Whenever a guy wants to measure another guy in a gym, the typical question would be “What do you bench?”  This is comically shown in the movie Boogie Nights when two young guys working in the porn industry refuse to disclose what they can bench press until the other guy reveals his magic number.

It’s been this way for decades, although back in the day the military press was considered the iconic lift; so basic; a man standing up, then lifting a barbell over his head.

So, is the bench press really a good indicator of overall fitness?

No.  It is a good indicator of overall upper body strength, with a focus on the front of the shoulders, the chest, and the back muscle of the arms, the triceps. And it is a basic lift, which, along with the dead lift and the squat, forms the basis for the sport of powerlifting.

What are the problems with using a single repetition of the bench press as an indicator of fitness?

Some are obvious; it ignores lower body strength; the largest, most powerful muscles in the body are in the thighs, not the chest. It ignores muscular endurance, it completely ignores cardiovascular fitness.  Some are less obvious; doing a lot of bench press using the standard technique tends to lead to shoulder problems, especially if you’re not careful about building up the opposing muscle groups.  And too many men bench with heavy weights without a spotter, which is an easy way to get a serious, and sometimes fatal, injury.

There’s nothing wrong with benching; it’s a good compound exercise. But it’s maybe 15% of total fitness.

So why did bench press become the index of strength in gyms?

One reason is that men tend to develop what they can see when they look at themselves in the mirror; the front of their upper body.  Women take a completely different approach; they do too little upper body work, perhaps for fear of developing big arms and shoulders, and tend to focus not on what they can see themselves but what other people see; the glutes and legs.

Another reason is simply that doing bench press is, while not easy, easier for most men that doing squats or deadlifts.

And of course, like in any other area of life, once something becomes a standard everyone does it without thinking, just because everyone else is doing it.

In Global Fast Fit, we use pushups as a measure for upper body strength.  Pushups don’t require any equipment,  and are much safer than the bench press. And it’s much easier to gradually build strength in pushups.  Many women struggle with pushups, so we created Global Fast Fit/Modified so that anyone who can’t do a regular pushup can do a version with their knees on the ground while they build the strength to do regular pushups.  And GFF Lite only requires 15 pushups (and 15 leg lifts, 15 squats, and a 250 meter run), so half the normal version of Global Fast Fit, which is 30 pushups, 30 plank leg lifts, 30 squats, and a 500 meter run.

By including 3 exercises and the run, GFF offers a full body challenge.   Everyone does too much of what they’re already good at; big, bulky guys do too much bench press, and ignore cardio.  Women do too much glute work and ignore upper body strength. Runners tend to run too much and not do enough strength work.  Very few people do a true full body workout, and Global Fast Fit was designed to remedy this.

But since you read this far, I'll answer the question you asked: 260 pounds, about 3 years ago. 

And no, that's not me in the picture.