1,000 Lb. Bench Press

Welcome to the meat-head corner of the blog, in which we will be discussing efforts to crack the 1,000 pound barrier on the bench. This Slate article provides a summary of the history of competitive powerlifting, of the men who are trying to bench 1,000 (imagine that being your answer next time somebody asks you how much you can put up), and the equipment they are using.

The argument that some powerlifters advance that bench shirts aren't cheating is sort of outrageous. I'd buy into a record set by someone taking crates of steroids before I'd believe in one set by someone wearing an apparatus specifically designed to reduce the effective load by 300 pounds or more. (Incidentally, I've been seriously considering getting one of these---it probably wouldn't add much more than 200 lbs. for me---so that I can shock my friends with a 500+ lb. bench). Why not, while you're at it, attach springs and pulleys? Seriously, they'd have the same mechanical effect.

On the other hand, there is something to the argument that "raw" (i.e. unshirted) bench presses of massive weights, meaning upwards of 650-700 lbs., are very dangerous, because no amount of muscle can alter the body's fundamental bio-mechanical framework, and it is simply not equipped to handle such weights. But the confluence of this argument and the one preceding does nothing if not cast doubt on the legitimacy of powerlifting as a competitive sport: it cannot be performed safely except by using machines to assist in the lift, and it cannot be performed cleanly except by incurring a risk of gruesome injury. (Imagine an unshirted powerlifter some years from now trying to press 900 lbs.---and disemboweling himself under the enormous pressure, which his steroid-pumped muscles can handle but the rest of his body cannot. Sound implausible? It shouldn't.)

A catch-22, no? I say that as an amateur bodybuilder who has great respect and learned a lot from powerlifters. It's time to recognize the fact that the sport is running up against the limits of human biology, limits that it will not be able to transcend.