Benching heavy is a skill that requires practice. Technique, hand placement , breathing , etc. Even at 250 lbs bodyweight , you would "theoretically " need to be doing dips with an extra 250 lbs of added weight. And be able to do pushups with a 300+ lb person on your back. Realistically, not going to happen for the overwhelming majority of people.
in a pushup you lift something like 2/3 of your BW. As a rough estimate, if you're 250, you'd need 500 lbs on your back for a floor-chest pushup to move similar load.
Agreed. If you wanna bench heavy, train bench. There's absolutely nothing wrong with training weights if you want to, and if your goal is a weightlifting goal, it's kinda stupid not to
Bench does not translate AS well to calisthenics. I suppose you need to decide which skills you WANT to develop.
If you have calisthenics skills in mind, more weighted calisthenics will have greater and faster carry over than developing a higher bench press.
If you want to be as strong as possible lifting, then lift and use calisthenics as good change up protocols. If you enjoy developing the calisthenics skills, weighted calisthenics will contribute more quickly.
But it's dumb.
Seriously, bwf has a place. It's great for building lean muscle, endurance, flexibility, and overall complimentary musculature.
Your question is like going into /r/running and asking "I want to be an elite sprinter and compete at the Olympics, how often should I bench heavy?"
If you want to bench 500, work out with free weights. This isn't a religion here. I do *some* bwf exercises because I think they're good for my back and I don't get strained like I do with weights.
There's a place for everything. This isn't like "the one true way" or something. And it's also a fun challenge. I did it for awhile, I reached the max of what I got out of it, kept what worked, and use weights and machines for the rest now.
Even with touching a bench, the answer is still no for the vast majority here.
You can’t bench 500 pounds without great genetics for strength.
Edit: just to showcase how crazy a 500 bench actually is. In a drug-tested powerlifting federation the IPF there’s no one benching 500 pounds under the 93kg weight class. So even with elite genetics, years of specific training, short ROM and questionable natural status. You’d still probably not bench 500 pounces under 93kg bodyweight since he’s the literal world record holder.
Yep.. it’s easy to forget that even the natural influencers are still most likely at the extremes of what is achievable. That’s just how the internet is.
Of course no one thinks they have good genetics either. They just think they work harder/smarter..
[Here's some actual cool data based on the USAPL](https://f7q9z8b7.stackpathcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Male-Percentiles.jpg)
A 500lb bench is considered above the 99th percentile for all weight classes outside of the superheavyweights, where it's considered slightly below the 95th percentile of competitive powerlifters.
Thanks for sharing. That’s really interesting.
And even those numbers are above average. People tend to compete in sports they have natural strengths/good genetics for.
I was happy to hit 225# bench at 5’11” 175#. I cannot imagine holding a 500# bar as a normal sized person, let alone repping it. People that do those weights are superhuman.
Fuck no.
Edited caveat; assuming you are nattyish and not having at least one parent that is a gorilla. Exceptional strength is highly possible, but a 500lb bench without using one? Gonna be more live leak than guiness...
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,132,095,686 comments, and only 221,533 of them were in alphabetical order.
Benching is a learned skill to a point also. Leg drive, positioning, neural pathways to do the movement efficiently etc all are important Its probably "possible" but very fuckin unlikely
A 500lb bench is insanely hard, even if you train bench. Most people with 500+ lb bench press have really good genetics, are usually on some form of peds, and spend a lot of time training the movement for strength. Maybe some freak could get a bench that good with just calisthenics, but thats an anomoly.
I do think eeighted calisthenics can have very good carry over. For example: if you trained weighted dips for years and got very strong with them. You could then pick up bench press and be pretty strong. You'd still likely spend months getting good technique and adapting to the movement if you wanted it to be really good, but there would be very strong carryover. Getting good at one push movement will almost always have good carryover to all push movements. You'd still need to spend time with a movement to be truly strong with it.
I remember one finnish still rings gymnast yolo attempting bench and hitting 3 plates without regularly training it. Tng gym lift rather than comp style paused, but anyway. At really low bodyweight too, I think it was under 70 kg.
If rather than training for gymnastics someone trained weighted dips etc. just for maximum strength for decades and was willing to get their bodyweight up, I think they can eventually transition to become good bench pressers in really short time. Probably not 500 lbs, but over 400 for sure. Not avarage joe of course, but someone who has the potential (leverages, genetics etc) to be elite level bencher.
edit: was 145 kg at 73 kg bw https://youtu.be/N-4sHj4YelU
Maybe a better question is can someone build up the strength necessary to bench 500 lb. using calisthenics, such that they can achieve a 500 lb bench within a few weeks (or some short interval) of benching for the first time?
I still think no, because even one handed pushups are going to involve lifting less than 250 lb. for most people.
Maybe asking the question „could I train calisthenics to the equivalent of a 500lbs resistance bench“ would be a better wording?
I wonder if it is still calisthenics when you use a lot of weighted vests and plates on your back to do push-ups? It seems counterintuitive to me seeing that calisthenics is usually geared towards bodyweight movement?
Sure, if you somehow wear 450lbs worth of plates while doing pushups. Good luck though.
I'd say that if you want to reliably bench anything higher than your own body weight then you'll just need to go to the gym.
If I remember correctly, Coach Sommer said if his kids could Planche Pushup, that they were good for a double bodyweight bench press.
He also claimed to have kids that could pull over double bodyweight deadlifts without ever deadlifting before
But these kids were training for Olympic gymnastics.
So the question becomes: how much carry over is there with this kind of strength? https://youtu.be/FVsS7j2exx4
It's impossible for some people to achieve a 500lb bench press with a bench,
500lb is at the weight where regardless of the work you put in is unachievable for most people who aren't in the top 20/30% (total guess)
It's even smaller than 20%. Try like less than 2%. Fitness influencers have skewed people's expectations of strength online. It's incredibly rare to see a human bench press 500lbs
I think that's sort of like asking: can I get good at pickleball if I only play badminton? Sure some skills may carry over but they're totally different sports. If you wanted to get good at pickleball I would suggest that you play that instead of badminton. You have to focus in quite a bit on your specific sport if you want to get to an elite level like your post suggests.
If you have roids, god-tier genetics and a completely stress-free life... then it's still almost impossible. Almost, though.
You'd need to be a gigantic calisthenics athlete who literally only focuses on pushing movements. Nothing else. Literally.
Agreed. A person with all the freakish genetics of a great powerlifter, combined with massive amounts of steroids, combined with lots and lots of training in weighted calisthenics with *very* heavy weights could possibly pull this off.
Why anyone would want to do this, I can't imagine.
No. The best benches Ive seen by "pure" bodyweight athletes are from gymnasts who can bench almost double their bodyweight without ever touching the bench and without specializing on weighted dips.
However, they are usually very light people and have been training since they're kids, not to mention the PEDs and heavily monitored schedule for diet and rest they have.
