Big Jim Williams: The Original King of Bench Press🥇 The Original Bench God
- Josh Hezza
- Apr 23
- 13 min read
Big Jim Williams: The Original King of Bench Press
🥇 The Original Bench God
Before there were bench shirts, slingshots, specialty bars, or Instagram PRs filmed in portrait mode… Before there was even the IPF...There was Big Jim Williams - and his training partner John Kuc.
He didn’t chase clout. He didn’t train for likes. He trained because it was the only thing that made sense.
A walking paradox Jim Williams was both a folk hero and a ghost in the history of powerlifting. Revered by the few who remember him. Forgotten by the many who unknowingly benefit from what he built.
But make no mistake: If you bench press, you owe Jim something.
He benched 675 pounds in 1972 — raw, unassisted, and in an era where the “bench press” wasn’t a specialty. It was a lift. A proving ground. And no one proved more than Jim. His pressing wasn’t technical. It was violent. Rhythmic. Inevitable. Like watching a train hit a wall. You knew what was coming — and you still couldn’t stop it.
And yet, for all the weight he moved, Jim’s story is heavier still.
Because Jim Williams wasn’t just the strongest bencher of his time — he was also one of the most controversial. A career criminal. A spiritual man. A powerlifting prodigy who trained in prison and peaked at a time when the sport barely had structure. He wasn’t part of a system. He was the system — for everyone who came after.
This article gives Jim Williams the credit — and the critique — he deserves. We’re going to break down:
His chaotic life and the contradictions within it
His outrageous training volume and mindset
How his method compares to Westside, Conjugate, and the pressing systems I use with lifters today
And what lessons you can actually apply — even if you don’t share his life, leverage, or load
Because to honour history properly, you don’t copy it. You study it, you strip it, and you rebuild it for now.
🧱 Biography & Backstory
Jim Williams was born in 1940 in Scranton, Pennsylvania — a town that would one day be immortalised by The Office, but in the 1960s and ’70s, it was known for steel, smoke, and strength. And no one embodied that more than Big Jim.
Before bench records, before magazine covers, before lifting legends knew his name, Jim was a young man doing hard time for harder crimes. He bounced in and out of prison for charges ranging from fraud to armed robbery. But while other inmates gambled, fought, or disappeared into the routine of institutional life, Jim turned incarceration into obsession.
Prison wasn’t a punishment. It was his proving ground.
Where others saw bars and cement, Jim saw structure. And he used it. Every day. Every rep. Every set was a sermon — delivered from the bench.
While most lifters today chase variety, Jim’s approach was the opposite. His training was monastic. Spartan. Ruthless. He benched with outrageous volume, outrageous frequency, and outrageous intent. No fancy assistance work. No bands or chains. Just plate after plate after plate — pushed with fury and focus until the bar moved or his arms failed.
And yet, despite his criminal past and intimidating presence, Williams wasn’t some mindless brute. He was deeply religious. A devout Christian. He believed his strength was a gift from God — something he was called to express, develop, and showcase. He called his bench press “a calling.”
And when he benched 675 pounds in 1972 — shirtless, raw, and untouchable — he didn’t just set a record. He created a blueprint for every heavy-handed, under-coached, rage-fuelled bencher to follow.
Even now, decades later, his shadow looms over every barbell.
11th Highest Raw Bench of all time
2nd Highest Raw Bench Done in a Full Power Meet*
The Only Bench in the top 100 Heaviest Raw Benches of all time done in the 70's
🏆 Achievements & Influence: Strength Before the Sport Caught Up
Jim Williams didn’t just lift heavy — he redefined what heavy meant.
His most famous claim to fame? He was allegedly the first man to (unofficially) bench 700 pounds. He benched 675 pounds raw in competition in 1972 — no shirt, no arch, no drama — just a mountain of muscle pressing a mountain of iron.
In doing so, he became:
The first man to officially bench 675 raw
The second man in history to press over 600 pounds in competition
The original benchmark for what would eventually become equipped benching
But numbers only tell half the story.
Jim did this in an era where:
There were no bench shirts (or at least very primitive ones), no elbow sleeves, no spotter crews
No rounds or rotation — he’d take all three attempts back to back, because no one else was anywhere near his weight class or total
No structured peaking cycles or CNS tracking apps — just work. Brutal, blunt, and relentless work
And the numbers behind that work? Insane.
Incline pressed 405 for triples, raw, no spot
225x20+ reps on incline as part of warm-up volume
Pulldowns to neck and chest with 275, for 10–20 reps
10x10 dumbbell shoulder circuits, decades before GVT or hypertrophy influencers
Preacher curls with 100s, because of course he did
This wasn’t just brute strength. It was a training style that bordered on punishment — but made him untouchable.
