Why the 1 Rep Max is Overrated and Overused

“How much you bench?” is probably the most used question in any gym, it’s some kind of animal instinct where we need to know where we are in the pecking order: it’s a ‘If I lift more than you, I’m higher up the food chain!’ mentality.
I rarely hear, “How many reps can you get out with 90% max?”. Which for me would be a hell of a lot more impressive if someone weighing 53kg was deadlifting close to twice their body weight for 2, 3 or even more reps at 90% effort…AND with decent form.

Take a look at the pic in the title. Now I wasn’t there in person (I just stole it from an internet search so sorry dude, no hurt intended) but I would be pretty confident that it was a 1 time max effort lift, or I hope it was because lifting high reps for numerous sets using that technique will lead to someone else wiping his ass for a long time.

We live in an era where information is literally at our fingertips. I can go on YouTube and find Brian Shaw’s or Eddie Hall’s last lift or workout, but what I won’t find are videos of these two as beginners; when they were novices in their craft; their first steps into powerlifting and becoming two of the strongest men in the world. I won’t see their foundation work, and that’s where most people don’t start from.

For a beginner (and this means anyone who has trained for less than a year, not just the new born liftians) foundation work should include learning to brace in various positions from lying down flat to walking around; learning the mechanics of the lift, the hip hinge, keeping neutral spine, creating full body tension whether that be in the squat, bench or deadlift. Once we own these moves and techniques then we can introduce overload…..but this stays relatively light. If you want to learn how to squat, then squat often. If you want to learn how to bench press often, then bench press. If you want to learn how to deadlift, then pick up a lot of stuff and put it back down again…often! This means a lot of reps, way more than the heavy singles your’re trying to do.

Training to a 3–5 rep max will be easier to recover from which means more training sessions through the week to practice your lifts.
Only perfect (I’ll even take near perfect) practice makes perfect.

If you’re not sure on where to go for information, because there is a ton of it, I highly recommend spending a bit of time researching highly respected coaches. The coaches I’m currently reading and watching a lot of videos from include Joe Defranco; James ‘Smitty’ Smith; Mark (Smelly)Bell; the coaches at Juggernaut Training Systems and Dean Sommerset. I’m not restricted to this list, but I just really like what they have to say and the results they have to back them up.

I also offer consultancy via email and Face Time for anyone wanting to send in videos of their lifts and pick up some pointers that can be applied to improve.

If you only take one thing from this though, it‘s to leave the single big lifts to the people who compete.

Put the time in…the pursuit of strength is the greatest ride!