When are PRs reliable?

[mgil]

I had this discussion with some eBuddies.

PR's under 5lbs get really dicey. Especially when you're not on calibrated or internally consistent equipment.

In my garage, I have an order to my plates and as such know, with decent certainty, if a PR claim is true. But if I were travelling from gym to gym, and not lifting on calibrated plates (or even old and worn calibrated ones), I don't know if PRs are feasible given plate tolerances (~2% for decent plates). If you're PR'ing a squat, and your last best was 500lbs in another gym, you'd need to PR by roughly 10lbs to be convinced that you've lifted more than before with accounting for error.

Basically, ~0.1% PRs on varying equipment don't count.

[JC]

I was coming into this thinking it would be about repeatability, as in you can reliably hit that lift again and again

For example, say I did 167.5 X5 and could consistently hit 5s over 160kg, but whenever I tried 170 it just died

Then last time I hit 172 X5

Am I gonna be able to do it again, or was it a product of arousal, circadian rhythm, what I'd eaten and done physically that day etc?

[mgil]

I was coming into this thinking it would be about repeatability, as in you can reliably hit that lift again and again

For example, say I did 167.5 X5 and could consistently hit 5s over 160kg, but whenever I tried 170 it just died

Then last time I hit 172 X5

Am I gonna be able to do it again, or was it a product of arousal, circadian rhythm, what I'd eaten and done physically that day etc?

This is also important. Above and beyond the consistency of the weight on the bar is the ability of our own bodies to produce force.

I'm also interested in your arousal. How repeatable is that?

[JC]

Yes I think perhaps useable reliable strength trends are more important than individual PRs

As to the arousal, it very much varies according to the individual zones, although there is always applications for a nice bell curve and it's distribution

[Hamburgerfan]

Not worth worrying about

[chromoly]

Maybe they don't count for actual weight, but they can have a a big mental effect. Microloading on different equipment might be silly, but mentally it helped me a lot when I was lifting at my grad school gym (equipped with those globogym-style rubber-coated hex plates). Maybe I was only PRing my squat on TM every 4 weeks, or maybe I was even lifting less than the week before, but it gave me a lot of confidence with heavier weights that I wouldn't necessarily have had without the microplates. I could tell myself "oh, it's just 2.5 lbs or 5 lbs more than last time." You might be de-emphasizing how important the mental aspect is to a newer trainee.

Nowadays I lift at a gym with Rogue competition and training bumpers, apparently within +/- 15 g of stated weight. But I don't even microload anymore, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[mgil]

For a new trainee, yeah, I get it.

For a person who’s been training for years and claiming a 0.5lbs PR over a 23 month time span, I don’t think it matters.

[chromoly]

Oh my god a 0.5 lb PR over 23 months. Not a PR*!

* OK I guess technically a PR**, but I am not impressed.***
** But only because PR means that you achieved something better than before, and a X + 0.5 is technically more than X.
*** Unless maybe you've horribly injured yourself and it's a "hooray I'm back to lifting pre-injury weights post-injury" PR. Or maybe you've lost weight.

[JC]

Know what I think?

Someone weighed their plates recently, and all their microPR's suddenly went out the window!

Mmmm gil ol' buddy, what would it take for you to set a PR?

[mgil]

Know what I think?

Someone weighed their plates recently, and all their microPR's suddenly went out the window!

Mmmm gil ol' buddy, what would it take for you to set a PR?

I dunno

[KOTJ]

Maybe they don't count for actual weight, but they can have a a big mental effect. Microloading on different equipment might be silly, but mentally it helped me a lot when I was lifting at my grad school gym (equipped with those globogym-style rubber-coated hex plates). Maybe I was only PRing my squat on TM every 4 weeks, or maybe I was even lifting less than the week before, but it gave me a lot of confidence with heavier weights that I wouldn't necessarily have had without the microplates. I could tell myself "oh, it's just 2.5 lbs or 5 lbs more than last time." You might be de-emphasizing how important the mental aspect is to a newer trainee.

Nowadays I lift at a gym with Rogue competition and training bumpers, apparently within +/- 15 g of stated weight. But I don't even microload anymore, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Iron Grip rubber hex plates are calibrated within 2% fwiw.

Dumb design, but not bad quality all around.

[simonrest]

fuck you, I just PRed my leg press for sets of 8 at this bodyweight for a tuesday

[Hiphopapotamus]

fuck you, I just PRed my leg press for sets of 8 at this bodyweight for a tuesday

A.K.A. the Triple Lindy.

[KyleSchuant]

There was an article by some guy where he suggested you choose like five lifts and have PRs of 1 rep, 2 reps, all the way up to 10 reps, and even provided a little table for you. If you had fifty different PRs then probably all the equipment and day-to-day energy variation would be lost amongst that, but then you end up sounding like Simmo

[psmith]

When Ed Coan tells you you're good for it, obviously.

[ChasingCurls69]

No making PR posts on IG or you'll end up on this forum is probably a good rule of thumb.

[JC]

*Rule of Thom*

Blessed is he?

[mgil]

No making PR posts on IG or you'll end up on this forum is probably a good rule of thumb.

Some things are absurd. Some things aren’t.

In reality, there has to be some concern for consistency of the weight. Also, the idea that the ability of the human body to replicate feats of strength with a high level of precision is misguided.

[anelson]

*Rule of Thom*

Blessed is he?

Thom hath borne our washing machine, and run the race on our behalf. Blessed is he!

[Allentown]

*Rule of Thom*

Blessed is he?

Thom hath borne our washing machine, and run the race on our behalf. Blessed is he!

Blossid is he!