And while most lifters remember Jim for his raw bench numbers, there’s another legacy that often gets missed:
He was strong before the sport even knew what strong meant.
Jim Williams was dominating benches that no one else could touch, with no one around to push him. No rivals. No hype. Just iron.
He didn’t lift for Instagram. He lifted because it was the one thing that gave him power in a world that tried to take everything else away.
But let’s be clear: Jim Williams didn’t just bench.
He was a true three-lift lifter in an era when that actually meant something. Jim placed second overall at the AAU World Powerlifting Championships in both 1971 and 1972, narrowly behind his training partner and fellow legend, John Kuc — one of the only men strong enough to share a platform with him.
His best total? 2240 pounds (860/655/725) — all raw with ace-bandage knee wraps, logged in 1972. That’s 1016kg without gear, without drama, and without a blueprint. The official total was listed as 2235 lbs (855/655/725), but the calibrated reweigh came out at 2240 — a record at the time, and still monstrous by today’s raw-with-wraps standards.
And while he never benched 700 in competition, he reportedly hit 700 in training, and 720 at his strongest. For context? That’s more than most equipped lifters hit today — and he did it four decades early.
But strength wasn’t Jim’s first story.
In 1961, at just 21 years old, Jim Williams was sentenced to ten years in prison for assault, battery, and strong-arm robbery. He wasn’t always the preacher of the press — at first, he was just another young man lost to violence and poor decisions.
It was behind bars where everything changed.
Lifting became his focus. His ritual. His redemption.
While others fought or faded, Jim built himself — physically and mentally. Prison wasn’t just where he started training seriously. It’s where he became the lifter that would eventually dominate the early powerlifting scene and stand shoulder to shoulder with legends like Kuc.
When he got out, he didn’t just walk free — he walked straight into the history books.
🏋️♂️ The Jim Williams Program Breakdown: Violence, Volume, and the Bench as Religion
Jim Williams didn’t train. He assaulted the weights.
His programming wasn’t scientific. It wasn’t tapered. It wasn’t “recovery-informed.” It was simple: bench as often as possible, train everything that makes the bench stronger, and never stop pushing volume.
Jim’s routine was a blend of bodybuilding-style brutality and powerlifting-specific insanity. He benched five to six days per week. Not light, not for form — heavy pressing with max attempts every single week. No deloads. No RPE scales. Just iron, aggression, and obsession.
🧠 Sample Weekly Split (As Reconstructed from Reports & Interviews)
Bench Press – 5–6 days per week Including heavy singles and top sets in the 600–675 lb range
Lat Pulldowns to Neck or Chest – 10x10 with 275 lbs High volume lat work to build bench stability and back thickness
Lying Tricep Extensions / French Press – 6x15 + heavy top sets Reportedly using 275–325 lbs, which would snap most elbows today
Dumbbell Shoulder Presses – 10x10 with 120–130 lb dumbbells Think “bodybuilder shoulders” trained like powerlifter triceps
Preacher Curls – 10x10 with 100 lb dumbbells Not for show. For biceps that helped control 700 lbs off the chest
Floor Shrugs, Behind-the-Neck Presses, Plate Raises Accessory staples. Loaded up and hammered to oblivion.
This wasn’t “assistance work.” It was total muscular war, with the bench press as the battlefield.
And yet… it worked.
This was GVT on D-bol, written by a man who could curl 275 lbs and press it overhead behind the neck. The same kind of extreme physical capacity that Louie Simmons later praised when talking about lifters who could shrug or row more than they could bench — Jim was already doing it, just without the PR department.
And while it’s easy to mock this approach through a modern lens — too much volume, no autoregulation, no progression model — the reality is this:
Williams trained like someone who had nothing to lose and everything to prove. And he built one of the most fearsome benches in history doing it.
