1RM with Leg Press & Specificity
Hi Everyone!!
Well, I had a fun and filling cheat day on the weekend. I completely overdid it, and suffered some self-punishment (aka: penance) for it today!! hahaha..
That’s what I get for getting completely carried away over the weekend!
Also, I recently did a little experiment trying to find my 1RM (1 Rep Max) with Leg Press (and for the record finding your 1RM means the heaviest weight at which you can do ONE REP with GOOD FORM).
I discovered something rather interesting with regards to the principle of Specificity. I share it with you here.
May.19, 2009 | Filed in Strength
May 19th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
First off, definitely see if you can put another vLog up about what John Chow said at his speech. I just learned of him and read his eBook on how to operate a successful blog and he seems to know his stuff. I would love to hear what he said.
Also, this was an interesting story. And I was thinking while you were talking about how you couldn’t get 270 but got 260 that it might be the settings on the machine (which is why most people go for 1RM with free weights but you already addressed that). So that was pretty cool to see that the settings on the machine were the issue.
Just curious but when you’re going for these 1RM – are you just hopping on the machine and cranking it to 270 and then going for it or are you warming up? Because I know with powerlifters when they go for their 1RM on benching or squats for example, they go through a good amount of warm-ups in order to be in the best shape to get that Personal Record.
Like, if they were trying to get a 315 bench they would do (just an example), Bar x 10×2, 135 x 5, 155×3, 195×3, 225 x1, 275×1, then go for 315×1. There’s warm-up sets, then acclimation sets to get your muscles and CNS ready for heavy weight but with only 1-3 reps you don’t go overboard or use any resources in the muscles, and then you go all out. I’ve done this a lot when I was doing a powerlifting program for strength with 3 rep sets.
Try it next time!
May 19th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Thanks XFrame.. first of all, seeing as this is a fitness blog and not a ‘how to make money blogging’ blog, I’ll apologize now for not doing a blog post in the future on John Chow’s speech tonight. Suffice to say he mostly talked about case studies of others that have made a success online as well as his own many ventures… no specifics on the HOW, just mostly the WHAT… Anyway, moving on to what this blog really is all about…
yes, I did warm up reps before just jumping on and cranking it out at the maximum weight!! I’m not THAT silly!! LOL
thanks so much for the post. Keep ’em comin’!!
J
May 20th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Haha, good point – my mistake Jackie! :P
And sorry for doubting your warm-up skillzzzz haha. But warming up and getting acclimated to your main work set(s) can make the difference of quite a few pounds as I’m sure you know even some people warm-up incorrectly and actually end up tiring themselves out too early – I’ll see if I can dig up some articles about it.
May 20th, 2009 at 6:05 am
Great Advice about your machine settings and ‘writing things down’ this clears your mind for other stuff. hope your week is greater than you expected. jim
May 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am
thanks Jim. So far, so great!! Hope yours is awesome too.
May 20th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I’ve never had ice-cream cake … sounds yummy :)
I wonder if they have dark chocolate icecream cake …
:)
May 21st, 2009 at 10:04 pm
WWWHAAAAATTT??!?! You’ve never had ICE CREAM CAKE?!?! That should be a crime!!! although once you do, there’s kinda no going back!! LOL. So maybe you are better off!! (and btw the bottom crust was made out of dark chocolate cookie crumble, and the bottom layer was chocolate ice cream.. top layer, vanilla ice cream, then very top had white icing. OMG, now I want some!! haw haw)
thanks for the comment FG!! now go get yourself some ice cream cake for Dark Chocolate Friday.. you’ll hate me forever for introducing you to it, I’m sure! LOL