What do ya bench?

Originally posted by Jestaman
Anyone know where I can buy more weights for the bench press? I only have 180lbs of them as a B-Day gift, well, only 140, the bar weighs 40lbs which was a workout when I first started out.

Your local sporting goods store should carry them. You could always improvise as well.

I had issue with storage of freeweights so I went with a soloflex machine I found on ebay for a fraction of the retail. I have since passed the amount of weight I could add to the bar so I cut a piece of rebar and slid it through the bar which gave it more strength as well as added 8 lbs and it stickes out enough to hold several plates on each end. Its a good remedy for my lack of space and time to get to a gym 4 nights a week. I still miss the gym but its not enough of an excuse to stop training. There is always a way. I used to use concrete blocks on each end of an iron pipe


Soloflex sells extensions and their own plate weights but I'm not able to afford them...well I am but I refuse to on principle. You'd also be suprised how many people sell various plated weights in rummage and garage sales for pennies on the dollar.

P.S. Thats one hell of a bar! I thought Olympic bars only weighed 35 pounds but I'm not sure what they weigh these days.

Been going to YMCA with a couple friends to use the gym there, and the bar alone weighs 45lbs. They have good equipment there but can only go when one of my friends are able to since I don't have a membership. I am just glad I didn't burst into flames when I walked through the doors like Karl Rove did in American Dad.(I'm not exactly the good christian)

Anyways sport stores, how about Wal Mart or Kmart? Well not Kmart went there already they didn't have any, and we don't have sport stores around here. Hell the Woodville Mall is a empty building for the most part since the Skate Park failed due to to many injuries.(Worried about being sued even though they have signs that say you hurt yourself to freaking bad, in different words)

I filled some gallon mil jugs with sand and tied them to the ends to add more weight a couple time but then they atart to swing around and become unbalanced.

Astrocreep, if you want to break 400, try using the large diameter washers that fit over the bar, they provide a mere 1 lb but make all the difference when trying to break a plateu. Protein powders are good, go for stuff without aspartame, bad stuff that. Ever thought about trying creatine or glutamine? Or a fairly new product out is Meta Cell, I have had excellent results using them all, especially all at once. I take those three plus 3 protein shakes a day, arginine, EFA, lysine and free form bee pollen . As for the shoulder, my left was dislocated 8 yrs ago, still bothers me today. I tried MSM(methyl sulfonyl methane) and works when it isnt too bad, otherwise I take Lakota, both seem to do the trick in making it subside.

Vass, actually I was speaking in past tense. I was able to rig a way to add more plates and now do several reps with 410 (my best was 16 reps on a really good night but generally it its 12 to 14) . I need more weights as well to add anymore but that was my goal so I may not go any higher especially with the shoulder pain I am having. Who knows?

That may be it for me anyway. I was not able to bench at all this week for the pain which seemed worse than it did last week. I forgot to take some ibuprofen before beginning and thought I could work without it. I could not so just did triceps.

Its been a few days ago so I may try again Sunday. It seems once I get past the warm up weight I am fine but its sure hell those first couple sets until I get past the 320 mark. The last few heavier sets don't seem to give much pain at all. Must be overloading the receptors by that point.

As I have added so much to my bench in the last few years, I have also added a lot of bulk and unneeded body weight that I have now turned to dealing with so a good deal of time is now spent doing cardio which really has me splitting my 4 day per week routine into 4 days every 2 weeks and the other 10 days on cardio. My blood pressure became an issue so the weight has to come off whether I win lose or draw on the lifting. Hopefully dropping 20,pounds or so will not force my benchpress under 400. As long as I do 10 to 15 reps with it every week or so, I can't see why it would.

Astrocreep, you can efectively lower your bench weight without losing strength, go down to a weight where you pull off up to 15 reps where the last one is a struggle, then for a last set hit 400 or more for a set of 2. I sure as heck dont continually push what I am capable of. When I need to bulk up for a photoshoot or a contest or body doubling then I pull out the heavy stuff, as long as I stay at 15 rep range struggling, I can throw the 400+ up no prob., makes it easier on the injuries as well. For dropping body weight, take glutamine, it is meant for calorie reduced diets, it brings water to the muscles helping them repair and prevents your body from eating the muscle for fuel, so you can drop weight without losing muscle. I pretty much live on the stuff pre contest.
That injury you have sounds pretty bad, would surgery help? I was given the option but was told it may make it better, or could be worse, I opted for no, I can still work with it, but yours, wow, hope it gets better, never like to lose a member of the weight lifting world due to injury, means one less person people have to look to for inspiration at bettering themselves.

Thanks for the advice. Its really starting to give me somewhat of a bleak outlook. I did back and biceps this evening and the shoulder kinda bothered me through curls too. The dumb thing is I can't remember the injury. I woke one morning with my shoulder bothering me, went the whole with it not getting any better and hasn't since. It was fine when I went to bed that night.

