... to see how accurate they are? Brett's last post in the Exercise thread got me to thinking... I've never really "maxed" out on my bench press... I prefer to lift lighter weight that I can control more easily at my house, where I do all my lifting. And frankly, I'm not trying to add on tons of mass at this stage in my life... I just like to make it easy for me to get around in a tree with my climber; that's good enough these days. I plugged in 185 lbs for 10 reps, which is what I usually lift when I do get on my bench press these days, and it spat back 246.5 as my one-rep max... most of the calculators seem to stay consistent, as I can take a bit of weight off and drop down to, say... 175, and pump out 13 reps and it'll say 247.8 which is pretty close to the earlier reading... So anyone that's got the advantage of having spotters around ever tested these calculations out?
They are generally accurate. However, they don't take into account factors such as confidence of the lifter in terms of their abilities as well as belief in the equipment. The mental aspect of lifting is probably the biggest determining factor when it comes to 1RM testing. If you trust in your safety equipment, then I say go for it. If you do not have anything such as safety rails for bench or squat, then do what you're comfortable with and slightly above to slowly edge yourself up.
You need to beef it up. My buddy Chuck who is 67 benches 285. He also did a mini triathlon last year.. You're wimping out. I do the couch potatoe.LOL
If your body is slow twitch dominant then they are pretty close, but if you're fast twitch dominant they are nowhere near accurate. My 1RM is currently 295lbs on bench, and I can get 225lbs up 7 times. This allows me to add 10lbs per rep to heavy weights. If you're slow twitch dominant, you'll add only 5 pounds per rep. Not all calculators are accurate for all people, as mentioned, simply because the calculators do not determine fiber makeup: slow twitch, fast twitch, power fibers, etc. The only way to truly know for sure is to test it for yourself. I had a client one time bench 225 20 times, but his 1RM was only 335lbs. I've also had another client before, who could only bench press 275lbs 5 times, yet could bench 350lbs. Again, it is all in the fiber makeup. And the most important thing of all, the efficiency of the CNS. Dynamic training would allow a person to bench more regardless of fiber makeup in some circumstances. The 37 clients I've trained, no calculator has ever been "dead on" for any of them.
May not be the safest but if I'm lifting alone either maxing or burn out ill leave the collers off that way I can tilt the weight to one side. But thats just a precaution I've never had to do it
I've done this as well. While it's frowned upon by some it is the only way to hit personal records without a spotter for those without a power rack. I'm assuming by some of the posts made in the outside of hunting forum that no one on here uses power racks? Definitely the safest suggestion for lifting without a spotter. Better than some spotters IMO...
I never maxed or did heavy sets of 2-3 alone, ever. I did not ever want to risk it. Greg, I bet that calculator for 185x10=245 is pretty accurate. Seems about right to me. I wonder what that calculator would say for me. I did 25 push-ups with my 55 lb son sitting Indian style on my back tonight....hahahahaha. The calculator would probably say..old. PSE I agree with this..."The only way to truly know for sure is to test it for yourself. I had a client one time bench 225 20 times, but his 1RM was only 335lbs. I've also had another client before, who could only bench press 275lbs 5 times, yet could bench 350lbs." Back in my old days when I was lifting I could only do 225 about 16-18 times, yet my 1RM was 405. I am more fast twitch.
Great lifts back in the day for you. Was you ever a competitive powerlifter? I've hit 305 before, but 295 here recently is my personal record for this year @ 5'9" 205lbs. I'm aiming for 335 before October. I tend to disagree with the 245 for a 1RM. Again, no one on earth is going to be identical, but I'd say it'd be a little more, unless he really is 100% slow twitch dominant and has never trained with low reps (for CNS efficiency).
Nope, never a powerlifter, just an athlete. I actually stopped benching altogether after college because I was so sick of doing it. I started to do incline benches and remember doing sets of 5 with 315 about six months after college. IRight when I started to become really strong in the weightroom I just phased out of lifting once I started doing other athletic things.
Great lifts for you. If I had your lifts I would have definitely competed. I love the idea of having trophies around. IMO it just represents that you're good at what you do. I hope to be competing soon. Your incline is pretty strong. My personal best incline was 5 reps with 205.
