# Fictional Bench Presses **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-bench-presses/507106 "2009-08-20T18:30:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-bench-presses/507106/21 "2009-08-21T18:55:58Z")
> [@Meatros](#): > > That’s kind of how I read it too. 350 is high, but not out of the range of possibilities… > > Robin Williams benching 285 is absurd, BTW… No it’s not. Not absurd, at all. My senior year of highschool, I benched 315. The max was a one rep max done at the beginning of the football season - our coach discouraged one rep maxing in general but allowed it this one time of the year. If you benched 150% of your weight, you got a t-shirt. I weighed 195 at the time, and so I got the t-shirt. After high shcool, I slacked off working out completely, instead choosing to focus my efforts on drinking and trying to get laid. I didn’t pick up lifitng again until the summer before my junior year of college. In about a month’s time, I was back up to three reps of 275. By the end of the summer, I was back at 305. I quit again and did not lift until after I graduated. The summer after I graduated I started lifting again - within four weeks it was like I’d never quit. I continued to lift intermittently through law school and was in the low threes by the end of my third year – I never focussed on increasing my maximum lift. Once I started practicing law, I quit lifting again for another couple of years. The next time I picked it up, I was around 27 years old. I was back to three reps of 275 within about two months. I quit again for a few years and picked it up again in my early thirties. By this point I weighed 235 (fat). Within three months I could lift 280. I quit again and haven’t since picked it up, but I am fairly certain that if I did, I would be back in the high twos in less than six months. Today I am fat and haven’t worked out on anything in over a year. I am built much the same way Williams is now. I was horsing around at a friends house the other day and lifted 205 with ease. It’s not hard for me to imgagine a guy his size and his age lifting 285 if he’s been at it for years. Not hard at all. Are there a hundred reason why he might not be able to? Sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not absurd, expecially for someone who’s just naturally strong. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-bench-presses/507106/22 "2009-08-21T19:01:20Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > It’s not “no fucking way.” It’s more like :dubious:. Not really. He’s pretty thick. IRL, I’d believe that claim until given a reason not to. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-bench-presses/507106/23 "2009-08-22T17:52:13Z")
Didn’t Mr Incredible bench press a couple of boxcars? I could be mis-remembering, though ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-bench-presses/507106/24 "2009-08-22T18:06:27Z")
> [@labtrash](#): > > Didn’t Mr Incredible bench press a couple of boxcars? > > I could be mis-remembering, though If I remember correctly, he was doing a variation of pulley cross-overs. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-bench-presses/507106/25 "2009-08-22T18:17:31Z")
He leg-pressed a locomotive, I think. And did cable flyes with some railroad cars as well. Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-bench-presses/507106.md?page=1)