"1RM" Testing

Last night I did most of my 1 rep max (1RM) testing. I didn't actually go for my 1RM, but I used an estimation based on 4-10RM. I think it's close enough for my purposes.

I did the same thing last January in preparation for my strength work in 2008. My results for this year were consistently better than those for last year. I'm a little surprised, I figured that they would be essentially the same.

The only test I didn't successfully finish was my squat test. I was hampered a little bit since I hadn't done much squatting on both legs (see my last post). Still, it was not paying attention that ultimately screwed me up.

I did my warm-up set, and it was fine. I made my first attempt at the test and made it to 10 reps without too much trouble... I definitely could have done a few more. So, my plan was to rest for 5 minutes or so, add some weight and do it again. I rested, then made my second attempt, and I made it to ten reps again. "Hmm..." I thought, "that didn't seem much harder than last time..." Then I actually looked at the dumbbells and saw that I hadn't changed the weight! Doh! While not near my max, I figured that the two sets were hard enough that I probably wasn't going to get a good result if I tried again. So, I'll try again tonight or tomorrow, depending on how I feel.