How Long Will it Take to Hit a 225 Bench?

“How many years for a 225 bench?”

It’s a question most guys ask at some point in the training journey.

Many assume it’s inevitable—stick with the gym for a few months and soon enough you’ll be “benching two plates.”

In reality, that’s not how it usually goes.

According to some of the most experienced coaches in the world, the fastest you can realistically hit 225 is about a year. But for many, it takes far longer—up to three years or more—depending on factors like size, sex, and training experience.

And even then, there’s a catch: You have to train seriously. If you just go through the motions, you might never get there.

For women, a 225 bench is even rarer. Outside of elite-level powerlifting, it’s virtually unheard of.

So, how long will it really take to bench 225 for you? And what can you do to get there faster? Get evidence-based answers to these questions and more in this article.

Key Takeaways

Most men can hit a 225 bench in 1-to-3 years if they train seriously. For women, it’s extremely rare.
Age, size, sex, training history, and anatomy affect how long it takes to bench 225. Younger weightlifters (25-to-40), bigger people, and men have an advantage.
Beginners progress quickly at first and have a better shot at reaching 225 if they train properly from the start than those who’ve already been training for several years.
To bench 225 as quickly as possible, train with heavy weights, prioritize progressive overload, and bench at least twice a week.
Eating enough calories and protein helps you get stronger, while cutting makes progress slower.
To bench 315, you’ll likely need to press 225 for 7-to-8 reps first.

How Long Does it Take to Bench 225?
How to Bench 225
Beyond Benching 225: How Many Reps of 225 to Bench 315?
FAQ #1: Is benching 2 plates good?
FAQ #2: How many women can bench 225?
FAQ #3: How much is a 225 bench on the Smith machine?

How Long Does it Take to Bench 225?

It’s hard to say how long it takes to bench 225, as it depends on factors like your age, sex, and size. That said, we can use the “strength standards” set by experienced coaches to give us a rough idea.

Powerlifting coach Tim Henriques believes most men who follow a structured strength program can reach a “decent” level of strength—which includes joining “Club 225”—within 6-to-12 months:

While I’ve coached tens of thousands of people, I don’t profess to have the same depth of experience as Henriques. Still, I think his timeline is a little optimistic. Mark Rippetoe’s standards, on the other hand, seem more realistic.

He estimates most men can hit a 225 bench within 1-to-3 years of serious strength training:

In the eyes of both coaches, a 225 bench is extremely rare for women. Outside of elite female powerlifting, only a handful ever reach this milestone, and those who do typically have exceptional genetics and years of dedicated training. In my experience, this holds true.

Taking all this into account, a fair rule of thumb is that most men who train seriously should be able to bench 225 within 3 years. For women, it’s simply not a realistic goal for the vast majority.

That said, plenty of factors can make hitting a 225 bench easier or harder. Let’s break down the biggest ones and how they affect your progress.

Size

Your size plays a major role in how quickly you can bench press 225 pounds. Generally speaking, bigger people get there faster because they have more muscle, which helps them generate more force and lift heavier weights.

Larger people often also have an advantage when it comes to range of motion. If you have a large torso, the bar doesn’t have to travel as far to touch your chest, so you’re doing less work per rep than someone with a smaller torso who has to lower and press the bar further.

Sex

Men typically have an easier time bench pressing 225 pounds than women because they usually have more muscle, especially in the upper body.

For instance, a 2021 study published in the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology found that experienced male weightlifters were almost 60% stronger on the bench press than their female counterparts, primarily because they had more muscle in the chest and upper back.

Training Experience

Training experience is another key factor in how long it takes to bench 225 pounds. If you’re new to weightlifting, you’re in luck—beginners usually gain strength quickly, mostly because your brain learns to use your muscles more efficiently when you start lifting weights.

That makes closing the gap to 225 easier in the early stages, especially if your training focuses on boosting bench press strength (more on the specifics soon).

If you’ve been training for a few years and still haven’t benched 225, you may have to work harder to reach your goal. That’s because the more experienced you are, the less responsive your body becomes to training, and the harder it is to gain muscle and strength.

Training Program

The type of program you follow greatly influences how quickly you can bench 225 pounds.

For example, a routine focussed on lifting heavy weights for low reps and getting progressively stronger over time will help you bench 225 faster than a program based on high-rep “pump” training.

Another key factor is bench press frequency. A routine that has you benching 2-to-3 times per week will likely help you reach 225 faster than one that only includes it once a week.

Anatomy

Your anatomy influences how long it takes to bench 225 in two main ways:

Arm Length: Having shorter arms makes the bench press easier because it shortens the distance you have to lower and press the bar, so each rep requires less work.
Tendon Attachments: How your tendons attach to your bones affects leverage. If your tendons attach farther from a joint, your muscles can produce more force, making it easier to lift heavier weights.

Thanks to these small anatomical differences, one person could lift 25% more than another even if they had the same amount of muscle mass.

Age

Many people think if you don’t hit a 225 bench in your mid-20s, you never will. But data from powerlifting suggests otherwise—most people’s strength peaks between the ages of 25 and 40.

That means there’s a large window of opportunity to reach a 225 bench.

