Hammer Strength ILBPH (ratio)

[destriero]

What is the consensus of guys here who lift on their plate-loaded stuff? My youngest just started lifting as he hit 6' and we are not concerned about epi-fusion.

One of my gyms has a lot of 55lb plates and six on there is not remotely 330 on flat bench. It's harder initially as you have to load at the chest vs. loading from a rack and it's incline, not flat.

Please post your 5-rep with flat bench (free) vs. their ISO bench.

 

[destriero]

He's not lifting much, but I've just started to use the HS plate loaded as he prefers it to me spotting him.

 

[El OchoCinco]

You talking about a bench press machine like this

 

[Baron]

I can lift 30% - 40% more on a plate loaded hammer strength chest machine when compared to what I can do on a flat bench. Not needing a spotter on a plate loaded machine gives you the leeway to really go all out, even negative failure, where it's not really practical to do that on a flat bench due to the help you need getting the bar racked back up.

Plate loaded machines are convenient, but they definitely give you a false sense of strength. I use to put 4 plates on each side of a declined bench machine and bang out reps like it wasn't anything. No way in hell I could ever do that much weight on a flat bench.