What's the best bench press/5K time combo you've ever seen?

5K time in seconds / Bench Press in Pounds less than 4 would be very good. Around 2 I expect to be about the human limit.

when I was at my peak strength, I could bench 225 and run a 5k in around 19:10

when I was at my peak fitness, I could run a 5k in 18:10 and bench ~150, could probably go to 180 if i wasn't recovering from shoulder surgery

I was 5'11" 180 lbs for both of these

not impressive but an example data point

sparky polastry wrote:

5K time in seconds / Bench Press in Pounds less than 4 would be very good. Around 2 I expect to be about the human limit.

That's a great point. I'm not sure 2 is even possible, though.

15:00 and 225 would be right at 4.

14:30 and and 435 would be right at 2.

Just doesn't seem like a 14:30 runner could even sustain the upper body muscle mass to put up 400 on the bench.

I benched 300lbs and ran a 15:28 5K a week later, weighed 165 at 6'. PR was 14:38 weighing 150, could around 225 bench at that time

I ran the 800m in college for a mid-tier D-1 school.

I usually weighed anywhere from 150-160 and am 5'11. My peak bench was 245 and p.r. for the 5k at the same time was low 15's.

Nowadays i hardly ever run and focus more on lifiting. I weigh around 175 and my max bench is about 295. You would have to pay me money to run a 5k under 18 right now though.

Another data point: 355 bench, 18:30 5k (treadmill 1% incline)

But I was mid-40’s when I did it, so I suspect someone much younger could do much better, especially in the 5k

Gives a ratio of 3.12 FWIW. For sure someone younger could do better

Ratio of 2 would result in 13:20 5k for a 400 bench.

That would never happen.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Ratio of 2 would result in 13:20 5k for a 400 bench.

That would never happen.

True, because 13:20 is a pro-level time. But 500 pounds bench 16:40 and 600 pounds bench 20:00.

The poster said human limit. So you need to assume a 6'6" guy with a strong upper body and sub-14 running talent training like Kipchoge except for this challenge. He does that from the age of 10, and 20 years later on an amazing day with perfect conditions, he has the race of his life and runs 16:34 and benches 495, one in the morning and the other in the evening.

That's what human limit means. It seems eminently believable to me.

500/600-lb bench is sea monsters.

Also no chance of 16:40/20:00

There have been a few smaller wiry guys who have, incredibly, benched around 500...but 16:40 is a giant stretch. I would love to see it, though

Probably the best ratio would come from a small and wiry bench freak, of which there are a few

Alex Viada wrote:

retry 5k link:

https://tinyurl.com/y6qpkmsz

I remember seeing the whole workout, and you cut some of the picture off. The 5k you did was down a 600' hill. Which I guess is 19 min effort on flat

Coach buddy of mine in NY ran 4:16 in HS for the mile (idk what his 5k time was). Later in life he got into doing strongman competitions and his bench was over 5 hundo

My 5K PR is 14:25 and I could probably bench around 190-200 pounds at the time - I would regularly do 3 sets of 8x135 without a spot and my lifetime high is 215 (though weighed a bit more at that time). Right now I'm in ~66:30 half marathon shape and similar benching shape, though don't have enough speed to run a fast 5K right now.

Last year I ran my first marathon and briefly tried benching more frequently to try to bench my marathon time by the end of the year. Was probably unrealistic, and getting mono in the winter prevented any chance of it happening.

Cool thread.

I was a 14:40 - 200 lb bench guy. Weighed about 155. There was a 14:0?/23:?? 8K CC guy on my college team that got really into lifting after he became a cop and could BP 250 more than once. I doubt he ever weighed over 165. He was just freakishly strong.

At my strongest, I could bench maybe 220ish, but rarely lifted max weight

Ca$hclay wrote:

Cool thread.

I was a 14:40 - 200 lb bench guy. Weighed about 155. There was a 14:0?/23:?? 8K CC guy on my college team that got really into lifting after he became a cop and could BP 250 more than once. I doubt he ever weighed over 165. He was just freakishly strong.

At my strongest, I could bench maybe 220ish, but rarely lifted max weight

Funny enough, I ran in the mile and 800 in 8th grade, nearly 20 years ago. Hit a big growth spurt following 8th grade and in a small football town, the idea of running longer than a mile (few times a year) was highly discouraged by our coaches.

I ran the hurdles, 4x1, and 200 throughout HS. Never once ran longer than 6-7 minutes throughout all of HS, not counting bball games, as there are breaks and not a true aerobic event.

Squat 420-Bench 240- Deadlift 385 the end of my JR of HS..I didn't practice deadlifts, as this was before trap bar deads became more mainstreamed, and our coach put more emphasis on power cleans. I power cleaned 205x4. I was weighing 192 lbs going into that summer, and clocked a 5:43 mile. Didn't run the mile again for quite some time. Didn't run farther than 2 miles until nearly 5 years later.

Low 19 5k runner these days weighing 182 lbs. Even logging consistent mileage over the last 7-8 years, my bone structure won't allow for much less weight to come off, as this is my natural feel good weight. I was 210 in early 2009. My goal before end of 2019 is to run another timed mile, and see if I can get below 5:30, I've been intrigued for awhile now. I still strength train on the regular but not like my football days, all of the same moves, weight wise more relative to my running specific needs.

Paul Stemmer

/thread

p.s. surprised malley hasn't chimed in with this yet.

Rich Froning 350 pounds and he could probably run 17:XX any time of the year with little specific training

kids in the rec hall wrote:

Paul Stemmer

/thread

p.s. surprised malley hasn't chimed in with this yet.

Can you elaborate? Found an old thread about Paul Stemmer but it doesn't list any specific race times or weightlifting numbers.