WHAT DOES IS take to be considered strong? Scroll through social media long enough, and you’re bound to stumble upon fitfluencers making bold claims about how many people (or more importantly for this case, how few) can lift this or press that. Take the 225-pound bench press, for example. The number, which is equal to two 45 pound plates on each side of a conventional 45-pound barbell, has long been held as a strength standard—and for some reason, posters are all but convinced that less than one percent of the population can hit that benchmark. And while that idea isn’t exactly backed up by science, the 225-pound bench press is a well-known and respectable strength goal.
It’s also the lightest lift you have to hit to join the “2-3-4 Club,” which proves you have well-rounded gym strength.
“When I'm thinking about a strong guy—it's a very basic place to start—is a ‘2-3-4’ guy,” exercise physiologist Dr. Pat Davidson said on a recent episode of the MH Strong Talk podcast. “What I mean by that is two plates on the bench, three plates on the squat, four plates on the deadlift. If you can do that, I'm like, "Hey, you're strong." You can obviously go way beyond that. But a 2-3-4 guy is kind of where my mind has started as being like, you check that box.”
Read Full Article Here
