I was curious what the accepted method of determining a one rep max is. Obviously, the one sure-fire way to do it is to just see how much weight you can lift once. But some people don't like doing that, for reasons of trying to avoid injury. I have always done it this way, although I don't know if this is correct or not: take the initial weight being lifted as your first rep, and then each rep following, add five pounds. For example, say you can bench 275 for five reps. You would determine your one rep max this way:
275 x 1st rep = 275
x 2nd rep= 280
x 3rd rep = 285
x 4th rep = 290
x 5th rep = 295
Therefore, the one rep max on bench would be 295 lbs. This seems, at least to me, to be an accurate way of gauging a one rep max because when I was able to do 275 for five reps, I was only able to do 295 for one rep.
275 x 1st rep = 275
x 2nd rep= 280
x 3rd rep = 285
x 4th rep = 290
x 5th rep = 295
Therefore, the one rep max on bench would be 295 lbs. This seems, at least to me, to be an accurate way of gauging a one rep max because when I was able to do 275 for five reps, I was only able to do 295 for one rep.