Barbell Bench Press - Building Upper Body Dominance
My Bench Press Strength Rating
Strength levels for a 200lb male, age 30 · enter your details.
Demo Mode:My Bench Press Journey
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How Strong Should My Bench Press Be?
Answer: At least 225lb. But let's be more helpful than that.
The barbell bench press is the world's most popular strength exercise, and for good reason — it's the most effective way to build upper body pressing strength and muscle mass. How much you should be able to bench depends on your body weight, training experience, and goals.
If you are new to bench pressing, start with just the barbell (20kg/45lb) and focus on a controlled descent to your chest with a firm press back to lockout. Use three sets of 5 reps and add a small amount of weight each session for as long as you can.
As a general guideline, a beginner should be able to bench press their body weight. An intermediate strength milestone is a bench press of 1.25 times your body weight. An advanced lifter should be able to bench 1.5 times their body weight or more.
Logged-in users can look below for their Bench Press history chart, which is visually mapped against both bodyweight multiples and the strength level standards for their bodyweight, age, and sex.
Third Party Bench Press Articles
"How-To Bench Press: Technique, Benefits, and Muscles Worked" - Claire Zai, Barbell Medicine.
"Struggling With the Bench Press" - Jeff Nippard.
"Training for the NFL Combine bench press test" - NFL website. Normally we encourage 5 reps or less for strength. But we make this one exception - the NFL combine bench press test is a significant marker of athleticism.
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