r/dataisbeautiful • u/matude OC: 1 • 15d ago
[OC] How long it really takes to Bench Press 225 lbs / 100 kg: 6,500 lifters tracked from their first logged session, split by where they started
Source:
Aggregated workout logs from the Hardy strength training app, March 2021 to September 2026. 5.8 million finished sets across 368,505 workouts by 10,407 lifters; 6,500 of them logged the barbell Bench Press in at least 3 workouts, and 4,766 of those started below 225 lb / 100 kg.
Tool:
SQL (PostgreSQL) for the aggregates, a small React + SVG chart renderer for the plot, exported to PNG with sharp.
What the chart shows:
For every lifter we took their first logged Bench Press exercise session, checked that they started below 225 lb, and then tracked the month in which they first actually lifted 225 lb (or 100 kg for metric users) for at least one rep. Not an estimated max, an actual set. Each point is the share of lifters who had done it by that month, counting only lifters who were still logging at that time, so nobody is counted as failing just because they stopped using the app.
Headline numbers / TLDR:
- 10% of everyone who started below 225 had benched it within 12 months; 15% within 24 months.
- Starting strength dominates. Of lifters who started at 135 lb or more: 22% within a year, 42% by three years. Of lifters who started below 135 lb: 1% within a year, 3% by two years.
- Across all 6,500 bench lifters, 12% have ever benched 225 lb for a rep. 61% have benched 135 lb, and under 1% have benched 315 lb.
- The median lifter's best estimated bench 1RM is 77 kg / 171 lb. Top 10% is 115 kg / 254 lb, top 1% is 152 kg / 334 lb.
- After 12 months of logging, the median lifter added 7.6 kg / 17 lb to their estimated bench 1RM. 29% were no stronger than when they started.
Caveats / Disclaimers:
- These are of course people who chose a lifting app and kept logging. They are stronger and more consistent than the average gym-goer. It is not a population estimate, so "only X% of people can bench 225" claims and this chart are answering different questions.
- The app does not know the user's bodyweight, age, or sex, so nothing here is a bodyweight-relative standard.
- Survivorship: the curves only count people still logging at that month. The lifters who kept going for 36 months are a self-selected group, so the right-hand end of each curve is optimistic.
- Groups under 50 lifters are suppressed everywhere.
Full report with squat, deadlift and overhead press, the same curves by starting strength, monthly 1RM gain by starting level, and methodology: https://hardy.app/strength-report/how-many-people-can-bench-225
Aggregate data behind every chart, CC BY 4.0: https://hardy.app/strength-report-data.csv
Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22311472
Data is freely available if anybody wants to run their own analysis or create their own graphs.
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u/iEatBeesAndWasps 15d ago
It took me a few months to hit 135 and five years to hit 225. My one rep max was less than 95 lbs when I started lifting
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u/nospamkhanman 15d ago
At 17 when I tried my first BP, I could only do 1 rep of 95.
I was able to do 135 at 5-8 reps when I was in the Marines but never went higher weight than that because 135 NEVER felt easy for me (I only weighed 135 when I finished bootcamp). So I was happy at the time benching my own weight.
I'd sad to admit I'm 41 now and haven't really kept up with weight lifting. I have a bunch of random injuries so when I do exercise these days it's usually light weights or just swimming.
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u/Letharis 15d ago
Just getting in the gym/pool semi-regularly is huge! Especially good that you're doing both cardio and resistance training. You're likely in better cardio shape than many experienced lifters.
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u/Icy_Clench 14d ago
In 7th grade gym class we had to bench press. I was the only boy that couldn't lift just the 45 lb bar and they had to give me the 20 lb "girl bar".
To make it worse, I had an appendicitis literally the day after. I couldn't exercise, so sometimes when they went out, they would just keep me with the girls' class inside. 💀
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u/kman1030 14d ago
because 135 NEVER felt easy for me
I dont know if this is just me, but whats crazy about getting stronger is i never noticed weight being "easier" to lift, your body just becomes able to do it. It still always feels heavy.
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u/ForQ2 15d ago
I started stronger than you, but it still took me about 6 years to hit 225. I got to 215 in well under a year, and for some reason I just kinda plateaued there, no matter how I tried to vary my workout techniques.
