Focusing on PR when trying to lose weight a no no?

[RXMilitia]

Hey guys,

Today is Wednesday which for me means Deadlift Wednesday.. My favorite lift (so far)

On all my other nights of lifting I really focus on reps VS max weight but for some reason with Dead lifts I just want to keep pushing my PR every week.


I did my first dead lift a little over a month ago at a 80lb max (thought I was going to die the next day). Today I hit a new max at 185lb and though I was happy I'm wondering if I should be working on quantity over max weight when it comes to dead lifting like I am my other lifts? It was cool to lift 5lbs over my current body weight but.. I'm trying to lose weight obviously and I'm wondering if I'm getting too "lift happy" with trying to increase my max vs working the weights for extended reps.

am I slowing my weight loss progress by going for a max vs going for reps?

would alternating every week between dead lift reps/maxing out be beneficial?


Thank you for your time

[chicky74]

Wow! 185! That's awesome! I am about to hit my 1 year liftaversary and am no where near that.

I don't have an answer for your question, but from this article, I expect that powerlifting for deadlifts would be good: nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

[thehobbes]

Good job OP! At this point you're naturally progressing on your lifts, that's normal and great. That's fine to try and increase that as you lose wt, if you were already deadlifting 2x bw and trying to bump that up while on a cut that'd be more dangerous. You're in a good place to keep moving forward with everything, strength and weight loss, you'll plateau eventually but not for a while.

[sweetkissees918]

Here's my 2 cents....

You're not slowing your weight loss down, because you choose to do 1 rep over 8 reps. Your weight loss depends on the amount calories consumed, not reps lifted in the gym. Not saying reps lifted isn't important, you def want to keep lifting heavy but, your lifts can definitely go up as you cut, its common esp. if you are new to lifting but eventually your maxes will top off. Now, in order to gain more strength/muscle you'll have to go back on a bulk after you are done cutting. You'll continue to set more PRs while gaining. Then, you'll repeat that sequence and drop some bodyfat after you reached a point where you would like to dial down the fat. Remember, setting new PRs while cutting is great, but after you been lifting awhile, you'll wont see much increase in maxes on a cut, your goal would then be to hold onto that strength while cutting. I hope that helped some.

[rdferguson]

I practice progressive overload and pursue PB's across rep ranges whether cutting or bulking. My absolute all time best lifts have all been done deep into a cut.

In saying that, constantly going for 1RM's isn't a great idea. You need to practice technique over a large volume to safely lay down both the physical structure (muscle mass, connective tissue etc) and the neural pathways to optimise your strength and make sure that you're doing it right when it comes to the top end weights.

Besides that, every rep you perform burns energy. Assuming that the speed, tempo, form and technique of every rep is the same, at the same weight, 2 reps will burn twice as much energy as 1, and 10 reps will burn 10 times as much. Reduce the weight slightly, and the amount of energy burned per rep reduces with it, but even a small decrease in weight correlates to more reps. So, say your training max is the heaviest single you can perform without the rep being a grinder. You could probably do 3x10x80% of that weight with consistent technique, which would lay down the groundwork for more strength later on (while staving off injuries). Each rep would only burn 80% of the energy of that max weight....but you'd end up doing 30 of them instead of 1. 30x0.8=24 times the energy being burned. A true 1RM clean and jerk can be upwards of 14kcal, so let's estimate your training max for deadlifts as being 5kcal. 24x5=120kcal. All things being equal, an extra 100 or so calories burned through training means an extra 100 or so calories in your deficit on that day.

So, sure, you can keep going for PB's of max weight if you want, but looking at it in terms of what actually builds a PB, and keeping your training conducive to your goals, focusing more on volume at a reasonably heavy weight seems to be the option that's more beneficial.

[BiggMack10]

When you are in the cut, Always train with not to many reps.

It's BS when you are in a cut to use less weight and go do 20-25 reps.

Make you loss your hard earned muscles.

What works in the off season, do the same in the cut

[rdferguson]

^ Ever done 20 rep squats?

[mtnliones5]

^ Ever done 20 rep squats?

I have! The program I am currently on has me doing 5x5 squats followed by one set of 1x20 of lower weight. The 1x20 is really hard especially after the heavier sets and I am sweating and out of breath. Not sure what the advantage is of the 1x20 I just follow the program.

Personally I never do 1 rep max because I am not a powerlifter and I don't see a need to do that to build muscle. I also have no one to spot me so it could be rather dangerous. If you CAN still hit PRs while cutting good for you! My lifts remain rather stagnant while I am cutting.