Willie Williams is not only someone who can lift heavy weights, he also has a lot of fun doing it. His bench press best is 320 kg, but his dream weight is 362.5 kg. His whole family is known for tremendous strength in West Virginia. Willie still lives in West Virginia, where he works in drywall and often spends most of the day on scaffolding.
In competitions organized by the USPF, ADFPA, IPA and APF, he has lifted more than 318 kilos and he achieved the best absolute bench press performance at the '99 Arnold Classic by lifting 320 kilos.
He managed 325 kilos twice and narrowly missed the 350 kilogram target.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.
Williams Willi: My name is Willie Williams and I'm pretty good at bench pressing. I'm 180 cm tall and 154 kilos, I know I'm strong, just like my father and grandfather were, and I would love to be the best bench press in the world because I love to have fun. Maybe you could call me a redneck, because I like country and western music and old pickup trucks. I drive a 1970 Chevy myself and I like the old fashioned way of having fun.

Q: When did you start powerlifting competitively?
Williams Willi: In 1984 I took part in all three powerlifting disciplines and in 1992 I did squats at 340 pounds, bench presses at 247 pounds and deadlifts at 307 pounds, for a total of 894 pounds.

Q: Why did you specialize in the bench press?
Williams Willi: I enjoyed all three disciplines and I developed more strength in all of them. My bench press performances, on the other hand, shot up like a rocket and I thought I could turn into one of the best bench presses in the world. So I gave up the other two disciplines to focus more on the bench press.

Q: Which powerlifters are your role models?
Williams Willi: There are a number of excellent bench pressers out there right now and they are all great guys. It's always an experience to train with the likes of Anthony Clark and Kenny Patterson, then there is Jamie Harris, a great bench press, and David Waterman. He and Greg Warr are probably the best bench pressers I've ever seen. And then of course I have to mention my wife.

Q: Is she good at the bench press too?
Williams Willi: She supports me 100 percent and is responsible for a decisive part of my success. She helps me in the studio and gives me a hand during training. She also does the bench press. With a dead weight of 67 kilos, she started at 56 kilos and has now worked her way up to 128 kilos. Next, she'll push 150 pounds. I think we are the first couple who can push over 150 pounds together.

Q: What else do you enjoy other than bench press and your work?
Williams Willi: For me, bench press is the greatest fun. Then I drink beer and make a rabatz!

Q: Sounds like you enjoy everything you do. How does this attitude influence your competitive spirit?
Williams Willi: I don't take my bench press work very seriously. I enjoy it and therefore I will do it as long as I am having fun doing it. For me it's actually not a competition because I never think about the other guys. I can't control what the others are doing anyway, so I just try to get through my own pushing attempts as well as possible and then I just see what happens.

Q: How much of your strength do you believe is genetic and how much is training-related?
Williams Willi: I admit that I have very good genetics, but believe that this is a little overrated as a reason for my strength. I've seen guys with much better genetics than me, but barely able to push 200 pounds. I know that I come from a very strong family, but I believe that believing in yourself makes that crucial and big difference. If you don't believe in yourself, you won't make it either. Some athletes just keep coming up with an excuse and I don't like listening to excuses.

Q: I heard that you were once a professional wrestler. Which competitions did you take part in and did you enjoy it?
Williams Willi: It was a lot of fun. I was always the bad country boy. I performed in the three-state area (West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania). I gave that up along with the squat and deadlift. As I said before, my goal was to become the best bench press in the world.

Q: You don't seem to have any injuries. How is there such a thing?
Williams Willi: Because I just train intelligently. I save the heavy lifting attempts for competition and never train hard without putting on my bench press shirt. The Inzer shirt protects me from injuries and keeps my muscles warm during training.

Q: Which people helped you bench press?
Williams Willi: I received the greatest and most important support from my wife. Dave White at White’s Truck Stop was also of great help and I owe him great thanks. The help I received from Inzer Advance Design products was what enabled me to meet my bench press goals and move on. Thanks everyone out there.

Q: Where do you get your powerlifting tips and strategies from?
Williams Willi: I try to watch other powerlifters and learn from what they are doing wrong and right. John Inzer personally gave me tips that helped me overcome the 318 kilo limit.

Q: What is your goal in the bench press?
Williams Willi: This year my goal is to push over 340 pounds. But my big goal is to break the 362 kilo barrier. I firmly believe that I can perform both. It would be great to manage the 362.5 kilos in the Arnold Classic 2000.

Q: Tell us some of your maximum performance.
Williams Willi: I can bench press on the negatively inclined bench with 318 kilos and in the power rack I can do the 454 kilos to almost complete extension. It would be a great wish of mine to be filmed by Powerlifting Video Magazine doing bench press to full arm extension as there are some people who won't believe it until they have seen it in person.

Q: What advice can you give to beginners in powerlifting and bench press?
Williams Willi: Just have a lot of patience. Listen to everyone, but don't let anyone tell you how to exercise. Just follow your own feeling and find out what is best for you. Some top powerlifters have their own personal training method. What works for one may not work for the other. Dave Waterman breaks every rule in this regard. His bench press style could be a lesson in "how not to press". But he found the way that was best for him and managed to achieve massive pressure results. Accept advice and listen to your Powerlifter colleagues. Only then can you decide what works for you. If you believe in yourself and have patience, you will get good results.