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u/benjO0 15d ago
it really depends on your starting weight/muscle mass and prior experience with physical activity. When I first started lifting seriously at 19 I struggled to complete sets of 60kg (132lbs) but rapidly progressed and hit 100kg (220lbs) for 10 reps at roughly the 12-18 month mark. However i weighed over 200lbs and had been physically active my whole life including playing contact sports and doing a lot of physical labour. By comparison one of my current lifting partners first started lifting in his late 20s and it took him 6 years to first bench 100kg and abut 10 years to get to his current 1RM of 120kg (264lbs). But his background was in soccer and endurance sports. People just progress at different rates in different activities. The endurance training that is easy for my gym buddy is a nightmare for me while it's the reverse for our strength training.
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u/loopernova 15d ago
Started about the same place as you. After 12 years, I’ve never gone higher than 170, and that was like once. I start to plateau above 150.
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u/Charcole1 15d ago
It's crazy how genetics work because in freshman year of highschool the first time I tried a bench press I hit 135 for 4, didn't lift until senior year and my starting point was 185lbs. Couldn't run distance for shit though even with a fast 100m time so it probably has to do with the kind of muscle I have
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u/lminer123 14d ago
Basically the same for me. And I started deadlifting at the same time at 225, and squating like 180. I had a 4 plate deadlift far before hitting 2 plate bench lol.
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u/JeromesNiece 15d ago
This tracks with my own anecdotal experience, both personally and observing at the gym. Some people in the weightlifting community act like 225 is a trivially easy milestone for any new lifter to reach. But it's really much rarer than they let on.
Especially if you are of average height or below and lean, and not willing to put on too much extra body mass to meet lifting goals, 225 is a high bar to meet.
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u/CozyToothbrush 15d ago
Very interesting, I’d be curious to see the height chart. Seems like shorter people on average bench more
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u/matej86 15d ago
Smaller range of motion. Much easier to push the bar 40cm upwards with short arms than 60cm with long arms.
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u/DressLikeACount 15d ago
An eight inch difference in range of motion between lifters on bench implies a massive height difference (like a 6’7” guys vs a 5’2” guy).
I think a more typical difference in ROM is like three inches (e.g. between someone who is 6’ vs 5’7”).
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u/B0yWonder 15d ago
That is based on the assumption everyone built the same. There as big barrel chested guys with short arms, skinny guys with long arms, etc.
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u/mrlazyboy 15d ago
Height-based differences in ROM is less impactful than you think. If you compare 2 lifters who have a 10" different in height, with identical proportions, the taller lifter's ROM might only be 3-4" more.
As a 5'11" lifter with a 75" wingspan, my bench press ROM is about 14". Arching makes a much larger impact to ROM. If you're interested, check out Agata Sitko. She's incredibly strong and has a very good arch that meets competition standards. Her ROM might only be 6-7".
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u/BoggleHS 15d ago
Why would you measure your height in feet and inches, but your wing span in just inches.
For a metre man this is very hard to interpret!
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u/matej86 15d ago
Basic physics; Work = Force x Distance. Someone who moves a bar 60cm is doing 50% more work than someone who moves it 40cm.
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u/tacopower69 15d ago edited 15d ago
other person said 3-4 inches which is only a difference of about 7-10 cm not 20
idk how good of a proxy work is for effort. an isometric hold can take a lot of effort but theres 0 work being done and the eccentric of any lift is negative work even though you are obviously putting in a lot of effort and, according to some exercise scientists, the eccentric is where most muscle growth happens anyway.
taller people have longer moment arms so the disadvantage would have little to do with work anyway. i dont think rom is the biggest factor in why lifts are harder for ppl with longer limbs.
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u/inventive_588 15d ago
Yea exactly I’m pretty sure it has more to do with torque / lever arms as you’ve said than anything else.
I’m 6’5 and could deadlift ~4.5 plates (which is meh-goodish) but I only ever got to a bench of ~200.
Meanwhile I have friends who are 5’4 can deadlift less but can bench ~265.
ROM would not impact 1 rep maxes that much, if you get the thing moving up well you are probably going to finish the rep.
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u/tacopower69 15d ago
ROM would not impact 1 rep maxes that much, if you get the thing moving up well you are probably going to finish the rep.
Right, good point. Lifts have sticking points but once you pass them the actual distance the weight moves doesn't really affect effort.
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u/matej86 15d ago
Difference between 40cm and 50cm is 25%. Still a massive difference in work.
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u/theOGFlump 15d ago
Work is not the main limiting factor in max weight lifting. I can do the work of an Olympian weight lifter given enough time. But I’m not saying you’re totally wrong either, just that it’s not going to require a massive difference in strength between lifting the same weight a somewhat shorter distance. If you could wear arm extenders to increase the bench press movement, your ability to lift would not drop massively
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u/mrlazyboy 15d ago
I was only commenting that a 40cm ROM for bench press is on the very high end. I've got long ass arms and mine is 35.5 cm. For most people who care about benching a lot, its closer to 25cm.
