What is it about the not-so-humble bench press? It must be one of the most popular weight training exercises around. In my local gym, over a period of a year I must have seen only 3 individuals using the pull-up bar - but the bench press? That was almost always occupied.

Glamour Sport?
The sport of powerlifting comprises 3 lifts - the squat, deadlift, and bench press. However only one of these has it's own special competition. Yes... there are bench press champs (but no dedicated squat or deadlift champs).

Bench Press Goals
I always thought that being able to press your body weight was a great achievement. That is until I came across a CrossFit workout that left me staring like a goldfish. I'll call it Bench Press Extreme... you'll soon see why.

Bench Press Extreme
So you thought you were good at the bench press? Try this:

• Seven rounds bench pressing your body weight:
• Number of reps each round: 21 - 18 - 15 - 12 - 9 - 6 - 3
• In between the bench press rounds, do the same amount of pull-ups.

I had to read and re-read that workout. Yes, this is asking for a grand total of 84 Reps at a weight that equals your own body weight. If you weigh 180 pounds, you bench 21 reps at 180 pounds. Then you do 21 pull-ups. Then you go back to the bench and do 18 reps at 180 pounds, and so on.

Scalability
I thought I was doing okay being able to get out one rep of body weight. Boy do I know nothing.

Of course, with all such workouts they need to be scaled right down to appropriate weights. Also, the reps must be done in whatever fashion possible. In the 21 rep round, for example, you might do 7-7-7 - but form should never be sacrificed.

As with many CrossFit workouts, the stopwatch is running - this provides a benchmark.

Reality Check
What did I do? I scaled the weight right down. All rounds were severely broken up. Pull-ups very quickly turned into jumping pull-ups. On round number 5 I hit utter failure, and needed a spotter to lift the weight off (okay you can stop laughing now!). After that I gave up. But next time... next time... I will complete the Bench Press Extreme!