The 225lb Bench Press Is A Lie

If you're stressing over hitting a 225 bench press, you need to hear this. The internet makes it seem like everyone at the gym is casually moving two plates, but the reality behind this massive strength training myth might just completely change how you approach your next chest workout.

In this episode of The Heavyish Method, Jermiah breaks down the toxic social media expectations around the bench press and reveals what functional chest strength actually looks like in the real world. We dive into the specific form mistakes that are holding back your progress and the surprising ways pushing heavy weight impacts your daily life as you age. Forget the fitness influencer highlight reels - this is about building real, sustainable strength that protects your body and transforms your confidence both inside and outside the gym.

0:00: Welcome to The Heavyish Method
0:47: The 225-Pound Bench Press Myth
0:59: The Ego Behind "Two Plates"
1:12: Redefining Your Gym Goals
2:10: Functional Strength as You Age
4:55: The Ultimate Technique Breakdown
6:28: Why the Gym is Only the Beginning
7:23: Building Real Confidence

"Realistically, out of all the gym-goers that actually go consistently, probably 5% only can lift 225. When we look at social media versus reality, it makes the number seem inflated."

"Form is absolutely key over everything. Starting off at a manageable weight, and then building that strength... you're gonna get a lot more stimulus and growth doing that than versus just trying to throw 225 on there."

"When you look at the gym, it is a very small portion of your journey. It is a super, super important part of your journey, but it is one of your smallest parts."

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About Jermiah Blount: Jermiah has harbored a deep passion for health, fitness, and strength ever since his tenure in the Air Force. He finds fulfillment in assisting individuals in enhancing their lives by promoting strength, well-being, and proper nutrition through the utilization of Heavyish principles.

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#fitnessjourney #strengthtraining #healthylifestyle

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

A lot of men can't get to that 225 or it takes years upon years of training. Is bench pressing hard or are people just not doing the right variation of a bench press?

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Technique and form are key. Usually when people bench press, they tend to not actually press from the chest. They tend to use a lot more shoulders or they're squeezing up top, right? And activating more front del or coming in too close together, using more tricep. So if you really focus and narrow down your form and really stimulate your chest, you're gonna get a lot more out of the workout.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Welcome to It's Supposed to Be Heavy with Jeremiah Blunt, a show about strength, longevity, and building a body that carries you well for decades because resistance creates adaptation. And some things are supposed to be heavy. Let's get to work.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Hi, my name is Jeremiah Blunt. I am the creator of the heaviest method. I'm a personal trainer out of Franklin, Tennessee, and today's topic is why everybody should bench breasts. Strong people aren't just built in the gym, they're built as a home as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So all the time on Instagram and all these social media sites, I'm always seeing these guys in the gym. They're saying if you can't bench 225 for 10 reps, 12 reps, you're not a man, you're not doing the best chest workouts, you're doing something wrong. And I know that puts a lot of strain on me personally because I feel like I'm behind. I can't do nearly 225 as of right now. But is that very common that people can do 225?

SPEAKER_02 1:29

So it is actually not as common as what the internet likes to make it seem. Realistically, out of all the gym goers that actually go consistently, probably 5% only can lift 225. When we look at social media versus reality, it makes the number seem inflated. Of course, we all want to go as a man be able to say, yes, I can bench press two plates. But when you break it down, you got to think about the size of the man. You got to think about how long he's been training. Some people train for years to get up to 225. So it should be a goal, but it shouldn't make you less of a man if you just can't go in there and just rep out 225. I know several guys that are in great shape. They work out very hard, and it took them several years before they could even get 225 twice, more or less, 10 times.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

When it comes to bench pressing in general, I know a lot of it is mainly to help, especially people 45 and over, push up off the ground, bring themselves up, not as necessarily with their arm strength, but pushing them off the ground and getting weighs off.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

What's the main noticeable difference you get with having that strength to get yourself off the ground as a so when we are talking about human function and being able to do the movements, especially as we mature in age, there's certain things you got to think about falling face forward or falling in different angles and be able to get into a position that you are able to get up and off the ground. So if we fall face forward or if we fall on our side and we roll over to the front, which is natural for most people, we need to be able to push ourselves off the ground. Developing that strength in our chest will help us in that area. And then we compare it with our other movements, can definitely improve your overall chance of being able to get up off the ground and seek help if needed.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Throughout my time of training on and off and seeing articles online, I see some research that says that bone density improves with bench pressing specifically. If it is true, let alone if it is at all, is there a noticeable difference of bone density? Because I haven't seen anything.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