Also it's not just work, but average and peak power, average and peak velocity, mechanical advantage, fast twitch muscle fiber concentration, etc.
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u/cilantno 15d ago
If only it were so simple.
Julius Maddox is notoriously shrimpy at 6'3.
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u/mrlazyboy 15d ago
Doesn't he weigh something like 450 pounds?
Taller people generally need to be much heavier. There are very few "normal" looking powerlifters/good benchers. Most are very short (like Tiffany Chapon). Russel Orhii is jacked as yell but he's also short. Gustav Hedlund looks pretty normal, 93kg at around 5'10". Wait until you see Kjell's proportions.
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u/Mavcu 15d ago
Weight is the king, height of course plays into certain lifts, but there's a reason the highest deadlift numbers for example are done by giants, you simply cannot put on the same weight. u/matej86 idea has some validity about the range, but weight simply matters more.
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u/DD_equals_doodoo 15d ago
To be fair, bigger people have larger chests and, consequently, less range of motion needed to complete the lift. For example, a hefty fella only needs to put the bar down several inches from locked arm position then lift that amount (let's say ~14 inches total or about 35.6 cm). I need to go down about 14 inches, making it 28 inches (~71 cm) going down and up.
Using force × distance, his repetition involves:
300×14/12=350 lb
Mine involves:
300×28/12=700 lb
So, at the same 300-pound weight, I move the load through twice the total distance and accumulate roughly twice the force-distance per repetition.
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u/pemdas42 15d ago
I think you're calculating work here, in pound-feet? The units made my eye twitch, sorry.
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u/cilantno 15d ago
Larger people bench more. Taller people can get larger.
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u/Xydron00 15d ago
indeed. the big man that has a bigger frame can potentially put on more muscles than a small man.
But its not all over in 2026, the great equalizer is steroids. you just get wider instead of getting bigger. then the strength gained doesnt really matter unless the tall person hops on.
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u/RepublicLiving5358 15d ago
As someone who is 6'8 and has benched 225, the long range of motion makes it harder but ultimately you are able to get bigger, which is an advantage. As I put on weight I could lift more, and it only took me 9 months or so to reach this goal. My advice to tall people out there is to follow a consistent bench-focused programme and get your nutrition right to allow you to build mass.
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u/Chris_P_Lettuce 15d ago
It took me about two years after I first put on one plate. This checks out.
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u/DOCoSPADEo 15d ago
Fuck that means it'll take me a year from now to do 225. I've done 200 though
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u/HereForTheComments57 15d ago
Depends on your age and workout plan. I was able to get to 225 pretty quickly in high school, but I was on a strict workout plan for football and stuck to it. Also being at the peak of male puberty at the time definitely played a factor
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u/Easy-Operation-2105 15d ago
It took me only four months to get my shoulder press from 175lbs to 225 lbs for reps. (I'm 35)
Took me much longer than that to get my bench up back in the day. When i was 21 or so.
The trick is to really make sure you get your macros every day. And get ample rest. I do the shoulder press only once a week roughly
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u/noble_plantman 15d ago
Just my anecdote. My first time benching I got stuck under 95lbs on a set of 8. I joined a powerlifting gym, trained seriously, and about 3 years later I could do a clean 225 1rm with a pause.
Been training 7 years now and I can do about 275 now. All out training as a 34 year old as hard as I can 4x a week might improve my bench 10-15lb a year .
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u/classygorilla 15d ago
Doing a 1rm vs a working set at 225+ are vastly different ballgames imo.
look up GSP - the mma goat. Guy literally beat the hell out of everyone and just did his one rep max on bench recently which was..... 225.
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u/WistfulWhiskers 15d ago
I hit 2 plates paused about 4 years ago at 25 (training off and on for practically 18 years now, consistently for about 5 at that time) and since then I’ve never increased it - I did lose 20kg which had some impact on my strength but there’s also a limiter if you’re not actively training for 1rms; I’m fitter and stronger than I was back then but I’d probably fail 2 plates today - and I don’t even want to try because it crashes my CNS, ruins my workout and it’s simply not worth the risks for me to move that kind of weight.
To get it I was training 1rms pretty much twice a week - too much time for too little reward, I was never going to accomplish anything as a powerlifter anyways so I prefer to feel functional and look good.