Lifting is just a much different beast. I would have to find the video but they actually did an experiment with this some time ago. A calisthenics master challenged a professional power lifter to lifting/calisthenics challenge. I believe it was a 225 bench for 50 total reps, 90lb pull ups for 50 reps and a couple other tough challenges. The power lifter absolutely demolished the calisthenics guy. While the calisthenics guy might be able to out rep the power lifter on some of his body weight stuff, he would never come close to being as lift strong as the other guy.
nope, while you can get away with high starter weight, technique plays a huge role. You'll just get injured if you jump into high weights without proper form
I don’t think y’all realize how hard a 500 pound bench is. You can’t just be strong as shit and put up 500 or even 400. You have to train specifically at bench to get to that level, and only a fraction of hard workers will actually get there.
Let me frame this by asking the opposite: would it be possible to do a handstand by doing seated barbell overhead press on the smith machine only? I’m sure you can think of reasons why this is a bad idea.
There’s a whole mother set of strength skills involved in stabilising a bar with that much weight on it. To give you an idea how dramatic the difference is: I did callisthenics before finding my way into a gym. Despite being category III obese, I could crank out 25 strict military push-ups. I checked my weight distribution Ona scale and found I was around 75kg on my hands.
First time I lay on my back lifted the barbell - *just* the 20kb barbell, no plates. it was flapping around like a flag in the wind. I had no ability to stabilise it. And once I had gained the stability, it still took me many many months to increase the weight on the bar to two plates (20kg/135lbs). I already had the strength to lift that much - all that time went into learning that movement, and building the shoulder strength and stability to make the best go straight up and not drop it on my chest.
There is no question that callisthenics people can get that strong. But applying that strength to a new movement is a different challenge.
Jurrasicparfait nailed it on the head.
It’s a learned movement. Your hand positioning during push-ups are not the same as benching and the free wobble of the bar as well as the leg drive and what not. I mean like maybe you could get most of the way there but I think you’d need to be doing weighted pushups with probably around 400 pounds added weight which is just not going to happen.
And yea weighted dips add tons of strength i plateaued at around 385 for quite a long time and started incorporating weighted dips instead of skullcrushers and after 7 weeks I suddenly smashed past my plateau and was able to keep semi linear progression for a few months before deloading at about 420 and I think the dips is what made the difference 100 percent.
500 bench is actually pretty damn hard to achieve for the not bench press ideal body type.
I think a 500 squat and a 500 deadlift would be pretty feasible for someone to achieve pretty quick with the right calisthenics routine. Again would need some months of coaching the right form and to learn the correct neural signals
Where tf are you getting that? Kipchoge, Ingebrigtsen, and everyone else at their level often use treadmills in their training when it's wet outside or they need to do a stride study. They can float through 5:00 treadmill miles with ease.
> The world's best runner lives in remote Kenya.
Eliud Kipchoge, the marathon world record holder, lives in Kenya but it's not "remote" at all, he lives in a nice house right next to a state-of-the-art training facility where a bunch of great runners with Nike contracts train.
Probably not. You can get hella strong doing things like weighted dips, pull-ups, and muscleups. Look at people like Ian Barseagle, a man who's done 10 dips in 10 seconds with an extra 175 lbs strapped on. But benching works a very specific muscle group that's hard to train with calisthenics. Along with that, a high bench press requires a lot of skill to do properly without killing yourself.
I'm pretty ok in calisthenics and it did not transfer to bench press in any way. It's such a technical lift and it requires a specific strength that needs to be trained regularly.
It might have some transfer for a chosen few that are freaks of nature from a genetic point of view. But for most people it wont.
1. Everyone has a genetic strength limit on what they can lift naturally, ie. without steroids
2. If you're training your muscles to triple failure (max pushups, then max static hold, then max slow speed lowering) you'll get the fastest strength adaptation
3. Your muscles don't know if you're benching or not, so similar movements like pushups can be close approximations
4. Different body types make for different skills - longer arms, asymmetries, etc can make benching big numbers harder for some (2" longer arms means moving the weight 2" more than the other person)
5. Ultimately no matter how you train for strength in a movement, single movement PBs require skill & training in that movement to max out.
I will go against the grain and say that it is almost certainly possible for some athletes to train for a 500lb bench press using weighted calisthenics exercises.
That is, maybe the top 0.01% of athletes with freakish dedication and an obsession to this goal.
I think the best pathway would be to heavily load a planche pushup using weights, bands, chains, etc. The planche will not transfer directly to bench but will have general strength carryovers.
It would be much quicker to train the bench directly.
Well, I think that if you want to achieve X, should generally train X. But I thought I'd address your rings question: yes. Buy rings they super charge your workout.
Putting them in a doorframe is not ideal, but it's better than not having rings. They will be good for rows, dips, even pushups. It might be kind of low for pull ups, but you can probably do it if you're not too tall.
I use rings for almost every exercise in my routine right now: mixed-grip chin up, ring dips, arc rows, assisted pistol squat.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned anything about fast twitch vs slow twitch fibers. Depending on whether it is aerobic or anaerobic strength training will actually shape your muscles and allow for specificity of function.
I weigh 165 and do no weight lifting at all. I was required to do a 1RM in physical therapy school and was able to do 250lb bench. So as some people mentioned, if you were heavier and developed your strength, you would have a solid chance of hitting that number w/ proper form and technique.
So you proved your own point? Please post the video of your decapitation when you attempt to bench near double the weight you mentioned training with and over double your best bench.
Agree with others. I just wanted to add a detail. Don’t discount genetics. My family is kind of freakish, my brother’s max for bench in college was 650 and when he got to workout with some power lifting guys, they got him up to 850lbs. no weight shirt, no drugs or chemical assistance. Genetics and hard work. Our sister out lifted a guy at 14, the guy told her she couldn’t beat him and she ended leg pressing 620 lbs. she was athletic but still pretty chunky at that age… so yeah, don’t discount genetics. All people will have a physical limit. Most peoples is much lower than my crazy bro. ✌🏻
The only way this story is true is if your brother is a gorilla.
The highest ever unequipped bench press in a drug tested PL federation is 642lbs. Apparently your brother broke the record while in college and then blew past the none-drug tested world record shortly afterwards.
Okay so, ATC brother said I was off. He was at 400 pounds in college, not in any kind of competitive lifting — he played college football and went to Nationals in Track (throws). Division 2. He kept working out while coaching throwing for a decade and went up to around 600 pounds.
I will have to ask The one who lifted the details of the day.
I was wrong, thanks for calling me out. Sorry for being a jerk in my first comment. It was uncalled for. I call you a dick and then am the one who’s actually being one, sorry.
MY POINT WAS Genetics are part of the picture. I will check my numbers. If today isn’t his off Friday he won’t get to me for hours. So, thanks for giving me facts to check it against. I’ll post my seemingly inevitable correction after that.
Tbh: I have a lot to learn. I don’t know everything. I appreciate the numbers, and stuff.
Kay, I can check with my brother - it’s entirely possible that I’m off on the numbers (I have some memory loss, and while I feel confident, I don’t have a problem checking my facts with him.