Take out the bench unit and replace it with a flat bench, and this is my rack and cable row unit: To me, nothing is safer than a power cage with two sets of safety bars in it. I want to get one, but don't have the head room in the basement so had to settle on the power rack unit I did. It does it's job nicely. It's caught a few 400+ pound missed lifts of mine. Curious, what are your other numbers? At 21 and your BW, your bench seems a bit low to be in the competitive range unless you're looking at raw lifts. Which, is even low. Many local meets are competing at or near national record setting levels for the top three spots now. The USAPL American Raw bench record for men's age 20-24, in the 220lb weight class is 429.75 for a full meet. All three lifts of the meet are held by the same person for combined total of 1708.50. This is the class you will be competing in, unless you drop to the 198lb class where the raw record is only 402.25 on bench and combined total of 1488. Everyone has to start out somewhere, and I give you credit for wanting to do it. Friend of mine did bench only meets for years before a number of us finally talked into doing a full meet. His first PL meet was the state open where he set the American raw bench record for his division (181lbs, men's age 40-44):359.25 lbs. His other numbers were 385.8 squat and 451.9 DL for a combined total of about 1196. Which is about 12 pounds off the state total record. Had he of been training his lower body for as long as he did his upper, he'd most likely hold all kinds of records. Again, I commend you for wanting to do PL meets and wish you the best of luck. I never found PL meets to be to my liking. I don't care for the hurry up and wait aspect of it where you sit around and get cold in between lifts.
Not everyone has the genetic raw material to bench 400 lbs without juice. I do not take juice and never will. Some people reach their genetic limit faster than others. I have been back to lifting weights for 3 months, and 295lb bench after 3 months of lifting is pretty damn good. Besides, my weights are a tad bit heavier than gym weights. I'd say in a gym, I could probably bench about 305 right now. Maybe even 310. I'm actually one of the strongest people that lift weights around where I live. I might have lifted with one or two people before that can keep up with me, but that's it. The general rule of thumb is 1.5 x bw bench, 2 x bw squat, 2.5 x bw dl for powerlifting meets. http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/BenchStandards.html According to this chart, I am in the advanced category for my bench. And I attended a competition this year and the guy that placed 3rd place weighed 200lbs and benched 250lbs. I pulled the coach off to the side and talked to him and he told me at my bodyweight I could easily place first in many competitions. Thanks for the good luck. If your friend is in my competition I'll need it. Sounds like he is an elite powerlifter.
If you're inclining 315 then you were putting up some serious weight. I workout with a professional body builder and he inclines 305 on his down days but it is an impressive sight to see. I believe the one rep max to be fairly accurate. It all comes down to what body type you have. I'm not a big bench presser with my long arms but have got up 225 14 times and maxed out at 305. That was me in my prime. I now have tennis elbow extremely bad and have totally switched my workouts to core lifting. I feel better and have definitely become more flexible.
The calculators did not work for me. I was higher. I worked out with guys who would do just as many reps as me at the lower end weights, but I would beat them pretty good in a 1RM. My best back in college was #340 and I only weighed 180#. I think right now I'd probably be lucky to get 180# up more than a few times. Oh how things change.
LOL... how true, Ryan. As I noted, my main goals these days are to be able to still crawl up and down a tree like a monkey... ... and to stay injury-free. Too many horror stories of my friends, both in person and on here, who've sustained an injury lifting and it's set them back for years -- if not for the rest of their lives. Hence my curiousity about the 1RM calculator, as I could care less about injuring myself at this stage of the game.
I had a friend trying to squat once at my house and ended up doing a front flip because his back and core couldn't support the weight on his shoulders. As mentioned already, the calculators are not accurate for everyone. Muscle type makeup is a key factor not included in the calculator. For a slow twitch dominant person, the calculator would be near accurate, but for a fast twitch dominant person, the calculator is way too low. If you can bench 185 10 times with good form I would say your max is around 255-265 if you're fast twitch dominant, if you're slow twitch dominant I'd say 240-250 would be a close bet. If you're fast twitch, add 10lbs per rep to your 10RM/5RM/ETC. and this should give you your 1RM. At least that's the calculator I use since I am fast twitch dominant. Another thing not mentioned in calculators is the efficiency of your CNS. Your CNS is what is going to determine whether you put up heavy weights or not for the most part.
