He may be a superhero, but he’s also a mere mortal, which means his lifts are much more like a gym rat than Superman.
The easy way out here, of course, is simply to find out how much Michael Keaton, kilmer valley, George Clooney, Christian bale, ben affleck Y robin pattinson were legitimately capable of bench press anytime they first put their hood on.
But where’s the fun in that? I mean, we’re talking about a franchise where one of the most famous lines is, “Guess this for me, bat Man?” So in the spirit of the riddlelet’s do this for real: how much would a man of bat ManIt can reasonably be expected that the size, athleticism, and body composition of bench press as a representation of the pinnacle of human performance encased within its specific mortal form?
I will make a caveat though: I don’t care about the total weight, some artists who have never seen the inside of a weight room drew on the weights that Bruce Wayne has been seen pressing in print. One of the things that defines the essence of bat Man it is his physical perfection contained within the rational limitations of a human body. The world record for a raw bench press it currently weighs 782 pounds and is owned by a man who is 6-foot-3 and weighs approximately 450 pounds. This is a 1.73x bodyweight bench press from a guy who essentially dedicates his entire life to quest for bench press glory. I don’t want to hear a word about how 210-pound Bruce Wayne can somehow be the world record holder in the bench press lifting roughly four times his bodyweight”… Because I’m a batman!”
No one. Word.
bat Man it is No superhuman. Period.
Penalty fee. But how do we develop an estimate of Batman’s power in the bench press?
To project realistically bat Manpeak bench press performance, we have to make some logical extrapolations based on your height, weight, and perceived fitness level. In the most widespread Who is who guides and tickets printed by DC Comics, bat Man it is listed at 6-foot-2 and the aforementioned 210 pounds. With the understanding that Batman represents an athlete in peak physical condition at that height and weight, we should find some bench press figures for some similarly proportioned individuals.
To that end, a decent analog for Bruce Wayne would be someone like the former NFL wide receiver. miles austin, who at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds ran 4.47 in the 40-yard dash at the 2006 NFL Combine, while unleashing a 40.5-inch vertical jump, 123-inch long jump and 21 reps in the 225 pound career. bench press. Also, Austin seemed East at the time:
So if we use Austin’s 21 reps on the bench press as our base figure, we can plug that into any of the online programs which calculates maximum predictions of a repetition. This puts our estimate for the bench press of someone with Austin/Wayne’s height, weight, athleticism, and overall shredding anywhere between 382.5 pounds and 507 pounds. That’s a very wide range but I’m going to give Bruce Wayne the benefit of the doubt and say he’s much closer to that 500 pound total which is due in part to the fact that I’m convinced Bruce Wayne is in the juice.
Why would you assume that Batman is taking performance-enhancing drugs?
Through a combination of logical and deductive reasoning. First of all, Batman has been far from saintly in the depictions of him in almost every medium since the 1980s. Not to mention, Batman faces the toughest of hardcore criminalssome of whom are sociopathically deranged, several of whom are superhumanly enhanced, and none of whom allow their evil ambitions to be hampered by a code of conduct or a sense of morality.
Under those circumstances, do I think Batman would draw the line on drug use if a reluctance to use steroids prevented him from meting out justice while preserving his own life? No possibility. The Bat is as dirty as the day is long, and I can’t say I blame him. Also, it’s not like a failed drug test would get an asterisk placed next to his logo on the Bat-Signal, or get him kicked out of the Hall of Justice. He is also alone on record stating that his only rule is “no killing”; I haven’t heard him make any reference to “no juice”.
So put it in ink: The Caped Crusader can bank a little over £500, bro.
Ian Douglas
Ian Douglass is a volunteer firefighter, nonchalant Concept2 rower and SkiErger and is the worst All-American master swimmer in recorded history. He also helps professional wrestlers publish their autobiographies, helps businessmen write coherent thoughts, and holds overrated titles from Michigan and Northwestern.
