Can you tell us how strong the participants were to begin with? I think it matters if your 1 rep max on bench is 185 or 385. If you are maxing out for a month with less than two plates, the absolute strain on the body isn’t the same as if you doubled the weight.
6 months ago | 17
This study really needed a control group. 7 untrained individuals are going to make crazy strength gains when they start lifting independent of the program. It also probably needed a group of “experienced” lifters as well
6 months ago | 13
I’ve already come to the conclusion that tendons have a much lower MRV than muscles—at least from my own experience. I even tested a similar approach with my girlfriend: she was doing pull-ups (starting with bands) 4–5 days a week, most sets taken to failure. Within a year, she went from zero pull-ups to 10 clean reps at over 70 kg bodyweight. The progress was impressive—she couldn’t even come close to one in the beginning. Would be really interesting to know how well trained the lifters in that study were.
6 months ago | 6
the best gains in both strength and size I ever got were from squatting a daily max, back off sets of doubles or triples with 10% to 20% less, and the same thing for bench, and very little other work (pullups sometimes, deadlifts sometimes, pretty much it). it's perfectly sustainable, but if you care about bodybuilding or non powerlifting strength then it's not the best way to leave room for much other volume
6 months ago | 0
I would like to see just a ramp up to a 1rm daily, ditch the extra 5 sets. Thats probably why they had pain
6 months ago | 2
This method was used by Jim williams one of the greatest bench pressers.used it for short periods when training to increase our rep max.
6 months ago | 0
One thing I don’t ever see mentioned is the stress response to certain exercises and kinds of training, very possible to create chronic elevated cortisol from “too regular intense workouts” which varies by age
6 months ago | 0
To be honest, I really don't see how this "study" shows anything we didn't already know. Doing specific training every day improves the thing you trained. Uh, ok? 😅
6 months ago | 2
I did this as a teenager it worked for a short while. Maybe could be part of a cycle
6 months ago | 0
So I should be able to add 63lbs to my bench press in 1 month, I am suing Mr. Henselmans if this doesn't work
6 months ago | 0
Menno Henselmans
Doing a 1 rep max every day may sound like crazy talk, but a true scientist questions everything. The researchers had a group of 3 male and 4 female lifters perform a 1RM on the bench press every day for 34 days. On top of that, they performed 5 heavy sets of 2-3 reps at 85-90% of 1RM. After a taper, they participated in a bench press competition on day 38.
Most lifters probably expect an 80% mortality rate for this type of program, but the lifters actually got great gains out of it with a whopping 28% average increase in their 1RMs in just over a month. All lifters' 1RMs improved. Unsurprisingly though, 3 out of 7 lifters developed pain at some point in the program and I'm sure this would be unsustainable for most people's joints. So, don't try this at home, kids.
Since there was no control group and there were just 7 participants, we cannot conclude anything about how effective this program was, except that it was viable for them. I think that's already news to many people though and I can offer some further more general thoughts.
1) Most people's bodies can tolerate much more than they think. I strongly believe how much volume we can tolerate is mostly limited by our willpower, secondly by our joints and only thirdly by our muscles.
2) 1RMs have a reputation for 'frying the CNS' and that's mostly nonsense. Research is clear that lower intensity training causes more neuromuscular fatigue than heavy lifting, because you do more work per set and you objectively lose more force output in each set. After a 1RM, you can no longer lift your 1RM, but you could probably still lift your 5RM. After a 30RM, not only can you no longer lift your 1RM, you can't even lift your 30RM anymore by definition.
3) Most people base their programs - and their whole lives - primarily on what other people do. What is not conventional is seen as crazy. If you do what everyone else does, you'll get the results that everyone else gets. You'll never look crazy, but you'll achieve mediocrity, not greatness.
If you want to excel, question everything, make your own path and leave the naysayers in the dust.
The Henselmans PT Course is open for enrollment! Now includes NSCA-CPT certification: mennohenselmans.com/online-pt-course/
6 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 246