Is a 405 bench possible without any benching?
Looking back I got myself to a 315 bench by weighing over 200lbs and doing lots of pushups. While my benching wasn’t ZERO, I know I could’ve got to this level without the specific work. Other than t-rex length arms I did everything “wrong”, including benching 315 cold soon after first hitting 3 plates.
(315 cold…by powerlifting reasoning I should be good for 405 right now.)
Lots of vanilla pushups for years, and a large amount even with very little range of motion.
Somewhere online Glenn Pendlay talks of his CalStrength lifters having a bench off and stopping them once a bunch were in the 405-455 range…weights they can jerk.
I personally found that increasing my 225 jerk for reps led to my 225 bench for reps improving.
I’m coming to believe anything you can jerk you can bench.
My getting to 315 on the bench without really benching likely means I could improve my bench by getting stronger on variations of the pushup that I’m not strong at.
I can count on one hand how many times I’ve done weighted pushups, I may have roughly a decade of daily pushups, but it’s 99.99999% vanilla (including the phase of super short reps).
The last few days for example I’ve been doing a sorta “pike” press up, and making it very tricep heavy after having done some regular reps.
I know from experience that 1 arm pushups do carry over. If I get up to 20 a hand again my bench would increase. (I’m not sure how I’d add weight to these.)
I also lift my barbell in the yard. All the overhead work will carryover.
It’s possible that my military press equals roughly ⅔ of my bench, so
405x.66=267
Bringing my press from the low 200s to the high 200s may get me there.
I know I will power clean and jerk 405 at some point. My clean needs work, but anything I can shoulder I can put to arms length overhead. Getting to the jerk via continental may be a way for me personally to bench heavier.
Lord knows I have the build to bench 405 already, even if I’ve yet to do it, and lack the equipment.
I’m a big strong guy, and I have a bunch of tools at my disposal.
Physical strength isn’t all that hard to attain. In fact it’s a natural thing to possess.
Work hard with what you have and you’ll get stronger.
I say yes, a 405 bench is attainable without any benching. Overhead work, and pushup variations will get me there.
-J
Persistence & Tenacity