The 225lbs or 100kg bench press is the reference point for those who are intermediate bench pressers. It is a great goal for those who are just getting into training or those who have trained for a little while and are looking to gain some strength. Benching 225lbs is not an easy feat, so it is a fun and challenging goal to move towards.

Different Starting Points

When writing an article like this, for the general public, it is hard to provide detailed advice because everyone has a different starting point. Someone reading this could have 3 years of bench press experience, have a max bench press of 215 and need some extra advice on how to get to the coveted 225lbs. While someone else could be reading this having done 3 bench press sessions in total and need to put on 10kg of muscle mass and do a few years of training before they hit their goal of 225lbs. Try and find the piece of advice which can change your training, what are you missing from your training that is holding you back from achieving your goal.

Gaining Muscle Mass

The 225lbs bench press will usually require that an individual have a decent amount of muscle mass. The contractile ability of individuals muscles is different, so some people will be stronger per kilo of muscle muscle and individual differences will mean that some individuals will need to be less muscular than others. That being said, muscle size is the best predictor of muscle strength, so if you are looking to bench press the 225lbs, adding some muscle mass will do no harm and surly help you towards your goal.

Sample Bench Press Hypertrophy Session

5 x 12 @60%

Gaining Strength

The 225lbs bench press is a test of strength, so therefore your training will need to reflect this. This means you will need to perform low repetition training with heavy weights in order to improve your strength. Strength training is most effective when lifting over 85% of your one repetition max for minimal repetitions.

Sample Bench Press Hypertrophy Session

5 x 3-4 @85%

Patience and Training Blocks

Achieving a long term goal like this can take time, so patience is required. Organising your training into blocks of hypertrophy and strength can be a great way to take your time and build towards this goal. Doing say a 3 month block of hypertrophy and then a 3 month block of strength could be a great way to take 6 months and work towards increasing your strength on the bench press. Compared to the traditional 6 week programme this might seem extremely long, but taking your time and being methodical will drastically increase your chance of success.

Training Frequency

Increasing training frequency is one the most effective ways to see a large difference in progress on the bench press. Unlike the squat and the deadlift, the bench press is much less taxing on the central nervous system. This means that it can be performed 2-3 times a week without running into symptoms of overtraining. If you are currently bench pressing once per week and working hard towards the 225lbs goal, I suggest adding a second bench press session into your weekly plan. Remember, training frequency is highly dependant on training age, if you have been training for 2 months, once session per week on bench is probably enough to see a huge increase. If you have been training for 3 years, you may want to consider moving to two sessions a week.

Specificity

When trying to get better at bench pressing, make sure that you are actually bench pressing. Often times we can use other exercises like the press up and DB bench press, which are amazing accessory exercises to the bench press, but are not the bench press itself. When trying to get better at an exercise, we need to ensure our training is specific towards the exercise itself.