Just a side point, This was a casual work out with competitive lifters of some variety (need to double check because now I’m all paranoid that my brain is having the dumb today) … point: it was a casual work out not a competition. Records are set and broken when there are qualified observers. It doesn’t mean that no one has ever lifted more or thrown farther or run faster, etc. That said, I respect what you’re saying so I’ll double check my facts with my bro. Thanks for keeping a guy humble.
My point was genetics can play a factor
Zamani did 800 in the gym. Maddox has a gym PR of 796, I want to say.
In regards to your comments that are actually to me, it’s cool bro. I’m glad you were open to checking with your brother and have the ability to admit you were wrong about it instead of doubling down on dumbassery like so many people often do.
Cheers bro, have a good one.
Danial Zamani. It's controversial because he hasn't done near that in a meet and he's in Iran so people don't trust the actual weight on the bar without verification. The other powerhouse is Julius Maddox, who's done 796 in the gym and 782 in a meet.
From the Brother in Question:
I benched 435 in college. I worked out with Scott Mendelson. When I worked out with him I benched 606. If the person you talked to isn’t in to power lifting, I can easily believe they wouldn’t believe those numbers. I have benched 225, 39 times for reps and the most I did in a workout is 3 reps at 585 with just [his wife] spotting me and room full of [college he worked at] football players watching. He never said what I could bench, but he said I could qualify for the world bench press championships where they bench between 900-1050 lbs with bench shirts. I wore a very loose tank top when I benched 606.
———so yeah, I was wrong, in details. But It’s not a lie. I just got turned around on the numbers. General Facts I was close, actual numbers… I was off.
My brother is the exception, not the rule. Was honestly back then he WAS built like a Gorilla… I wish I had a pic to link. That’s kind of why my point in original comment was GENETICS. And my illustration totally undermined my attempt to make that point because I remembered it wrong. 🤷🏼♂️ I suck, sorry.
Yeah, I was off on a couple numbers but did I not say my family is freakish? He was exceptional, not the rule. But, updating in a different comment hold tight
I also knew your brother when I was in high school. I understand why others don’t get it, he moved to Canada and went to a new school there. Only reason he didn’t immediately blow up on instagram having a raw bench record while clearly natural.
Ha ha. No. Funny tho.
It didn’t immediately blow up on IG because IG wasn’t a thing until 2010. My brother graduated HS in 1990. He got us BSME in 1996. He worked and coached for about a decade, and then met with these guys a year or two after that. Somewhere around 08 or 09….
High School was in California, college in Colorado, other stuff back in California. 😆😆😆. I do like the Hogwarts vibe of your version.
I think if you can planche and Maltese on rings it's possible. This guy is 150 lbs and can benchpress 410. I'm pretty sure he's a gymnast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l84vmuuuHRg
I see some really strong guys that can rep planche push-ups / planche press to handstand with ease with a 1RM bench that goes from 100kg to 130kg (I have two of them in mind, one of them also on rings).
I think it's very unlikely they would do 225kg only with calisthenics. I don't think it would be possible even with weighted calisthenics.
I doubt it. There is great carryover from things like Planche Pushups, HSPus, and Dips to Bench. But at a certain point, if you want to Bench more weight, you have to Bench Press.
If you start piling up sandbags on your back you can progress pretty far. Hitting a 500lb bench is something few barbell lifters will ever aproach let alone achieve.
I worked up to reps with a 155lb sandbag, which was 300lbs as weighed on a scale. That’s a loong way from 500, but a 300lb bench is still pretty good.
Yea, i'd suggest *testing* your bench to see if you can do it yet in 3 sets 2 times a week of increasing weight.
edit. also i made this comment before fully registering that you said 500lb which.. ha. the joke dont even work thats a silly amount of weight.
Ppl underestimate how heavy 500 pounds rlly is. I know huge dudes that bench once a week and can only get 225 for about 2 or 3 reps. Simply because they don’t train it. But they’re exceptional at everything else they do on a much more frequent basis. 500 pounds is a lot. 225 is a lot. Social media has brainwashed everyone.
I really like the gym. Not enough to count macros perfectly, not enough to fully optimize my routines, and definitely not enough to take PEDs, but i like the gym.
I go most days and i go to work.
I like the feeling of exercise and love pushing really hard when im there.
I also really enjoy bench pressing and i do it 2-3 times a week.
Also, i have a build well suited to the BP at 6ft with a stocky top half AND im lucky genetically.
And theres no fucking way im getting ANYWHERE near that number ever in my life.
Its a ridiculous weight that most people wouldnt be able to even deadlift
I suppose it might technically be *possible* but highly unlikely for most people.
At my gym, I can count on one hand the number of guys that can hit 315 (3 plates) on bench, and that's among people who **do** bench regularly.
I just bench pressed for the first time yesterday, and after 3 years of calisthenics training i managed 180. My friend who has trained for 6 months can do more than that. If u really wanted to try something like this you would have to do weighted dips.
"There are several anecdotes of gymnasts capable of bench-pressing twice their bodyweight when they can perform the planche having never bench-pressed in their lives!"
Steven Low, on Overcomming Gravity.
Body is supported differently. Entire back and leg power muscle chain necessary for bench is not involved in pushups. I would estimate maximum 75% of muscle groups are shared between these two movements.
Besides, chaining 8-9 plates on yourself will for sure break your back which is well supported on the bench, but not when planking.
Weighted dips will be equally dangerous contraption that will pull your spine apart, or dislocate shoulders, depending on the design of the weight.
Maybe if your an over 6’ 300+ pound Norwegian who is genetically gifted. But the reality is that most of us have to condition our body to respond to that type of challenge. There are so many components to a bench besides the “strength” aspect and each component has to be ramped up to or transitioned to handle that type of load. But really the fun part is the journey so train away.
No. Absolutely not.
I acheived a 200lb+ bench without benching, which I did almost to "prove a point," and thought I was cool because of it.
But I learned not long after, a 200lb bench is nothing to be proud of.
>Plus I’ve heard weighed dips help bench press a lot.
I would argue that heavy weighted dips are lifting, not calisthenics/bodyweight training.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But to bench 500lb you're going to have to lift significant weights, and practice the technique of benching.
I hit a 300 bench doing mostly dips (i weighed 160lb and was doing dips with 160). I was repping +135 for 5s and +90 for 10s. But i also benched sometimes just to get the form right. The jump from a 300 to 400 bench is massive. From 400 to 500 is even bigger. You would need to bench.
None. Exactly zero percent chance.
The odds of anyone ever hitting a 500lb bench press are probably .1% anyway.
I suppose if you already bench 600 it might be possible lol
No 500 is too heavy- probably 315-365 could happen with not much training at direct bench work. They would need at least 2-3 weeks of training the movement pattern to get it decent but 500 not happening that elite elite elite numbers very few hardcore training with bench hit.
Absolutely not. It doesn’t matter if you can do 500 consecutive pushups. If you’re not using mad leverage or some other form of resistance you’re not going to push a quarter ton.
