what intensity do you lift at? (% 1RM)

[rock_ten]

Hey dudes. What average intensity do you lift at?

Ignoring warmups, so perhaps everything over 50%?

so if you did 5 reps at 40%, 5 reps at 50%, 5 at 60%, and 5 at 70%, your average intensity would be 60%. (we ignore the 40% as it makes the intensity appear artificially low)

Maybe just state briefly how you are calculating it (or estimating it), so we know.

Myself, with my deadlifting, this week my top weight in a workout will average about 68% for triples. Range 60 - 75%. Over this 3-week cycle, average 3 x 70% maybe, and never once lifting over 80% (until I test myself)

Describe it however you like, but do say what you mean. And give some mention to how many reps you use.

Thanks dudes

--Joe

[Hartley110]

I took my 1 rep maxs last night because I am starting a brand new routine today and i will be lifting each exercise in the 80-90% to 1rm range. If you want to gain size you MUST lift over 70% minimum of your max.

Ie. My bench max is 150 and ill be training with 130 which means I'm doing 87% of my max for benching. (so hard with no spotter ) Training this way is high intensity weight so it means I will do low reps. Maybe 3 sets 3-6 reps each. So in my bench I'd prolly lift 6 the first set, then 5, then 4. Just making sure I could never lift up 130 for 6 6 6 or else I've not got enough weight on there. Edit: for warmups I like to do 1 set of 50% of what i will lift, so 50% of 130, not 150.

[De Haan]

If you want to gain size you MUST lift over 70% minimum of your max.

Not just size but also strength.

I always train at 90% 1RM

[AngeloBangelo]

Depends on the day. Some days I go heavier than others obviously. On average I probably do about 85-95% of my 1RM of squat, dead, and bench. For rows/incline/other non-big-3 exercises I usually work at like 75-85%.

Edit: Rockten! How's your deadlift coming? I remember you posted those vids of your "back rounding"

[USAPLifter]

Depending on what phase I am in, I usually lift around 80-85% intensity when doing a volume phase, and around 90-100% in an intensity phase.

[vegasdsm]

Not just size but also strength.

I always train at 90% 1RM

ditto...

[VariantInterval]

~85% volume training.

[Wowstrongcut]

whatever weight i can lift 5 reps with

sometimes i do doubles and triples just to get out of plateaus and up the weight a little bit.

i prefer 5 reps

[gcballer]

so if i do 3 sets of 10 reps of 50/55/60 percent of my max wont help get stronger? or bigger in size

[rock_ten]

Thanks for the responses - they were what I expected from this forum. In general it seems that you guys train very close to failiure, and cycling of the load is not in fashion at all. (not just from this thread, but from what I've seen during all my time here)

Interesting. Personally, if the lift was even remotely difficult, I know I'll be much weaker next time.

Edit: Rockten! How's your deadlift coming? I remember you posted those vids of your "back rounding"

That was my 3 x 130, I think? I did 3 x 137.5 a few weeks ago, which you can see here http://media.putfile.com/1375kg-x-3-...-16th-Feb-2007 (I don't thrust my hips out any more, I've fixed that since the video) and then got really ill a couple of hours later, so had to take a week off. I am currently in week 2 of a 3-week cycle leading up to, hopefully, 3 x 150 and 1 x 165. Those will both be true PR's. The first in 1.5 years

[James.Unit]

Interesting. Personally, if the lift was even remotely difficult, I know I'll be much weaker next time.

Can you qualify that a little bit? That just goes against everything I've experienced in developing strength, but maybe I've misunderstood you.

Also, from your opening post you said that you average out at 68% for sets of triples? Is that just part of a mesocycle or is that how you normally train? That percentage just seems very very low...

Not trying to argue, just really interested in how you've got your program set up.

[rock_ten]

Can you qualify that a little bit? That just goes against everything I've experienced in developing strength, but maybe I've misunderstood you.

Also, from your opening post you said that you average out at 68% for sets of triples? Is that just part of a mesocycle or is that how you normally train? That percentage just seems very very low...

Not trying to argue, just really interested in how you've got your program set up.

I can't really qualify it, I guess it is a bit meaningless. In the same breath I could say anything over 50% deadlifts feel "heavy", and that my 3 x 137.5 was easy as ****. It doesn't mean much.

But I can tell when I'm training "on the nerve" and when a set is appropriately heavy. On "smaller" lifts like overhead pressing and chins, stopping about 3 or 4 reps before almost-failiure, is usually about right. Thats something like 3 or 4 reps with 80% at the most.

re: 68% etc... Well, I've been training for quite a few years now, but have always just overtrained etc. I have awful hormone levels, as one reason, but whatever it is, I haven't found a way of training yet that works for me.

