For one rep? Not really. Although Larry Allen better have witnesses, or I'm calling bullshit.

But you're the one who thinks any fit woman whould be able to do a powerup, or whatever it was. Anyone less totally gay than Brock care to weigh in? McManly?

They don't seem strange. Maxing out around 300lbs. is what you'd expect from a big high school lineman.

Like Hugh Jackman?

Sure, you have to be pretty strong, but it's easier than you'd think to do one rep of a heavy weight.

Hmm, Jackman is bigger than I thought. Ok ok.

The ones that strike me as implausible: Tiger Woods (well-built, but slender, not bulky); Will Smith (I didn't see the movie, but that's a lot of weight-- seriously, 75 lbs less than Arnold's max?); Yao Ming (sure, he looks less chesty because of scale, but long arms have longer to move the bar).

Whenever I see someone bench 300+, I can *see* that they're someone who can move a lot of weight. Maybe my sense of what these guys would look like irl is off, but I remain skeptical.

Would doing it on a machine count, or must it be free weights?

I believe I did it on a universal machine in hs, but I have no idea what the score was or if I went to max, so I don't know.

I've linked to this before, I think. 300lbs. is very strong for normal people, it's not mind-bending. And your list is mostly very strong professional athletes.

Whenever I see someone bench 300+, I can *see* that they're someone who can move a lot of weight.

This is what I was thinking. The guys I've known who could bench 300lbs. were people about whom the first thing you'd notice is that they look friggin strong.

There was supposed to be a "but" in the second sentence of 9.

7: One of the innovations Tiger Woods is credited with is taking physical conditioning, especially weightlifting, more seriously than other golfers previously had. I remember there being a lot of commentary a few years after he hit the big time when people realized he had put on 15 or 20lbs. in one year. He's a lot bigger than you might realize, especially if your mental image of him is still what he looked like when he first entered the pros.

Anyone less totally gay than Brock care to weigh in? McManly?

I don't think those numbers are terribly off assuming they all have giant cocks.

True love, McManly, true love.

ogged, am I totally gay or totally straight? Make up your damn mind.

For the record I don't work out in gyms (where I understand the gay sex occurs). Any exercise I happen to get occurs outdoors, chopping down trees, lassoing cattle, pushing boulders around or doing other perfectly heterosexual activity.

Sometimes what counts as one rep doesn't involve moving the bar very far.

Wrasslin' bears?

Dinosaur training?

bza, I know Tiger trains aggressively, but he also wants to avoid being too bulky, since that would interfere with his swing. I would buy 250 or 275, but 300 seems excessive. I'm probably wrong, though.

I'd be willing to bet that Tiger in person is much more obviously out of the league of normal strength than he looks on tv.

Based on what, B? TV makes you look bigger. I've seen Tiger in person (not so recently, though) and he looked totally normal.

18: yes, that's more or less exactly what it would be, if I ever got any exercise in anything more than the hypothetical sense.

I viscerally dislike Tiger Woods, so I don't know why I'm defending his physical prowess, but check out this article. First, note how huge his quads are in that first picture. Second, in the second picture it looks like he's doing bench press reps with 225lbs.

22: Did you see him topless? It can be pretty hard to tell otherwise, unless someone works out in a way so as to deliberately bulk up. Since Tiger is probably doing his best to get strong without bulking up, I don't think seeing him on the street would necessarily give you a lot of insight.

I would be surprised if Tiger spent much time on the bench press to get to 300. The risk of injury seems to outweigh the reward.

bza, I will now destroy your ego forever by pointing out that those pictures are not of Tiger Woods; check the article again.

note how huge his quads are in that first picture

The man in these photos is not the world's No. 1 golfer. He is Mark Taborn, a 27-year-old professional model and actor who happens to look an awful lot like Tiger Woods.

I wasn't thinking size, just physical presence. Like how you can watch bball on tv, and sure they seem tall, but then if you see someone who's that tall irl it's totally freaky.

Or how you meet someone in person but don't realize how big their tits are unless they're wearing some kind of tit-revealing dress. Or you meet someone and sure, they look fine, but you don't realize that they're actually in very impressive shape until they take off their shirt and you touch their naked flesh.

I think b's coming on to you, ogged.

Also what 24 said, but in a much more boring way.

Duly destroyed.

Plus, see 6.

Tiger's very large teeth ironically make him look smaller and more harmless than he really is. If you saw him leaping on an elk and plunging his fangs into its neck, you'd understand that he's actually quite strong.