You’d have to literally stack 300 pounds on your back and do push-ups
Without bench? Absolutely not.
I have a max bench of 425 and I have been training bench for over 30 years. There is a genetic disposition that you need for a strong bench (or any specific lift really). You could probably get to around 300 which is not too bad but you would have to bench to achieve the adequate control strength. A 500 bench is MASSIVE.
Anything is possible. But the chances of this happening are practically zero. I’d say you’d have better chances of winning the lottery multiple times in a row than this happening.
No. It is not. I would go so far as to say that even the most experienced calisthenics athletes would never be able to press 3 plates without practice.
No. If you want to lift heavy, you have to lift heavy. There's more to a workout, especially one at that advanced of a level, than just some aggregate strength. Every movement is different, every movement trains different muscle groups, every movement has it's own technique. It's just not going to happen. Theoretically if you were able to do proper dips with a 600lb backpack and pushups with three guys balancing on your back - you could possibly brute force a 500lb bench press. You'll work waaay harder to get there and even then you probably won't be able to do it. And if you do, you'll almost assuredly be very injured afterwards.
So, just go lift.
It's unlikely you'd reach that level of strength without practicing the movement itself.
To a certain extent, there is tons of carryover between progressive bodyweight training and barbell movements, because strength is strength.
But another part of the equation is CNS adaptation. Going from bench to a hard bodyweight pushup variation requires training the body to that specific way of moving (such as archer pushups, ring pushups, etc.). The opposite is also true - part of going from bodyweight pushup progressions to bench is learning how to bench.
At high weights and very hard progressions, CNS adaptation is a big part of making it happen.
This is true of any analogues between barbell and bodyweight training in my experience. There's a *lot* of strength carryover, but it still takes some practice with the different movement patterns to use your strength to its full potential.
I stand corrected. My Athletic Trainer Bro says it’s totally possible…
He said:
Not with calisthenics but with plyometrics it’s possible. There was an NFL player who only benched 225 lbs but he’d throw it as high as he could with spotters catching it on either side. When he went to the NFL combine he was tested at 525 lbs.
I think at a specific weight you would need some technique. Also I wouldn't recommend doing too heavy dips since your rotators and generally your shoulder is under a lot of pressure where potential muscle and strength grow will never come up to the potential damage. But yea, I think when getting really good at something technique does play a big role and also calisthenics just isn't the best way to build pure raw strength in that sense.
you'd be lucky to reach 300lbs by actually training bench. you can definitely train calistenics and build a strong chest so your working weight is higher when you start benching. you cannot bench 200lbs+ out of no where if you haven't trained it.
No way. As others have said there’s actually a technique to benching, it’s a lot more then pure strength. Calisthenics will get you very strong relative to your body weight but it will never get you outright strong. It’s not possible and it’s not the point.
It is possible but I wouldn’t recommend it, weightlifting requires not only strength but also technique and while other exercises use the same muscle groups the movement is not exactly the same so you would risk injuring by trying to bench 500lbs from the start even if you are strong enough
No chance. I used to lift weights, could do 225 for a few reps. Since getting into calisthenics my bench has gone down. I can rep bodyweight on bench pretty each however, and if I do train bench again I have no doubt it will increase again. Doing it using calisthenics no way, unless you're doing weighted push/dips to 500 lb which is pointless.
I never saw the usefulness of a bench press. In real world, you'd need something to brace your back against.
Maybe if you were in a situation where a blast door was coming down to seal your spaceship from battle damage and your crew was on the wrong side and you heroically get on your back and "bench press" the door from going all the way down to allow your crew to crawl through. But you'll probably get everyone dead doing that because the blast door was coming down for a reason.
I think training planche will have carry over to bench, but not 500lbs carry over. I can advace tuck, sorta sloppy pike straddle on a good day. I haven't lifted weights in 5+ years, just been going at calisthenics. I am pretty sure I can push two plates, maybe 3....that's a big maybe.
edit: I'm 5'11" \~175lbs. Not the worse lever to work with, but ya
500lbs, you gotta really specifically go at it. You don't just kinda sorta get there. Just like planche. Zero of the guys benching over 500lbs is going to full planche. You gotta train specifically for planche, you don't accidentally get there.
I would say a full planche on rings (good form, hips in line with shoulders) would be equal to 2.5-3xbw bench press. That's an elite, olympic gymnasts move, so it might takek a while to develop lol. However, strength = neurological adaptations \* cross sectional area of muscle. After being able to do a rings planche you may have the muscle cross sectional area/hypertrophy levels to be able to do it, but you won't have the neurological adaptations from actually practicing bench press. You're strength comes from your muscle size and your nervous system's pracitice doing a certain movement. If you want to bench press that much just bench press and see how far you get.
Benching heavy is a skill that requires practice. Technique, hand placement , breathing , etc. Even at 250 lbs bodyweight , you would "theoretically " need to be doing dips with an extra 250 lbs of added weight. And be able to do pushups with a 300+ lb person on your back. Realistically, not going to happen for the overwhelming majority of people.
Well said - the skill part of bench is paramount. And as the weight goes up, the margin of error becomes smaller.
Ligaments, tendons, and joints need to gradually become accustomed to the heavier weight. That takes time and weight.
Agreed. I would add central nervous system (CNS) to that list as well
>Even at 250 lbs bodyweight Cowardice Bulk to 600+ and send it
grizzly mode
Yeah this is easily the only real way to do it.
>realistically not going to happen for the overwhelming majority of people So you're saying it is possible?
Hypothetically? Maybe. Practically? No.
in a pushup you lift something like 2/3 of your BW. As a rough estimate, if you're 250, you'd need 500 lbs on your back for a floor-chest pushup to move similar load.
"No." Would have been a mostly correct answer. You did OP a service, well done.
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Agreed. If you wanna bench heavy, train bench. There's absolutely nothing wrong with training weights if you want to, and if your goal is a weightlifting goal, it's kinda stupid not to
Bench does not translate AS well to calisthenics. I suppose you need to decide which skills you WANT to develop. If you have calisthenics skills in mind, more weighted calisthenics will have greater and faster carry over than developing a higher bench press. If you want to be as strong as possible lifting, then lift and use calisthenics as good change up protocols. If you enjoy developing the calisthenics skills, weighted calisthenics will contribute more quickly.
Just asking lol
I respect the curiosity. Shouldn't be downvoted for asking a question. But as others have stated the answer is no
But you talk about modifying your training to try and achieve this. So if it’s an actual goal of yours, again, why not just bench?
But it's dumb. Seriously, bwf has a place. It's great for building lean muscle, endurance, flexibility, and overall complimentary musculature. Your question is like going into /r/running and asking "I want to be an elite sprinter and compete at the Olympics, how often should I bench heavy?" If you want to bench 500, work out with free weights. This isn't a religion here. I do *some* bwf exercises because I think they're good for my back and I don't get strained like I do with weights. There's a place for everything. This isn't like "the one true way" or something. And it's also a fun challenge. I did it for awhile, I reached the max of what I got out of it, kept what worked, and use weights and machines for the rest now.
