Finding my rep maxes (again)

R

RP350Z

New Member
In mid January I found my 15, 10 & 5 rep maxes. I went on a ski vacation in early February and during the trip I injured my back. By the end of February my back was healed however I got sick. Well now it's March 8th and I'm finally better. I'm planning on starting back next Monday the 14th. That will make it 2 months since I've been to the gym.

My question is should I recalculate my 15, 10 & 5 rep maxes before begining HST or just use the ones I found 2 months ago?

Thanks

Ryan
 
what happened to your bacK? i suggest you test your maxes again given the fact that you got sick.. especially if you lost a lot of weight from it, you really need to test everything again and just have a 9 day SD afterwards since you really haven't done anything for the past 2 months.
just a suggestion though, wait for the replies from the pros here
tounge.gif
 
I'm not really sure what I did to my back. I fell a few times right on my @$$ and I think that's what did it. It hurt to run and to jump... or put heavy loads on my back. Everything seems back to normal though.

I suppose I could at least go to the gym and test my 15 rep maxes and if those are the same then my 10 and 5 rep maxes should be close to the same also.
 
Hi, Ryan! :D

Max testing is best done before you SD. I'd say guesstimating for the early workouts may be best. You don't want to waste that beautiful 2 month SD dinking around with minor weight adjustments.
thumbs-up.gif


I'd take the program as you set it up in January, and simply drop back a weight increment or two, until you catch up. For example if you had planned to start pulldowns at 100 pounds and to use ten pound increments, start at 90 or even 80. Still should be enough weight to get you a heck of a burn after two months off, and enough resistance to get the benefit of your high rep workouts.

This has the added benefit of creating a larger gap between starting weights and the 5Maxes, which as I understand the theory, means an even greater opportunity for growth.

If you have the patience and a grasp of HST basics, you should be able to "wing it" a little bit, until you catch up with your maxes.
thumbs-up.gif


Happy hypertrophy!
Kate
 
I'll go along with Kate's advice. After a back injury, you definitely want to ease into things slowly. Back injuries are not to be messed with.

HST is perfect to ease you in slowly, but I'd go even slower and do what Kate suggests there. After having talked to people with some serious back problems, it's one thing that I always keep in mind and check up on.
 
Thanks for the advise Kate & MicroBerto. I'll drop back the lbs a bit and start. This will be my first time with HST but I do believe I have a good grasp of the concepts and methods. I've been reading up for quite some time and am anxious to get to the gym!

Thanks again

Ryan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top