What is your bench weight to body weight ratio?

Metalloid

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2002
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I know we already had a "How much can you bench" thread, but I feel that the ratio of your bench weight to your body weight is an important, and often overlooked aspect as to your personal stength. It is suggested that you have strong chest muscles if you can bench your body weight.

Take your max bench press and divide by your body weight.

I maxed out at 155lbs today, and I weigh 122.

155/122=1.27

Edited because Jsbush got upset
 

jsbush

Diamond Member
Nov 13, 2000
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How does a couple mucels (pecs and triceps) determine if you are in good shape or not?

What about your cardio, your leg strenth, etc etc.........


rolleye.gif
 

Nutdotnet

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2000
7,721
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250/175= 1.428

But......benching isn't everything. Someone who benches heavy weight COULD be a fit person...or they could be a curl-jockey.

I like to be more concerned with deadlifts and squats (since really, they are more full body exercises)....and those ratios.

Deadlift-
400/175= 2.28

Squat-
365/175= 2.08
 

Whisper

Diamond Member
Feb 25, 2000
5,394
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310/163 = 1.9018...

Last time I checked, anyways. Might've lost a couple pounds off that max over the past two weeks, but we'll see how it goes. Only maxed one time in the last year, though, so not sure if I'll end up doing it again anytime soon.
 

iamme

Lifer
Jul 21, 2001
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Originally posted by: Metalloid
I know we already had a "How much can you bench" thread, but I feel that the ratio of your bench weight to your body weight is an important, and often overlooked aspect as to your personal stength. It is suggested that you have strong chest muscles if you can bench your body weight.

Take your max bench press and divide by your body weight.

I maxed out at 155lbs today, and I weigh 122.

155/122=1.27

Edited because Jsbush got upset

you weigh 122 lbs? how tall are you?
 

ThisIsMatt

Banned
Aug 4, 2000
11,820
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Why don't you take height into consideration too...ya know, cause arm length plays a factor in how "strong" you are :p

180/175...about 1:1 :p Working on it pretty regularly, though. I'm over 6'3"...
 

TheNinja

Lifer
Jan 22, 2003
12,207
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Originally posted by: Whisper
310/163 = 1.9018...

Holy crap...that's pretty good. I'm at probably 255/185 = 1.378 right now. The strongest guy I see at the gym pound for pound is about 215 and i've seen him bench 455. 425/215 = 1.977 ratio for bench!!
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
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I'm more for cardio than anything, but my max is 260 (never done more than 2 reps) and my weight flux is between 200 to 205. I'm a pretty big person at 6'2 though, and I got into weight lifting for about a year so I'm sure that max can be attributed to the year of work. I went from 180 to 200 in that period of time, and my max at 180 was only 180.
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
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Originally posted by: Staley8
Originally posted by: Whisper
310/163 = 1.9018...

Holy crap...that's pretty good. I'm at probably 255/185 = 1.378 right now. The strongest guy I see at the gym pound for pound is about 215 and i've seen him bench 455. 425/215 = 1.977 ratio for bench!!

A good friend of mine from africa (black as oil) could bench 310 in highschool and he was 141 pounds. His legs were horribly skinny, but it was friggin amazing how strong he was.

He's skinny all over now though, and no longer lifts weights.
 

Metalloid

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2002
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Originally posted by: iamme
Originally posted by: Metalloid
I know we already had a "How much can you bench" thread, but I feel that the ratio of your bench weight to your body weight is an important, and often overlooked aspect as to your personal stength. It is suggested that you have strong chest muscles if you can bench your body weight.

Take your max bench press and divide by your body weight.

I maxed out at 155lbs today, and I weigh 122.

155/122=1.27

Edited because Jsbush got upset

you weigh 122 lbs? how tall are you?

Ehhhh..... 5'9.... 17 year old male

High metabolism and constant physical activity makes it very difficult to gain weight. My father is a perfect example. He is 50 years old, 6'2, and weighs about 150.
 

TechnoKid

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2001
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I weigh 145 and the last time I benched I did a max of 185 for 3 reps (1.27). That was my sophmore year in HS. I know I could do more if I worked on it more, but will college and all, I haven't the time for the gym. Maybe I'll buy a bench and weights and bars for the garage.

I can hex-bar 300lbs one rep.
 

RagingBITCH

Lifer
Sep 27, 2003
17,619
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No idea, never tried maxing out. I will say this though - the strongest guys at my gym are all former Marines
 

EmperorIQ

Platinum Member
Sep 30, 2003
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pfffft. i can do like 210 maxed out, and i weight 245??? pounds. hahahahaha <1
well, i don't relaly work out, i try my best but school cuts into it. i did pretty well last quarter in working out, and i stopped completely, trying to get back in now. btw that max was back in sophomore/junior summer year, i stoppped right when school started, have no recent onces. hence the ??? by the weight
 

Amused

Elite Member
Apr 14, 2001
55,825
13,865
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I'm 36. I don't dare try maxing out.

My workout weight on the bench at this time is 255. I get 8-10 reps out of that for 3 sets. That puts my theoretical max at something like 340 lbs. ( http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/OneRepMax.html ) But I don't know how much faith to put into that.

BTW, I'm 6', 195 lbs
 

Whisper

Diamond Member
Feb 25, 2000
5,394
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Yeah, it really is insane how strong some people can become. I entered a competition here at my school, since I figured it's my last year and I might as well do something like that before graduating. The winner of my weight class hit 325 (though I think he could've done a bit more), and weighed something like 155. It was crazy.

Then again, like one of the posts above said, I'm afraid of maxing now. That competition screwed my shoulder up for like a month. Man, I'm getting fragile.
 

Argo

Lifer
Apr 8, 2000
10,045
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Depends what you consider bench weight.

If by bench weight you mean that you can do at least 6-8 reps then it's:

265/190 = 1.39

If you mean my absolute max then it's:

315/190 = 1.65