Max by Reps vs. Oldschool Push What You Can Get

[garumike]

Offseason has been going good at EF. I have a question for you other coaches out there. When I was in school and we maxed out, we warmed up and then began stacking weight on doing 1 rep of the weight to see what we could get to. The other program I have seen many coaches use is a rep system. They have a chart that shows what an athlete's max would be after so many reps of a lighter weight.

 

I prefer the old system. The athlete actually HAS to get the weight before it is recorded, like a powerlifting meet. Also I have seen kids who couldn't benchpress a legitimate 225 lbs. rep out at 265 lbs.

 

The major perk I see to the rep system is that you can spare your athletes pulled or torn muscles. With proper stretching and technique I don't see that as an issue though.

 

What are your thoughts?

[Bhighroller]

I agree with you, Im a bit of old school myself. It was always pretty cut and dry for me before I was introduced to the rep max...you put on the weight and lifted it until you couldnt lift it any more and that was obviously your max. Then my old high school coach showed us another method that was so supposed to accurately test our max without loading on all that weight. Ive done both and I could always rep max more than I could "pure" max. I guess some people are good at reps and others at one lift.

 

 

[Guest bleeds]

Even us old guys lift too.

 

One of the best workouts I ever used to increase my max was a pyramid, up and down.

 

Start by picking a weight you want to work toward as your max. Then, beginning with 65% of that weight, do 10 reps. Then go to 75% with 8 reps, 85% with 6, 90% with 4, 95% with 2.

 

Then, start back down with the odd number of reps, skipping 95%, start at 90% with 3 reps. Then 85% with 5, 75% with 7, and 65% with 9.

 

Once you do that workout twice, all the way through, increase your desired max weight by 10 lbs. After you have done that for a couple of weeks, back off and do a light workout for a week or so. When you come back to that, you should find your max has increase substantially.

 

Worked for me. One thing, I wouldn't recommend overestimating your desired max starting out. I did at one time and had shoulder pain for quite some time. Had to quit benching completely for quite awhile for my shoulders to "heal".