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Originally Posted by BradG
How do you go about finding your 5 rep max? I already know how to get the 1 RM: Just keep lifting one at a time, 'til you can't do any more.
But with the 5's, do you do 5 reps, up the weight and try again?
What if I go thru 4 sets, increasing the weight each time, and barely get 5 on the last one? For example, say I did: 185x5, 195x5, 200x5, 205x5 and barely got 215x5. I was wiped by then. Do you think if I started at 205, I coulda reped out at 220 or 225?
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I'm assuming you're gonna try the 5x5. Therefore, whatever you do, DO NOT try and find your 1x5, 5x5 RM's out of the program's sequence. This is important. If you were to try and find your 5x5 RM for JS rows before you did squats and rows, it'll be deceptively higher because you aren't as fatigued.
Start off with the warmups outlined in the sticky. After a few warmups, then a few acclimation sets, do 3-4 sets of 5,
pyramiding up in weight to about where you think your 5 RM is. You don't want to do too much, but just enough volume to feel about where you'd be. 5x5 is a lot of volume.
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For example, say I did: 185x5, 195x5, 200x5, 205x5 and barely got 215x5. I was wiped by then. Do you think if I started at 205, I coulda reped out at 220 or 225?
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If that was what you did for bench press, then I would use the 205 for your last week of 5x5. You got wiped doing 5 sets of 5, but the first three sets weren't as much weight. So, if you kept the weight constant at 205, you'd probably be almost dead by the last set.