GGW Max Estimation

[dkahr]

Hey Andy,

My Dad (62) is on Week 12/Deload of your GGW. This was his first time through it, and it was perfect for him, so thank you for that. Anyways, he will be testing his maxes on Press and Deadlifts next week...but, as you recommend, will be estimating a new 1RM for Squats and Bench. I used a generic calculator to figure them for him the first time around based on where he finished SSLP. Is there a better way to do it for this next cycle using GGW data from his first time around? Will 10% above the 1RMs we used 12 weeks ago be a safe, yet challenging increase? Thanks.

Danny

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

If he is 62 then just be really conservative. 10% might be a bit optimistic. Is it possible - yes. He may have increased even more than 10% BUT if you are going to use estimates you have to be very conservative. I'd just bump them up like 10 lbs rather than 10% from last cycle. It could be that 10lbs is reasonably close to 10% on the Bench. That's very conservative but for a guy who is 62 and training alone it'll work fine.

[dkahr]

The 1RMs he worked from for the last cycle were as follows:
Squat: 210
Press: 105
Bench: 165
Deadlift: 275

His "Heavy" performance in Week 11 with sets of 2 was:
Squat: 200 - 2/2/2/2
Press: 100 - 2/2/1/0 (only time in the cycle he didn't execute prescribed rep/set scheme)
Bench: 157 - 2/2/2/2
Deadlift: 262 - 2/2/2

So, with that data, how would you feel about these for the new 1RMs?:
Squat: 225
Press: 115
Bench: 180
Deadlift: 295

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I think I'd hedge a bit more. There is no danger of screwing up the program by being a little bit conservative with the max estimations. But overestimating might screw things up. For instance, doubles at 157 on Bench doesn't necessarily indicate that he's up to 180 on his bench. This is why I don't really like estimates. If you are there to help assist him with loading and spotting it's better to just test out a few heavy singles. Doesn't need to be an all out ball-busting 1RM, but working up with some moderately heavy singles will give you a better indicator of where he is actually at. The more experienced he/you get the more you'll be able to actually come up with some fairly accurate estimates, but otherwise you're probably gonna be off the mark on at least one of your lifts.