Jim Williams Weekly Training Template (Sample)
Monday
Squat – free choice of sets/reps
Bench Press – 6x5 with 405 lbs; 1x10 with 350 lbs
Incline Barbell Press – 3x4 with 405 lbs; 1x max reps with 225 lbs
Lat Pulldowns – 8x20 with 125 lbs; 1x6 with 315 lbs; 1x max reps with 125 lbs
Upright Rows – 4x10 with 100–225 lbs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 10x10
Dumbbell Curls – 10x10 with 100 lbs
Lying Tricep Extensions – 7x15 with 135 lbs; 1x6 with 315 lbs; 1x max with 135 lbs
Forearm Curls – to failure
Tuesday
Bench Press – same as Monday
Press Behind the Neck – 5x10 with 225 lbs
Dumbbell Bench Press – 10x10 with 120 lbs
Decline Dumbbell Press – 10x10 with 130 lbs
Pullover Press – 8x10 with 135 lbs; 1x max reps with 425 lbs
Bent-Over DB Raises – 10x10 with 45 lbs
Lying Tricep Extensions – 10x10 with 225 lbs
Preacher Curls – 10x10 with 100 lbs
Forearm Curls – to failure
Wednesday
Squat – free choice
Bench Press – 2x1 with 525–550 lbs; 1x10 with 315 lbs
Pulldowns to Neck – 10x10 with 275 lbs
Pulldowns to Chest – 10x10 with 275 lbs
Upright Rows – 5x10 with 100–250 lbs
Deadlift – free choice
Incline Dumbbell Press – 10x10 with 135 lbs
Front Squat – free choice
Front Plate Raise – 10x10 with 100 lbs
Dumbbell Curls – 10x10 with 75–100 lbs
Lying Tricep Extensions – 6x15 with 135 lbs; 1x3 with 325 lbs; 1x max with 200 lbs
Tricep Pushdowns – very heavy; sets/reps by feel
Thursday
Bench Press – 3x2 with 550 lbs; 1x10 with 315 lbs
Lat Pulldowns – 10x10 with 275 lbs
DB Shoulder Press – 8x10 with 135 lbs
Lying Shrugs – 10x10 with 150 lbs
Standing Barbell Curls – 6x10 with 135 lbs; 1x3 with 275 lbs
Lying Triceps Extensions – 6x15 with 135 lbs; 1x3 with 275 lbs
Tricep Pushdowns – full stack; sets/reps by feel
Saturday
Squat – free choice
Bench Press – 1x1 with 600 lbs; 1x10 with 405 lbs
Deadlift – free choice
Lying Shrugs – 10x10 with 150 lbs
Dumbbell Shoulder Work – lifter’s choice
Lying Tricep Extensions – 6x15 with 135 lbs; 1x3 with 325 lbs; 1x max with 200 lbs
Tricep Pushdowns – full stack; sets/reps by feel
Standing Barbell Curls – 6x10 with 135 lbs; 1x3 with 275 lbs
⚖️ Comparison to Westside & Conjugate: Primitive Conjugate Before It Had a Name
Before Louie Simmons systemised it. Before the Dynamic Effort Method had a name. Before bands and chains redefined resistance profiles…
Jim Williams was running his own raw, prison-born version of the Conjugate Method.
He didn’t have a template. He didn’t call it “max effort” or “volume work.” But if you strip the methods down to their bones — the blueprint was already there.
🔁 Rotation of Movements
What we now define as Conjugate rotation was already baked into Jim’s training:
Incline press
Decline press
Floor press
Partial ranges → All rotated regularly, all treated with intensity. These weren’t accessories — they were full-on max effort days under different rules of engagement.
💣 Max Effort Work
Jim hit 1RMs weekly — often on repeat, without taper, without concern. No box squats. No heavy good mornings. Just max effort benches, over and over. It wasn’t periodised — it was pathological. But it worked. That’s ME work at its rawest.
📊 Volume & Repetition Work
Forget spreadsheets. Jim ran 10x10 dumbbell circuits, preacher curls, triceps extensions, and pulldowns with more volume than most bodybuilders could recover from.
It wasn’t fluff. It was intentional hypertrophy — for bench support.
You’ll recognise this in the 80/20 approach many modern Conjugate coaches (yourself included) preach today: → 20% main lift intensity → 80% accessory development, recovery, and capacity-building Williams was doing it before it had a name — just with twice the volume and half the logic.
🛠️ Specialty Movements
Front plate raises
Lying tricep extensions with massive weight
Lat pulldowns to neck/chest
Behind-the-neck presses and shrugs
And what we now call the Tate Press? → Originally known as the Williams Extension.
He wasn’t just benching. He was engineering support muscles from every angle.
🏃♂️ GPP & Endurance Work
Jim’s bodybuilding-style circuits built shoulder endurance, tricep density, and grip strength long before "GPP" became a catchphrase. No sleds. No assault bikes. Just manual labour with iron — and lots of it.
🎯 Key Differences from Westside:
Louie split effort types (ME vs. DE) and managed recovery
Jim trained through fatigue, using volume as a weapon — not a variable
Westside used science, feedback, and speed work
Jim used rage, faith, and relentless physicality
Louie had chains and bands. Jim had an entire prison yard to dominate.
Both made monsters. But only one built his bench in captivity — and still walked out with numbers that echo through the sport today.
🔧 How I’d Apply Jim’s Methods Today: Stripping the Chaos for Gold
Let’s be real — Jim Williams’ exact program would break 99% of lifters today. Most don’t have the time, the tendon resilience, the recovery support (read: PEDs), or the psychological appetite for that level of punishment.
But if I had a genetically gifted bencher, someone with elite recovery, good leverages, an off-season window, and — let’s be honest — enhanced pharmacology?
