat bench any more…in general.

I do it much less frequently than I used to, primarily when I’ve had 2-3 days off and want a full body snap-back and so do flat bench, deads, and squats. Always puts me in a good place to start the usual routine of shoulders, upper chest and tris, then back and bis, and legs and abs.

Something I did recently to break through a plateau: EMOM a/k/a every minute on the minute workouts. Ten sets of singles of your 1RM, one each minute. Ten sets of five of your 5RM, one each minute. Ten sets of ten of your 10RM, one each minute. I’ll do that on my primary exercise for the day (e.g., incline barbell, squat, bent over rows, etc.), then do something like 3x10 for each of my remaining exercises at about 70% of 1RM. My incline 1RM has climbed to 275 during that period, when I used to struggle with 245! And I finally hit 315 on flat bench after plateauing at 295/300 for months.

 

[Poppy]

hit 315 on flat bench

Strong old son of a biscuit!!!

 

[herrubermensch]

Whenever I do something that impresses the youngins that work for me, I always say “See, I’m not dead quite yet!” They roll their eyes. Not weak yet either.

 

[herrubermensch]

Nothing like your 500lb bench! Whew!! Talk about strong! That’s like top of the .01% range!

 

[Poppy]

“Almost” 500 bench…

 

[Dirtnasty]

Damn I’m pressure for your size