Through my whole athletic career I was more of a runner and I lifted. Once football ended I didn't run so I just lifted. I dropped down to 215 lbs and remember inclining 315 for reps. I bet I could have easily benched 410-420 if I would have transitioned from my incline benching to the standard bench for a month or so. I also remember doing 100-120 lb dumbells for shoulder presses and sets of 465 on the squat. I did that for about 6 months and got bored and then transitioned into other things. Greg, I agree, no need to push anything to the max at this stage of the game and risk injury. I am currently icing my knee because I was pushing too hard...
I'm a STICKLER for this, even in the solitude of my own house.... by myself. I've never understood why guys get off on cheating every inconcievable way just to say they did something when they did it totally wrong? I read this, and two examples came to mind... When I was in high school, I was really good friends with two brothers who lifted constantly. They were pretty big just because of the volume they did, but one's form was TERRIBLE... at least on the BP. He would arch his back so far off the bench to get the weight up I bet you could have stuck a 12" ruler on its end between the small of his back and the bench... I always wanted to see what he could bench if he layed flat and muscled the weight up instead of "throwing" it with his body. The second time was when I was counting pushup reps of one of our squad leaders in the Army... I am a HUGE stickler for doing pushups correctly (going down and breaking the plane across your arms), and this particular guy had been bragging he could do 70+ pushups in his mid-40's (in two minutes)... He dropped down, and I started counting... One, one, one, one... two, two... two, three... three, three.... After he'd went down about halfway 15 times and I'd only counted four of them, he got really pissed. I simply explained to him that he wasn't doing a pushup, he was simply bending his arms slightly and raising himself back up. We weren't on the best of terms after that.
Arching your back is allowed in competitions, nothing really wrong with it as long as you don't bring your butt off the bench. Now if they were arching THAT much it would probably be hard on their spine. Some people naturally arch their back when their feet touches the ground (short people mostly). I know the guys that do the "half way" reps though. Makes me laugh. I've got a friend that refuses to let the bar touch his chest on the bench press. I don't even count his reps. I've studied kinesiology, exercise physiology, and read more scientific books than he could count, yet he still refuses to listen. Here is a video on how to bench big weights by Dave Tate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QnwAoesJvQ I definitely recommend you to check it out. This guy has awesome bench pressing advice. Here is an article of his supporting the same information, just with a bit more science behind it. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...=1488B196A5B3E4F7E839652463E51C54-mcd01.hydra Best of luck with your bench pressing. Just make sure you're putting just as much emphasis on your pulls. Bench pressing can cause imbalances like rounded shoulders, internal humeral rotation, protracted shoulders, so forth. I'm sure some of the veteran lifters are familiar with some of these imbalances...
i don't advocate juice either. Only one person that I've trained, or competed, with was on it. To be honest, I don't even like things beyond basic protein shakes and multivitamins for supplements. Too many focus on what's going to help them, and sales reps and personal trainers are all to quick to recommend the crap. Also, please explain how your weights are a "tad bit heavier" than gym weights please. What brands are yours and the gym weights and why do you claim as such? I'm curious... Why did you pull the chart in to the discussion? It's useless when it comes to meets. It's all in whom happens to show up at any given meet, how you and they are feeling and so forth. Many different variables. So, again, how are your other two lifts? You may win the bench. But, if someone can out squat and deadlift you, it doesn't mean chit unless you're in a bench only meet because you're going to lose out in the total. If you want comparisons for what to expect, look at the results on the different local meet's websites for those in your class. Then, compare them to USAPL's records. Go back over the past 2-3 years and see the averages of the competitors and where they compare to now and you'll get a better idea of where I'm coming from. You wouldn't be lifting against him even if he was there. He's in a different class than you because of two factors: age and weight. Believe it or not, there are times when cheating the weights are acceptable when training. For example, when I was competing, I would periodically cheat on some standing lifts. Not to the point of being excessively wild and dangerous mind you. Rather, it was getting some good body "English" going as it would carry over and somewhat help learn control in my throws. Most times, I trained with the strictest of forms. But, every once in a while I would cheat and use it to break into my next plateau. I wouldn't call it an "official" lift until I could do it with proper form. But, it was something I could use as motivation when I was stuck.