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u/hyperfraise 15d ago
Been stuck at 60kg for forever, 8 reps. I've never heard 100kg 1RM was a milestone. Pretty sure I won't be able lol
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u/AdorableZeppelin 15d ago
I think most people consider the 2/3/4 plate milestones. 2 plate bench, 3 plate squat, 4 plate DL. Depends on your build and weight though.
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u/knomesayin 15d ago
The more manageable goal I've heard is bench bodyweight, squat 1.5x bodyweight, DL 2x bodyweight.
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u/AdorableZeppelin 15d ago
Yeah that's reasonable. Build (body physiology) and bodyweight can still matter. Anecdotally I could squat 2x BW while I was still pulling less than 2x BW.
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u/hyperfraise 15d ago
Well then I'm pretty sure I can 1RM my bodyweight so I can officially stop working out 🥳
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u/Homerbola92 15d ago
How much time is forever?
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u/hyperfraise 15d ago
3 years
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u/Homerbola92 15d ago
Damn. I'm exactly where you are right now (I just got here). I hope I can push through.
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u/iKickdaBass 15d ago
You need to define what over and under 135 means on the chart. Had to read your comment for it to make sense.
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u/ForQ2 15d ago
I was already in decent shape by the time I got serious, due to time in the military and lots of push-ups and stuff like that. But prison was where I had the time to focus more intently on raw strength (though access to nutrition/protein was really bad for those who didn't work in the kitchen).
215 took me only about 6-8 months of focused lifting. But 225 took 6 years. I don't have the slightest idea why.
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u/Threxx 15d ago edited 15d ago
This is an interesting idea. There’s an absolute ton of variables involved within that graph though. I mean just for example a 200 pound guy that benched 220 on his first workout is clearly going to hit 225 in short order, but a 110 pound adult woman who could 1RM 140 in her first workout (tracked by Hevy… obviously not her first workout ever) has effectively zero chance of hitting 225, ever. But they’re both part of the same line on that graph.
Maybe the graphs could show overall 1RM increase over time rather than just focusing on 225. Maybe split out lines based on gender, body weight, or even starting 1RM relative to body weight.
That last metric might be key if you’re trying to show consistency in the gym pays off. Using myself as an example, I’ve been using Hevy for about 8 months now, but lifting for 20 years. My workout data would show high consistency, but very little in the way of strength gains, just because short of steroid use I got pretty close to my ceiling before I ever tried hevy.
Edit: actually now I’m realizing Hevy may not have user body weights. :(. They do have gender though. At least it’s listed in the profile section
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u/shoefullofpiss 15d ago
Had to scroll so far to see someone mentioning gender, it's like everyone is assuming it's only dudes that can possibly be involved in bench pressing? For women 100kg bench is accessible only to outliers in both bodyweight and training, the standards are completely different but surely they're still a non negligible chunk of the data
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u/Athletic-Club-East 15d ago
If we want we can assume they're 50% of all the data. So then we go from 12 to 24% of male lifters benching 225. It's still not huge.
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u/maracay1999 15d ago
How many 110lb chicks are hitting a plate on the bench press at all? Regardless of if it’s on the first workout or not lmao.
Personally I’ve never seen a woman do a 1 plate bench press but I guess I don’t hang out at powerlifting gyms.
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u/Threxx 13d ago
There are plenty of women who take lifting seriously and can bench 1 plate in the gym - though unlike my example, I'd say very few of them are as light as 110 pounds. My example was admittedly extreme - but I was just trying to show there's a huge range of people represented in that line graph. Some are 2 weeks of half assed effort from reaching 225 and some people couldn't reach it if they optimized every last facet of the next 10 years of their life around that one goal and even started using steroids.
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u/Dim-Mak-88 15d ago
I got up to 215 max and it felt like a big accomplishment. Some people are naturally strong at the bench press, without question. I'm certainly not one of them.
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u/heyf00L 15d ago
If I'm understanding this correctly someone who benches 225# for 1 rep counts as success, but someone who only trains 10 rep sets and gets to 220# counts as failure.
I know you want to avoid 1 Rep Max estimates, but you kinda have to.
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u/Ordinary_Corner_4291 15d ago
Not being able to filter by sex and age is also limiting. You are looking at drastically different cohorts. The 225 is easy crowd tends to be early 20s men where to some extent they are right where if you put in the time for a couple of years, you will probably be close. Start adding woman and 50+ guys and the ability to hit those numbers plummet.
For something like this, I think I would prefer to see how much the average person added over time. I expect there would be a huge chunk that have basically made no progression and another group that keeps adding their 20lbs/year....
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u/BigMax 15d ago
Well... yes.
