Benching 225 is equivalent to what mile time?

This is one time wrote:

This is one time The Jeff is an expert. Wasn't The Jeff a D-1 or D-2 Am. football athlete? I am sure The Jeff knows what 165 lbs. 4th string slot receivers bench press, also what punters and field goal kickers bench press.

4th string slot receivers in college bench press north of 225. They do not run south of 5min miles.

I am sure that many kickers do not seriously work out their upper bodies beyond their core, but the ones that do might surprise you.

I know this video has nothing to do with bench press... but still fun :-)

weightssss wrote:

https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/lb

225 in a void is useless info. 225 in relation to the person's bodyweight is much more useful info. for a 130 pound runner twink, 225 may as well be a 4 minute mile-- it will likely never happen.

Not really as a freshman in HS i was 6ft 130lbs max bench 135lbs. After 3.5 year of lifting I was 6'2 160lbs 230lbs max bench.

For a male weightlifter, 225 is not impressive especially for a one rep max (ORM). 315 is very good. 405 is impressive. It may be impressive for a runner or average person though.

Likewise 4, 5, 6 minute miles are about the same benchmark for runners, but 7 minutes would be a challenge for many lifters.

wow so you literally proved my point by adding 30 pounds of muscle, good job.

weightssss wrote:

https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/lb

225 in a void is useless info. 225 in relation to the person's bodyweight is much more useful info. for a 130 pound runner twink, 225 may as well be a 4 minute mile-- it will likely never happen.

Not sure how relevant your point is, but keep in mind that bodyweight matters a lot in weightlifting, too, lol. For a 335lb offensive lineman who is incredibly athletic in box jumps and shuttle runs, a 6 minute mile would be fairly daunting.

4:50. A 5:00 mile is a joke. I ran 5:00 with no distance specific training in my first attempt at the distance on the track. On the other hand, it took years to get up to 225 on bench. That being said, I did both when I was 16 or 17.

I don't think I've been unable to bench 225 for reps ever outside a broken arm/wrist since I was 15, usually around 250-260 these days and I'm in my mid 40s

My lifetime mile PR was 5:30 when xtraining with my college swim team, and now it's just a tick or two below 6:00

I hardly ever left, but when I do it's for the lats/shoulders/back with nothing but push-ups that are relevant for bench.

I'm 6'2" 190, and measured at 15% BF when dunked or within a % of that

To me benching 225 is about as challenging as a 9 minute mile, I've gone years without lifting and would still be able to bench 225 when I check (eg most of my later 20s)

The question states 225 is equivalent to what mile time? It doesn't state this is a max out or all out mile...so I still think 225 is equivalent to 5 flat. If we are thinking about people who are in shape, but not maxing out, then 225 would equal 5 flat. You have to do some training to get it, but it doesn't have to be an all out effort. You just have to be a good athlete that works out to get it in whatever your respective sport is, weight lifting or running.

compressed wrote:

Like Solomon, allow me to split the difference.

5:30!

Liberate yourself from the tyranny of round numbers.

Based on personal experience I would go with this or maybe even 5:20 if I wanted to get more specific. But I think 5:30 is a good call.

Looking on Athletic.net, based on track & field and XC results, Wayzata High School seems like they must have app. 30 kids or so at the school capable of racing a sub-5 mile. Randomly look at XC and T&F results at other high schools around the nation, nothing close to Wayzata High School. IMO, most high schools have a dozen guys max whom are capable of racing sub-5 for a mile with no additional training. I am certain there are a couple dozen guys on average at high schools across the US capable of 225 lbs. bench press. 130 lbs. sub-4:30 milers are on letsrun in large numbers. I know the majority of letsrun posters aren't sub-4:30 milers, but there are a lot of opinionated 130 lbs. sub-4:30 milers here. For the sub-4:30 milers, sub-5 is not impressive. For the 130 lbs. sub-4;30 milers, benching 225 lbs. is a challenge. 225 lbs. bench press for the random average person, not random average letsrun poster is equal to app. a 6 minute mile.

TheQuestion wrote:

The question states 225 is equivalent to what mile time? It doesn't state this is a max out or all out mile...so I still think 225 is equivalent to 5 flat. If we are thinking about people who are in shape, but not maxing out, then 225 would equal 5 flat. You have to do some training to get it, but it doesn't have to be an all out effort. You just have to be a good athlete that works out to get it in whatever your respective sport is, weight lifting or running.

In one sense, you are close: Elite athletes can bench 225 over 30 reps, and elite athletes can also probably run consecutive 5-minute miles 30ish times. But that doesn't jive with the second half of your post; both of these would certainly be all-out efforts.

