Submaximal Training

There is is more to training than a 1 Rep Max

Question for everyone…

Imagine you go to the gym, and you see two Bros bench pressing. Regular old flat bench press, nothing fancy.

The first Bro benches 315 for a 1 rep max, which he struggles to lockout and needs some help from his training partner.

The second Bro benches 255, but he benches it for 10 reps, and is able to lockout the final rep and rerack it himself.

Which Bro is Stronger?

Now if you know nothing about strength development, you might say the first bro. Afterall, 315 is obviously more weight than 255.

BUT, if you understand how SUBMAXIMAL strength works, you would say the second bro.

Being able to bench press 255 for 10 reps gives him an estimated 1RM of 340.

While he might not be able to lift 340lbs that day, if he was to follow a PROGRAM, (ie, he follows structured workouts that are designed around the scientific principles of progressive overload and adaptation), he would be certain to lift 340 after a few weeks of training.

The Above is an Example of Submaximal Strength

Lets revisit a chart I shared awhile back

Ive explained this chart in the past. For a quick refresher, the weight you can lift 1 time, that is your 1 rep max. That is your 100% strength level.

You can see that each increase in repetition corresponds to a percentage of 1 rep max strength.

Here is what is constantly overlooked and poorly understood…Your 5 rep max and your 10 rep Max BOTH build your 1 rep max

When people think “strength training” they default to assuming it is low reps. Strength training means 5 reps or less typically.

But this is simply an incomplete view.

Getting “stronger” is not limited to ONLY 1 rep maxes.

If you can increase the weight you can lift for 5 reps, you got stronger.

If you can increase the weight you can lift for 8 reps, you got stronger.

If you can increase the weight you can lift for 10 reps, you got stronger.

If you can increase the weight you can lift for 20 reps, you got stronger.

The Stronger you are at moving heavy for multiple reps, the stronger you will be at moving very heavy weight for ONE rep

Bodybuilders, the most muscular people on that planet, they have known this for years.

To build muscle, you do sets of multiple reps (usually the 6-10 or 8-12 range is most common)

When you can lift heavy weights for multiple reps, in any exercises, you increase your maximum strength potential.

There is no scientific or logical rationale as to why people believe that “strength” is solely confined to low rep training

Building muscle and developing strength are two sides of the same coin. They are not mutually exclusive of each other.

Enter Submaximal Training

Submaximal effort training is sets done with heavy loads in the seventy to ninety percent range of one rep maximum.

That is it.

The classical bodybuilding rep scheme of 8-12 reps is submaximal training.

The often recommended 6-12 hypertrophy range is submaximal training

Doing 5-10 reps per set, submaximal training.

Every bodybuilder of the past century has done “submaximal” training.

But what about If you Compete in Powerlifting or Olympic lifting or Strongman, arent those sports are tests of 1 rep max???

Yes. But as anyone who trains for those sports can attest, the majority of your training is…submaximal training.

No one that actively competes is maxing out every single week lifting 100%. They are training with heavy weights that are a PERCENTAGE of their 1 rep max (usually in the 80-90% range).

Muscle and Strength are NOT Complicated

Lift reasonably heavy weight, for reps.

Apply progressive overload.

Repeat for years and decades.