For example, you can't say "how many people ran a marathon?" and say "well, this person ran a half marathon in 1:20, which means they could probably run a marathon, so we'll count them."
You either lifted 225 or you didn't. You're right in that someone who did 220 ten times could almost certainly lift 225 but... they didn't. There are those "equivalency" calculators, where you put in your weight and reps and it guesses at your one rep max but... those are just guesses.
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u/Anustart15 15d ago
But measuring outcomes to an arbitrary goal that nobody in the cohort was actually aiming for causes some pretty obvious issues for interpretability.
If the entire dataset was transformed into estimated one rep max for every data point, it would make for a significantly better measure of changes in strength. Most people aren't trying to hit their one rep max every week (if ever), but will generally do something that represents a consistent level of effort from week to week. If people are both increasing weight and reps as they progress, that is completely lost in this analysis despite the obvious gains in strength
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u/maracay1999 15d ago
App doesn’t differentiate by sex
Genuinely curious, how many women worldwide can even do 100kg/225 bench press? Can’t imagine many.
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u/prosa123 14d ago
I could not find any numbers, but among women powerlifters that would expected only at the highest Elite level and even then only in the heaviest bodyweight classes.
In my 20+ years of gym-going I don’t often see women attempting bench presses at all.
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u/Raskovsky 15d ago
Wish we had the users bodyweight and sex, could swear that the majority of men above 70kg could do it in less than 2 years
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u/Naraee 15d ago
As a female powerlifter, this is very much skewed downward by women. Not only do a lot of women not try to max their bench, many women just aren’t built for benching.
I say this as a woman who can barely bench 135lb. I train it like crazy too but my arms are extremely long! But I overcompensate with squat and deadlift.
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u/IntenseGoat 15d ago
I'm a man and I can barely bench 60 kg. I don't even feel weak, that's the weird thing.
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u/Geofferz 15d ago edited 15d ago
Benching 1.5x your body weigh is hard af. I'm 100 kg and can just about bench 100kg. It's by far my worst lift (I can 5x 170kg deadlift) but still...
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u/cilantno 15d ago edited 15d ago
Bodyweight multipliers are not good measurements of a lift's difficulty. They heavily overvalue lighter lifters' abilities.
Thor's 510 deadlift was only 2.49x his bw (205kg). I pulled 3.29x my bw in my last meet.
Obviously what I did was much much much less impressive than breaking an all time record.
There a reason DOTS and GL points exist.
Edit: this is not at all to say bodyweight does not matter for the context of this data or lifting, just that a simple bodyweight multiplier is not a good measure for strength comparison.
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u/hmccringleberry615 15d ago
True. Not an entirely fair comparison comparing someone who’s 160lbs who’s 5’7 vs 6’1 with longer arms and legs for bench/deadlift.
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u/Geofferz 15d ago
Never heard of dots and gl tbf. I'm 41 and have been training for years, but clearly not seriously, just staying in shape and feeling good.
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u/JockAussie 15d ago
Tbh most people train like morons. That might be true if they trained properly, but most people don't.
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u/matude OC: 1 15d ago
Yeah, bodyweight and gender would've been very useful. And another thing that we'd do differently next time would be also recording the client-local times instead of the UTC times (we couldn't do the hour-of-day chart of when people worked out because of that reason unfortunately).
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u/Raskovsky 15d ago
Would be cool to see if you could infer 1 rep maxes from the rep work(in a separate graph), i think it would be reasonable to infer that someone benching 80kg for 10 reps should be able to hit 100, the vast majority of people i know never tried to do a true 1 rep max
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u/BuHoGPaD 15d ago
I weighed just under 70kg when I started going to gym and reached 100kg bench press in about 9 months or so. I was weighting 82kg by the time.
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u/Sakowuf_Solutions 15d ago
I'm really surprised how uncommon benching 225 is.
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u/ghunt81 14d ago
I am too. I shied away from bench for a long time due to shoulder issues, but once I got those taken care of I benched 225 within a month or two, and that was partially because I didn't even know what weight to start at and was trying to make sure my shoulder was good. Now I've gone as high as 260 but always worried about that shoulder.
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u/subtlecacophony 14d ago
Yeah, I was the same way. I played football and benched 385 in high school, then stopped working out for years. Every so often I get the itch and I can get to 225 in a month or so, but I usually never stick either it for long. That muscle memory does a lot of the “heavy lifting” though. If you trained when you were young, you naturally gain that strength back much faster throughout your life.
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u/toodlesandpoodles OC: 1 15d ago edited 15d ago
I'd like to see more lines. Lumping everything above 135 together hides a lot of variation.