I think the OP's question is more fun to think about in terms of a single maximum effort: one mile, all out, vs one-rep bench max (and probably what the OP intended, as well.)

yup

#srw

(scrawny runner worldview)

PS- I asked this question to some of my runners who were sitting with some football players.

The runners said 225 = 4:30.

The football players got in a fight over whether 225 should = 9:00 or 8:00.

lol

It's a weird thing do compare because people typicaly don't train only bench like they train only running. But lets say someone decides to focus 100% on bench press. If a male does that then 225 pounds is very easy. I would say probably say equivalent to 7 minute mile in that case. But in normal situation 225 bench is indicative of pretty stellar overall shape, probably somewhere between 5 and 5:30, but obviously it depends on how much focus was given to the bench.

I just don't see it. I ran a 5:24 mile in HS with minimal distance training. I spent the entire summer after soph year just lifting and dirty bulking, gained 15lbs that summer. So my cardio was basically at 0. That Fall semester junior year I did the generic sprinter workouts with the team and ran about 10 miles a week on my own. At the end of the semester during time trials I ran my 5:24. So I went from 0 cardio to sub 5:30 miler easily in less then 6 months. Versus weightlifting after starting as a freshman after a few months I could bench 135lbs, took me another whole year to get to 200lbs, then another 2 years to bench 230

Questions like this are clearly going to be slanted based on the perspective of the viewer. So here, it's not surprising that people have a laughably high opinion of a 225 max vs a 5 minute mile. I think there should be some sort of numerical metric (or at least a philosophical one) when comparing the two benchmarks, and not just general feeling as that is more easily swayed by personal experience. Metrics aren't as easy to establish for bench as they are for mile times (which are diligently recorded by HS results). In this case we need some sort of definition of a 5 minute mile based on something non-quantitative that we can port over to the bench. The definition I will use is that the 5 minute mile is a mark that a high school runner of "average" (again, this is up for interpretation) talent can achieve before they graduate. A high school student of "average" ability who spends 4 years lifting is basically a lineman/thrower. I will subjectively equate 300 bench to a 5 minute mile. I agree more with the posters who say 225 is closer to a 6 minute mile, maybe more like 5:45. This analysis is slanted since lifting ability seems to improve (relative to running) with age as it becomes easier to put on weight. When considering this question, maybe too we should consider that naturally big people have an easier time benching heavy weight, while naturally skinny people will have an easier time running faster over distance. I know people with relatively little experience in lifting reach 300 basically because they were whales to begin with, while I also know some people with no running experience who ran sub 5 on their first timed mile. Really depends on the starting point and natural inclination, but based on my "analysis" I think the 300-5min mark is apt.

The posters who are trying to equate a 4 plate bench to a sub 4 mile are flawed. Here is my take; the sub 4 mile was a world record in 1954 when there was a considerable ammount of attention in the sport. I think taking the shirtless bench record from this period would be a mistake as it was not nearly as popular, but at the time the record was 500. Adjusting for the popularity, I think that a 4 minute mile would be closer to a 550-600 bench. I have no idea how many people are able to do this in a given year, but around 100-200 runners go sub 4, so i would hope the marks i have set are equivalent in that way.

Anecdotally, my bench max is 225 (from 6 years ago) and my mile PR is 4:57 (from last year) and I am 25 years old. I think my body is naturally more suited towards lifting (I am 5 foot 11 and weigh 180 lbs). To get to 225, I was lifting 3-4 times per week (chest 1 day per week) while mainly focusing on soccer training. I spent two months or so focusing more on push ups to get from 205 to 225. Lifting was not my top priority. Even after I dislocated my shoulder and switched to squats/cleans/deadlifts as my main lifts, I was able to get pretty close to 225 with very little bench in my routine. To get a sub 5 mile, I switched my main sport from soccer to running and ran 35-40 mpw with 2 track workouts per week. Admittedly, my training was not optimal, but it took 6 months to go from 5:16 to 4:59. Even though I was putting considerable effort into my speed/agility with soccer and doing fitness work with shuttles, for me sub 5 was much more difficult than 225.

A bunch of high school girls can run 5:00 but very few can bench 225. Case.Closed.

Wait nvm, thought this was 1500m time, not mile. Okay ya that seems sorta close. Case.Closed.

Bench 1070 lbs.

Mile 3:43

Average mile 7-10 min

Average bench 135 lbs (male)

World Records and Averages wrote:

Bench 1070 lbs.

Mile 3:43

Average mile 7-10 min

Average bench 135 lbs (male)

That's with a Bench pressing shirt. The raw bench press record is around 700lbs depending on federation.