Ladies, how much do you bench?

JNick77

Men are just as guilty as women with bad form. Every time I see somebody benching with their feet in the air, half pressing on a flat bench, or a spotter doing 1/2 the work for them I die a little inside.

If you read New Rules of Lifting - the original, not the women's version (I think, I've read both) the authors postulate that women have generally better lifting form than men, because there's less of the ego-driven desire to lift way too much weight!

Yeah, one trainer I read said that men and women each have one prominent issue when it comes to weight lifting, generalized of course.

Men: In general we try to emphasize weight and will forego form in favor of weight.
Women: Generally place so much emphasis on form that there is reluctance to progress in weight which leads to slow progression.

Good observation! Seems generally true to me.

Sidenote: I hate saying anything is "generally" true on here because it seems to invite the angry exceptions to the rule to b*tchslap me with a personal anecdote "proving" me wrong.

I think you have to make such statements as generalizations because they're not true for everybody, I know it's not for me. I'm very conscious of form but I'm also very progression driven, so I take both into account.

HeidiMightyRawr

My max is 57.5kg (126.5lbs). I train on 50kg (110lbs).

Yes I touch my chest, and I get annoyed if the spotter touches it even in the slightest. A good spotter IMO will not touch it unless it either starts going back down, or you call them in.

Wonderob

My max is 57.5kg (126.5lbs). I train on 50kg (110lbs).

Yes I touch my chest, and I get annoyed if the spotter touches it even in the slightest. A good spotter IMO will not touch it unless it either starts going back down, or you call them in.

Or in my case, an anguished squeal of "HELP!"

MrsLVF

It's so nice to see all the strong ladies, it's quite inspiring.


1RM 95lbs

xerotolerance

55lb working sets currently. Trying to work my way up slowly, but it's definitely my weakest lift.

Erisad

I don't bench.

At least not the flat barbel thing. I do weight training (although I haven't in the past couple weeks because of my physically demanding job) but not the tough stuff because I'm a weakling.