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Hi - I have what seems a pretty stupid question, but I can't work it out... Most advice seems to be to test your 1RM for your lifts about every 12 months or so. But how does that square with increasing your strength during your program? That is, if I measure my squat's 1RM as 100Kg, then do a program that involves doing lifts at, say, 80% six months later, won't that 80% calculated from a 1RM taken six months ago be rather lighter than my actual (new) 1RM? Or does everyone just rely on calculators? For example, I'm using strengthlevel.com to tell me what my current 1RM should be, which I then use to work out my percentage lift levels.

I was browsing around the forum and I was probably looking at something for common Warrior goals. One of the suggested goals was increasing your 1 rep max. I started thinking that could be a pretty fun goal in general and wanted to know how do you do it? I don't really lift too much, I'm planning on changing that. I'm probably overthinking it because I'm thinking, what if I pick too low of a weight and I can lift more than that but got tired lifting a low weight? What if I pick too heavy of a weight? Also would it be possible to do this without a spotter? I'm typically forced to work out by myself, and my social anxiety disorder makes it hard to talk to anyone.

Short Version: What should the week before testing my 1RM look like? Long Version: I tend to plan things out far in advance. I planned on continuing to focus on strength and cutting out some bodyfat until around the end of November. Currently I do 5/3/1 with BBB 4x/week and run around 10-15 miles most weeks. I understand the basics of the day of warm up to 1RM and how to warm up to that weight. I also think I am going to do a single 1RM a day rather than big 3 in a day comp style. But should I just plan on putting 1RM testing at the end of a deload week just before shifting gears? Oh, I plan on shifting gears to focus more on hypertrophy in the fall when I stop trying to cut fat and focus on muscle. Yes, I know that 1RM doesn't really help me move forward in my training but November will be my anniversary with the barbell. I kinda want to see what I have accomplished in that year.

First time going down to 1rep (I stick with 3reps per set usually). I hit 120kg on the Squat in my 11th set (30 minutes squatting, yeah) and 220 pounds on the bench. The dude I asked to spot said it was all me, haha. Anyways I'm happy with those numbers for now and didn't want to push it since I did those lifts yesterday already =D and I'm not looking to injure my shoulders. Next max is going to be the deadlift on sunday most likely (For the record @82kg bw, Squat with belt)

When you find out you were stronger than you ever imagined you could be haha. I stepped into the squat rack for the first time in over five years today to do today's WOD. 5-5-3-3-3-1-1 Reps working towards a new 1RM. I took it easy and started at 135lb/61kg but by the end of it I managed to put on two 45lb/20kg plates for a new 1RM of 225lb/102kg (including the bar)!! I had no idea I could still squat that much haha. So feeling emboldened I decided that I'd try out dead lifting those two 100lb/45kg bumpers that I'd been eye-ing since I rocked out 15 reps of 225lb/102kg dead lifts last week. My buddy threw on two 5lb/2.2kg stoppers on the end just to mess with me, bringing the weight up to 255lg/115kg (including the bar). Went and chalked up for the first time ever and lo and behold I did it! I got ballsy and went back for a second rep but gravity put me back in my place the second time haha. Still, it feels good to get back into weight training and not having to start completely from scratch again!

Long time no talk, but I had to put this somewhere. In the past week, fueled by angry music, a growing disdain for the impudent steel resisting me, and the dire need to get as much work in before my next tattoo appointment [friday], I went on a rampage in the gym to finally establish my 1RM for a few lifts. I have the following broken PR's to report. They will be formatted as (Exercises: new PR [gain over previous PR]) Bench Press: 175lbs (+15lbs) Pendlay Row: 195lbs (+25lbs) Deadlift: 335lbs (+40lbs) Front Squat: 205lbs (+45lbs) Squat: 305lbs (+70lbs) Woot.

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate It's that time again, Warriors. Time to strap on our armor, sharpen our blades, bluntify our blunt objects, and prepare to whoop some ass. The theme of these upcoming challenges is going to be how to handle a competition. A true warrior knows that they need to test their mettle in order to understand true strength, and that is just what we will be doing. Every season, the Warrior Forge comes together in a time of celebration and festival as we all enter the Strength Showdowns. This spring is no different, we've all seen the thread come up and many are starting to think about signing up or have already done so. Over the next few weeks leading up to the SSS, we're going to look at specific topics having to do with how to prepare, how to hit your lifts, and then how to recover from such an effort. Preparing your armor. Before you go into battle, you need to know what it is you're up against. What you'll need to defend against and what type of armor to wear. If you plan on competing in any federation sanctioned powerlifting competition, you'll need to be a bit more strict about what you wear. During the SSS, you will not be forced to wear a singlet but in real competitions, these are a requirement. Here is a list of the equipment that you can use in order to still be considered eligible for a "raw" lift. You also want to know exactly what it means to successfully complete one of your lifts. These become a bit more strict than your usual day at the gym, and it's also one of the biggest reasons we harp on you hitting at least parallel in your squats. Each of the three big lifts are described here and success requirements for each lift are layed out on pages 9 & 10. Preparing your weapons. Now that you know what you're up against, it's time we gave ourselves some weapons. The SSS and sanctioned meets follow the same format: you get 3 attempts to lift as much as possible in Squat, then Bench, then Deadlift. 3 attempts, that's it. So, we need to know exactly what we want to try to hit on each of those attempts. Some common schools of thoughts are to take the opening attempt at 90-94% of your 1 Rep Max, your second attempt somewhere between 95-98%, and then your final lift will be 100-105% of your 1RM. We'll look at a more detailed explanation of the three attempts in the next challenge, for now we're going to look at figuring out what your 1 rep max is. Your one rep max is the be all and end all of your lifting career. It's the notch on the wall that you want to beat next time. It's what we use for most math based programs. You should know it. And we're going to teach you how. There are two schools of thought: use a lift that you think feels great and rely on a calculator to tell you what you can lift, or, just go fracking lift something heavy until you can't anymore. Calculators: EXRX.net or T Nation(slightly nsfw) Example: I plug in that I hit 340 for two reps on Saturday on squats. This says that I can hit 350 for a 1RM. I plug in that I hit 315 for five reps on Monday and it says I can hit 354lbs for a 1RM. That's pretty consistent right? Your Challenge Find your 1RM values for Squat, Bench, and Deadlift. Use a working weight that feels good to you and one of the linked calculators. Reply with your values as we'll be using them in the upcoming challenges and it's good to have them handy. Want to try out your maxes? Go for it, but not all on the same day. Give this a read over before you start going super heavy. Your Rewards +1 to Wisdom for learning the upper bounds of your lifts +1 to Strength for trying out some heavy lifts You have until the 4th to complete this challenge. From there we'll start looking at preparing to hit these lifts during the SSS. If you're not already signed up for the SSS, go do that. Now!