This afternoon I achieved my bench press goal for 2012. My previous record was 330 pounds, three years ago, while weighing 160 pounds.

I won’t stop here!

Now benching 330 pounds when I was 160, meant that I was lifting 206.25% of my body weight. Fast forward to May 18th this year, and I got back to 325 pounds, while weighing 154 pounds (211.03%). Today’s achievement is what I was going for all along, however…more weight than my old max AND an even greater percentage by me weighing less.

I did a full 3 reps, solid, with the 4th technically requiring a slight lift by my spotters. I guess you can call it 3.5 reps. But anyhow, that puts me at 217.53% of my body weight which is awesome. With my birthday coming up in another 12 days (July 7th), I just might go for 340 pounds on the 6th…but we’ll see. I’m already satisfied with this number, but topping 220% does sound pretty cool.