I’d 100% pull from Jim’s playbook. Just not blindly.
Here’s how I’d do it — through a Conjugate lens that accounts for reality, not legend.
🧱 1. Bench 2–3x/Week Max — With Intentional Rotation
Forget the 6-day-a-week press fest. Instead, I’d rotate through:
Banded Presses
Floor Press
Incline Press
Close Grip
And occasional shirted/board work for equipped lifters
Heavy singles, 3RMs, and 6–8RM work all have their place here. Williams-style loading, but with modern variation to protect the shoulders and keep the nervous system engaged without burning it out.
🔄 2. Use His Accessory Sequencing as Hypertrophy Circuits
This is the gold.
His:
10x10 preacher curls
Dumbbell presses
French presses
Shrugs
Plate raises → All of it is perfect plug-and-play material for hypertrophy phases or GPP weeks.
I’d use these circuits:
On repetition effort upper days
As finishers after DE upper work
Or on standalone accessory days for lifters chasing bigger benches or overhead numbers
Volume stays high, but intensity scales based on the phase.
⚙️ 3. Strip His Movements Into Plug-and-Play Options
Instead of trying to run his sessions as-is, I’d break the movements into parts:
Preacher curls become a loaded elbow support pattern
Pulldowns and shrugs become postural volume or rear-chain finishers
Dumbbell presses become fatigue-friendly substitutes for barbell lockout work
They’re building joint resilience, volume tolerance, and upper-body density — all traits most modern benchers and strongmen need desperately.
⏱ 4. Build in Deloads & Autoregulation (He Didn’t)
This is where Jim’s system fails modern lifters.
No one can go full-tilt forever.
I’d build his principles into 3–4 week waves, deloading every 4th week with lighter accessory circuits, reduced press intensity, and GPP-only upper days.
Use bar speed, grip strength, and recovery metrics as autoregulation cues — if bar speed tanks or accessories stall, drop the load or volume.
Smart fatigue management is what separates survivors from broken shoulders.
Jim’s program wouldn’t work as-is for most lifters today. But if you strip it for parts and rebuild it with modern systems, it’s a goldmine.
For benchers? It’s a masterclass in intent, volume, and tricep dominance.
For strongmen? It’s a road map to upper-body meat, overhead power, and lockout confidence.
Williams was flawed, wild, and obsessive — but buried in the chaos was a strength philosophy worth revisiting.
🧠 What Big Jim Still Teaches Us
Jim Williams was a monster — but not a mindless one.
Yes, he was intense. Yes, he benched like a sledgehammer on repeat. But don’t mistake obsession for randomness. Jim wasn’t just strong — he was calculated. Methodical. A technician of pressure, load, and adaptation before most lifters even knew how to program.
He didn’t stumble into a 675-pound raw bench. He built it — one agonisingly heavy, incredibly frequent, brutally intentional session at a time.
His story reminds us of a few truths modern lifters forget:
Raw strength doesn’t come from minimalism You don’t build a legendary press with three sets of five and a protein shake.
Accessories matter Big triceps, dense shoulders, massive lats — he trained them all like they were main lifts. And they paid off.
Volume and frequency still have a place If your recovery can support it, high-frequency benching and high-volume accessories are still unmatched for building pressing dominance.
Technique and violence aren’t mutually exclusive Jim knew how to brace, press, lock out, and own the bar. But he did it with intensity that made spectators flinch. That’s what made it stick.
He was a bench press coach before “bench press coach” was even a title His methods might not have been refined, but they were real. And they built one of the greatest raw benches in history — before shirts, before social media, before anyone knew what to do with that kind of strength.
💥 Build Your Own Legacy
If this breakdown hit home — if you’re chasing log press PRs, bench milestones, or just want to train upper body like it actually matters — then I’ve got what you need:
A modern Conjugate pressing program, built with the same spirit Jim had — just refined for recovery, results, and 2025 lifters. This isn’t fluff. It’s pressing dominance, systemised.
Whether you’re a fighter, a strongman, or a bench-only obsessive — my coaching bridges the gap between historical strength systems and real-world performance. We take what worked for legends, strip it to its essence, and rebuild it for you.
Strength isn’t complicated. It’s just brutally consistent.
If you’re ready to stop dabbling and start pressing with purpose…
Let’s get to work. 👊
Disclaimer:
Some elements of this narrative have been stylised or emphasised for storytelling purposes. The training program outlined is based on best-available historical accounts, interviews, and secondary sources. Exact details may vary, and this reconstruction reflects a combination of recorded evidence and informed interpretation.
*Number one Thomas Davis did 325kg/716.5lbs Bench as part of a 1077.5/2375.4lbs Total - arguably James Henderson also benched 322.5/711 in a full meet however he only took token 60kg Squat and Deadlifts.
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