It’s worked for 20 years so why stop?
Through the decades I have tried a vast number of “programs” but always customized them to something that made the most sense to me.
I would in no wise consider myself an instinctive lifter. I am more of Shewhart cycle lifter: PDCA
- Plan: plan a program
- Do: execute the program
- Check: analyze the results
- Act: Make adjustments to improve the program
I will share something else that prompted this thread.
Yesterday, after those two 1-rep maxes I went to the gym bathroom to change my shirt, now the mirror and light in there seems way better but I was actually happy for the first time ever seeing I had humps as traps in my upper back and as I was turning and looking I didn’t see fat in my lower back side.
See, as I been cutting and doing lots of high rep squats my front mid section is looking a lot better, however (I didn’t know this) but I was horrified when I saw a back shot of me and saw my lower back was like a second azz crack.
So when I looked at myself yesterday pumped from those 1-rep maxes (zero cardio) I was like YES!!! More of this !!!
Ive probably said this 1000 times on this site over the years, do whatever works for you. Knowing comes from years of experimenting and tracking progress.
True balls out 1rm ive only ever done at powerlifting meets. I do single rep stuff all the time, but its usually a weight i could get 2 or 3 reps with.
For me,
deadlifts - heavy 3’s. High rep deadlifts are a waste of time and i gain nothing from them in the way of strength. I keep them heavy, low reps.
Squats - 5’s. If my 5’s are getting better, im getting stronger. I mix up my squat more than any other lift. I seem to benefit from it all as long as im pushing myself.
Bench - 5 reps or more. Usually 8s or higher. I get nothing from 3s or singles on the bench. The only thing that has ever made my bench go up was high reps and gaining weight.
Try it all. Some may benefit from maxing out once in a while. Others its just a recipe for injury.
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Wow, this is fascinating. And here so many of us train in the 6-20 rep range, so you mean we’re increasing our injury risk by 500-1900%?!
I should just stay at home then.
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Injuries in the weight room flat out shouldn’t happen as long as the load used is within your capabilities and you have a smart bailing strategy for hitting failure and your technique is clean and repeatable without pain. If someone were to use steroids, that puts them at a greater risk of muscle tear I guess. But I definitely don’t understand extreme fear of injury risk in the gym.
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It takes longer to recover from big, heavy singles than from “regular” training.
Like if it takes you a week to recover and progress between “regular” workouts, it might takes 2 weeks to recover from some heavy, heavy work.
If you don’t know that and rush and string the heavy workouts together, it can be really easy to find yourself under-recovered and stiff, under big weights that you expect to be able to lift. That’s how the injuries happen.
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They just call it 5/3/1. You don’t even really do any 1 rep sets.
My bad. I had forgotten that the “1” was 1 plus a target of 5 additional reps, if I understood the program correctly.
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Another way to use heavy singles.
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My best heavy farmers dead lift in my heyday was 300an arm, I lifted it, walked about 20’ dropped it, picked it up again walked it about 5’ and I was done.
2nd pickup strained my ribs.
Fast forward 20years, I’m trying to get back to that 600# lift.
I had 510 and did reps, last rep was rep 4, do you know WHY it was rep 4???
Take a good guess………
Squashed disk, felt my right glute, instant pain.
I told myself, I should have just done 1-heavier lift for 1-rep.
Another method. This one uses the heavy singles to make the main sets of 6 “better.”
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Great share!!
Thank you
T
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Or stopped at 3.
That would not of been my 3-rep max though.
I hit two 1-rep maxes today-
BOR = 12# PR
EZ curl close grip.
The BORs are harder to tell that you have gone completely all out, but I’ll take a 12# weight PR!
With the curls, this is a first. I will allow leaning back only, but forward momentum I won’t count (I usually use forward momentum when I’m doing heavy reps).
So on the curls I got the curl moving, body stayed upright, stalled, started leaning back and finished, I was shouting during both lifts.
Planet chitness would not approve.
But it would have stopped you from crippling yourself. What would have hurt your training progress more? Stopping at 3 or trying for 4 and ending up disabled? We don’t need to speculate, do we?
I don’t have a problem with pushing myself, 1-rep or more reps, but I could have gotten hurt on rep 3 too in reality
I try to learn from my mistakes, but I’m not going give up pushing myself.
I actually learned some really good rehab work to recover from that, which I still do, even though I’m not hurting anymore. I also have learned to do some more higher rep warmup, as opposed to the standard 1-3rep warmup sets.
I learn, then move on, but don’t give up.
This seems high risk. I don’t feel it is particularly high risk to lift very heavy weight providing your feet and core are stable. But walking removes much of the stability of the movement and with extremely heavy weight it would seem that the risk outweighs the benefit. But each to his own.
Well, that’s what you have to do in strongman!
The recent injury I had with farmers deads, there was no walking, I just did deadlift for reps with them.
My days of farmers walks are most likely done, heavy anyway, no point in them for me, I just want to be jacked and stacked but strong too.