low rep ranges...

[jack_of_all]

when something says to work to a single, what %'s of your 1 rm should you hit below that and how intense should it be. id assume that maxing out on effort in earlier sets would be bad, but i would think that you wouldnt want to just do 1 with light weights as this wouldnt really prep your CNS. so should you do like half for a few reps, 3/4 for a few, 90% for one, and then 95+% for one?

[fixationdarknes]

I thought jack was asking how to warmup?

If my assumption is right jack, that warmup sounds about right.

[jack_of_all]

basically yeh, im talking about warming up to a max in a workout. (or at least something low like a triple with slightly lighter warm-up sets)

[twm]

I am jack's burning desire hehe

On a serious note - though I am sure many people may disagree with me - I like to feel out my rep ranges as I build up to a single. Meaning, I would do something like aim for a rep range rather than attempt to do a percentage of my max for [x] reps. Something like:

135x10-12
185x8-10
225x4-6
235x2-4
245x1
250x1
[...]
[max]x1

The actual reps performed based on exhaustion and fatigue as I progressed. I used to aim for exact figures, but I really had trouble with predictions and actuals. This is probably a personal flaw, but noteworthy, nonetheless, IMO.

[maxi]

Has anyone read the book "Power to the people" by Pavel Tsatsouline? In his book he writes that he's against warm up reps. He believes if you create enough pretension in the major muscles of your body just before and as you lift (which to me also suggests this would warm your body), you can lift weight close to your 1 rep maximum excluding warm up reps. He also says to create pretension in your grip, where you are supposed to squeeze the hell out of the bar.

[jack_of_all]

ive loaded up a bar for a max dl in my house, walked out of the room, watched tv or sometimes even ate a little then walked back in and got a new personal record. so i believe that warm up sets help almost not at all (in fact, in some routines they create fatigue which is definatley bad), i do them normally to prevent injury which i believe they do help with. ive tried the squeezing/total body flexing thing and also tried relaxing everything BUT what i was using to do the lift and saw the same results.