Max bench chart

[Rick Evans]

I found this max bench chart and it is suprisingly accurate. It allows you to estimate your 1 rep max based on other working sets. For example if you could bench 275x3 your estimated max would be 300.

http://www.criticalbench.com/chart.htm

[Mike Armstrong]

These things are okay, but should never be taken as the gospel truth, especially when you try to estimate a max based on higher rep weights. For example, the chart say that it works for squats, but when I look at what I'm doing for 7 or 8 reps in the squat right now, it says my max should be around 465. But I did 530 at my last meet, and that was 6 weeks ago. Likewise my deadlift. I'm doing 415 for 7 or 8 reps, which works out to 500 or so max on the chart. But last week I pulled a 550 single, felt good for 25 more. Came close with 600 at the last meet.

At the lower reps, I think these charts are okay, 2 or 3 reps at X works out to Y, but at the higher reps, it's pretty unpredictable. Espcially when you consider that nobody really does 8 or 10 reps in bench shirts, tight suits, etc. Throw on the gear, the edrenaline rush of the meet, etc, you can usually do more on meet day. Don't sell yourself short just cause some chart tells you that some weight "should" be your max.

Mike

[MattShelvock]

Good observation, Mike.

It largely has to do with how the calculations are derived. The chart can't take into account, for example, an individual's number of type IIb fast-twitch muscle fibres. Of course, these regulate explosive force (and are largely the ones, as powerlifters, we exhaust the most often although muscle fibre recruitment is never mutually exclusive).

You can tell if you're more fast or slow twitch dominant by a simple test: take 85% of your max, and see how many reps you can perform. If the number is high (say 10), you are extremely slow-twitch dominant. If the number is low (say 3) then you must be more slow twitch dominant.

One other consideration is biomechanics. If I use, say, my 20 rep raw squat max and apply one of the classical max-rep formulas, the number I will get is far higher than my actual max. Why? You can always recruit a new muscle group to blast through another rep on the squat. On the other hand, I'm bloody awful at performing reps on the deadlift.

All that said, formulas and charts can be useful in training to help predict weights. I tend to use them to help me figure out where my next set should be, approximately. Thanks for the resource .

-Matt