so what does your weight training regimen look like?
325 at 18 is a LOT
Where the hell did you guys go to high school/freshman year in college?
Maybe I just hung out in a different crowd or something. I suppose, when I look back, I was running with the athletes more than most, so my perspective is slightly skewed. I benched 295 at 19 @ 190 lbs, and I was definitely at the low end of the totem pole for the athletes I knew at my weight.
On the other hand, I outsquatted the daylights out of most of them…
Merry - I worked out with the band kids. Just kidding. 
We had a few guys, five or six maybe that could press over 300, but all these guys were big like you. I, on the other hand, weighed only 147 and pressed 270. Hey, to me, that was a ton of weight. Of course, I was doing only 2 reps per set, only a couple of sets.
So even after high school and college, I still don’t see many guys pushing up 300 + lbs on the bench press. It just seems to me that if only a small portion of the population works out regularly, and only a small percentage of those can push up 250-300 on a bench, then that is pretty strong as a person. All I am saying is it takes a good amount of strength to push those weights.
Hey, do you still workout? Did you ever get past the big 300?
Nope. Never did make to the big 300. I probably could now. I filled out, and while my body weight was 190, I carried a slight bit more fat than I do now–not much, but it was that teenagey type fat. It was very hard for me to stay at 190. Normally, that was my on-season weight. Just trying to eat enough to get to 190 was a chore. When I went to CA after college, my weight was a natural 178 to 180. When I hit 23-24, I just filled out and got a lot thicker in the upper body and walk around at about 190.
Now, I could get up to a little over 200 if I worked out hard and ate a lot and concentrated on bench.
Seeing as I do a weight class sport however, I don’t particularly want to gain weight.
300 is a lot–don’t get me wrong. I think my perception was just skewed. I hung out and worked out with guys that were a lot bigger than me. I mean, throwing shot, discus and hammer at 190 lbs is being LIGHT. Way light.
FWIW, I think a 270 bench at 150 is fantastic, and I’m certainly not knocking it. I was just a little shocked at the emphasis on a lot. Now, tell me he benched 350, and I’d start thinking wow, that’s a lot.
I don’t even lift any more. I have only so many hours in a day, and there are two things more important than my strength–technique and cardio. Just through training, I at least maintain my current strength level, and I get more out of training my technique than I will out of lifting, right now. As my learning curve decreases, strength will become more important, and I will probably have to include it.
Hey thats cool info Merry.
Based on what you have said, you could get past 200 in no time I think. When I went back in January, like I said, I thought, “Oh no…back to nothing.” I was shocked that 135 was too much to push up for one rep! But, it came back steadily. I thought it would stop sooner, but just kept going up pretty fast.
I have always wished I had gone ahead and done a little more powerlifting to get to 300 just to say I did it. But I wanted to do bodybuilding stuff. I have no genetics for that and wasted a lot of hours on it. But it did keep me healthy while younger. I gotta say, it feels really great to work out again with the weights.
Take care and good luck training.
Merry,
I don’t necessarily think you would have to eat a ton etc. to get a 300lb bench at 190.
I say this because I myself have never concentrated on lifting weights, let alone bench press. This year I went on one 2-week PTP cycle and one modified “Bear” cycle for 2 weeks. At this point I had not lifted any serious weights in 5 years (my max then was 265 lbs), although I do a lot of bodyweight training and KB training. Anyway, by the end of my bear cycle my max was over 315lbs (and I probably could have gone a little heavier). FWIW, I did not eat a lot (a 2500 calories or less per day), but concentrated on three lifts during each cycle: DL, Bench and Sidepress.
Anyway, just thought I’d share…
Train hard!
KG
Kenpo guy,
I think I wasn’t clear. I was TRYING to gain weight for shot, discus and Hammer. In all these events, increased weight does two things for you:
-
It changes the axis of rotation of the system, bringing it closer to YOUR axis of rotation–this increases potential angular velocity which means increased linear velocity on release.
-
It increases momentum which, well, see above
I could definitely get stronger without gaining massive weight. I don’t have the genetics for it. I actually TRIED to get fat once, when I was on a ship. We had a contest to see who could gain the most weight. I was putting away over 6,000 calories a day for two months and gained 3 pounds.
CD Lee, to clarify, because I just reread my post–my current bench is probably in the 215-230 range. MAYBE 240 on a really good day. I meant that, weight wise, I could probably get to 200 if I wanted too.
Man, I also wish I had done powerlifting–actually, O-lifting. I’ve the got the legs for it, but my arms are probably too long, LOL.
Merry,
You sound like you have a wicked metabolism.
Insanely fast. It’s a struggle to eat enough to gain weight, when I want to. I have literally put down two large pizzas at a sitting. When I was eating to gain weight for Track, I was downing quarts of ice cream, mounds of peanut butter, eggs at breakfast, etc. It’s just really hard for me to put on weight. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not complaining. At the time, it was a pain in my ass.
Makes it easy to cut weight though. Losing 15 lbs in 3 weeks isn’t too hard for me. Ok, to be fair, it’s 10 lbs, and then I lose 4 lbs of water weight overnight. But it’s not a difficult thing for me to do and I don’t have to drastically restrict my calories to do it.
My maximum lowest bodyweight is about 174. Any lower and my performance begins to suffer. I gas easier and recovery is slow.
After 195, I start to feel a bit sluggish. Anywhere from about 180-192 or so is pretty good. I personally believe I am at optimum at 185, but that’s purely psychological. It takes little effort for me to get to 185 since I am at 189. But I have to pay attention to get to 179. Even though there is no difference in my performance, it just FEELS like less work.
