Measuring Maxes

[adpowah]

So I just finished cycle 3 and I am measuring my maxes this week. Monday I did well and added 5 reps to my old 15rm, Wednesday I thought it would be cool if I could do the same and I did. I got 15 with my old 10rm. So today is Friday and I should be testing my 5rm, well I am still pretty sore from Wednesday...not so sore that I don't want to work out but sore enough that I worry my 5rm may suffer a bit. Any thoughts or advice for the next few hours before i hit the gym?

 

[Old and Grey]

Quite frankly, my strength usually is better if I have a slight case of DOMS. No need to wait, in my opinion, unless the soreness is crippling. Nice job on the new PR's! You must be doing something right. However, expect that those types of gains will taper down over time.

 

[Bulldog]

So I just finished cycle 3 and I am measuring my maxes this week. Monday I did well and added 5 reps to my old 15rm, Wednesday I thought it would be cool if I could do the same and I did. I got 15 with my old 10rm. So today is Friday and I should be testing my 5rm, well I am still pretty sore from Wednesday...not so sore that I don't want to work out but sore enough that I worry my 5rm may suffer a bit. Any thoughts or advice for the next few hours before i hit the gym?

You shouldn't ever have to "test" your 5RM after a cycle if you did extended 5's rather than negatives (or 3's or some other lower rep sets). Just use your last 5 rep working weight as your 5RM.

 

[adpowah]

However, expect that those types of gains will taper down over time.

Permabulk! (just kidding I started doing some high intensity cardio and watching my macros again, this is probably the last of my large strength gains until I lose some weight.)

You shouldn't ever have to "test" your 5RM after a cycle if you did extended 5's rather than negatives (or 3's or some other lower rep sets). Just use your last 5 rep working weight as your 5RM.

That's a good point. I hadn't really worked into extending my 5s past the two weeks yet but I probably will next cycle.

 

[adpowah]

Well it ended up being a mixed bag. I pulled 365 on deads super easy so I went for 405 for a new PR and I failed. I think I need to rest my hips, they are feeling really strained, so I am going to take a week off from deads. After that I wan't really up to squatting so I did some bench and hit a new PR of 235, though amusingly enough I was going for 245 but my partner forgot to put a 10 on his side. Pushing it up was really awkward since it was 10lbs heavier on one side but I didn't notice until I completed it. Oh well, we will see what happens at the end of next cycle, I think I will do what many of you do and extend my 5s and maybe extend it even into 3s or something fun.