to start or not ..1rm not complete?

[erin1621]

So i printed a 1 rm chart from the website. It shows stars on it and the more stars the more important i assume. I still have a few to go, but i am getting antsy to start! Is worth waiting till all the 5 stars are completed? Do i have to test all of the exercise on this sheet wheter its one star or 5? any suggestons? thougts ...ideas?????

[kikster]

Honestly, it all depends on you. Some personality types (like my DH who's doing the program now) are better of just diving in before they lose momentum, especially the first time around. If that's you, then you can always update your 1rm's as you go. The best way to do that is the when you come across an exercise that you haven't tested for, grab the weight that you think you can perform for the required amount of reps, and when the reps have ended, if you can keep going, do it. Then just jot down the actual amount of reps/weight you did and use it as your 1rm for that exercise. As long as the amount of reps don't go over 20 you should be able to log it no problem. If it does go over 20, you need a much heavier weight than you thought . That's what we did for DH. Just beware that you will be doing a lot more updating that way than if it were all done beforehand, but at least you'll able to get started on it. Plus, whenever you decide to do the program again, you'll already have your other #'s as a starting point.

For myself, I did finish all of the 5 stars before starting, but there were still many times when I had to update because I was able to go heavier or lighter on a certain exercise....

HTH