Racist.

A normal guy never fails to notice how big someone's tits are. Bulky sweatshirts won't help.

I wanted him to marry Julia Roberts just to see how large a human smile could get.

If you saw him leaping on an elk and plunging his fangs into its neck,

But he would get his ass kicked by one cape buffalo, even a calf.

but then if you see someone who's that tall irl it's totally freaky...Or how you meet someone in person but don't realize how big their tits are unless they're wearing some kind of tit-revealing dress. Or you meet someone and sure, they look fine, but you don't realize that they're actually in very impressive shape until they take off their shirt and you touch their naked flesh.

Uhm, B, meetup details are to be kept strictly confidential. I feel so used.

I maxed at well over 200 the few times I experimented with weight-lifting in college, and I'm a skinny wimp.

My tits are each 300 pounds, neatly dovetailing with B's 28 and the topic of the post. They're made of titanium.

TV makes you look bigger.

Is this generally true? I once saw Boris Becker practicing on one of the side courts at the US Open, and was astonished by how big he looked. On TV, he looked like a lanky, muscular guy -- from 30 feet away, he looked gigantic. His quads were the size of my body.

The Will Smith and Yao stuff seems very fishy. Also, I assume there were witnesses for Larry Allen, but it strikes me as strange that football players could get that close to the world record. My impression was that at those weights most dudes use special shirts to keep from tearing themselves apart. It's not the kind of thing that an NFL strength coach would bother keeping around, I don't think (since you wouldn't want your players doing those dangerously high and fairly pointless amounts of weight anyway).

Is this generally true?

Not in any meaningful way, I don't think. TV shows tend to make everyone look the same size, and athletic events can be misleading because the competitors are roughly the same size. This accounts for the "look at that tinylittle guy on the basketball court" phenomenon when dealing with guys who are 6'2". But I feel ok saying whatthefuckever when arguing with B.

41: no, LB, it's not generally true. It's just another instance of ogged having said something stupid and proceeding to make ridiculous assertions in his refusal to back down. (Which is effectively backing down, in its own way.)

I need to revoke 39 -- my work-out partner thinks it was 200 at most.

Doesn't it depend on how big your TV is?

I could easily bench HG's tits.

When I weighed 140 lbs. I could bench almost 200 without seriously training, and those pro football players weigh 250-300 lbs, and they train.

I saw Tiger at the PGA Championship last August, and 300 seems about right.

For you basketball fans, I believe that Earl Boykins can bench 300 pounds.

47: They're very unwieldly. Like trying to bench press a kiddie pool.

Fucking testosterone. Admittedly, I don't work out terribly hard or effectively, but getting to bench 100 lbs is difficult. I think I've done that much once or twice, but not more than that. Feh.

Larry Allen's training. He's apparently a freak, even for an NFL lineman.

"need to revoke 39 -- my work-out partner thinks it was 200 at most"

With or without the assistance of the Lord?

Link for Boykins. It's actually 315 pounds,

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/earl_boykins/printable_player_files.html

Can we ever believe anything Kotsko says again? He's a Chalcedonian, you know -- in thrall to the Roman Empire and Attila the Hun.

I think that the pro athletesare all bullshitting their numbers somewhat, but not outrageously since the other pro athletes they're trying to impress have some idea what is entailed.

Fucking testosterone.

But we get to menstruate!

Larry Allen is almost a professional weightlifter as a side job, he probably would be if the NFL didn't pay him so much. He's well known as having been considered the strongest man in the NFL for something like ten straight years, virtually unanimously, in other words he's an outlier even among NFL linemen.

Larry Allen

Discussion of how he compares to professional weightlifters

Should I stop weiner-pwning you all, or do you enjoy it?

55: I forgot. Yippie!

Here's an up-and-coming Unfogged favorite.

57: Your comment contained no information whereas mine provided some context.

Kotsko benches 200 just like Ogged kicks :40 sec 50s.

I take back all those bad things I said about Larry Allen in 1.

Kotsko benches 200 just like Ogged kicks :40 sec 50s.

Still smarting over that, eh Will?

58: And we're funnier.

I'd bet the Will Smith claim is accurate, at least for a time. As for Yao, I don't know.

My workout partner used to be a guy who was 5 ft. tall, and he would do the stacks on every machine, and could press an ungodly amount. Smaller arms have their advantages.

