A Maxing Workout?

[.V.]

I've never maxed before. I really don't know how. I've got 3 workouts to go before I take a week and try to see just what my maxes are or aren't. They can't be much, but I still want to know.

I'm planning to do it like this:
Instead of my regular leg day, I'll max on squats,SLDL, and calf raises. I won't do the leg extensions or leg curls.

In arm day, I'll do BB curl and skull crusher. I won't do DB curls and tricep pressdown.

On Shoulder day, I'll do the military press and the shrugs. I don't know about upright row. I wont do the DB mil press.

Back - BOR and CDL. Not Pull ups.

Chest - Flat bench - not incline or decline.

Abs - I don't know if I'm going to do cable crunch or regular weighted crunch - maybe I'll do both.

The reason I'm choosing the lifts I mentioned is I don't want to be repetitive. Why do BB curls and DB curls on a max day? Why do BB Mil press and DB mil press to max? That's what I'm thinking anyway.

My plan is to do my regular warmup and acclimation - then when I get to my current working weight - add 10 or 20 lb - do one rep. Rest 3-5 minutes. Repeat. Keep doing this until failure.

Is this the right way to do it? Any reccomendations to keep me from being mashed or killed will be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Cort]

Well, for the most part people usually only max on bench, squats, and deadlifts. Maxing aux. lifts seems kind of repetetive in itself because you already hit the big compound movements in the same workout.

Not only that, but the strain from doing a heavy 1rm on something like a skull crusher could easily cause problems with your elbows. I'd say for your aux. lifts if you intend to max at all, go for a 3 rep max.

[.V.]

That sounds reasonable. What gave me the idea was a while back when I hit a sticking point - I would do singles with whatever the problem exercise was - adding 5 or 10 lb at a time until failure (after the regular scheduled workout). That would get me past the sticking point pretty quickly.

If I decide just to max on the "big 3" - is the method I described the right one?

[Cort]

Hah, I can't really tell you the "right" method as I'm not an experienced powerlifter.

The idea, after warming up, is to do a weight that you know you can do. From there you start moving up in reasonable increments. If you start with something too heavy and fail, chances are your whole session is trashed.

So yeah, it looks good to me. You might want to look for something in the powerlifting section, I'm pretty sure the same question has come up before.

[Chain]

I think Cort has a good idea in maxing for a triple instead of a single on the auxilliary exercises. Or even do a 10RM on the aux's. I've maxed on bench, squat, military and curls before. Maxing on triceps, abs, or on the good morning seem a bit too risky to me.