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SofaGeorge
New member
I posted recently about a friend of mine who is I believe the lightest person ever to bench 600lbs. He's very well known and respected in the bodybuilding community... so I was pretty sure he wasn't BSing me.
He wrote me back this letter to clarify.
*************************************
Hello XXXX:
How are you? Here's the scoop. Actually, the trophy was presented to me by Santa Monica Athletic Club for a 600 pound bench press. Unfortunately, this was not a competition lift but a gym lift ... albeit a damn heavy one. This made me the smallest (lightest) person to ever bench press 600.
The 600 pound bench was performed at the Santa Monica Athletic Club (now defunct) in November 1983. I was 23 years of age and I weighed 177 pounds. (I believe this was 1/2 pound over the middleweight limit at the time and 3.38 X my bodyweight.)
I have lifted 585 on three other occasions though. I weighed anywhere from 174 1/2 - 176 pounds.
The most famous and most documented lift would have occurred in Toronto, Canada at Gold's Gym. I lifted 585 in front of a crowd of 150+ people which was witnessed by sports physician and avid bodybuilder, Dr. Robert Hiscox, MD. (This was July 1984 at the age of 24.)
I have successfully bench pressed 500 pounds on 40 or more occasions. (All within the middleweight weight class of 176 1/2 pounds.)
I hope that this answers your question.
Sincerely,
John Rosen
PS My strongest day ever (in my opinion) was bench pressing a set of 10 reps with 405 ... with absolutely no assistance
He wrote me back this letter to clarify.
*************************************
Hello XXXX:
How are you? Here's the scoop. Actually, the trophy was presented to me by Santa Monica Athletic Club for a 600 pound bench press. Unfortunately, this was not a competition lift but a gym lift ... albeit a damn heavy one. This made me the smallest (lightest) person to ever bench press 600.
The 600 pound bench was performed at the Santa Monica Athletic Club (now defunct) in November 1983. I was 23 years of age and I weighed 177 pounds. (I believe this was 1/2 pound over the middleweight limit at the time and 3.38 X my bodyweight.)
I have lifted 585 on three other occasions though. I weighed anywhere from 174 1/2 - 176 pounds.
The most famous and most documented lift would have occurred in Toronto, Canada at Gold's Gym. I lifted 585 in front of a crowd of 150+ people which was witnessed by sports physician and avid bodybuilder, Dr. Robert Hiscox, MD. (This was July 1984 at the age of 24.)
I have successfully bench pressed 500 pounds on 40 or more occasions. (All within the middleweight weight class of 176 1/2 pounds.)
I hope that this answers your question.
Sincerely,
John Rosen
PS My strongest day ever (in my opinion) was bench pressing a set of 10 reps with 405 ... with absolutely no assistance
