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.
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