Then again, as an undergrad, I worked out with an ex basketball player who was nearly 7 ft. tall and looked like Yao ... and he could bench 350 lbs. easy (although he did his reps at 275, IIRC). He said it was because guys that tall don't bulk up in the traditional way -- something about different kinds of muscles, lack of definition, but he could certainly put his money where his (possibly crackpot) theory was.

62:

I just feel bad that you have to fake it for me.

I used to bench kiddie pools professionally when I was younger.

My workout partner used to be a guy who was 5 ft. tall

How tall is he now? (Or is he no longer a guy?)

I just feel bad that you have to fake it for me.

There's nothing sweeter than beating a guy so badly that he accuses you of cheating.

must be the genes!!!

That does it. I am coming to the San Fran Unfogged meet in my speedo.

He refuses to work out with me now that everything I do involves a giant pink ball and periwinkle weights.

I probably could still do it, but as you get older going endlessly from town to town on the kiddie-pool-event circuit and having meaningless sex with the kiddie-pool-event groupies becomes less appealing.

See you there, Will.

His eyes are cold and restless, his wounds have almost healed.
And she'd give half of Texas, just to change the way he feels.
She knows his loves in Tulsa, she knows he's gonna go.
Well it ain't no woman of flesh and blood, it's that damned old kiddie-pool-event circuit.

I dont care if you call me gay, but fat?!?!?! Fat?!?!!??! Ok, so maybe it looks like I have heebie's ass on my tummy. Many men my age have guts.

And gumption!

It just makes you more buoyant, right?

And ear hair too, but it is easily trimmed with industrial clippers.

38: But Labs, your tits are so gorgeous, you really shouldn't keep them a secret.

What makes all this incredibly funny to me is that Raleigh's incredibly skeezy blowjobs-in-the-corners leather bar shares its name with this post. Their float is always in the most questionable taste at NC Pride.

By "questionable" you mean "awesome," right?

No, I mean "questionable," but by "taste" I do mean "pants."

Sounds good to me. Isn't that kind of the point of pride?

As for TV making you look bigger, I watched Julius Peppers play basketball on TV for his entire college career, but when I ended up in line behind him at McDonald's, I was taken aback at how much bigger he was in real life. He looks like he could bench press a city bus.

82: Fair enough.

83: There was a UNC guy whose name I can't spell but which was pronounced "Surge Zwicker" who had some overdue books in the Geology Dept.'s library when I worked there. The day he came in to return them his knees were visible above the edge of the front desk (it was just a normal little desk that we used, not some raised counter-top desk). He was freakishly enormous. I felt like I'd encountered a new species.

Serge Zwikker.

Wikipedia: "Serge currently participates in triathlons in North Carolina in the Clydesdale division."

In the off season, he works for Budweiser.

Peppers always seemed to be having so much fun on the court. He moved like a jolly lion cub. It was hard not to like the guy.

That certainly explains that red carriage/wagon thing he was hauling everywhere.

Thanks, HG. I've always had a special hatred for that song, without even knowing it was by Garth Brooks. It strikes so close to home.

Would doing it on a machine count

Absolutely not.

Also, if you want to bench big, work those triceps. The smaller muscle groups are the limiting factor, not your pectorals.

This blog, possibly the world's most awkwardly organized website, has about 150 of the 200 most awesome pictures ever taken, but no good photo of Serge Zwikker.

Remember Chuck Nevitt, who played for the Lakers in the 80s? He was the guy who stood a head taller than the rest of the team. I ran into him, almost literally, in a video store in Manhattan Beach, and my eyes were at about the level of his waist. He left the place and got into a VW Rabbit; it was a bit like one of those yogi-folds-himself-into-little-box stunts.

The photos in the link from 73 made me pretty sad. Most of the tallest people had very short and probably painful lives.

93 with the Zwikker reference! Ah. That really takes me back...

Remember Chuck Nevitt, who played for the Lakers in the 80s?

I remember Chuck Nevitt playing for NC State in the 80s, but don't have any memories of his pro career.

95: yes, but think of the perspective they had.

Try to picture the end of the bench, Apo. (Or am I remembering Swen Nater?)

I remember Chuck Nevitt playing for NC State in the 80s, but don't have any memories of his pro career.

Not many people do, probably. Apparently, when he played for Detroit, he'd get put in only when the Pistons had a safe lead, so the final minutes of a big win were known as "Nevitt time."

Swen Nater was not an end-of-the-bench guy, he played 20-30 minutes a game usually.