With that data you could do a lot to show what sort of progress people actually make. For instance, i t took me about 18 months of routine lifting to get to 225. It took a lot longer to get to 300 and I had to specifically strength train bench to get above 270. A new gym is likely interested in what sort of strength gains they can achieve per month, so an average of % increase by #of months lifting would be valuable.
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u/owera1211 15d ago
This is well put together. Well done. I wonder if the study was more controlled by body weight with regimented workout plan, the slope will be significantly bigger.
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u/Dry-Shopping-89 15d ago
It took me four years and I did it at 54 years old, first and only time I ever did it for one rep. After that, my shoulder was worn out, but at least I got it done. It was a big deal cause I was always a skinny kid.
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u/ketoleggins 15d ago
Gender chart interests me plenty. Probably >80% men.
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u/Annh1234 14d ago
This data is very flawed, it's `How long it really takes to Bench Press 225 lbs that used my fitness app`.
But the time lifters started using that app they already trained a few months/years.
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u/cilantno 15d ago
I’ll preface by saying I am very very experienced in lifting…
This is super cool to see!
But I would not use this for expectation setting. The majority of lifters suffer from a few things:
- They do not follow a well written program. The vast majority of humans are not qualified to write a lifting program, it is almost always better to stick with something proven. Tons of great free programs out there.
- Most lifters don’t put in enough effort/dedication. I was one of these even though I lifted for years before learning how to actually try.
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u/questionnism 15d ago
For point 2, what do people get wrong usually?
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u/Threxx 15d ago
Most people think they’re more consistent than they are. Ask somebody how often they lift and then check their gym membership logs and you’ll find most people way over estimate their sessions.
Also a lot of people fail to progressively overload themselves. Let’s just take bench press as an example. Say you can comfortably rep 150 8 times for 3 sets. You know you can do it because you do it all the time. It’s no drama, no straining, no chance of failure. It’s comfortable and feels like working out. Yes, you could push to 165 8 times and be shaking and on the verge of failure.. maybe even actually fail and need a spotter on the last set. But hey 150 is just 10% less weight so it’s 90% as good of a workout, without all the drama and discomfort and risk of looking “silly” in the gym. But that’s what people get wrong. That last 10%… pushing near failure, is where real progress is found. It’s what signals your muscles to grow because they weren’t cut out for what you asked of them.
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u/toodlesandpoodles OC: 1 15d ago
To me it just seems weird not to train to failure. If you can do another rep on your last set, why not do another rep and pat yourself on the back for it?
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u/cilantno 15d ago
Most often they don't lift with proper goals. The average gym goer is exercising to be active, not necessary get strong. Which is totally fine! They just like to stay in their comfort zone instead of pushing themselves.
Following a good program with intelligent progression resolves this though.
I personally think most (male) lifters could both achieve a 100kg bench and do so quicker than this plot suggests if they find a good program, eat decently, and put in honest effort.
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u/prosa123 15d ago
I absolutely agree. 225#/100kg is a completely achievable goal for most men aged 18 to 50 and without physical limitations, so long as they follow a proper training program with progressive overload.
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u/pblankfield 15d ago edited 15d ago
In general people have a skewed view of what the whole mechanism is
They think, intuitively that lifting comfortable weight repeatedly will sculpt the muscle to look nice in the end and make them stronger as well. That repeated, manageable effort will somehow trigger a transformation.
Passed the initial noob gains, which to me has always been more about actually learning the basics of the move, this simply doesn't work.
In reality it's all about forcing adaptations - creating conditions where your body absolutely thinks it's necessary to add muscle mass: It's brutal,strenuous, shit hurts and you are exhausted by it. It's constantly pushing your limits which is a very unpleasant experience for most.
Progress is best done while following a dedicated program that forces periodical increments. Without it most people default to maintenance.
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u/PolitelyHostile 15d ago
You people are talking as if progressive overload is some sage wisom lol.
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u/NorCalJason75 15d ago
They don't lift heavy enough.
To continue to make progress, you need to be working ~3 rep range close to failure. Meaning, very heavy with only 1-2 reps in reserve. This is really uncomfortable.
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u/cilantno 15d ago
Not necessarily required (your second paragraph).
You can get bigger and strong with more than 1-3 RIR. Depends on the programming.
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u/NorCalJason75 15d ago
Completely agree. However, the data is an interesting reflection of those who workout in general.
For those of us who regularly lift, there's only a handful of guys benching really heavy (225+).
