Life after Benching 225
Are all my problems solved now?
This is probably the most cliched long-term fitness goal I have. Bench press is the stereotypical gym bro’s favorite exercise, and 100kg/225 pounds is the archetypal benchmark to hit. Although admittedly, the current state of social media has skewed this greatly because now “315 is the new 225”.
Anyway, I just wanted to humble brag: three weeks ago, I finally hit this goal! This is the cumulation of seven odd years in the gym. Now that I’ve said that, it sounds like a terrible outcome for so many years of training, and something I shouldn’t really be bragging about. But let me explain. Out of those seven years, four were on and off and pretty infrequent, followed by more a year off, then a year of taking it slightly more seriously, then half a year off from injury, and finally a last half a year of taking it much more seriously. It’s been a long road — seven years is longer than almost every personal pursuit I have now. Hitting this big milestone gives me an excuse to look back on everything (and pat myself on the back, of course).
It all started in secondary two or three when I was fourteen and could barely lift the bar for more than a few reps. After making the jump up to B-division in our canoeing team (the under-16 division) and thus starting to train under a different coach, we started to fit strength training into our weekly training programs. This was usually twice a week in addition to our two runs and four sessions on the water, and so clearly not the main focus. But we did still spend a decent chunk of time; because it was only twice a week, both days we would do a full body split (I still skipped legs though). It might be beginner gains, but I still went from struggling with the bar to hitting a 90kg bench 1RM, doing 20kg weighted pullups for 8, and 25-30 pullups in one shot. Towards the last year though, my strength and weight both started plateauing. I hovered around 67-68 kgs, and the combination of not gaining weight, far more endurance-based training, and insufficient rest probably all combined to cause that stagnation. Despite that, this period was where most of my progress came from, and I am really happy that canoeing roped me into working out, even if I might not have been the most optimal.
Then came Covid and the army in the second half of 2020 and most of 2021, where I basically stopped completely. I still did pushups and pullups once or twice a week while at home or when I was free in camp, but that was the extent of it.
2022 was when my training phase in the army ended, and I got access to the camp gym. We would head there thrice a week on average, and if I didn’t hit that, I would supplement it by going to the gym at The Chevrons, which was free for us NSFs to sign up for. Generally, I followed a PPL split, but again, I would occasionally skip leg day and replace it with one of the upper body days. I was also eating a lot more than I needed to, most probably as a coping mechanism against being in camp. Honestly, I didn’t make that much of a noticeable improvement during this phase. My bench 1RM marginally improved to 92.5kg before I stopped for three weeks due to an overseas exercise, and my pullups deproved because I gained 4 kgs, up to 72kg. Funnily enough, the biggest gain was from my legs. I went from not training them at all to training them fortnightly at least, and that was enough to help me achieve some beginner gains. Because of that, I could finally avoid the embarrassing confession that my Squat is weaker than my Bench.
After that long year of getting back on the grind, 2023 started off… not great, to say the least. I broke my hand, so I was out of commission for a good six months. After a cast, splint, and physio, I finally went back to the gym once or twice in July/August. Boy, was I weak. I started off again doing 60x8 for bench, down from 75x8 before, and almost everything else decreased proportionally too. I had also reverted to my pre-covid bodyweight, so the physical difference was quite apparent.
As such, when I left for university abroad, one of my less related and more personal goals was to regain my strength at least to where I was before. Last semester, I generally followed what I was doing before, going thrice a week, each body part once. That, combined with my muscle memory from before, helped me reach my original level by the end of the year. Admittedly, another thing that helped greatly was gaining 5 kilograms; I was now the heaviest I’d ever been, and thus my strength relative to my weight was proportionally lower than before. As such, I knew that I wasn’t where I wanted to be yet.
My quest was punctuated by a month off during winter break, due to travelling and being too lazy when the gym was no longer two minutes away from me back home. Honestly, there wasn’t much regression at the end of it, and because of that I told myself to try and accomplish this cliched goal of mine before spring break — in slightly less than two months. Since I had gotten two-thirds of the way there in double the time, logically, I thought this should be achievable.
To make sure, I upped the frequency and intensity. Where I used to go thrice a week for thirty minutes, I now went on average five times a week for 45 minutes to an hour. This added volume brought dividends pretty quickly. I was insanely sore, but could feel myself getting stronger every week; my weights were going up far more quickly. So, one month later, after doing 185 for 6 on what was supposed to be my first set of 5x5, I made the impromptu decision to just go for the 225 because the set felt good.
