Is a 225lbs bench press equivalent to a 5:00 mile for men??

Dude, you've got 2 plates in you with that, or pretty damn close.

I would do something like:

• 3-5 minute jog
• 12 x bar (45)
• 12 x 65
• 5 x 135
• 3 x 165
• 3 x 185
• 2 x 195
• 1 x 200
• 1 x 205
• 1 x 210
• etc

keep going until failure. YOU NEED A SPOTTER, OR AT THE VERY LEAST DECENT SAFETEY BARS. As a last resort, you could not clip in the weight but that can cause issues if you lift the weight unevenly. Make sure nothing of value is nearby if you go that route. I've seen massive holes in drywall and smashed feet from launched 45lb plates.

The other approach would be to do a shorter warmup to something like 195lbs, and the see how many times you can lift 195lbs and use strength level to ballpark your 1rm. Should be pretty close.

Good luck broski, you've got this.

This is what I was talking about, too many sets/reps before you reach the top weight.

You need a spotter or a rack in which you can safely fail or this won't end well.

To target 215 you want to find the groove and gain some confidence, but no fatigue.

45x8, 135x3, 165x2, 190x1, 210-215x1.

An alternative to tonight's workout would be:

45x8, 135x5, 170x1, 195x5, 190x5, 185x5 (possibly 200 on that first set of 5)

I do have safety bars on my squat rack that I've had to use from time to time. Is the goal to go to failure every time you're in the gym?

You don't need to grind out forced reps or fail on every set, but the last rep on your top set should often be dicey. You are limiting yourself if you always have a rep or two in reserve due to not having a spotter.

I did 135x6, 165x3, 185x3, 2x195, 1x205, 1x215, 1x220 tonight with about 3 min in between. That's officially my first time ever attempting a 1RM. I might need to up my goal a bit, I'm not too far off!

It is much harder to cheat in the mile run. The bench press, pullups, pushups, and other exercises can be cheats.

As a tall and gangly runner who doesn’t lift, I’ve always been frustratingly on the cusp of benching my weight, but despite running thousands of miles I’ve never been even CLOSE to running a mile under my weight in seconds. Ergo, the mile is harder than benching.

I saw a guy come into the gym and he was about 5'10" and maybe 155. He had no visible muscle. He benched 290 with perfect form! I have seen a few others like that although it is not common (unless of course they are cheating).

I almost never see guys pushing 2 plates at my gym. Everyone seems like a beginner there though, not gym bros.

I did 9*135, 7*170, 5*195, 5*190, 5*185 tonight with around 3 min rest. Felt really good! I'm guessing the strategy is to slowly increase the latter sets over the next 3 months?

Did similar tonight except 10 reps the first set and attempted 5x200 for the third set. I made it 4 reps and had to bail out on the last rep with the safety bars. Still feels like progress. Wondering what a good goal would be before the end of the year since I'm so close to 225 already.

Not at all. I think given a few months to train way more guys could bench 225 than run sub 5. Senior citizens bench 225, but they don’t run sub 5.

You should look up Max Effort Training and the Conjugate System.

Looking at your numbers your 1RM should be about 230+.

However, lifting singles, doubles, and triples is a lot harder than sets of 5.

This is what I would do:

135 x 10, 185 x 3, 205 x 3, 225 x 3+

So...warmup...ramp up to a max 1-3, add 15-20lbs ea set until you get to your last planned set then lift to failure on the last set.

Alan

Second most stupid question so far this calendar year. But on the positive side, there's still 2 1/2 months to go for someone to throw it into 3rd place.

Long arms alone is enough to make it hard irrespective of height.

I’d have said “skinny” instead of short, even though girth is a changeable attribute.

5 month update - I finally hit 225 last week on the bench. It felt like I had 230 in me afterwards.

The bar doesn't have to go nearly as low if you're really fat.

This depends on what your genetic profile is. Some guys can bench 225 without much training at all, but will never get a any where near a 5 minute mile even with training, think an nfl o line man. And then there's guys that can run a 5 minute mile off playing basic sports, but will never make it past 185 for a one rep max, think german Fernandez or nuguse lol. Then there's freaks that can do both extremely well, think joe falcon. Kind of a dumb comparison.