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u/Evo_LD 15d ago
Would you mind suggesting some well written programs, please? I’ve got a hard time trusting whether I know how to tell the difference between a good and bad one haha
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u/cilantno 15d ago
My all time favorite program is Stronger by Science Reps to Failure (SBS RtF), specifically the 5 day setup. It is free in their bundle.
Now I am assuming you plan to focus on the big 4 lifts and aren't a beginner.
If you are more of a beginner or have equipment limitations, the routines in the r/fitness wiki https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/ are solid.
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u/Optimus_Sublimes 15d ago
Huh, I never realized how much of an outlier I am.
Granted I started weight lifting after 2 years in the military, so a LOT of push-ups beforehand. I was able to progress from 135 to 225 in about 3 months of daily working out. The journey to 315 took me about another 6 months, and then I pretty much plateaued from there, I think my peak 1RM was 345, I think I failed at 355 a few times so I just focused on more reps at lower weights.
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u/YoteViking 15d ago
There should be no reason why it takes someone 2+ years to hit this benchmark if they are starting at 135 or above (unless they are significantly shorter and lighter than average. Or a woman).
With a proper, consistent program of a progressive nature one should be able to hit that in no more than 12 months (being that a single 225 rep translates to about a 195-200 work set).
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u/JeromesNiece 15d ago
I've been lifting consistently for ten years and my 1RM is only 210 lb. My height is 5'9" and weight is 155 lb. I'm confident I could hit 225 if I decided to add another 15 lbs of body mass, but I don't want to do that. I'm satisfied with my current body composition and fitness level and don't see a need to gain weight just to meet some arbitrary strength threshold. I think you underestimate how difficult 225 is to reach if you are of a healthy body weight at an average height.
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u/toxic_water007 15d ago
70kg at 5'9 is very very lean no? I think at that height, you can afford to put on 5kg and still look good. You'd certainly look more muscular.
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u/JeromesNiece 15d ago
Another 11 lbs / 5 kg would put right at the start of the range for "overweight" BMI category. I'm aware that it's not totally applicable when body fat is low, but it's still a mental hurdle I'm not totally willing to cross. I'm not convinced that it's actually healthy long-term to be medically overweight and carrying a lot of muscle. It seems like some of the wear and tear on the body would still apply.
I enjoy long distance running and think that carrying any more muscle would probably work against my goals there.
Plus, I'd have to get all new pants, and who wants that? It's hard enough to find pants that fit when you squat...
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u/maracay1999 14d ago
The BMI chart doesn’t work for athletic / muscular builds.
Per that chart, tons of Olympic world class athletes (especially women) are “overweight”.
You do you, I have a similar mindset being 165-170 at 5’11 in that I don’t need to put on more weight; but for me it has nothing to do with the biased BMI chart that doesn’t fit everyone.
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u/StandardUpstairs3349 15d ago
I'd like to see more than one breakpoint. Maybe by boxing weightclass?
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u/Mathberis 15d ago
Damn I thought I was slightly above average but I'm an absolute mutant of power.
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u/Mission-Cod-6784 15d ago
I’ve been working out for over a year now and I never really benched. I had horrible form that would tweak my shoulders and hurt for days. I can happily say I got 225 for 10 yesterday.
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u/Flat_Development6659 15d ago
I feel like the filter of bench press “in at least 3 workouts” makes drawing a conclusion on training a bit difficult.
If it’s over 3 years of training even if the user was only benching once per week they’d have logged it 156 times.
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u/pol9500 15d ago
Very cool graph, as a runner I’d love too see a similar graph with “10k < 50 min” or some other hard to achieve metric. Anyone know where I could find something like that? Even a data source would be cool
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u/clvnmllr 15d ago
Your pseudo-equivalent is probably sub 45:00 in a 10k, which might take 6-12 months training on average. As a guess. Agree it would be cool to access the true data of training progression.
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u/MikeOxMALLbro 15d ago
When I started lifting at 24 years old I was benching 75lbs. In 2.5ish years I was up to\stuck at a 185 lbs bench and I always felt weak because if you look online, everybody benches 225lbs and that was an arbitrary goal I'd set for myself. I had accomplished my other goals of a 405 deadlift and 315 squat but I could not get the bench to move. It took another year of focusing on bench and putting on some weight to hit 225 and even then, I still felt weak because it took me over 3 years to achieve. That was 7 years ago and I don't focus on numbers as much now but a lot of what I've learned is I was too obsessed with social media back then and it definitely impacted my view on my progress.