So for certain people, you're not necessarily worried about bone density, especially if you're at a younger age. Of course, you still want to train heavy, even at a younger age, but as we get older and we're not doing anything at all, right? So we start losing muscle mass, we build more fat, and then our bone density goes down because we're not stressing those bones. So when it comes to the bench press, we're still putting pressure on the body. Would it be my optimum choice when it when we're talking about bone density and things along those lines? For certain things, possibly, but it wouldn't be my main focus. I'm more can worried about those bones and your hips and your shoulders and those things that we use consistently, right? We really want to have good strong shoulders, we want to have good strong joints, we want to have good strong tendons, things along those lines. So pairing stretching with heavy strength training will help you as you mature in age to still have the full function of the body because there's a lot of people out there that haven't done anything or they were injured, and then they end up opting for surgery when training before the injury ever happened or training after and pairing it with good PT work could have changed that overall condition of the area. So that way, if you have shoulder surgery, the chances of you losing limitation of your shoulder and movement are high versus you doing what you need to do. You take care of your joints and everything ahead of time can be a big preventative on a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Going back to your last point before saying a lot of men can't get to that 225 or it takes years upon years of training. Is bench pressing hard or are people just not doing the right variation of a bench press?

SPEAKER_02 5:18

So just everything, technique and form are key. Usually, when people bench press, they tend to not actually press from the chest, they tend to use a lot more shoulders or they're squeezing up top, right? And betting more front and delt or coming in too close together, using more tricep. So if you really focus and narrow down your form and really stimulate your chest, you're gonna get a lot more out of the workout. It's one of those things, just like deadlift or any other form is absolutely key over everything. Starting off at a manageable weight and then building that strength, overloading that muscle, even if it's only 2.5 pounds every time you go in to build up to that weight and keeping that form solid, you're gonna get a lot more stimulants and growth doing that than versus just trying to throw 225 on there and not necessarily stimulating where you need to.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah, 100%. I remember when I even came to start training with you when I picked it back up, I was still using a lot of my shoulders just because I didn't work out a lot. And you can feel it really in the connection between your collarbone and your humerus or whatever the bone it is, as well as me personally, I am double jointed in my wrist. So I get a lot of issues. I gotta even today, I still check it out to where I have to make sure my wrists aren't super inflexed because I notice a lot of that pressure is one on my wrist. I don't feel like I'm pressing a lot with my chest, more kind of not even the shoulders, but more forearm kind of body.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

So keeping that wrist in line with your elbow is definitely key. And for some people, a weakness in the wrist is an issue. We always want to try to strengthen everything we can, right? But in some cases, it's harder for some people, and in that case, especially in your case, I would suggest focusing on forearm movements and things like that, and also in the beginning, or when you get to your heavier weights, try using straps to keep that wrist nice and tight.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Could the greatest benefit of lifting be the healthy lifestyle it inspires outside of the gym?

SPEAKER_02 7:18

When you look at the gym, it is a very small portion of your journey. It is a super, super important part of your journey, but it is one of your smallest parts. Narrowing down your nutrition, getting the proper hydration, getting adequate sleep, like all these things are super important, right? Not only does training help your mental capacity as well, but it's just it makes you feel better, right? It makes you feel like you've done something. It can be a form of therapy, it could be a form of rehabilitation. There's so many aspects that come from training in different styles. It doesn't necessarily have to be just strictly strength, but pairing that and then your flexibility, if you can do all those things and make it a nice little package, then it's gonna affect not only you, but the people around you because they're gonna be inspired by you. You're going to be a better person to the people around you because you feel confident about yourself, and confidence is key when it comes down to it.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

One last thing, and we'll kind of wrap it up for the day. Reports heart health. I've heard a lot of that from bench pressing. I don't know how true that is, because of course the heart is a muscle and it's yeah next to the desk.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

When it comes down to heart health, so you got to look at it this way. It's not necessarily affecting the heart directly, but what it does do, and if you're training heavy, and for anybody that's ever trained really heavy, your heart rate is going to increase, right? And if we're training heavy and we're training hard, your heart's beating and getting up there in that cardiovascular range, that's what's actually helping it versus the movement itself.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Thanks for listening to It's Supposed to Be Heavy with Jeremiah Blount. Train hard, recover well, stay capable, and remember aging is mandatory. Weakness is optional. See you next time.