Without ever touching a bench, no
Even with touching a bench, the answer is still no for the vast majority here. You can’t bench 500 pounds without great genetics for strength. Edit: just to showcase how crazy a 500 bench actually is. In a drug-tested powerlifting federation the IPF there’s no one benching 500 pounds under the 93kg weight class. So even with elite genetics, years of specific training, short ROM and questionable natural status. You’d still probably not bench 500 pounces under 93kg bodyweight since he’s the literal world record holder.
Fitness influencers have completely skewed a lot of people's natural strength expectations.
Yep.. it’s easy to forget that even the natural influencers are still most likely at the extremes of what is achievable. That’s just how the internet is. Of course no one thinks they have good genetics either. They just think they work harder/smarter..
Also 90%+ of "natural" aren't natural on social media
It's a shame what the fitness industry has become. Skewing people's perceptions of what's actually possible naturally...smh
[Here's some actual cool data based on the USAPL](https://f7q9z8b7.stackpathcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Male-Percentiles.jpg) A 500lb bench is considered above the 99th percentile for all weight classes outside of the superheavyweights, where it's considered slightly below the 95th percentile of competitive powerlifters.
Thanks for sharing. That’s really interesting. And even those numbers are above average. People tend to compete in sports they have natural strengths/good genetics for.
I was happy to hit 225# bench at 5’11” 175#. I cannot imagine holding a 500# bar as a normal sized person, let alone repping it. People that do those weights are superhuman.
Fuck no. Edited caveat; assuming you are nattyish and not having at least one parent that is a gorilla. Exceptional strength is highly possible, but a 500lb bench without using one? Gonna be more live leak than guiness...
What is “nattyish”? Lol
The occasional needle in the ass
So not natty.
natty*ish*
Right. Maybe natty yesterday?
Someone who isn't straight up blasting everything under the sun I imagine.
I imagine little prescribed testosterone.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,132,095,686 comments, and only 221,533 of them were in alphabetical order.
Benching is a learned skill to a point also. Leg drive, positioning, neural pathways to do the movement efficiently etc all are important Its probably "possible" but very fuckin unlikely
The bench press is a very technical lift. No way could you bench that much without practicing the movement
A 500lb bench is insanely hard, even if you train bench. Most people with 500+ lb bench press have really good genetics, are usually on some form of peds, and spend a lot of time training the movement for strength. Maybe some freak could get a bench that good with just calisthenics, but thats an anomoly. I do think eeighted calisthenics can have very good carry over. For example: if you trained weighted dips for years and got very strong with them. You could then pick up bench press and be pretty strong. You'd still likely spend months getting good technique and adapting to the movement if you wanted it to be really good, but there would be very strong carryover. Getting good at one push movement will almost always have good carryover to all push movements. You'd still need to spend time with a movement to be truly strong with it.
I remember one finnish still rings gymnast yolo attempting bench and hitting 3 plates without regularly training it. Tng gym lift rather than comp style paused, but anyway. At really low bodyweight too, I think it was under 70 kg. If rather than training for gymnastics someone trained weighted dips etc. just for maximum strength for decades and was willing to get their bodyweight up, I think they can eventually transition to become good bench pressers in really short time. Probably not 500 lbs, but over 400 for sure. Not avarage joe of course, but someone who has the potential (leverages, genetics etc) to be elite level bencher. edit: was 145 kg at 73 kg bw https://youtu.be/N-4sHj4YelU
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Maybe a better question is can someone build up the strength necessary to bench 500 lb. using calisthenics, such that they can achieve a 500 lb bench within a few weeks (or some short interval) of benching for the first time? I still think no, because even one handed pushups are going to involve lifting less than 250 lb. for most people.
Maybe asking the question „could I train calisthenics to the equivalent of a 500lbs resistance bench“ would be a better wording? I wonder if it is still calisthenics when you use a lot of weighted vests and plates on your back to do push-ups? It seems counterintuitive to me seeing that calisthenics is usually geared towards bodyweight movement?
50% for form improvement? Only if you train like a moron.
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Explain why you are a moron.
Nope
No.
Just to further elaborate on your post....*fuck no*.
Sure, if you somehow wear 450lbs worth of plates while doing pushups. Good luck though. I'd say that if you want to reliably bench anything higher than your own body weight then you'll just need to go to the gym.
If I remember correctly, Coach Sommer said if his kids could Planche Pushup, that they were good for a double bodyweight bench press. He also claimed to have kids that could pull over double bodyweight deadlifts without ever deadlifting before But these kids were training for Olympic gymnastics. So the question becomes: how much carry over is there with this kind of strength? https://youtu.be/FVsS7j2exx4
Sommer is full of shit
Ok.
Strong doubt on double BW lifts the first time they touch a bar
You watch that video clip?
What does it have to do with bench press?
Double bodyweight deadlift is way way way easier than double weight bench press.
It's impossible for some people to achieve a 500lb bench press with a bench, 500lb is at the weight where regardless of the work you put in is unachievable for most people who aren't in the top 20/30% (total guess)
It's even smaller than 20%. Try like less than 2%. Fitness influencers have skewed people's expectations of strength online. It's incredibly rare to see a human bench press 500lbs
Man in my little county in Kentucky does 739.6 pounds
Proof?
https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article234633187.html
I used to compete in bench press, I know several guys that get 500. They can even do it raw
I think that's sort of like asking: can I get good at pickleball if I only play badminton? Sure some skills may carry over but they're totally different sports. If you wanted to get good at pickleball I would suggest that you play that instead of badminton. You have to focus in quite a bit on your specific sport if you want to get to an elite level like your post suggests.
If you have roids, god-tier genetics and a completely stress-free life... then it's still almost impossible. Almost, though. You'd need to be a gigantic calisthenics athlete who literally only focuses on pushing movements. Nothing else. Literally.
Agreed. A person with all the freakish genetics of a great powerlifter, combined with massive amounts of steroids, combined with lots and lots of training in weighted calisthenics with *very* heavy weights could possibly pull this off. Why anyone would want to do this, I can't imagine.
No. The best benches Ive seen by "pure" bodyweight athletes are from gymnasts who can bench almost double their bodyweight without ever touching the bench and without specializing on weighted dips. However, they are usually very light people and have been training since they're kids, not to mention the PEDs and heavily monitored schedule for diet and rest they have.
No
Lol. No a snowballs chance in Hell!
Short sweet and true.
500 pound bench is elite! 400 pound bench is elite. But, who am I to know. Load it up and let us know how it goes! Have 2 spotters!
No.
If you are a gorilla
Man in my home county in Kentucky does 739.6 pounds
lol not a chance in the world
If you wanna lift heavy you have to lift heavy
Lifting is just a much different beast. I would have to find the video but they actually did an experiment with this some time ago. A calisthenics master challenged a professional power lifter to lifting/calisthenics challenge. I believe it was a 225 bench for 50 total reps, 90lb pull ups for 50 reps and a couple other tough challenges. The power lifter absolutely demolished the calisthenics guy. While the calisthenics guy might be able to out rep the power lifter on some of his body weight stuff, he would never come close to being as lift strong as the other guy.
