Congratulations, It’s your max effort day and you just hit a new personal record. You feel pumped up, the weight was easy and you’re ready to do more. Stop and think about your next move. You could try and put even more weight on and hit a larger record but you need to look at a few things before you go to that extra rep. How many reps above 90% have you done? What has your training week been like? How has your recovery been? What are your coach or spotters saying about the rep?

A general recommendation from Prilepin’s chart (for more on that see Elite FTS) is that you should not lift more than 4 times over 90% of your 1RM. This can act as a general guideline for your workout; however they may be times when you want to cut your reps shorter than this. If you just hit a large pr at the end of a long workout and it took you 3 lifts it may be beneficial to end your workout there. You are probably on track to keep getting prs and you need to evaluate the risk of injury, particularly after an intense workout. If your training week has been very heavy the risk of injury to stressed muscles, joints and tendons is higher than during a light training week. Remember that a 10 to 20lb pr might be great, but you’ll lose much more than that if it causes and injury.

Input from spotters can be helpful in determining if you are able to complete another rep. If they tell you that your last rep looked slow and heavy then it may be best to avoid trying even more weight. If they say that you move the weight easy and the technique was perfect then the jump might be more acceptable. There are times when you feel like the weight was easy, particularly after a big pr, where the lift was actually heavy and slow. These are the times that you need outside input. If the rep felt easy to you it may have just been due to the fact that you set a record and felt good about it. The adrenaline released during that rep probably won’t be around for your next. Better to leave the gym with a new record and feeling like you have more, than to leave with and injury.

Seriously. Think about how long you want to be an athlete, think about how long you want to compete and train. The more injuries you have the more problems you have to work with. Inevitably the will happen but don’t get them for silly things. If you get hurt winning a national meet you will be much more satisfied than getting hurt just so you could lift a few extra pounds when you already have a new record. If you train hard the pr will be there on your next max effort day.

Now on to the 1 rep max; this IS your squat, the only measure that truly counts. A 1 rep max is a big deal, warming up for it doesn’t have to be. In earlier posts you learned how to warm up for other attempts and the 1 rep max is very similar to these.

Again it is best to start with the empty bar and then a set of 5 with a light weight. From here the reps should drop immediately to doubles and after a few sets of those you should drop to singles. Doing one rep allows for maximum concentration of technique as well as time to mentally prepare yourself for the effort without tiring physically.

It is best to find the right amount of volume for a 1 rep max through trial and error; however there are some general rules. A less experienced lifting with a lower squat weight may need more warm-up sets, possibly with more reps, than a more experienced lifter. Although the experienced lifter will probably be able to lift more he (or she) will be more likely to perform well with larger jumps and lower volume because the technique is much more ingrained and the body is trained to warm up and get to a working weight much faster.

Next step, putting weight on the bar. This step is more specific to the workout you are trying to do so let’s break it down. If you are trying to do some silly workout like 300 squats with 95lbs for time then you can probably jump right to that weight. For a heavy workout it’s much better to make several jumps before reaching your working weight.

The classic 5×5 program might warrant 2 sets of 5 reps, 1 of 4, a triple and a double building the weight each set up to your final working weight for the 5×5. There is no magic percentage warm-up for this kind of workout and the first few sets typically follow the easiest way to load the bar without using small plates (eg. 135, 225, 315…). The smaller jumps come as the weight approaches your working weight and the reps are reduced to limit the volume of the warm-up sets.

If you are attempting a max effort squat for reps (eg. 5RM) you may need to modify your warm-up to fit the needs of the task. First comes the empty bar to grove the movement and then a set of 5 regardless of the number of reps in your effort. After those sets I will use the number of reps planned for the effort if it is less than 3 for all subsequent warm-up sets. Special note: for a 5 rep max warm up like you would for the 5×5 but add a few more doubles as needed to get to the planned weight. The reason that I use the number of reps in the effort to warm up is that it prepares the body mentally and physically for the specific task ahead. You know what each rep feels like for that number and you are able to anticipate the max set with each set of your warm-ups.

In addition to an initial guess at the proper working weight you can use the warm-up sets to determine the weight that you will attempt by feel and by feedback from spotters. As the weight gets heavier you should feel out your technique and make corrections between sets. If for some reason you just can’t seem to get the perfect squat you may want to reduce the weight you had initially planned. Typically if your technique is spot on there it is usually not a good idea to raise the amount of weight for your attempt. Any increases should only happen if the weight feels like it is moving easily; here is where the spotters come in. A good spotter will be giving you technical feedback as well as an evaluation of bar speed. If the bar is moving quickly relative to how you have moved it before (here is where having a regular training partner helps) then you may be able to attempt a higher weight. Typically if the weight you planned to lift is already a pr you should avoid greed and rep out a solid personal record.

Now on to the 1 rep max; this IS your squat, the only measure that truly counts….