How to warm up to a max PR

ECKSRATED

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Success begins with balance/ stability on all 3 lifts(bench-squat-dead). If you would have got the lifts on video, several of us could give you some constructive criticism.
Bar placement on the chest is critical to stability in the elbows. I place the bar so my arms are at 45 degrees on chest. Punch off chest straight up and as I near lockout I force my elbows to rotate out, kinda like a corkscrew, forcing the weight to lockout. If I "flare" just a hair to quickly, I lose my strength through transition into a lockout.

A slingshot is one good way to get used to your elbows seated in the right angle, have a good spotter, work with something you can hit without the slingshot and do sets of 3-5.

Tiny is a smart dude.

I made a video for these guys some time ago about bar path. Lots of guys push up towards their face wayyyyyyyy too much and fail reps because of it. Your elbows will flare too much and bar path is all ****ed up. Puts way too much stress on your front delts. Takes practice to get down tho.
 

MrRippedZilla

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That's interesting and I'm willing to give it a try to see how it works zilla. I tend to get stronger and more confident the heavier I get into my session. On max effort days my last set (heaviest set) always feels the best.
Please do and report the results back to me. If it works for an elite bencher like you then that's stronger evidence for some of my theories around this :)
 

ToolSteel

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Tiny is on the money. I find that improving the setup to your bench can easily add 20-25% to your RMs. Easily.

I don't want to hijack this thread completely but...does anyone have any experience warming up heavier than the PR attempt? I'm talking bench specifically.
I ask because, for me, getting a feel for a heavier weight than I can handle (partial rep or just an isometric hold) tends to benefit my 3RM tremendously. I don't do any 1RM stuff nor do I work with any elite PLers so I'm interested to hear opinions on this.
In a similar train of thought, I did do a mesocycle where I did 3 isometric deads before pulling. Pins set about an inch over the bar, and a full 5 second pull as hard as possible.

When i would move on to regular Lars deads the speed off the floor was noticeably better. Some days it was drastic.
 

ECKSRATED

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Please do and report the results back to me. If it works for an elite bencher like you then that's stronger evidence for some of my theories around this :)

I'd probably do a static hold if anything. Ill give it a shot in the next week or so and report back
 

MrRippedZilla

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In a similar train of thought, I did do a mesocycle where I did 3 isometric deads before pulling. Pins set about an inch over the bar, and a full 5 second pull as hard as possible.

When i would move on to regular Lars deads the speed off the floor was noticeably better. Some days it was drastic.
Interesting. The heavier warmup approach seems to only work for my bench. DLs I'm good with just a few activation sets to make sure my posterior chain is firing. Squats I need the typical ascending warmup (takes me a while to get into a groove).

It's obviously a neural thing, which relates speed as you mentioned. Knowing, for a fact, that you can handle a heavier weight across your chest seems to do better things vs knowing you can hold a heavier weight in front of you/on your back. At least for me and a few clients. Still intrigued to see if it translates at all to 1RM attempts in the elite (you, Ecks, etc).
 

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