5 RM to 30 RM

[strengthstarter]

So the CF Football workout tomorrow is 30 reps bench press body weight. After having a good laugh at that, I was trying to figure out how to scale my 5RM numbers to 30RM. The calculator i used seem to go to 10RM only.

[nisora33]

strengthstarter, I've attached a percent max chart for you. It's a Word document, so I hope that's not a problem. I compressed the file in .zip format.

-Stacey

[strengthstarter]

So that chart goes to 20RM and it looks like basically a linear scale down to 50% at 20RM. Going out to 30RM would be then 25% of initial weight? Seems a bit low?

[nisora33]

Yes, looks like you're right. So if you're 1RM bench was, say, 295#, then your 30RM would be 73.75#. But any estimate of your rep-max out to a number like 30 is just wild conjecture. You won't know until you try it out. But I bet you'd be surprised with a 295# bench how difficult 75# would be for 30 reps.

-S.

[StLRPh]

They don't necessarily have to be done all in one set...

I'm just saying.

[Smiler Grogan]

That's a way better chart than the one I had. Thanks, nisora!

[matclone]

This is the scale I use, and from experience it works:
Rep/Pct.
1 1.0
2 .94
3 .90
4 .87
5 .85
6 .83
7 .81
8 (probably) .80

In one of his books, Rip indicated that men and women have differing ratios between their abilities to perform multiple reps and 1RM. Hence, the scale above may be less accurate for women. 30 reps? I'd use something very, very light, unless it didn't matter if I didn't bench again for awhile.

[banthafodder]

I don't think the idea is for that workout to be a 30RM. Are they suggesting that the standard CF Football athlete benches 3-4x bodyweight?

[Bergie]

Here is the work out in question.

30 Bench Press @ Body Weight
then...
10 x 40 yard sprints (15 seconds rest between sprints)
then...
30 Bench Press @ Body Weight

One is to complete the above in the fastest time possible. This is not a 30RM.

You should break out the 30 reps into manageable sets depending on your strength. After completing all 30, however you manage to do that, you do the sprints and then back to the last 30 bench presses. Again the last 30 are broken down into how every many sets it takes.

[strengthstarter]

One is to complete the above in the fastest time possible. This is not a 30RM.

You should break out the 30 reps into manageable sets depending on your strength. After completing all 30, however you manage to do that, you do the sprints and then back to the last 30 bench presses. Again the last 30 are broken down into how every many sets it takes.

But if I do that, I won't get to see Jesus (20RM) and punch him in the face (30RM) tonight.

After doing this workout program for just a week, its clear to me that for me to get the most out of it I should be keeping my WODs as close to a metcon as possible. If I don't scale these workouts enough, they end up just being a weirdly programmed strength routine on top of another strength routine (on some days). I'd rather scale it down so that I can bang these out relatively quickly and get my heart rate up. After all, Thursday is most likely going to be a straight bench press with incremental increase. All that said, after seeing the situation, I am aiming for about the 15 RM weight, and planning to take one rest during the bench presses, which seems reasonable.

[banthafodder]

That seems reasonable to me, too. It'd take me at least 5 sets (with probably 4-5 minutes' rest in between) to do 30 reps, so I'd have to scale it, too. Or maybe I could do 15 doubles with one minute spacing. No idea what I'd do; I just know I wouldn't go all the way down to a 30RM, since it's pretty clear the intent is to lift something Pretty Darn Heavy quite a few times, not just do a bunch of pushups.

[strengthstarter]

That seems reasonable to me, too. It'd take me at least 5 sets (with probably 4-5 minutes' rest in between) to do 30 reps, so I'd have to scale it, too. Or maybe I could do 15 doubles with one minute spacing. No idea what I'd do; I just know I wouldn't go all the way down to a 30RM, since it's pretty clear the intent is to lift something Pretty Darn Heavy quite a few times, not just do a bunch of pushups.

By the end I was doing sets of three.