Weight Training Goals and 1 Rep Max (1RM)

Weight Training Goals and 1 Rep Max (1RM)

Do you have a weight training goal in mind? If you don’t then maybe you should. Resistance training is a great way to increase strength, maintain or increase joint range of motion, increase muscular endurance, increase your metabolism, and produce muscular tone that improve your self-esteem.

How can you apply your goal? Let’s look at the numbers.

• ·         Endurance training = high reps 12 - ?
• ·         Strength training = low reps 3 - 6
• ·         Hypertrophy training = medium reps 6 - 12 

Rest for 30 - 60 sec in between sets, unless you are really focusing on heavy weight training; then you can rest for as long as 3 min. 

Weight amount should be 60% - 85% of your 1RM.

Sets can be as few as 2 and as high as 8. It all depends on how much work you want to do. To truly train your muscles well you should do no fewer than 3 sets per exercise. Sometimes doing an exercise session as a circuit will enable you to perform more sets, so if you find that 2 is all you can do in secession then give circuit training a try.

Resistance training should be a part of your regimen at a minimum of 3 days per week.

How do you work towards your resistance training goal? Let’s look at this.

Higher 1 RM weight percentage (higher weight) = fewer reps per set (strength & hypertrophy training).

• ·         Want to bulk up then hypertrophy training is for you
• ·         Want to become stronger than strength training is for you

Lower 1RM weight percentage (lower weight) = higher reps (endurance training).

• ·         Don't want to bulk up then endurance training is for you.
• ·         Don't worry, you can still develop that beautiful muscle tone that we all find attractive

Use the following formula to determine your one rep max. Knowing your 1RM is very helpful in developing your weight training regimen. 

1RM (Rep Max) formula: Use this math formula to determine what your one rep max is for any exercise: This will help determine what amount you should lift. When lifting to determine your 1 RM follow these steps. Plan ahead: determining your 1RM can be a workout in itself and it does take time.

·         Lift what think you can lift in ten reps, but keep going until you are tired or can’t lift anymore – an adequate warm-up is helpful.

·         Rest for 3-4 minutes – this will enable your body to refuel (too short of a rest period might actually lower your 1RM weight, thus producing a false positive)

·         Increase the weight and aim for ten reps, but keep going until you are tired or can’t lift anymore

·         Rest for 3-4 minutes

·         Increase the weight and aim for ten reps, but keep going until you are tired or can’t lift anymore

·         Repeat the above steps until only ten or fewer reps can be achieved

  Then use the formula below to determine your 1 RM

Weight lifted = amount of weight you lifted for that set (wt)

# of reps =  amount of reps you lifted for that final set (reps)

1RM= (wt x reps x 0.033) + wt

Example:

• ·         1RM = (135 x 8x 0.033) + 135
• ·         1RM = 35.64 + 135
• ·         1RM = 170.64 or 171

Once you have determined your 1 RM you should determine your weight percentage for your exercise.

Assume that 65% is the percentage of your 1RM that you are to lift.

1RM x RM% = Desired weight

Example:

            Turn your desired percentage into a decimal point

171 x 0.65 = 110.9 or 111lbs is your 1RM

Pick the closest weight. Obviously 111lb weights don’t exist, so lift 110 lbs.