ExRx.net

Ashiem and Eric--Thanks for the explanations. I haven't been ignoring you deliberately, but have been without internet for several days.

How do you arrange the light, medium and heavy days? Are all the lifts in one week light, or are some lifts light and others are medium, etc., during the week?

Well, you are assuming that I use the same volume week in and week out...and not only that but all the lifts are trained the same way: which they are not. At all.

I'm not assuming those things. I'm just asking how you do it.

In another thread everybody couldn't believe that you can hit a relative 1RM week in and week out
[....]
however I always leave some in the tank because whatever progress has to be sustainable so there are very very few instances when I go balls to the wall all the time. Actually, that never happens.

I think, at least for me, some of the confusion/misunderstanding is captured here.

What is a relative 1RM ?
I'll listen because I'm sure my guess will be way off ( my guess: An estimated/computed number based on the reps and weight on a given day, with some corrective factor for leaving something in the tank) In that case, I see how you can set a 1RM regularly, almost arbitrarly. I'm still intrigued

For those who do not compete, there are two kinds of maximums that are useful. One is your PR, or your best max for the last few months and the other is your relative max.

The PR is useful more in psychological ways than for training. Going all out for a test lift, for one, is damn fun! It is beyond me why anyone would want to work their butt off training for strength and then "not be allowed" to attempt a PR unless they are a competitor. Where is the intrinsic value in training for a goal you never reach? That is bogus, I think you'll agree, if your goal is maximum strength. There is no pride in a 1RM guesstimate. The PR or best test also gives you something to shoot far. The idea is, I did it once I can do it again, only better. Better would be, hopefully, with less deviation from the standards of good form. Perhaps with better amplitude, coordination, speed, etc. The best feeling is when a PR becomes a benchmark that you can do any day of the week. Many lifters hold this in their mind and can readily remember the time they struggled to do a weight that they now own at any time. This gives one a true feeling of progress.

The relative max is what we use for training. To understand the relative max you have to understand what "good performance" is. Most general strength training programs see performance as either weight on the bar or adding weight on the bar. This isn't a true measure of performance, of course, but only one aspect of it. So while you may get a great new PR, your performance, relative to your ability to lift a weight with excellent performance, may be poor. For a PR, we don't care as long as we have the experience to do it without getting hurt, and this comes with a lot of exposure and "body knowledge" as much as anything else.

So the relative max, if I can actually explain it, is a max based on a benchmark that represents preparedness that does not fluctuate greatly over the short term. That is, it is based on a range of ability that is within the "fitness norm" for you. This allows one to train closer to their maximum ability at any given time. The relative max requires much higher standards of performance than the PR attempt. We do it with good form, with little to no cheating or compensatory movement. Although I brought up the word excellent in regards to the PR explanation, it is not necessary to go for "excellence" in a relative max attempt. It is, after all, a max. It is a slow and demanding lift if you are not an Olympic lifter, for which the technical needs can mean there is very little divide between excellent technique and success.

The other side of the performance coin is that it is very difficult to make a trainee understand what a good relative max is if they've never really gone for it and attempted that big PR. Those "competition" days become useful in another sense. They teach you to recognize the difference between going all out and performing a more controlled relative max. Here we have again, the concept of references or benchmarks. The PR becomes a kind of performance benchmark for our general training. For instance, while you may allow the lower back to approach very close to end range of motion during the PR attempt, during a relative max you would be careful not to skirt that close to end range of motion. During a bench press PR you might let the back rise up a bit into an exaggerated arch whereas in a relative max you will try to stay pinned to the bench.

Thanks. I think I'm understanding a bit more. I hope you don't mind me continuing to ask questions. I won't ask any more now until I've had a chance to read the links you posted, and maybe look around the GUS site a bit more. Maybe I'll find my answers before I ask!

What time is it in Bombay?

thanks for Relative Max explanation