Nevitt I've never heard of.

Not for the Lakers, he didn't. Apparently, he was there only for one year, during which he averaged 12 min. a game.

I remember Chuck Nevitt. I also remember the Bulls' equivalent: Granville Waiters. During garbage time, the chant would go up in the Stadium: "Graaaanville, Graaaanville." A fan favorite.

Aww, crud, now I feel guilty for having ignored the weights for six months. Doing it on a machine doesn't count, though it's better than nothing.

300lbs. is a hefty bench, but not like Robertson's or whoevers laughable 800lb leg press bullshit. I'd expect, like FL, that a guy like that would look like he was reasonably powerful. Some people are very strong without being bulky, but I think at about 300 lbs, you'd need some bulk.

Me too. I work out for long enough that I can see being in reasonable shape in the attainable distance, and then I slack for four months. I did run three miles in a half hour yesterday, which is my standard of minimally respectable. But my strength is, as usual, pathetic.

I've been irrationally terrified of not fitting into my wedding gown, so I've not been lifting. This is dumb because it's not like lifting is going to make my ribcage bigger, and the dress is so floofy all that matters is the bodice fit.

I gay up your blog with gowns and iron, ogged.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but for a tightly fitted bodice, I could see not working your lats with heavy weights until the wedding. Anything else, not lifting is purely irrational.

I gay up your blog with gowns and iron

That's a really poetic sentence, but I don't know what to do with it. I wish I could bend space-time and slip it into something by Carl Sandburg.

Patriarchy: 1

LB's commitment to fitness: 0

I can't believe I'm saying this

I love you so much.

If it's the bodice as in, just the bust, then obviously all you want to do is not put on so much weight (or get knocked up) such that your boobs grow; even when I was 8 months pregnant, my ribcage measurement was exactly the same (though not the cup size). That's not the case for everyone, obvs, but it does go to show that your body can change quite a bit without you having massive problems with bodice fit.

If it's a full bodice, as in to the waist, then yeah. OTOH, any decent shop or dressmaker ought to be able/willing to let it out just a skoosh the week before your wedding, if needed.

103: Do you member Jawann Oldham, most famous for not knowing the answer to the question, "Which of the following NBA centers was born in the USA: Patrick Ewing, Akeem Olajuwan, or Jawann Oldham?"

Actually, I've always wondered how competition lifters gain strength without gaining weight and moving up a class. I've heard that the legendary Turko-Bulgarian lifter Suleymanglu was as successful as he was because of his high pain threshold. It's still pretty mysterious, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naim_Suleymanoglu

It's a full bodice and makes me think, damn, I should wear full bodices more often. It's not really a big deal, but I swear the only time I've ever worried about my weight or size is due to this damn wedding.

Jawann Oldham

Name is familiar, but I can't place it, and I've never heard that story before.

113: And you should wear full bodices more often because... you like worrying about your weight and size? I'm confused.

PS: wtf is a "bodice"?

I should wear full bodices more often.

Get a corset; they lace up the back and are therefore adjustable if you gain or lose a li'l weight. Plus they look faaaabulous.

The story (first question on that page).

Nevermind.

Olympic lifting is a Communist sport. 22 of 24 2004 medalists were from ex-Communist countries. S. Korea and Greece are the exceptions.

There's something magical about the intertwined basketball and wedding dress conversations.

115: Because I look awesome in fitted bodices. And I'm only worrying irrationally about my weight because my mother will have a coronary if I need to have the dress let out a week before the wedding.

I can't wait for your "my mother" stories when you have kids, Cala.

About my mother as a grandmother or about me as a mother? Either way, should be some good stories.

Your mom as a grandmother.

My sister's mother in law has heart attacks several times a year when she seems like she might not get her way. She shouts "The pressure, the pressure" and lies down on the floor. Her husband caters to her and the rest of the family goes about their normal activities. It's totally routine by now. She usually gets he way, too.

No way.

She'll be alternately cooing and trying to raise my child. In all seriousness, I can't wait.

Your sister's mother in law is Sanford?

Elizabeth!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm coming to join you, baby!

Esther, you ugly!
(laugh track)

Pretty much. She puts on quite a production. My sister could do an hour of standup off her mother in law alone.

132:

If she has posted it on youtube, can she really do it?

I wonder how much Paisley can bench.

Some data.

Ogged that's hard for me to evaluate if I don't know what position Paisley plays.

Like all modern women, Sifu, Paisley is a snapper.