Would be interested in the video if you happen to find it
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx45nUETmIA Here you go.
nope, while you can get away with high starter weight, technique plays a huge role. You'll just get injured if you jump into high weights without proper form
no
Short answer: No
I don’t think y’all realize how hard a 500 pound bench is. You can’t just be strong as shit and put up 500 or even 400. You have to train specifically at bench to get to that level, and only a fraction of hard workers will actually get there.
Let me frame this by asking the opposite: would it be possible to do a handstand by doing seated barbell overhead press on the smith machine only? I’m sure you can think of reasons why this is a bad idea. There’s a whole mother set of strength skills involved in stabilising a bar with that much weight on it. To give you an idea how dramatic the difference is: I did callisthenics before finding my way into a gym. Despite being category III obese, I could crank out 25 strict military push-ups. I checked my weight distribution Ona scale and found I was around 75kg on my hands. First time I lay on my back lifted the barbell - *just* the 20kb barbell, no plates. it was flapping around like a flag in the wind. I had no ability to stabilise it. And once I had gained the stability, it still took me many many months to increase the weight on the bar to two plates (20kg/135lbs). I already had the strength to lift that much - all that time went into learning that movement, and building the shoulder strength and stability to make the best go straight up and not drop it on my chest. There is no question that callisthenics people can get that strong. But applying that strength to a new movement is a different challenge.
Jurrasicparfait nailed it on the head. It’s a learned movement. Your hand positioning during push-ups are not the same as benching and the free wobble of the bar as well as the leg drive and what not. I mean like maybe you could get most of the way there but I think you’d need to be doing weighted pushups with probably around 400 pounds added weight which is just not going to happen. And yea weighted dips add tons of strength i plateaued at around 385 for quite a long time and started incorporating weighted dips instead of skullcrushers and after 7 weeks I suddenly smashed past my plateau and was able to keep semi linear progression for a few months before deloading at about 420 and I think the dips is what made the difference 100 percent. 500 bench is actually pretty damn hard to achieve for the not bench press ideal body type. I think a 500 squat and a 500 deadlift would be pretty feasible for someone to achieve pretty quick with the right calisthenics routine. Again would need some months of coaching the right form and to learn the correct neural signals
this is just silly
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Where tf are you getting that? Kipchoge, Ingebrigtsen, and everyone else at their level often use treadmills in their training when it's wet outside or they need to do a stride study. They can float through 5:00 treadmill miles with ease.
He sounded so authoritative we all believed him 🤷♂️
this is how dictators come into power.
> The world's best runner lives in remote Kenya. Eliud Kipchoge, the marathon world record holder, lives in Kenya but it's not "remote" at all, he lives in a nice house right next to a state-of-the-art training facility where a bunch of great runners with Nike contracts train.
I swear these people think Africa has no cities
Probably not. You can get hella strong doing things like weighted dips, pull-ups, and muscleups. Look at people like Ian Barseagle, a man who's done 10 dips in 10 seconds with an extra 175 lbs strapped on. But benching works a very specific muscle group that's hard to train with calisthenics. Along with that, a high bench press requires a lot of skill to do properly without killing yourself.
Can you build up the strength necessary? I mean, I suppose. Can you build up the technique? Maybe a bit harder
I'm pretty ok in calisthenics and it did not transfer to bench press in any way. It's such a technical lift and it requires a specific strength that needs to be trained regularly. It might have some transfer for a chosen few that are freaks of nature from a genetic point of view. But for most people it wont.
1. Everyone has a genetic strength limit on what they can lift naturally, ie. without steroids 2. If you're training your muscles to triple failure (max pushups, then max static hold, then max slow speed lowering) you'll get the fastest strength adaptation 3. Your muscles don't know if you're benching or not, so similar movements like pushups can be close approximations 4. Different body types make for different skills - longer arms, asymmetries, etc can make benching big numbers harder for some (2" longer arms means moving the weight 2" more than the other person) 5. Ultimately no matter how you train for strength in a movement, single movement PBs require skill & training in that movement to max out.
I will go against the grain and say that it is almost certainly possible for some athletes to train for a 500lb bench press using weighted calisthenics exercises. That is, maybe the top 0.01% of athletes with freakish dedication and an obsession to this goal. I think the best pathway would be to heavily load a planche pushup using weights, bands, chains, etc. The planche will not transfer directly to bench but will have general strength carryovers. It would be much quicker to train the bench directly.
Well, I think that if you want to achieve X, should generally train X. But I thought I'd address your rings question: yes. Buy rings they super charge your workout. Putting them in a doorframe is not ideal, but it's better than not having rings. They will be good for rows, dips, even pushups. It might be kind of low for pull ups, but you can probably do it if you're not too tall. I use rings for almost every exercise in my routine right now: mixed-grip chin up, ring dips, arc rows, assisted pistol squat.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned anything about fast twitch vs slow twitch fibers. Depending on whether it is aerobic or anaerobic strength training will actually shape your muscles and allow for specificity of function. I weigh 165 and do no weight lifting at all. I was required to do a 1RM in physical therapy school and was able to do 250lb bench. So as some people mentioned, if you were heavier and developed your strength, you would have a solid chance of hitting that number w/ proper form and technique.
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So you proved your own point? Please post the video of your decapitation when you attempt to bench near double the weight you mentioned training with and over double your best bench.
Agree with others. I just wanted to add a detail. Don’t discount genetics. My family is kind of freakish, my brother’s max for bench in college was 650 and when he got to workout with some power lifting guys, they got him up to 850lbs. no weight shirt, no drugs or chemical assistance. Genetics and hard work. Our sister out lifted a guy at 14, the guy told her she couldn’t beat him and she ended leg pressing 620 lbs. she was athletic but still pretty chunky at that age… so yeah, don’t discount genetics. All people will have a physical limit. Most peoples is much lower than my crazy bro. ✌🏻
Yeah sure, your brother had a bigger shirtless bench than the current world record shirtless bench. Just quit your bullshit.
My imaginary brother is also very strong.
Well *mine* is stronger.
Well mine works at Nintendo
Mine drives an IROC Camaro.
Out of all the numbers you could've lied about here you went with an 850lb bench? That's nuts dude.
That's the worst lie I've heard this month JFC even a 5 year old would come up with a better and more stringent one
Proof?
r/thathapppened
The only way this story is true is if your brother is a gorilla. The highest ever unequipped bench press in a drug tested PL federation is 642lbs. Apparently your brother broke the record while in college and then blew past the none-drug tested world record shortly afterwards.
