How long did it take you to establish RM's?

[Richard Berg]

Simple question, but I can theoretically imagine several strategies ranging from a trip or two to the gym to a couple weeks spent testing to failure, recovering, and beginning anew.

Me, I figure for my first cycle the weight differences will be low enough (me = weak-@$$ mofo ) that I can guesstimate. Unless you workout wizards say otherwise, naturally.

 

[rxd]

try this: http://www.engr.mun.ca/~butt/mrcalc2.html

it is pretty accurate, I just had to go to the gym 2-3 times and I got my 5s,10s,15s.

 

[boggy]

I use that one too, I calculate the mean value btween thr 3 predictions and then round to the nearest plate.

 

[Richard Berg]

I think I'll just go with my gut feeling. For example, it says that if I can bench 10x100lb, then I could do 5x118lb. I wish it worked that way!

 

[CyberSteak]

I simply went to the gym one week before I started my SD. Figured out my 15's on the Monday, 10's on the Wednesday, and 5's on the Friday. This first cycle is over as of tomorrow. But I think I'm going to figure out my max's over again by doing what I did above. I think I still made some pretty good gains in strength so I want to see how accurate increasing the weight by 5% will be.

 

[psychonaut]

that calculator linked above works near-enough perfect, but only on lower reps.

So id do your 15s the hard way, then guess what your 8 is and as long as you can get 10 or less reps on that weight, feed it through the calculator to get 5s and 10s. Shouldnt take more than 1 or two usual sessions.