I’m not going to over-dramatize it — it was a struggle, but just about the right amount of struggle — I knew after that this was my true maximum. And it all felt great: finally achieving this long-standing goal, doing it three weeks ahead of schedule, and surpassing my old self after coming back from injury. I was definitely on cloud nine that evening. Ticking off this item from my life’s bucket list definitely didn’t complete my life, but it still felt strangely satisfying and liberating even though it’s such a small accomplishment.
I did this at a bodyweight of 74.5kg, 5-6 heavier than my peak JC self. So, ultimately I have the same, or a slightly better strength-to-weight ratio than I had at my best before. I think this is the biggest contributor to why I managed to progress so much in the past half year when I was stagnating for the last two of JC — just eating everything and gaining weight. Apart from that, the intensity of weightlifting increased but everything else such as cardio and kayaking decreased or disappeared completely, which gave my body more time to recover and build muscle. I don’t know or believe that cardio kills gains, but that has to be a factor — putting relatively more focus on the strength aspect and prioritizing other things less to allow for recovery. On the topic of recovery, I have been sleeping well in university in general, usually getting seven hours on average, and I would assume that helps too.
So, what now? Honestly, I’m not too interested in bodybuilding, powerlifting, or even becoming “massive”. I just want to stay healthy, proportional, build good habits, and feel good in my body and when I’m doing any activities in life. I think my current weight is the heaviest I’d ever want to be, and I don’t want the gym pipeline to consume my life. As such, for the next two months at least, I’ll try to get back down to my pre-injury weight, which means losing 2-3 kilos. The added motivation for this is that that would be perfect timing for summer, when I’ll have to start wearing short sleeves again. If I manage to do that while maintaining my current strength, or even continuing to improve on it, I would be able to confidently say that I am the fittest I’ve ever been, which would be an amazing thing to be able to say four years after “retiring” from competitive sports.
In order to do that, the key thing I’ll have to change is my diet. I always had the mindset that I could outrun a bad diet — I love to say I exercise to eat. But the past few months of gaining weight while running and working out more to compensate for stuffing my face at every opportunity has shown me that that isn’t the case. I have been more disciplined about this this semester by eating less at the AYCE dining halls and trying to guesstimate my calories a little more, which has kept my weight relatively constant from last semester. But if I want to start losing weight instead, I’ll have to take this a little more seriously. For light to moderate weight loss, I’ll be looking at eating about 2,200-2,500 calories, assuming I start running more again as it gets warmer, which honestly sounds pretty achievable. Currently, I think I am hovering around slightly below 3,000 on average — I think it’s a common tendency to underestimate so I’ve made sure to overestimate slightly to compensate. I’ve stopped drinking soft drinks, and other small changes like not getting dessert with every meal will go a long way.
Apart from the general goal of cutting slightly, I do want to focus on certain elements of my fitness a little more. I think my legs and arms are disproportionately weaker than other big muscle groups in my body, so I might work on them more (and less on chest). I hope my squat will be well clear of my bench, and I have more definition in my legs at the end of this, because right now I’m basically doing the same weights for both exercises. Running is also something I’ll shift my attention more towards now that the weather’s getting warmer. Not sure if I’ll manage to take part in the races this semester but I would love to start training like I am regardless. I was the fastest I ever was in November/December last year, and I hope to get back to that.
Here are the specific actions I will aim to take to achieve the fitness aspirations I’ve set out above:
Run 3-4 times a week, build up to 40km of weekly mileage by the Brooklyn Half
Clock PBs for 5k (21:50), 10k (45:40), half marathon (1:44:40)
Eat in a calorie deficit (at most 2.5k calories if I stick to the amount of exercise I’ve planned)
0.25-0.5 kilograms of weight loss per week for 6-7 weeks (total 2-3kg)
Continue going to the gym 3-4 times a week
Dedicated 1-2 days for legs and arms to become more proportional
Do other outdoor sports as exercise
Football, climbing, basketball, learn tennis/squash
It is nice to set plans and goals for the future, but always doing that may give you the feeling that you’re on the hedonic treadmill and never satisfied. I don’t want to have that feeling nor do I want to give that impression. So, although I still have things I want to work on fitness-wise, I am happy with my small yet personally significant accomplishments. Although it has some goal-setting and plans to push myself further, none of them are super drastic, and are mainly to maintain what I have. So, writing this is my attempt to look towards the future, but also stop and smell the roses. I also hope that I don’t come off as too much of an obsessed gymbro through my writing. That’s not who I am, I promise! I just go to procrastinate on work and because it’s the easiest form of exercise. My “obsession”, if you want to call it that, was just for a short period of time to achieve that big goal, and now I’ll shut up about it.
i want to see more content
hi