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There is also people who enjoy finding out how much pain they can endure, where masochism is the point. For me, max-weight deadlifting is a measure of how much

There is also people who enjoy finding out how much pain they can endure, where masochism is the point. For me, max-weight deadlifting is a measure of how much I can grit my teeth through the pain and how much I can pull off the ground. I know it's not terribly effective in how much progress I make as I do it so I keep it to a minimum, but it is fun to get a new high score!

cmahler7 10y ago
that's sounds like a trip to snap city waiting to happen. I was a D1 athlete and saw way too many people wreck their back doing heavy deadlifts, not for me.
dvtv75 10y ago
I did something similar, unfortunately gritting my teeth... well, the dentist had to repair one of my teeth that cracked slightly. Both figuratively and literally, be very careful how hard you grit your teeth. They (and you) can break.
dredmorbius 10y ago
Keep in mind though that that max effort pull is a tangible measure of what you can accomplish and your progress toward goals. Your training, and time-in-gym particularly, is only partially related to that. Train on a stupid program (squat-rack curls, sets of 100 reps), and you're not going to progress. Use a properly periodised training schedule, with complementary and auxiliary lifts that work toward your goal, mind your time between lifts, avoid overtraining, etc., and you can make rapid progress. Powerlifting's easy, from a measurement perspective, because the end result is so tangible and measureable: legal lift, known weight, success or fail. Speed events, whether sprint or endurance, likewise. Direct contests, whether competition (tennis, darts, rugby), or fighting sports (MMA, wrestling, boxing) largely the same, though some subjectivity of scoring may come into play. Determining who is the better programmer or systems administrator from a 15 minute assessment is all but impossible if the contestents are even remotely evenly matched: the criteria for drawing judgements are much more complex, and may not become apparent for months or years.

cmahler7 10y ago

that's sounds like a trip to snap city waiting to happen. I was a D1 athlete and saw way too many people wreck their back doing heavy deadlifts, not for me.

dvtv75 10y ago

I did something similar, unfortunately gritting my teeth... well, the dentist had to repair one of my teeth that cracked slightly. Both figuratively and literally, be very careful how hard you grit your teeth. They (and you) can break.

dredmorbius 10y ago

Keep in mind though that that max effort pull is a tangible measure of what you can accomplish and your progress toward goals. Your training, and time-in-gym particularly, is only partially related to that. Train on a stupid program (squat-rack curls, sets of 100 reps), and you're not going to progress. Use a properly periodised training schedule, with complementary and auxiliary lifts that work toward your goal, mind your time between lifts, avoid overtraining, etc., and you can make rapid progress. Powerlifting's easy, from a measurement perspective, because the end result is so tangible and measureable: legal lift, known weight, success or fail. Speed events, whether sprint or endurance, likewise. Direct contests, whether competition (tennis, darts, rugby), or fighting sports (MMA, wrestling, boxing) largely the same, though some subjectivity of scoring may come into play. Determining who is the better programmer or systems administrator from a 15 minute assessment is all but impossible if the contestents are even remotely evenly matched: the criteria for drawing judgements are much more complex, and may not become apparent for months or years.