Good, simple advice re: Maxing Out

Hello all,

This is part 2 of my "Good, simple advice." For this thread, I'll deal with the subject of a max out (or maxing out).

Simply put, DON'T DO IT. Especially for exercises like squats or bench.

I've learned the hard way.

The reason you shouldn't do it is that eventually you will hurt yourself. I promise you that. The reason why it is called a max out is that you are taxing your body to the limit. When you do this, any number of things can and will go wrong (if not right away then eventually).

First off, you are very likely to injure a significant joint or muscle. In the case of a squat, it is very easy for your knee to get injured from the strain. Such injuries can take months or even years to heal -- if they do. I, fortunately, haven't had this injury but I know many that have.

I'm more familiar with injures from a max bench press. It is very easy to injure your shoulder when doing a proper bench press max out. The reason is that for the vast majority of body types a proper bench press (touching your chest) causes your shoulder to extend beyond its natural range of motion. For a normal workout, your shoulder can generally take the beating. But for a max out, your shoulder can easily be taxed beyond its limit leading to injury. This has happened to me. I got a shoulder strain from a max out and I couldn't bench for the following 6 months. It was miserable.

Second, and perhaps even more dangerous and scary is nerve compression, or sometimes referred to as "weight lifters headache." It isn't entirely understood, but many sports medicine doctors (that I've had) say that when you strain for a bench press or squat it can cause a nerve in your neck to get compressed. When this happens, you are f-ed. It is absolutely miserable, and it has happened to me.

Here is how it manifests itself. Anytime your blood pressure rises from a strain, (includes needing to urinate, sex, or lifting -- yes, it is crazy that is happens for urination or sex), the nerve is pressed and it triggers the most mind blowing painful headache you have ever had. For me, when I would trigger it, the pain would immediately cause me to drop to the ground and curl into a ball. Quite embarressing for a 6'4" muscular guy. The horrendous pain usually lasted about 10-15 minutes, after which it would subside to a merely excrutiating migraine for about 6 hours. And, no, aspirin, etc. did not help nearly enough. It took roughly three months for me to recover from this.

So, take it from me, max outs, especially for bench or squats are simply not worth it.

Instead, just try for a 3-5 rep max. You can use online max rep calculators to figure out what your max rep is. In my experience, they are pretty accurate (within 5 pounds or so).

I hope this helps.

Do you imply that maxing out does not apply to doing a 5th or 6th rep for squats when you normally can only do 4 (i.e. training to failure)? Do the risks you discuss only apply to one-rep maxes due to previously untested strains on the muscular/skeletal system/CNS?

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

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Do you imply that maxing out does not apply to doing a 5th or 6th rep for squats when you normally can only do 4 (i.e. training to failure)? Do the risks you discuss only apply to one-rep maxes due to previously untested strains on the muscular/skeletal system/CNS?

Thank you, I should have been more precise.

Yes to both of your questions, or pehaps a qualified yes.

Of course, one can easily strain themself doing a regular workout or repping to failure. The risks, however, are greatly magnified with the one rep max out for a variety of reasons. For example, one common reason is that your body is simply not used to handling such weight and something can "give" under the unusual strain. For whatever reason, this is more damaging to your body than squeezing out an additional rep out of several. Equally important, because it is a maxout, most people sacrifice form out of necessity to successfully lift the weight. This, of course, greatly increases the risk of injury.

I disagree that it's dangerous with a spotter, the only thing that's happened to me is the headache thing. I got that not from maxing, but from repping after being out sick for over a week.

Originally Posted by Eason

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I disagree that it's dangerous with a spotter, the only thing that's happened to me is the headache thing. I got that not from maxing, but from repping after being out sick for over a week.

The use of a spotter has absolutely nothing to do with the issues I've raised.

But, whatever, people can disagree. I'm glad you haven't had problems.

Originally Posted by magogian12345

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Hello all,

This is part 2 of my "Good, simple advice." For this thread, I'll deal with the subject of a max out (or maxing out).

Simply put, DON'T DO IT. Especially for exercises like squats or bench.

I've learned the hard way.

The reason you shouldn't do it is that eventually you will hurt yourself. I promise you that. The reason why it is called a max out is that you are taxing your body to the limit. When you do this, any number of things can and will go wrong (if not right away then eventually).

First off, you are very likely to injure a significant joint or muscle. In the case of a squat, it is very easy for your knee to get injured from the strain. Such injuries can take months or even years to heal -- if they do. I, fortunately, haven't had this injury but I know many that have.

I'm more familiar with injures from a max bench press. It is very easy to injure your shoulder when doing a proper bench press max out. The reason is that for the vast majority of body types a proper bench press (touching your chest) causes your shoulder to extend beyond its natural range of motion. For a normal workout, your shoulder can generally take the beating. But for a max out, your shoulder can easily be taxed beyond its limit leading to injury. This has happened to me. I got a shoulder strain from a max out and I couldn't bench for the following 6 months. It was miserable.

Second, and perhaps even more dangerous and scary is nerve compression, or sometimes referred to as "weight lifters headache." It isn't entirely understood, but many sports medicine doctors (that I've had) say that when you strain for a bench press or squat it can cause a nerve in your neck to get compressed. When this happens, you are f-ed. It is absolutely miserable, and it has happened to me.

Here is how it manifests itself. Anytime your blood pressure rises from a strain, (includes needing to urinate, sex, or lifting -- yes, it is crazy that is happens for urination or sex), the nerve is pressed and it triggers the most mind blowing painful headache you have ever had. For me, when I would trigger it, the pain would immediately cause me to drop to the ground and curl into a ball. Quite embarressing for a 6'4" muscular guy. The horrendous pain usually lasted about 10-15 minutes, after which it would subside to a merely excrutiating migraine for about 6 hours. And, no, aspirin, etc. did not help nearly enough. It took roughly three months for me to recover from this.

So, take it from me, max outs, especially for bench or squats are simply not worth it.

Instead, just try for a 3-5 rep max. You can use online max rep calculators to figure out what your max rep is. In my experience, they are pretty accurate (within 5 pounds or so).

I hope this helps.

1. You would note that Ronnie does not preach maxing out. He always leaves a 'reserve' in his tank. But Dorian always goes balls to the walls. Of course, Dorian ended up quiting before his time due to his many injuries, none of which can be directly attributable to maxing out. I always max out. Of course maxing out with my fear factor bench is lethal, but for the rest, maxing out is the norm and it does tax me because for my subsequent sets, the rep range drop tremendously like 30% to 40%.

2. 3 to 5 rep max is for powerlifters. If you are a bodybuilder, you can do more reps.

I was convinced there was a hidden hyperlink in there for spam.

Originally Posted by why

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I was convinced there was a hidden hyperlink in there for spam.

There was none until you came along. Moron.