What's considered normal for a woman to bench-press?

Question

From the age of 14, at which I was my present heighth to now, I have never been able to bench press more than 60 lbs--and that only w/ someone spotting me. I've known women and girls of 4'11"to 5'5" who bench 90.

Is this unusual? I'm 5'7", slim, but have been told I have a hormonal imbalance --bit too much estrogen. I don't feel whimpy as I did when I was a kid, but I am curious.

Answer 1

What is normal for a woman is the same as what is normal for a man.
A woman and a man, with the same muscle mass, have the same strength.
Strength doens't mainly come from the size of your muscles, it comes essentially from an adaptation of the central nervous system and I don't think estrogen is an issue.
If you want to lift heavier weights, you have to adapt your training accordingly, by doing less reps and increasing the weights.
A good way to start is to follow a 5X5 routine (5 sets of 5 reps) for a few weeks. That's got to be heavy, so heavy that you should just be able to finish each set, but without going to complete failure.
Then you need to change because your body will gets used to it but I won't get there because the subject could feel a whole book.

Answer 2

It's all dependent upon your weight. A person who can bench twice their weight is stronger than someone who only bench's 1/2. Check out for a sub max calculator to figure yours out.
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/YBenchPress.html

Answer 3

Dont be jealous she is probably hairy then you. =). Its becasue she has more testastarone and can build muscle esier.