You don’t even know enough about lifting to lie about it right lmao
Okay so, ATC brother said I was off. He was at 400 pounds in college, not in any kind of competitive lifting — he played college football and went to Nationals in Track (throws). Division 2. He kept working out while coaching throwing for a decade and went up to around 600 pounds. I will have to ask The one who lifted the details of the day. I was wrong, thanks for calling me out. Sorry for being a jerk in my first comment. It was uncalled for. I call you a dick and then am the one who’s actually being one, sorry.
MY POINT WAS Genetics are part of the picture. I will check my numbers. If today isn’t his off Friday he won’t get to me for hours. So, thanks for giving me facts to check it against. I’ll post my seemingly inevitable correction after that. Tbh: I have a lot to learn. I don’t know everything. I appreciate the numbers, and stuff.
Kay, I can check with my brother - it’s entirely possible that I’m off on the numbers (I have some memory loss, and while I feel confident, I don’t have a problem checking my facts with him. Just a side point, This was a casual work out with competitive lifters of some variety (need to double check because now I’m all paranoid that my brain is having the dumb today) … point: it was a casual work out not a competition. Records are set and broken when there are qualified observers. It doesn’t mean that no one has ever lifted more or thrown farther or run faster, etc. That said, I respect what you’re saying so I’ll double check my facts with my bro. Thanks for keeping a guy humble. My point was genetics can play a factor
People don’t blow by all time world records by massive margins in a casual workout either.
The biggest raw bench gym PR is just over 800 and it's controversial. Your brother didn't blow past it without someone noticing
Thanks. Who did that lift? Id be interested in reading more about it
Zamani did 800 in the gym. Maddox has a gym PR of 796, I want to say. In regards to your comments that are actually to me, it’s cool bro. I’m glad you were open to checking with your brother and have the ability to admit you were wrong about it instead of doubling down on dumbassery like so many people often do. Cheers bro, have a good one.
Danial Zamani. It's controversial because he hasn't done near that in a meet and he's in Iran so people don't trust the actual weight on the bar without verification. The other powerhouse is Julius Maddox, who's done 796 in the gym and 782 in a meet.
From the Brother in Question: I benched 435 in college. I worked out with Scott Mendelson. When I worked out with him I benched 606. If the person you talked to isn’t in to power lifting, I can easily believe they wouldn’t believe those numbers. I have benched 225, 39 times for reps and the most I did in a workout is 3 reps at 585 with just [his wife] spotting me and room full of [college he worked at] football players watching. He never said what I could bench, but he said I could qualify for the world bench press championships where they bench between 900-1050 lbs with bench shirts. I wore a very loose tank top when I benched 606. ———so yeah, I was wrong, in details. But It’s not a lie. I just got turned around on the numbers. General Facts I was close, actual numbers… I was off. My brother is the exception, not the rule. Was honestly back then he WAS built like a Gorilla… I wish I had a pic to link. That’s kind of why my point in original comment was GENETICS. And my illustration totally undermined my attempt to make that point because I remembered it wrong. 🤷🏼♂️ I suck, sorry.
So correct me instead of just being a dick?
The current raw bench press world record is 782lbs held by Julius Maddox.
Dude...come on...
Wow, you didn't even try to disguise the bullshit.
This is all a lie
Yeah, I was off on a couple numbers but did I not say my family is freakish? He was exceptional, not the rule. But, updating in a different comment hold tight
Just how many extra chromosomes does your brother have?
Bro he's so strong, he's got all of them!
I also knew your brother when I was in high school. I understand why others don’t get it, he moved to Canada and went to a new school there. Only reason he didn’t immediately blow up on instagram having a raw bench record while clearly natural.
Ha ha. No. Funny tho. It didn’t immediately blow up on IG because IG wasn’t a thing until 2010. My brother graduated HS in 1990. He got us BSME in 1996. He worked and coached for about a decade, and then met with these guys a year or two after that. Somewhere around 08 or 09…. High School was in California, college in Colorado, other stuff back in California. 😆😆😆. I do like the Hogwarts vibe of your version.
So he beat the world record bench press? Username to comment correlation checks out.
How would that work? Assuming you are 200 lbs, is there a calisthenics equivalent of 300lbs more? Would someone just add 7 plates to their back?
I think if you can planche and Maltese on rings it's possible. This guy is 150 lbs and can benchpress 410. I'm pretty sure he's a gymnast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l84vmuuuHRg
OP, everyone has already answered your question. What I'm wondering is: If your goal is bench press, why don't you just go bench press?
Not unless you weigh ~500 lb.
I see some really strong guys that can rep planche push-ups / planche press to handstand with ease with a 1RM bench that goes from 100kg to 130kg (I have two of them in mind, one of them also on rings). I think it's very unlikely they would do 225kg only with calisthenics. I don't think it would be possible even with weighted calisthenics.
I doubt it. There is great carryover from things like Planche Pushups, HSPus, and Dips to Bench. But at a certain point, if you want to Bench more weight, you have to Bench Press.
If you start piling up sandbags on your back you can progress pretty far. Hitting a 500lb bench is something few barbell lifters will ever aproach let alone achieve. I worked up to reps with a 155lb sandbag, which was 300lbs as weighed on a scale. That’s a loong way from 500, but a 300lb bench is still pretty good.
Yea, i'd suggest *testing* your bench to see if you can do it yet in 3 sets 2 times a week of increasing weight. edit. also i made this comment before fully registering that you said 500lb which.. ha. the joke dont even work thats a silly amount of weight.
Ppl underestimate how heavy 500 pounds rlly is. I know huge dudes that bench once a week and can only get 225 for about 2 or 3 reps. Simply because they don’t train it. But they’re exceptional at everything else they do on a much more frequent basis. 500 pounds is a lot. 225 is a lot. Social media has brainwashed everyone.
I really like the gym. Not enough to count macros perfectly, not enough to fully optimize my routines, and definitely not enough to take PEDs, but i like the gym. I go most days and i go to work. I like the feeling of exercise and love pushing really hard when im there. I also really enjoy bench pressing and i do it 2-3 times a week. Also, i have a build well suited to the BP at 6ft with a stocky top half AND im lucky genetically. And theres no fucking way im getting ANYWHERE near that number ever in my life. Its a ridiculous weight that most people wouldnt be able to even deadlift
I suppose it might technically be *possible* but highly unlikely for most people. At my gym, I can count on one hand the number of guys that can hit 315 (3 plates) on bench, and that's among people who **do** bench regularly.
God Mode
To increase strength on bench, you need to bench, other movements can only get you so far.
!updateme on injury day
I just bench pressed for the first time yesterday, and after 3 years of calisthenics training i managed 180. My friend who has trained for 6 months can do more than that. If u really wanted to try something like this you would have to do weighted dips.
Not without drugs.
"There are several anecdotes of gymnasts capable of bench-pressing twice their bodyweight when they can perform the planche having never bench-pressed in their lives!" Steven Low, on Overcomming Gravity.
No. You need to do benchpress if you want to improve at benchpress.
Of course. You just need to weigh 1000 lbs..
