Individual Differences

Lifting weights should be an individual endeavour. There is no amount of weight you “should” be able to bench press. Everyone was born with different genetics so there is no way to say you should be able to bench press a certain weight. There are however some basic bench marks which will help you understand where you are at in terms of strength training metrics on the bench press.

Gender Differences

These are largely based on male data. It is important to understand that these will not be the same bench marks for females.

Bench Press Strength Guidelines

1/2 Body Weight Bench Press

Bench pressing half your bodyweight is a great way to know that you have done a little bit of lifting or are no longer completely untrained. This can be done by a large majority of individuals without any training at all but some individuals will need some training to be able to acheive this, especially the older an individual is. This just shows you have your foot in the door and have begun the strength training process.

Bodyweight Bench Press

Bench pressing bodyweight is a really good goal for beginner and intermediate lifters. This will typically require a little bit of specific training for an extended period of time. This is the goal I like to set with my clients so they have a long term strength goal to work towards. If you are looking for an initial challenging goal in the bench press and are just starting resistance training, this is an amazing goal to go for.

225lbs (100kg) Bench Press

This is a well known goal in the fitness community. This goal is for individuals looking to start taking resistance training slightly more seriously than others, it requires a decent amount of specific and consistent training. The tough part about this goal is that it is not based on bodyweight, if you have a body weight of 60kg, this is going to be a seriously tough lift and you will likely need to put on some bodyweight. If however you are 100kg already, this is the same as performing a bodyweight bench press. So just be aware that when setting strength training goals you need to be taking bodyweight into consideration, there is a reason why all strength sports are done in weight categories.

1.5 x Body Weight

Once you achieve a 1.5 x body weight bench press you are a well trained individual. This can be an excellent long term goal for those who are very interested in strength training but do not necessarily want to compete in powerlifting competitions. Genetic potential will dictate how difficult this goal will be to achieve, some individuals will find reaching this goal relatively easy if they have very good genetic potential and others may never be able to achieve this goal without very specific training protocols.

2 x Body Weight Bench Press

This level of strength in the bench press is for only very serious lifters with years of training. Even a 1.75 x bodyweight bench press shows you could hold your own in a great deal of powerlifting competitions, so double bodyweight bench press is extremely rare and can only be performed by very genetically gifted individuals. This is also extremely hard to achieve if you are in the heavy weight class of powerlifting. This goal is really for powerlifters and specialists in getting extremely strong.

Setting Realistic Goals

The take away from this article should be that there is no weight you “should” be able to bench press but you have a framework for setting strength training goals in the bench press. If you have literally just started then getting your first 1/2 body weight bench press should be your primary goal. If you have been lifting for years but never hit the 100kg mark, then this could be a perfect goal for you. If you already bench 1.5x bodyweight, it is highly unlikely that you are reading this article!