I sure don't want sugery. Most people end up more jacked up after shoulder surgery. Tommorrow is my bench press night. Maybe I'll do higher reps with like 380 or something and lay off the 400+ until I feel it getting better.

Originally posted by astrocreep Maybe I'll do higher reps with like 380 or something and lay off the 400+ until I feel it getting better.

... I cant even do 300 pounds... lol. I have a lot of respect for you guys that train for yourselves, not to just show off to weaker guys.

Don't sweat it. 3 years ago I set my first goal at 250. Then 300 and that was the ultimate to me. I wanted that 300 more than I did the 400 to be honest. Once I reached it, then it was smaller goals like in 20 lb increments. I think the only people to have ever seen me bench is the misses who is totally not into it or interested and my brother who used to walk over and work with me some.

I think the main reason I do it is the feeling of achieving a goal after a lot of hard work. Its never een an issue to me for anyone to ever see me do it. Its a personal goal for me all the way.

Hey, thought I'd post mine. I don't really do squats and deadlifts, I do other excercises and running.

Anyway,

I'm 18
about 180 pounds
5'10

My max bench is ....I'm guessing right now somewhere around 250lbs...maybe a little higher. A few months ago I did 240, and I decided that with my body type, I didn't really need to go very much higher, meaning I don't need to stress the max anymore (though I'm still going up in weight...just slower than before). I still work out bench, but I've been stressing reps lately where I do 5 sets of 15, adding weight as I go. I start with about 135, and usually work up to around 170 for my last set. But that's doing 15 reps, so I think it's alright (With usually one "heavy" day a week) So yeah, I'm guessing my bench has gone up 10 or 20 pounds since then. I also run, swim, and do other workouts at the gym.

Oh, and I don't take anything like creatine or anything. It's all me, baby

[edit on 12-9-2005 by Herman]

Lots of tough guys out there...that's for sure.

Personally, I like to do 12 ounce curls....about 6 to 12 a day. I dead lift a case of beer about every 3 or 4 days....and I squat my own weight on the toilet pretty regular...usually every morning!

Wow...I feel bad now.

I'm 17, 170 and something pounds and a little of 5'11''.

The bad thing is, the last time I benchpressed was three years ago and maxed out at a whopping 90lbs! Last time I squatted with weights was in 7th grade and easily did 115 to 120lbs and have never done deadlifts.

I know, I know...I'm terribly weak and am one of the laziest people I know actually. I need to find a way to get myself into starting to weight lift and stuff, so any tips on how to motivate myself and how to start without embarassing myself?

Originally posted by hatchedcross
Wow...I feel bad now.

I'm 17, 170 and something pounds and a little of 5'11''.

The bad thing is, the last time I benchpressed was three years ago and maxed out at a whopping 90lbs! Last time I squatted with weights was in 7th grade and easily did 115 to 120lbs and have never done deadlifts.

I know, I know...I'm terribly weak and am one of the laziest people I know actually. I need to find a way to get myself into starting to weight lift and stuff, so any tips on how to motivate myself and how to start without embarassing myself?

Don't worry about man, you're not doing so bad. 90 pounds isn't bad for a 14 year old. All you have to do is keep at it. Don't worry about embarassing yourself. It sounds like you already have the motivation to do it, you just need to get out and....do it! You can start off slow, if that'd help. I started off doing light weight, and 5 sets of 15 reps. That really builds up a good base, and then you can start adding weight, and doing less reps if you want. I'd suggest getting a membership to a gym if you have the money. They help...a lot.

Originally posted by beyondSciFi
... I cant even do 300 pounds... lol. I have a lot of respect for you guys that train for yourselves, not to just show off to weaker guys.

For me, its been an outlet. I have had a hard time the last few years having to keep my family up and also help out others who seem to always be in need. Needless to say, its been a source of frustration at times which left me feeling like I had no control over my life or like someone was deciding how much I can have of what I earn. Granted, its not really that way but it can sure start to feel that way.

Weight training has given me an outlet where I can see gains and results of my hard work and not feel someone can take it from me. Its helped fight depression by the natural high it gives me. I think more clearly and and am able to cope with these issues. I think we all need to see a measure of success in life and thats where I get mine. It doesn't really matter how much it weighs so long as one feels a sense of accomplishment afterward. If I had not started it almost 4 years ago now, I doubt my marriage would have survived and I might not have either.

Some people dread the gym or their work-out. I look forward to mine like a junkie craves the next hit or a drunk craves the next drink.

I'm still trying to lose weight, lost about 25 since the beginning of summer so I don't do deadlifts or squats, running and eliptical are enough for my legs.

Bench max: around 240 or so
40lbs each arm on curls working out
18 yrs old, 205lbs, 6'2"


I've been working out with 205 lbs since last december and I cannot get past this weight since I work out about three times a week, I cannot figure out what is wrong with me. I did start taking Creatine this week though, and it has helped so maybe I'm finally getting past it.