"How much ya' bench?"

Going to college and working at a gym I hear that phrase all too often. How much do you bench? Who gives a shit!! Is the the real determinant of overall body strength? No, I don't think so. There are several ways to determine if someone is "strong" or not. I consider someone strong if they can run a marathon. I consider someone strong if they can bench 400 pounds. I consider someone strong if they can take a hit in football and pop right back up. I consider someone strong if they can fight the battle of cancer, and win.

As you can see there are many ways to determine if someone is strong or not. However, one of the biggest factors is your relative body strength. Your relative body strength is how strong you are for your body weight. So, ya I can bench 300lbs. However, I weigh 280pounds. So I can only bench 20pounds more then my body weight. There may be a kid who weighs 150pounds and benches 200. Is he stronger then me. Well no, but for his body weight he is stronger.

A big thing I see all to often is people busting out bench press, bicep curls, and triceps press downs all the time. Why are you benching if you can even do a push-up? Why are you doing a bicep curl if you cant do a chin-up? Why are you doing a triceps press down of you cant do a dip? Obviously there are certain circumstances where you are not able too. However, for the most part, you would rather see yourself curling 100 pounds instead of struggling to bust out 8 solid chin-ups. Very few people do body weight exercises. Yes, dont get me wrong, bodybuilding has its time, but if you cant do a dip, why are you doing a tricep pressdown. I would highly reccommend evaluating your lifts and take look at what you are doing. Why are you trying to push around extra weight if you cant even handle your own weight? Do a workout of all bodyweight exercises.

Example:

Pull-ups
Sit-ups
Prisoner Squats
Chin-ups
Sit-ups
Dips
Sit-ups
Chin-ups

I bet it will give you better fat loss and more muscle. Stick with those body weight movements before you go throwing around plates on the bench press.



Big D.