West Columbia, S.C.’s Bruce Brutschy breaks national record actually, but unofficially
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
I love bench press. To me, outside of pull-ups (chin-ups), the bench press is the premier test of a man’s upper body (UB) strength. Apparently also true for the National Football League which gauges an athlete’s UB strength by how many repetitions of 225 lbs. he can press-up on the flat bench: It’s a primary test in the NFL COMBINE.
The most I’ve ever benched was 305 lbs. That was years ago when I was in my twenties and before I took decades off from benching. I cannot bench that today. Not even close. Today at nearly 67-years-old (and having suffered a stroke in 2024) my recent bench-press PR is well above average within the top 1-3 percent of male powerlifters worldwide (better than 97 percent of all men my age, and far better than most younger men). I can bench 250 for reps on a good day, and 225 for many reps. I work hard at it, but I know I’ll now probably never hit the elusive three-plate club (315 lbs.).
Which brings me to my good friend Bruce Brutschy: A 10th degree black belt (Karate grandmaster) and a member of the S.C. Black Belt Hall of Fame. Bruce is not only a martial arts tournament champion and a veritable king of the pull-up bar (at least 32 dead-hang pull-ups in a single set), but decades ago he benched 365 lbs. at a bodyweight of 240 and today, “on a good day,” he is able to bench 255 at a bodyweight of 182. Sounds doable for sure, perhaps even easy if you’re competitive powerlifter in your twenties or thirties, but Bruce will be 74 years old in June.
Here’s where it gets interesting: Last year, 74-year-old Paul Topham of Attleboro, Massachusetts set a NATIONAL BENCH PRESS RECORD when he hit 210 lbs. on the bench, squatted 364 lbs., and deadlifted 386 lbs. [See story in MEN’S JOURNAL – yahoo.com/lifestyle/74-old-powerlifter-breaks-national
Topham’s record is definitely impressive – and a national record for age 74 – but Bruce has bested Topham’s national bench-press record by more than 45 pounds. And not simply because Bruce claims to have done it.
Bruce and I are sort of accountability partners. We both love bench press, and our bench press max PR’s are so close (one day, I’m slightly stronger; one day he’s slightly stronger) it’s like a sort of weekly competition between us. I always know what he’s hitting in the gym, and he knows what I’m hitting. We workout in different gyms, but very occasionally we work out together.
Several months ago I was working out with Bruce (literally spotting him) when he hit 245 without me touching the bar. That’s still 35 pounds better than Topham’s record.
But Bruce is not a competitive powerlifter, nor has he been chasing any record.
For Bruce, like me, the strength training dynamic is that we are – and have always been – surrounded by freaks of strength and power. We don’t really chase personal records other than our own PR or sometimes that of whoever we regularly see or have befriended over the years in the gym. That’s another story to be sure.
The only bench press record I’ve been paying attention to lately is that of the great Julius “Irregular Strength” Maddox who is chasing an ever-elusive 800-pound raw (no lifting suit) bench press record. I hope Maddox hits it this year.
But on a whim yesterday I Googled “bench record for 67 year olds,” and I found many guys my age who can bench more than I. Then I searched “bench press record for 74 year olds,” and I discovered a plethora of information convincing me that Bruce has not only bested a few bench records for his age category, but he has broken those records by a wide margin.
When I phoned Bruce to tell him he had broken the national record, he didn’t believe me. Why? Because again, like me, Bruce is surrounded by extreme powerlifters, so a guy in Massachusetts benching a mere 210 lbs. is not really a big deal. After all, we’re surrounded all the time by men who can hit 350-400 or close to it. Also Bruce doesn’t really consider his age when he’s strength training. What he does consider is his physical strength today when compared with his previous workout which is what he has always exhorted me to do. And Bruce is himself a professional trainer-fitness instructor.
All of this reminds me of how so many PRs may be breaking existing records which we will never be aware of unless we are actually chasing the records and participating in officially sanctioned competition. I remember years ago sitting in Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina and reading something that suggested multiple feats-of-strength and track-and-field records were surely set and broken during the Battle of Iwo Jima, but we will never know what those records were because everyone was too busy fighting and trying to stay alive to “clock” or measure anybody’s performance.
Several months ago I was working out with Bruce (literally spotting him) when he hit 245 without me touching the bar. That’s still 35 pounds better than Topham’s record.
But Bruce is not a competitive powerlifter, nor has he been chasing any record.
For Bruce, like me, the strength training dynamic is that we are – and have always been – surrounded by freaks of strength and power. We don’t really chase personal records other than our own PR or sometimes that of whoever we regularly see or have befriended over the years in the gym. That’s another story to be sure.
The only bench press record I’ve been paying attention to lately is that of the great Julius “Irregular Strength” Maddox who is chasing an ever-elusive 800-pound raw (no lifting suit) bench press record. I hope Maddox hits it this year.
But on a whim yesterday I Googled “bench record for 67 year olds,” and I found many guys my age who can bench more than I. Then I searched “bench press record for 74 year olds,” and I discovered a plethora of information convincing me that Bruce has not only bested a few bench records for his age category, but he has broken those records by a wide margin.
When I phoned Bruce to tell him he had broken the national record, he didn’t believe me. Why? Because again, like me, Bruce is surrounded by extreme powerlifters, so a guy in Massachusetts benching a mere 210 lbs. is not really a big deal. After all, we’re surrounded all the time by men who can hit 350-400 or close to it. Also Bruce doesn’t really consider his age when he’s strength training. What he does consider is his physical strength today when compared with his previous workout which is what he has always exhorted me to do. And Bruce is himself a professional trainer-fitness instructor.
All of this reminds me of how so many PRs may be breaking existing records which we will never be aware of unless we are actually chasing the records and participating in officially sanctioned competition. I remember years ago sitting in Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina and reading something that suggested multiple feats-of-strength and track-and-field records were surely set and broken during the Battle of Iwo Jima, but we will never know what those records were because everyone was too busy fighting and trying to stay alive to “clock” or measure anybody’s performance.
– W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a formerly deployed U.S. Marine Infantry leader, an award-winning combat correspondent, and a New York Times bestselling editor. Visit Smith online at http://uswriter.com.