Newsflash: Everyone Used to Bench 400 lbs!
As many of you already know, I was back in NY this past weekend for a family reunion. I’m happy to report that I ended up not wanting to kill myself. Yay me! In all seriousness, it was great to see my family, whom I haven’t seen since last Thanksgiving. It was also great to go bat shit crazy and eat pretty much every carb I could get my hands on. Pizza and chocolate chip cookies never tasted so glorious.
See people, we fitness professionals aren’t skeered to eat some carbs everyone now and then. I’m certainly not. CARBS!!!!!! Lets just put it this way; if eating carbs was like knocking over tall buildings, I would have been freakin Godzilla this weekend. Or Kim Kardashian’s ass. HI HO!
In any case, while home this weekend, my mom mentioned to me that as she was reading my blog the other day, the new gym teacher at the school where she works was watching the Bench-Off videos over her shoulder. Shortly thereafter he stated that “back in the day, I used to bench 400 lbs. Blah blah blah.” Is it just me, or is anyone else amazed at how many people used to bench 400 lbs back in high school/college?
I mean, outside of the year that I spent training at South Side Gym in Stratford, CT, I’ve only seen TWO people bench a legitimate 400 lbs. And I’ve trained at plenty of different gyms. Yet, it seems a week never goes by where I don’t read or hear about someone benching this magical figure back in high school. Yet, they can only bench 185 for reps now.
These guys have no idea how much 400 lbs is. If I were to put 315 on the bar, I’m willing to bet that most would destroy the back of their pants, and come up with some lame excuse as to why they couldn’t do it. Like they tweaked their shoulder the other day, or I don’t know, their vagina hurts. That’s two today. I’m on fire!
