by Charles T. Ridgely
Many fitness programs require that you know one or more of your repetition maximums (RM). For example, High Intensity Training (HIT) generally requires you to work with your 8-12RM. With German Volume Training (GVT), you often work with roughly your 20RM. And, with Hypertrophy-Specific Training™ (HST), you’ll need to find your 15RM, 10RM, and 5RM weights for each exercise that you plan to use in your training cycle [1-3].
For those readers that are new to the iron game, a RM specifies the maximum number of times you can lift a weight before hitting muscular failure. With HST, the RMs guide you in determining how much weight to use for your exercises. For instance, what is the maximum weight you can squat 15 reps with? Once you know this weight, it becomes your 15RM weight.
One way to determine your RMs is to actually perform the exercises. You can test your 15RM on Monday, your 10RM on Wednesday, and your 5RM on Friday. A good thing about this method is that it’s very accurate on an individual basis. One drawback is that it takes an extra week to test all of your RMs, and the weights may vary depending on a variety of factors, such as sleep, nutrition, stress, recent illness, overtraining, and the like.
Estimation is a far less time consuming way of finding your RMs. With the estimation method, you use printed or online Rep-Max calculators, or some other similar device to estimate your 15RM, 10RM, and 5RM based on other RMs that you already know, such as, for instance, your 8RM or 12RM. A good thing about estimating your RMs is that it’s easy and takes very little time. A drawback is that Rep-Max calculators are based on the performance of a wide variety of lifters. Thus, these calculators do a poor job of predicting reasonably accurate RMs for individual lifters. Moreover, most Rep-Max calculators focus on Squats, Deadlifts, and Bench Presses. But what about your other lifts? Wouldn’t it be nice to know your RMs for, say, Rows or Chin-ups? A more accurate approach is to use a theoretical method to determine your 15RM, 10RM, and 5RM based on your latest RMs from your other workout programs. A great thing about this approach is that it’s very accurate on an individual basis. Of course, the main drawback is that it involves mathematics, and not everyone is comfortable enough with his or her math skills to use this method. But fear not! Herein, a straightforward approach is provided for determining your, or your clients’, RMs.
The first step is to identify at least two of your RMs for each exercise you wish to use in your training. If you already know your RMs, that’s great! But if you don’t know at least two RMs for each exercise, then you’ll have to test for them.
Put some weight on the bar and lift as many times as you can until you hit concentric muscular failure. Record the weight and the number of reps you performed. After a suitable rest, throw some more weight on the bar, and then
rep out again. Record this weight and the number of reps you performed. Although you can do this as many times as wish, herein we’ll confine ourselves to recording only two different RMs. If you already know your RMs from your previous training, then you can just use those values instead of performing the testing discussed above.
- Dan Collins