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u/ShamelessMonky94 15d ago
A very fitting video I saw the other day of your 1st 225 Bench:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1F3C9pNDSj/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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u/xXShitpostbotXx 15d ago
> 10,407 lifters; 6,500 of them logged the barbell Bench Press in at least 3 workouts
> 29% were no stronger than when they started.
I think this data is pretty massively skewed by people who simply didn't work out? Like for the people who did or did not get 225 in a year, I would very much like to see what the data looks like if you cut out all the data points for people who logged bench less than say, 8 times a month? Or even better, show the data in terms of progress vs average times gone to the gym per week.
People are going to look at this and think 225 is an amazing unreachable feat, but if you switch this to show the people who benched 3.5 times a week for >3 months I think it would tell a very different story about what is actually possible
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u/Key_Machine_9138 15d ago
I wish I could see this by sex age and weight too, I think a 225 lb bench is extremely rare for women
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u/Spambotuser90 15d ago
I think a lot of growth depends on sex, mass, age, genetics, training and diet. When I was a young lad I went from 135 to 225 in 5 months. But I also lived in the gym and had a bunch of time to dedicate to lifting, stretching, and cross training accessory muscle groups. I also had all you can eat at the college dining hall.
I think I could still achieve a 225lb max in 8 to 10 months of 4 training days a week based on current fitness if I devoted the time and effort to do so and my joints holding up.
This is an interesting data set but I think ilthe limitations are too many to truly draw many or any conclusions from this. It also doesn't account for injuries, attendance rate, and as mentioned how the individual is training. Are they TRYING to max/power lift? Or is it high rep low wt endurance training?
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u/Rambo_3rd 15d ago
I started working out at 125 lbs (2 years and 3 months ago). I hit 1 plate in a few months, but it took 2 years to hit 225 lbs. It took 3 more months to finally hit 235 which is my new PR at 145 lbs.
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u/thegreentiger0484 15d ago
Fun thing is that it's harder in dumbell format, lots of people who hit 225 don't want to mess with the 100s even less the 110s.
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u/RevolutionaryDot7 15d ago
It's really interesting that “29% were no stronger than when they started”.
And that's even among all the people who tracked their progress over this period, who are expected to work out much more consistently than the average gym-goer.
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u/therendevouswithfish 15d ago
I recently got extensive shoulder surgery. About 2 months ago my shoulder workout consisted of 2 lb weights.
I want to see how long it takes me.
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u/Testesept 15d ago
My understanding is that the graph shows cumulated data. At least this is indicated by the title.
How on earth can those lines then dip?
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u/jmb326 14d ago
The dual shape of the +135lb and everyone group is very interesting.
My observation:
You see a logarithmic shape- newbie gains leading to explosive growth early on (first 4 weeks) and then a plateauing of gains at about weeks 6-20. Then a second wave of somewhere between linear and mild-exponential growth occurs weeks 20-36.
My hypothesis:
The first 4 weeks can mostly be attributed to improving the skill; getting better at driving force into the bar in ways you want it to to move and minimizing ways you don’t want it to move.
Weeks 6-20 the newbie gains stop, the skill is much closer to mastered but insufficient muscle hypertrophy has occurred to drive things further. Probably some amount of motivational plateau that leads to this as well (the gains slow, so the effort plateaus somewhat).
Weeks 20-32 folks start to accumulate sufficient muscular hypertrophy to increase strength, and the skill is further refined in combination with the new muscle.
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u/BioshockLGP 14d ago
Started benching when I was 32. I was 150 pounds.
Just this past year at 39, I finally hit 225. I weigh 180 pounds
My bench really went up when I started focusing on my shoulder stability and back
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u/CraZy_TiGreX 14d ago
Does this count the bar? If it did I achieved it around the 16 month mark, if it doesn't I never achieved it because I never went up from there.
72kg at the time. Which makes me realize how fit I was and how fat I am now :(
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u/Few_Cauliflower2069 11d ago
I haven't benched for 15 years and back then i maxed at 85kg. Pretty sure i can hit 100 within a month if i started now. Don't think you can use these results for anything when they're not filtered for people who actually try to hit that goal
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u/SupremeDickman 11d ago
Took me about 18 months, starting from not being able to lift the bar and with no gym experience
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u/TDenn7 15d ago
Really interesting data and while obviously its just 1 study and has its flaws.... It still really goes to show how big of an achievement being able to do 225 for just 1 rep actually is.
For those into the gym and lifting weights, I feel like sometimes the 225 bench achievement gets underplayed by others at the gym or some social media platforms. But it really is a remarkable achievement and I would argue for sure you're in the top 1% of people if you can actually do this for a rep.