Lifting you 1 RM

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imported_etothepii

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Is it good for strength progression to occasionally lift your 1 rm, perhaps a few singles once in a while? Seems like it would be good for your CNS to expose it to that load every once in a while.
 
I'm currently doing 10 mst reps for squat, deads, chins, rows, bench and military with a weight that is between my 1rm and my 2rm (it's limited by having 1 minute to do each rep so they're not singles, just mst reps with a long m-time).

Been doing it for about 2 months and don't feel burned out yet! Manage to increase the weight on 1 or 2 reps almost every workout (lower/upper split, just one exercise).

I like the feeling of lifting such (relatively!) heavy weights and still manage to get enough volume by adding 2 sets of 5 and then 3 sets of 10 of a different exercise with a lighter load.

If you just want to test your 1rm I don't see why it would be a problem as long as you work up to it and have a spotter (or 2 if it's squats).

Cheers

Rob
 
I usually lift my 1RM every 8 weeks at the end of an HST cycle.

As far as strength is concerned, maybe a bit more frequent like once/month.
 
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(robefc @ Sep. 18 2007,11:59)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I'm currently doing 10 mst reps for squat, deads, chins, rows, bench and military with a weight that is between my 1rm and my 2rm (it's limited by having 1 minute to do each rep so they're not singles, just mst reps with a long m-time).

Been doing it for about 2 months and don't feel burned out yet! Manage to increase the weight on 1 or 2 reps almost every workout (lower/upper split, just one exercise).

I like the feeling of lifting such (relatively!) heavy weights and still manage to get enough volume by adding 2 sets of 5 and then 3 sets of 10 of a different exercise with a lighter load.

If you just want to test your 1rm I don't see why it would be a problem as long as you work up to it and have a spotter (or 2 if it's squats).

Cheers

Rob</div>
This is a pretty solid idea (the 10 reps of max stim for strength), I'd be curious to hear more details about how you have stuff laid out, including the m-time you're using between reps and the frequency per lift.
 
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(etothepii @ Sep. 17 2007,11:51)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">every once in a while.</div>
What is that
 
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(mikeynov @ Sep. 19 2007,01:03)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">This is a pretty solid idea (the 10 reps of max stim for strength), I'd be curious to hear more details about how you have stuff laid out, including the m-time you're using between reps and the frequency per lift.</div>
It's very simple really, rather than have a specific m-time I give myself 1 min to do each rep. So I'll start my timer, do a rep, wait for it to beep after a min, do another one...continue for 10.

The reason behind it is that when I first started working out max stim style the weights got heavier and heavier and it got to a point where I was basically doing singles - i.e. lifting very close to my 1rm with lots of rest.

So to limit the weight I put in the 1 min limit...I decided to limit it to 10 reps because I still wanted to lift as heavy weights as possible so I prefer to do that and then add 2 sets of 5 for additional volume.

Originally I was doing full body 3 times a week but as the weights got heavier I switched to a 2 way split as follows

sat - mil press and chins
sun - squats
tue - deads and bench
thu - squats

Recently my bench has been suffering though so I might switch that with military as I think it's the deads wiping me out beforehand.

I've played around with additional exercises, I was putting in 3 conventional sets of 10 of a push and a pull exercise on my squat days, recently I've changed that to the upper body days a la Lyle's bulking routine and been doing some arm stuff on squat days (my arms suck!).

Still undecided with the additional stuff but the important thing has been to stick with the MST exercises and to add weight each week - just to 1 or 2 reps.

If you need a good split timer google gym boss, cheap and excellent.

Think that's about it!

Cheers

Rob
 
Forgot to mention that I give myself 1min 30sec for squats simply because of the additional time it takes to get the bar off the rack and set up.
 
I recently ended my cycle as i felt I was getting wiped out, it has been quite a long cycle and it has been interrupted by a few things, illness being amoun them, so a break was due but I also feel 6 sets of those heavy 10 MST reps is a bit much in a week so I've come up with this routine, which is my bastardisation of Rippetoe's texas method.

Squats - 10 MST reps (1.5mins per rep)
Chins - 20 heavy reps
Incline DB press 3x10
Machine rows - 20 heavy reps

Bench - 10 MST reps (1 min per rep)
Squat - 20 heavy reps
Pull ups - 3xbodyweight
Leg Curls - 20 heavy reps

Deads - 10 MST reps (1 min per rep)
Bench - 20 heavy reps
Leg press - 3x10
Military - 20 heavy reps

20 heavy reps are about my 7rm at the moment but I plan to progress throughout the cycle, either using max stim with m time of about 20secs or clustering if singles are awkward (e.g. military, bench).

I've also backed off on the weight on the 10MST reps but obviously plan to progress and surpass what I was doing before.

I'm then going to test 1,3 and 5rms at the end of the cycle and if it's successful redo the cycle but obviously progressing on all fronts...theoretically!!

Cheers

Rob
 
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