Originally posted by Merryprankster
My maximum lowest bodyweight is about 174.
er.
um.
nevermind. anyhoo, what’s your competitive weight, merryp?
I have just the opposite problem. Gaining weight is no problem for me. Losing it is he!!
I know what you mean by feeling you’re at your optimal at a certain weight. My lowest (I’m female and not quite 5’4") was 120–I felt ammaciated. My highest (since I lost 55 lbs of fat) was 140 a little more than a month ago. I was beginning to feel sluggish. I feel ok now at 135. Sparring is better for me because I’m not getting hurt like I was at 120.
Just out of gay curiosity, what were you guys putting up on the squat? Actually, I just like to hear people’s stories, it helps me to get motivated. Just to be fair, I’ll give me #'s first - back when I was in college, I lifted regularly for about 15 months. At 185 pounds bodyweight and 6’1", my best BP 1rm was 260 lbs. My best squat workout was:
1 x 15 @ 135
1 x 10 @ 185
4 x 5 @ 225
1 x 10 @ 185
Caveat: I didn’t go all the way down to parallel.
I once did a triple with 245, too.
Like you guys, I’ve been out of weightlifting for a long time - about 7 years - but I’m strength training again and will get back to the weights in a few months. I’ll probably try the Smolov squat routine or something.
Generally, I compete wherever I’m at, but never above 189. The weight classes usually get bigger–15-20 lbs differences, vice 9 or 10, so why bother if all it takes is watching my water intake for one day?
Robin–good luck maintaining–that’s the hard part!
In answer to the next question, I’m going to get a lot of “bull****s” on this, but my best squat ever, at 190 was 540, standard squat form, just past parallel then up.
Keep in mind I was training for throwing and wasn’t just lifting like a normal in shape guy. I was training balls out triples, doubles and singles and explosive partials, including O-lifts, plyos and sprints. You haven’t lived till you’ve fallen down the stairs because your legs just give. I doubt I could’ve done half that weight more than 10 times though, LOL. Curse of low rep, explosive training. Your endurance gets shot.
I would never do that again, I don’t think. It’s not worth it to me. Right now, I could do 315. But that’s it. I’m assuming I haven’t lost anything on my old “normal.”
540 for power is **** good. That shot put must have flown.
When I was working squat, I got up to 185 for 3X6. I’m working now on endurance–holding 100 for 4 sets of 18 seconds right now–working up to at least a minute for 4 sets. I find that my legs last a lot longer now in kung fu. The strength training worked great to get me into the low stances required by my style. Now, with the switched training, I’m starting to be able to hold those stances longer and can move through them rather than coming up and going into the next stance.
This resistance training thing has me all kinds of fascinated.
Merry,
Maintaining is a b!tch, but worth it. I don’t know if I can get down to 130 and still maintain and build my strength and muscular endurance. I noticed as soon as I increased the volume of my resistance training, my personal weight increased. I don’t want to lose strength.
just went to doctor yesterday for first time in eons. bugger spotted me at about 180 – ten pounds lighter than the last time i was weighed on a good scale, and i know that i’ve added a bit of muscle in my legs (thanks to sevenstar for the intro to good mornings :p). for reference, i’m 5’9".
i’m estimating that i’ve lost about 15 lbs. of flub and gained five in legness. i’d like to repeat this again and get down to 170-175 right now, while adding a little bit more to my legs and chest. if i keep running, shouldn’t be that hard. i’m just happy that i’m closer to my number goals than i thought i was.
merry,
since no one else has said it, i will.
BULL****!
there, i feel better now. not that i don’t believe you, i just didn’t want you to feel slighted by it not being said.
Merry, your a stud dude. Enough said.
I hate the squat with zeal. I once, built up to squat one rep parallel with 300, for no other reason than Boyer Coe the bodybuilder in the 80’s said he did it at age 16. That sounded like a lot to me so I did it. I always kept the bar high on my traps, and it felt like it would slice throught my body. Hated it totally.
I don’t squat at all these days. I just do the deadlift, and have been totally surprised at the leg workout you get. My thighs are parallel at the start of a deadlift, so my legs are hit big time after the two sets are done. I had no idea DL would have worked my thighs like that before or I would have done them a long time ago.
BTW, I am 5’9, 200 lbs. My fighting weight for a real sport fight is probably 155-160. I only say this because when I ran 10K races, I raced at 157. That was 8 years ago. I don’t sport fight, but I should weight optimally for health more like 170.
LOL at me being a stud! I’ve always just had strong legs. It’s not nearly matched by my upper body strength–my upper back strength, in particular, is lousy. I’ve never been able to do more than 9 pull ups. And that took me ages!!!
I LOVE deads. Great exercise.
I want to make it clear that I am nowhere NEAR that strong anymore, and the amount of time and effort that I had to invest to get that way is far beyond anything that I would undertake right now, and possibly ever again. Ugh.
Still though, we had a yahoo (with terrible explosiveness, but incredible limit strength) who put up 315 on the incline bench as his beginning level. Just sick. A guy like that, who outweighed me by 30 lbs and was that much stronger should have been able to outthrow me in the shot by an assload. As it was, he could only manage to beat my best by about 6 ft. Certainly a significant difference, but not nearly on par with our differences in weight and strength. Bottom line–he was strong, but not explosive. He could only move 20 lbs more in the clean and jerk than I could.
Something to think about…