Man, see my wife says all the time that I really underestimate myself in terms of where I'm at with my physical fitness.  

I always just thought a PR of 225 was kind of just the "average" of where a guy should be at in terms of bench press (assuming he's of average height and weight as well).  Definitely important to remember that a PR flat bench is pretty damn relative, because obviously for some massive dude that's going to be a lower percentage of effort than it is for a smaller one.  

Due to my age and the fact that my BJJ Professor is a close personal friend of mine I mostly roll these days with just him and don't mess around with the younger guys as much.  However, the other day I was rolling with guys in their early 20's and just felt like I was man handling them.  Hard to describe, but it was like when I go from playing with my German Shepherd to some other little dog that's not as solidly built..if that makes any sense.   My cardio is also above those guys that are literally half my age, which I shouldn't have been so shocked by because I run 10k easy three times a week, but I guess I just had it in my mind that these younger guys would all be magnitudes more fit than I am.  I don't have any sons and so I'm not doing a lot of physical fitness where I'm able to compare myself to younger guys that often.  

I have heard though from a lot of guys in their 40's who do things like train police academy cadets that the younger guys though are a lot more frail and unhealthy than they were back in the day as a whole, so maybe that's a bit in play?  Of course, I imagine these young guys still have the advantage of recovering faster and bouncing back faster from injuries than I do, which is now like increasingly my physical fitness focus.  For me it's more and more about just keeping this high mileage body in one piece to keep on performing.

10ks 3 times a week? In my fucking dreams could I do that. Youve gotta be really strong to do that. Thats amazing.There are a lot of older guys at my gym with "sleeper" strength.

I benched 240 in high school in the la te 70s. No way I could do it today.
One of the basketball coaches could bench 310 at age 64. He was a phreak.

Everyone likes the bench press, and it is one of my favorite lifts as well, but it's really not a good judge of where you rate strength wise.  

Start squatting and deadlifting 2.5+ times your body weight and you will be really strong pound for pound.  

If you've ever wrestled or worked construction/farm work you would find out real quick the squat and deadlift are much more important.  Bench press doesn't even have much to do with punching power either even that is more in the hips and technique than bench pressing.  

Even knowing that I still love bench pressing just know that it is not the greatest measure of strength.

To your point, watch any professional powerlifting competition.  It's pretty rare that the guy with the biggest bench wins.  Obviously they know to focus on the lifts that put up bigger numbers, so the guys who put too much time into bench only win that event, but get blown out in total.  So there's some strategy there, but you get my point.

Anyway, congrats OP.  Enjoy it for a few days and then piss yourself off trying reach a new milestone and repeat for the rest of your life.

Damn!

Keep hitting those weights like a gorilla

I grew up on a farm and started wrestling at 5 years old.  I also worked construction for about a year then got on at the saw mill stacking lumber.  My current job doesn't require any physical labor, but I can tell you from my past that it's not about winning a power lifting meet the squat and deadlift are much more important to useable strength than the bench press.  Almost no physical job benefits much from increasing your bench press, but increasing your deadlift, squat, and over head have massive benefits if you do physical labor or sports that benefit from being stronger.

You could absolutely run 10ks three time a week.  Just take consistent steady training and a lot of patience with yourself, but you could absolutely creep up to doing that like I did over the course of a year.  I sucked at long distance running until I finally just started working the Couch to 5K program and than the Couch to 10K program after that, just day and day out creeping up in work.  

If there is one thing I've learned and has finally started to sink in now that I'm older it's patience with myself.   Creeping up very slowly, but consistently can add up.  If you can perform just 1% better each week you'll end up 52% better at the end of the year than you were at the start.   I think that's the secret to most the really high end fit guys I've met in life, they just have an ability to be boringly relentless and consistent.  Grindset mindset.

In the weight room it's that slow steady progress as well. Whether it's using those 2 1/2 lbs change plates or just an extra rep even than your last session, progress is progress.   Abandon the ego at the door, put your headphones on and just grindset mindset week after week.  For years and years and years I heard people emphasize proper form to lifting and I never fully appreciated just how serious good form is as well.   It really helps to have experts show you and keep bringing those experts back to critique your form.  Good form will absolutley lead to better development and translate to more gains.  I know for me I hate asking anyone for help and so it took me awhile to actually swallow my pride a bit and pay a trainer to really critique me, but I'm glad that I did and still do that as it's worth the money.  Guys will spend thousands on rifles, but they wont drop a dime for fitness for some reason.

Well put.

A lot of guys will ignore back development as well and having a stronger back is going to definitely help your bench, help you avoid injury as well.  

Whatever goal keeps you motivated though, it's ultimately all about that motivation and zeal to get into the gym that's going to carry you through those days when you're tempted to just chill.

Well said. My wife has been encouraging me to go for runs. I'll do it.

I just started going every day again. What I’m lifting is pretty pathetic, but once my body gets out of “what the fuck are you trying to do to me”, mode, I’ll be fine.

Lol. Some days it still feels like that.

Unfortunately, I'm having significant right shoulder pain. I'll have to get it checked out before I loft another pound. Shit sucks, man.

I'm right there with you.

This was my first week back in a gym after 8 years. I used to me an animal but after 2 back surgeries, a torn rotator cuff, torn AC joint that wouldn't heal, and having my 1200lbs safe dropped on me after a 1300 mile move breaking 6 ribs in the process I got a wee bit lazy.

Walked in there Monday telling myself to take it easy. I have been whining like a baby the rest of the week.

I am still working on form for my "failure" rep.  I have good form every rep until that last one where I basically fail and I always seem to push my butt off the bench.  Same with 1 rep max.  Once it requires every bit of effort I have my butt leaves the bench so one rep max i do that.  Im always good on working sets until the last rep.  It's probably mental but I seem to have trouble breaking that.

I think part of it is just that my body is thinking "you must get this up at all costs" so I don't fail and have to roll the bar down my chest.  When it comes to deadlifts or squats if I feel like I can't finish the rep or my form is turning to crap I can just bail vs bench without a spotter I can't and I almost never have a spotter.

I lift without the collars.  You want to do this in an area where nothing or no one is near enough to you to get hurt if you have to dump the weight, but it is much safer if lifting without a spotter to not use the collars.

I don't use collars at my main gym on bench.  I can get out from under the bar no problem I guess its more I don't want to look like an idiot lol.  I should probably just not worry about looking stupid though.



I go to a Club 4 gym across the street from work during my lunch break if I have enough time to knock out a couple lifts and some cardio.  That way I spend less time after work at the gym.  The plates they use are so slick though you can't hardly be a few degrees off parallel or the weights slide right off.  The inside hole is like glass smooth and rounded making them slide like they are ice.  I don't ever bench there for that reason.

The idea is you don't ever actually fail on a lift, but you have that piece of mind that if for some reason you did you can dump it.  I lift at home, but if you are in a gym with other people there surely you could get someone to spot you for your heavy working sets.

I get people to spot me when I'm go heavier weight than typical occasionally otherwise I pretty well keep to myself.  It would be beneficial to grab a spotter more often for sure.  My wife spots me when she is there if I go heavy.  I'm pretty introverted but I've been going long enough to usually know someone there.  I just need to get out of my comfort zone and ask people.  I'm always happy to spot someone so im not sure why I feel like I'm putting someone out or holding them up.  I just don't talk to people much and need to get out of my comfort zone more often.

Update:

I did 225 for 3 reps yesterday.

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