Yesterday with "Lebron ain't hott" and today with "these jocks ain't that strong." O-man, I'm just askin': everything okay, big guy?

What I'm saying, contra all the stud boys in this thread, is that the jocks are strong, so I don't buy the claim that 300 isn't all that much weight. It's average for a D-I college lineman. Those guys are huge.

139: Hm. Okay. I thought that seemed like a reversal of the initial post, but, on review, I guess it's not. So it's a flea-flicker you're running. Respect.

Well, if Will Smith is actually 6'2" and 220, benching only 300 lbs. would probably keep him off the college weightlifting team. Since he's free to do whatever steroids he wants when preparing for a role, and can presumably spend hours in the gym each day with the best trainers money can be, it doesn't seem, like, impossible that he could bench that much. Still I imagine he's exaggerating.

135: Didn't I provide data way back in 9?

That was a pdf and not as easy to read, brock, you homo.

Ogged, if you don't stop calling me a homo, I'm going to I'm going to have to resort to drastic measures--like maybe pinning you down to the cement floor of the loading dock with my powerful forearms and working my cock all the way up your butt so you understand loud and clear just how very heterosexual I am.

Okay, that made me choke on my hot chocolate.

144: Why do all those Fontana Labs keep sucking your cock?

B choke on a choc.

GAY.

"I wanted him to marry Julia Roberts just to see how large a human smile could get."

Julia Roberts does not have an 'human' smile.

Actually, I've always wondered how competition lifters gain strength without gaining weight and moving up a class.

Supposedly, in addition to increasing mass you can get stronger by your muscles learning to fire in the right sequence and such. A lot of powerlifters do extremely explosive reps with weights that are 50-60 percent of their one rep max. I've tried it, and it does seem to help.

Also, why don't you lift weights Ogged? Don't you favor the sprint type swimming? Weights would make you faster.

Some of those numbers look suspiciously high to me, but then again, I have always been crappy at bench pressing.

Still, actors putting up numbers in the same region as serious college level athletes? I'd be inclined towards disbelief.

I am with nattarG. Actors are just putting out PR. 300 is a lot of frickin' weight to bench. Moreover, these guys are not looking for strength. They want to look buff or cut.

Larry Allen's 700# bench:
http://media.putfile.com/Larry-Allen-700-Bench-Press

Scot Mendelson's max is not 715. The world record is not held by Mendelson.

Yeah, it's held by Pat Robertson.

94: I know what you mean. Serge (or whatever) used to get around campus in a little chauffeured golf cart. He looked like the country club's weekly shipment of legs.

Moreover, these guys are not looking for strength. They want to look buff or cut.

Some of them are looking for mass as well though like Jackman for the Wolverine role. Seems like Will Smith has been hitting the weights for some time now too. I'm only 5'9 and 175, but even busy with the kids and such it's not too hard for me to keep my bench at 270 or 280. When I train harder I've gotten it above 300, so I guess it's not too hard for me to believe that actors bigger than me with access to personal trainers could put up some of those numbers.

I'm only 5'9 and 175

Fatass.

I'll snap you like a twig swimmer boy.

156, see 50.

It's the dreaded Jabba Sit maneuver, isn't it?

156, see 50.

Testosterone!

Genetics doesn't hurt either. My dad when he was in his early 30's. A bit shorter than I am, and never lifted a weight in his life.

One of these days I need to make it out to a meetup just so I can sit on Ogged.

Time for me to start a rigorous fish-lifting regimen.

Your dad was very good looking. The fish is pretty ugly.

5'9" and 175 is a fatass? Sheesh, call me Refrigerator f'in' Perry.

What is that fish? Neither a carp nor an eel.

One of these days I need to make it out to a meetup just so I can sit on Ogged's cock.

That was unexpected.

What was unexpected?

And yet, obvious.

What ho, an unexpected cockerel?

What is that fish? Neither a carp nor an eel.

I'm pretty sure it's a cabazon.

153. the video looked just like a description i read. In what way does that count as a bench press? Lifting from the bar till elbow lock...I don't know what that is, but it's not what I think of when I think of a bench. I imagine I could do that with half again the weight I can actually bench.

In competition, you have to lower the bar to your chest, then when the bar is motionless you get a command to go ahead with the press.

Scot Mendelson's max is not 715. The world record is not held by Mendelson.

As I recall, the Mendelson 715 "record" refers to the "raw" bench press record, done without a shirt.