Since the start of this year I have done this:

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4847037

with my deadlifts. The pink bit needs to be changed now, last week I actually went 100, 110, 120. This week will probably be 100, 110, 125. Then next week 100, 120, 150.

I am assuming a max of 160 for the calculations of %1RM. 128 is 80%, 112 is 70%, and 96 is 60%.

I am in no way settled in this way of training, nor confident that it is making me stronger. I won't know that for about another 3 months. Thats the problem with strength-training. You either burn out within a few weeks, or if you don't, you can't know if its working for quite a few months. And if by that time it turns out you're no stronger than before, you've just wasted a fat chunk of time. Months --> years, very easily.

I deadlift three times per week; Mon, Wed, Fri, working up to a top triple each day. Total about 15 reps over 50%1RM each workout.

My time of fastest progression recently has been when deadlifting three times per week, about 50-75 reps (up to 100 sometimes) over 50% 1RM, totalling about 250 reps over 50% each week. That was last summer and I was doing well until I burnt out. I can't take that kind of volume at the moment, unfortunately. I don't know why - I'm eating at least twice as many calories, and sleeping better.

--Joe

[Herzeleid]

usually 80-90% of my 1rm

[UHCougar05]

For me it depends on the day.
ME: 50-100+% 1RM (3-5 reps above 90%)
DE: 50-60% with 2 or 3 singles in the 75-80% range to gauge bar speed

[James.Unit]

Well, I've been training for quite a few years now, but have always just overtrained etc. I have awful hormone levels, as one reason, but whatever it is, I haven't found a way of training yet that works for me.

Since the start of this year I have done this:

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=4847037

with my deadlifts. The pink bit needs to be changed now, last week I actually went 100, 110, 120. This week will probably be 100, 110, 125. Then next week 100, 120, 150.

I am assuming a max of 160 for the calculations of %1RM. 128 is 80%, 112 is 70%, and 96 is 60%.

I am in no way settled in this way of training, nor confident that it is making me stronger. I won't know that for about another 3 months. Thats the problem with strength-training. You either burn out within a few weeks, or if you don't, you can't know if its working for quite a few months. And if by that time it turns out you're no stronger than before, you've just wasted a fat chunk of time. Months --> years, very easily.

I deadlift three times per week; Mon, Wed, Fri, working up to a top triple each day. Total about 15 reps over 50%1RM each workout.

My time of fastest progression recently has been when deadlifting three times per week, about 50-75 reps (up to 100 sometimes) over 50% 1RM, totalling about 250 reps over 50% each week. That was last summer and I was doing well until I burnt out. I can't take that kind of volume at the moment, unfortunately. I don't know why - I'm eating at least twice as many calories, and sleeping better.

--Joe

Thanks for the info - have you started training like this because of other routines not working in the past? It just seems a very unusual way of training, especially for strength gains. Have you tried training your deadlift with much higher intensity (>90%) with reduced volume and frequency in the past and not responded to it?

Personally what's worked best for me is doing deads once every ten days or so and doing a lot of accessory stuff (GHR's, hypers, good mornings etc) to facilitate pulling more weight. I don't do many reps at all for the deadlift: I'll probably do a total of around 6 - 10 reps (either 3 triples, or 6 singles etc), not including warmups, but every time I'm looking to add weight, turn a double into a triple etc. Always training my deadlift heavy has made such a huge difference to my pull, and my recovery is better because I'm not wasting resources on a lot of extra reps.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that personally I don't need to pull that often to improve my deadlift - it responds a lot better to accessory stuff and my recovery is way better if I'm not deadlifting that often. This is in direct contrast to my bench: I have to bench in order for my bench to improve, and I get very little carry-over from floor presses, DB's etc.

If you have poor hormone levels and overtrain easily then you might be better off not deadlifting so frequently and cutting down on the number of reps.

[ProOne]

At this stage of my life (age,wife, kids, house, business owner), and having just started lifting seriously again with the hopes of competing again sometime down the road, I take each workout one at a time and I go by how I feel. I'm sure after a few more months of training I will be able to dial in some kind of workout. I'm sure I will try some of the workouts everyone has mentioned here and in various other threads.

[shreddedx10]

i work my way up to 100% everytime...but i use the conjugate method

[John Prophet]

I had an old journal on here from last year. It was called something like "JP volume manipulation blah blah"

It might be interesting to those who like to calculate volume and avg weight etc because it has lots of calculations etc

I might not have calculated avg intensity because I didnt really know maxes for some of it

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...e+manipulation