[jaydub]

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I am a newbie to weight training, and I am under the impression that this feat is incredibly hard to do.

I would like some discussion with the serious weight training people on this board.

I have heard that if you can bench your own body weight for one full rep, using free weights, that you are stronger than 99% of the people in the world. Is this true?

I was also told that it would probably take me about 1 year of solid weight training(ie in the gym 3 times a week for an hour without fail) to be able to bench my own weight. I honestly think that it will take longer.

For what it's worth, my stats are 6'4.5" 210 13% body fat.

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How did you measure those stats? If accurate, you are in great shape and should have no issues with a body weight bench within a year. Start slowly and don't worry too much about deadlines. However if it's a prop bet, make it for as much as possible.

As others have said, it's fairly trivial but sadly the 99% figure while high, is probably closer than it should be.

The truly elite feat is a 2X bodyweight bench but that is usually only seen from competitive lifters and may be what you are thinking of.