If you’re older than this, your strongest days are likely behind you, but that doesn’t mean a two-plate bench is unachievable. Provided you train and recover intelligently, you can still build the strength to bench 225—it just may take a little longer than it would have when you were younger.

Diet

Eating in a “calorie deficit” (consuming fewer calories than you burn) makes gaining strength more challenging for a couple of reasons:

You tend to have less energy when “cutting,” which makes it harder to push yourself in your workouts.
To gain strength effectively, your body needs sufficient energy to repair and build muscle. When you’re in a calorie deficit, your body has less fuel available to support these processes, making it harder to get stronger.

Thus, to maximize your odds of benching 225, you should eat in a way that drives muscle growth and strength gain (again, more on the specifics soon).

How to Bench 225

You need a clear plan if you want to bench 225. Here’s what works best:

Improve Technique

Fixing your technique is the fastest way to reach a 225 bench. If you don’t bench correctly, nothing else in this article will matter.

Here’s everything you need to know:

Lie on a flat bench and place your feet flat on the floor.
Pull your shoulder blades together and down, and without lifting your butt or shoulders off the bench, slightly arch your back.
Grab the bar with a pronated grip (palms facing your feet) slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and unrack the barbell.
Lower the barbell to your chest, keeping your elbows tucked 6-to-10 inches from your sides.
Press the bar back to the starting position.

Here’s how it should look when you put everything together:

Train for Strength

To bench 225 pounds for the first time, you need to train specifically for strength. Building muscle helps, but strength is highly specific—you have to practice lifting heavy weights.

Spend about two-thirds of your bench press training in the 4-to-6-rep range with 75-to-85% of your one-rep max.

For the remaining third, train in the 1-to-3 rep range with 90-to-95% of your one-rep max to develop the top-end strength needed to reach your goal.

Always end these heavier sets with at least 1-to-2 reps in the tank. You don’t want to be grinding out all-out max attempts—the idea is to build maximal strength safely and effectively while reinforcing good technique.

So, for example, if you bench press three times weekly, you could bench in the 4-to-6 rep range on Monday and Wednesday, then in the 1-to-3 rep range on Friday.

Focus on Progressive Overload

Progressive overload refers to the process of making your bench press workouts progressively more challenging. It’s paramount because it maximizes the muscle- and strength-building effects of weightlifting.

The primary way to implement progressive overload is to lift heavier weights over time. The easiest way to do this is using double progression—a method for increasing your weights only once you hit the top of your rep range for a certain number of sets (often one).

For instance, if your bench press workout calls for 4-to-6 reps of the bench press and you get 6 reps for a set, add 10 pounds to your next set. If you manage 3 or fewer reps with the new weight, reduce the weight by 5 pounds to ensure you stay in the 4-to-6 rep range.

Follow this pattern of trying to add reps or weight in every workout.

Prioritize the Bench Press

You perform best on the exercises you do earliest in your workouts when you’re physically and mentally fresh. Thus, if you want to improve your bench press numbers, start your chest, push, or upper-body workouts with the bench press.

To get stronger at the bench press, you also have to practice it often.

So, if you want to improve your bench press but currently only bench once weekly, start benching twice per week. Likewise, if you currently bench twice weekly, increase your frequency to three times weekly.

Test Your One-Rep Max Every 12 Weeks

A bench press one-rep max is the maximum amount of weight you can press for a single repetition through a full range of motion with proper technique.

To test your bench press one-rep max, you gradually increase the weight on the bar over several sets until you reach the heaviest load you can lift for a single rep with proper form.

Tracking your bench press one-rep max is useful because it gives you a clear, objective measure of how your strength is changing over time. With the help of a one-rep max calculator, it can also ensure you’re using appropriately heavy weights in your training.

Occasionally testing your one-max is a great way to track your progress. Testing it too often, however, can leave you worn out and increase injury risk, both of which can negatively impact your regular training.

Thus, a good rule of thumb is to test your bench press one-rep max every 12 weeks.

This cadence gives you enough time to make meaningful progress before reassessing, helps you avoid burnout, and reduces the risk of injury from doing too many max-effort attempts.

Beyond Benching 225: How Many Reps of 225 to Bench 315?

No exact number of reps at 225 guarantees you’ll be able to bench press 315 pounds. However, as a general rule, if you can bench 225 for 7-to-8 reps with good form, you can probably do at least one rep at 315.

FAQ #1: Is benching 2 plates good?

It depends. For example, if you’re a 170-pound man who’s just started lifting weights, a bench press of 225 pounds would be excellent. If, however, you weigh 240 pounds and you’ve been lifting for five years or more, a 225 bench would be pretty underwhelming.

FAQ #2: How many women can bench 225?

Benching 225 pounds is a rare feat for a woman, as it requires a lot of upper body strength and muscle mass. While some elite female powerlifters and athletes can achieve this, it’s far beyond what most women can bench press, even with years of dedicated training.

FAQ #3: How much is a 225 bench on the Smith machine?

If you can bench 225 pounds with a barbell, you’ll likely be able to lift 10-to-20% more on a Smith machine—around 250-to-270 pounds.

You can lift more because the machine helps you balance and control the weight, so the small, stabilizer muscles throughout your body don’t have to work as hard, which makes the exercise slightly easier than the free-weight version.