10 Rep Max (with shenanigans)

[digitaldiscipline]

Xany and I hit his gym for the promised shenanigans to determine our respective 10 rep max for a collection of basic lifts. Given my current lack of certitude as to my true capacities (see “Lies,” below), I went in with a little bit of trepidation, but determined not to embarrass myself too badly (well, moreso than usual - things got off on the right foot when I was making smalltalk with the girl at the registration desk, and good-naturedly lambasted one of her favorite heavy metal bands. Her fault for being cute and having questionable taste…. ).

• Bench Press (Olympic bar): 155#
• Squats (Smith machine): 335#
• Deadlift (Olympic bar): 225#
• Leg Press (Hammer Strength machine): 675#

All in all, I’m not entirely unhappy, but not remotely satisfied. I’d like to see, say, 50% gains in the first three figures (call it 250/500/350) later this year — ambitious, but not unreasonable (I hope).

As Xany mentioned on his page, the limiting factor for our Deadlifts was our grip — even at the end of a lot of weight lifted, we both had plenty going on to get the bar off the ground and locked out, but neither of us could keep it in our hands. I’m not the 100% purist he is, but even with gloves on, my fingers weren’t up to the task by that point. Rats.

Next time…

(x-post from http://digitaldiscipline.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/10-rep-max-with-shenanigans/)

Comments

[xany.livejournal.com]

for some reason, the text here is forced to be black by the HTML, making it unreadable on my (black background) layout. Weird.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

might be because I copied & pasted from my blog into the rich text composition window here, as opposed to composing in raw html here, and then putting the output into the wordpress template, which i had been doing previously.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

You guys won't use the wrist strap thingies?

On the Smith Machine, was that 335# worth of plates, or some other number?

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

And how far did you take those squats?

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm really impressed by the leg press numbers, I don't think I can 10 rep any more than 550#. (5 plates on each side, plus the 100 pound carrier.)

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Ok, so, basically totally unrelated to your numbers, since I picked weights that only allowed me to do 2x5 rep sets.

Bench: 185#
Leg Press: 640#

[xany.livejournal.com]

my understanding was that the carrier on our machine was 45 lbs, though it could easily be 100, now that I think about it. If it is 100, that brings the 10RM to 730 (fourteen 45-lb plates plus the carrier).

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Dayum.

Yeah, I threw 12 plates on the leg press machine and got 5 reps, twice. And I'm not even sure I'm comfortable calling those "full presses". I did pretty easily do them as calf extensions, though.

The bar on the Smith machine at my gym only weighs 10 pounds, after assistance.

[xany.livejournal.com]

The machine's safety bar was set at the third peg on the rack, about knee height.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Far enough to suck; insufficiently deep reps were not counted (which sucked at 675, that's for damn sure).

[xany.livejournal.com]

The bar was a 45-lb Olympic bar, plus 290 lbs of plates (six 45s and two 10s).

[etcet.livejournal.com]

What he said re: bar & plates

I wear gloves most of the time, he bare-hands it. I'd rather develop more grip strength, so that's why I'm not using straps (also, it's One More Thing To Carry Around, and the grocery bag I use for my gym stuff is dangerously full as it is).

[serpentstar.livejournal.com]

Did you try alternate grip on the deadlifts? That usually gets me a few more reps, or a little higher weight. It's often grip that fails for me, too, though (you probably remember the pics from last year when I did the 152.5kg deadlift & the bar was starting to slip out of my hand by the time the photo was snapped).

If you want to specifically train grip strength (beyond all the deadlifts, pullups, and KB stuff you're already doing), these articles are great:

http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles

Scroll down to the "Grip Strength" section. I quite often throw in 5-10 min of grip training at the end of a workout.

[xany.livejournal.com]

I did alternate grip on the deadlifts. Rafe did for a couple of sets, but switched to the (more comfortable for him) snatch grip for the last set or two.

And I'll make it a point to check out that site. I already do plenty of grip training for both myself and my clients. I tend to emphasize grip almost as much as I do core strength, especially for beginning lifters.

[smaugchow.livejournal.com]

That leg press machine makes you feel like a bad mother fucker, doesn't it? Simply because it takes so much weight (though you obviously aren't supporting it all.) I used to do over 700 pounds on that thing back in my working-out days.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Yes.

And today, the legs feel like a badly-fucked mother, FWIW.