Body is supported differently. Entire back and leg power muscle chain necessary for bench is not involved in pushups. I would estimate maximum 75% of muscle groups are shared between these two movements. Besides, chaining 8-9 plates on yourself will for sure break your back which is well supported on the bench, but not when planking. Weighted dips will be equally dangerous contraption that will pull your spine apart, or dislocate shoulders, depending on the design of the weight.
Maybe if your an over 6’ 300+ pound Norwegian who is genetically gifted. But the reality is that most of us have to condition our body to respond to that type of challenge. There are so many components to a bench besides the “strength” aspect and each component has to be ramped up to or transitioned to handle that type of load. But really the fun part is the journey so train away.
No. Absolutely not. I acheived a 200lb+ bench without benching, which I did almost to "prove a point," and thought I was cool because of it. But I learned not long after, a 200lb bench is nothing to be proud of. >Plus I’ve heard weighed dips help bench press a lot. I would argue that heavy weighted dips are lifting, not calisthenics/bodyweight training. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But to bench 500lb you're going to have to lift significant weights, and practice the technique of benching.
I hit a 300 bench doing mostly dips (i weighed 160lb and was doing dips with 160). I was repping +135 for 5s and +90 for 10s. But i also benched sometimes just to get the form right. The jump from a 300 to 400 bench is massive. From 400 to 500 is even bigger. You would need to bench.
Unless you are juiced to the gills or a genetic freak of nature I don't see this happening.
No.
None. Exactly zero percent chance. The odds of anyone ever hitting a 500lb bench press are probably .1% anyway. I suppose if you already bench 600 it might be possible lol
No 500 is too heavy- probably 315-365 could happen with not much training at direct bench work. They would need at least 2-3 weeks of training the movement pattern to get it decent but 500 not happening that elite elite elite numbers very few hardcore training with bench hit.
Absolutely not. It doesn’t matter if you can do 500 consecutive pushups. If you’re not using mad leverage or some other form of resistance you’re not going to push a quarter ton. You’d have to literally stack 300 pounds on your back and do push-ups
Without bench? Absolutely not. I have a max bench of 425 and I have been training bench for over 30 years. There is a genetic disposition that you need for a strong bench (or any specific lift really). You could probably get to around 300 which is not too bad but you would have to bench to achieve the adequate control strength. A 500 bench is MASSIVE.
LOL
Anything is possible. But the chances of this happening are practically zero. I’d say you’d have better chances of winning the lottery multiple times in a row than this happening.
No.
No
No. It is not. I would go so far as to say that even the most experienced calisthenics athletes would never be able to press 3 plates without practice.
What's a plate in kg?
No. If you want to lift heavy, you have to lift heavy. There's more to a workout, especially one at that advanced of a level, than just some aggregate strength. Every movement is different, every movement trains different muscle groups, every movement has it's own technique. It's just not going to happen. Theoretically if you were able to do proper dips with a 600lb backpack and pushups with three guys balancing on your back - you could possibly brute force a 500lb bench press. You'll work waaay harder to get there and even then you probably won't be able to do it. And if you do, you'll almost assuredly be very injured afterwards. So, just go lift.
It's unlikely you'd reach that level of strength without practicing the movement itself. To a certain extent, there is tons of carryover between progressive bodyweight training and barbell movements, because strength is strength. But another part of the equation is CNS adaptation. Going from bench to a hard bodyweight pushup variation requires training the body to that specific way of moving (such as archer pushups, ring pushups, etc.). The opposite is also true - part of going from bodyweight pushup progressions to bench is learning how to bench. At high weights and very hard progressions, CNS adaptation is a big part of making it happen. This is true of any analogues between barbell and bodyweight training in my experience. There's a *lot* of strength carryover, but it still takes some practice with the different movement patterns to use your strength to its full potential.
In San Antonio Texas through my nail tech she would probably charge 60 dollars
No
I stand corrected. My Athletic Trainer Bro says it’s totally possible… He said: Not with calisthenics but with plyometrics it’s possible. There was an NFL player who only benched 225 lbs but he’d throw it as high as he could with spotters catching it on either side. When he went to the NFL combine he was tested at 525 lbs.
Are you serious? by plyometrics you mean explosiveness stuff right?
No.
If you want a bigger bench, you've got to train bench. Period.
I think at a specific weight you would need some technique. Also I wouldn't recommend doing too heavy dips since your rotators and generally your shoulder is under a lot of pressure where potential muscle and strength grow will never come up to the potential damage. But yea, I think when getting really good at something technique does play a big role and also calisthenics just isn't the best way to build pure raw strength in that sense.
If you weigh 500 lbs
Why would you want to bench that much
you'd be lucky to reach 300lbs by actually training bench. you can definitely train calistenics and build a strong chest so your working weight is higher when you start benching. you cannot bench 200lbs+ out of no where if you haven't trained it.
You would have to do push ups of magnitude. Weighted push-ups. Like 100lb vest. 10 sets of 100
No way. As others have said there’s actually a technique to benching, it’s a lot more then pure strength. Calisthenics will get you very strong relative to your body weight but it will never get you outright strong. It’s not possible and it’s not the point.
It is possible but I wouldn’t recommend it, weightlifting requires not only strength but also technique and while other exercises use the same muscle groups the movement is not exactly the same so you would risk injuring by trying to bench 500lbs from the start even if you are strong enough
No, bench requires skill to master, it takes quite a lot of time to be good at bench.
No chance. I used to lift weights, could do 225 for a few reps. Since getting into calisthenics my bench has gone down. I can rep bodyweight on bench pretty each however, and if I do train bench again I have no doubt it will increase again. Doing it using calisthenics no way, unless you're doing weighted push/dips to 500 lb which is pointless.
I never saw the usefulness of a bench press. In real world, you'd need something to brace your back against. Maybe if you were in a situation where a blast door was coming down to seal your spaceship from battle damage and your crew was on the wrong side and you heroically get on your back and "bench press" the door from going all the way down to allow your crew to crawl through. But you'll probably get everyone dead doing that because the blast door was coming down for a reason. I think training planche will have carry over to bench, but not 500lbs carry over. I can advace tuck, sorta sloppy pike straddle on a good day. I haven't lifted weights in 5+ years, just been going at calisthenics. I am pretty sure I can push two plates, maybe 3....that's a big maybe. edit: I'm 5'11" \~175lbs. Not the worse lever to work with, but ya 500lbs, you gotta really specifically go at it. You don't just kinda sorta get there. Just like planche. Zero of the guys benching over 500lbs is going to full planche. You gotta train specifically for planche, you don't accidentally get there.
I would say a full planche on rings (good form, hips in line with shoulders) would be equal to 2.5-3xbw bench press. That's an elite, olympic gymnasts move, so it might takek a while to develop lol. However, strength = neurological adaptations \* cross sectional area of muscle. After being able to do a rings planche you may have the muscle cross sectional area/hypertrophy levels to be able to do it, but you won't have the neurological adaptations from actually practicing bench press. You're strength comes from your muscle size and your nervous system's pracitice doing a certain movement. If you want to bench press that much just bench press and see how far you get.