To do or not to do...Legs 1RM

[cher to go]

I am a lurker and don't think I have read this question anywhere, sorry if it has been asked already. Is anyone only doing upper body 1RM tests? Alot of the leg exercises are only 1 or 2 stars with occasionally a 3 star, with the exception of the squat rack exercises and a couple of deadlifts. The couple of leg exercises I have tried to complete, for example the front lunge with dumbells are difficult for me to hold as heavy of dumbells that I need to in order to challenge the legs.
In addition I am finding to use that heavy of weight bothers my knees(I have an old injury in one), so I am not real motivated to complete the rest of the 1RM tests for legs. At this point I do not plan on doing the squat leg routine but rather the pylo legs. My husband has a squat rack, but that doesn't seem to be the results I'm looking for?

It's really my legs that I'm looking for change in with STS, I am happy with my upper body. I really cant lose more than 5-7 pounds before my upper body will look sickly and that is with muscle. I just carry my fat in my thighs. So am I going to get results by just pushing myself the best I can with my legs?

Thanks

Cheryl

 

[dbelden1]

Hi Cheryl

I am not doing too many of the lower body 1RM's either... I am being bothered with knee pain the past few months and have been taking it very easy on them... I have a Dr. appt next week and will see what he recommends. so for now I am concentrating on the upper body... I too want to concentrate on lower body as, like you, I tend to carry most of my weight in my lower body but until I have an answer about the knee pain I'm staying away from as much impact and strain on them as possible..

I do know that since the legs muscles can make the biggest "bang for the buck" that they are important, but can only do what I can do

Good luck & hope the knees hold up for you!

 

[bitmover]

Cheryl, I doubt I will do the lower body 1RM tests. We talked about it on my check-in group -- I just don't think I can go super heavy there anyway, so it seems somewhat pointless. I don't own a squat rack and don't plan on owning one.

-Beth

 

[fit44]

I'm not doing 1RM for lower body.
I can't take the pressure of a heavy barbell on my spine. I have a squat rack, but I limit what I load up on it. I've tried to go heavy but it is just too much compression on my spine.

 

[geomom]

I'm not planning to do 1RM for legs, either. I only have 55 lbs for my barbell or 60 lbs total (2-30's) for dumbells. If I did want to do my 1RM's I'd need to head to the rec center. I'll see how it goes with the first Meso and decide from there whether or not I want to test my legs for the next two Meso's.

 

[Nicole_29]

I'm glad you brought this up, I was thinking the same thing. I can only go so heavy with my legs due to not being able to hold that heavy of a barbell and I don't plan on getting a squat rack. I wasn't going to do the 1RM for legs either. I was planning on doing the plyo leg segment I guess.

 

[shanihib]

There are a few that work fine for 1RM, but squats are completely out. I tried just to see if I'd max out, and promptly found out I couldn't lift 60 lbs over my head, and 52 was stupid to put over my head because, once on, I couldn't get it off, and plus, even with the weighted vest and teh 52 lbs barbell, I could easily do squat reps way past 10...

But, I did do the Squats Narrow Stance and Plie Squats Alternating Hand without maxing out on weights, and think that even some of the lunges etc are harder than you'd think. Obviously it depends on what you can handle but you might find that some of the exercises are worth trying to get a 1RM reading.

 

[WD]

I don't have a squat rack but do have a Bowflex. Weight increments there are not the same as barbells or dumbbbells. I just started the 1RM and can see doing lower body will be difficult. My Max overhead to shoulders would be 75#. I did 80 before but had a hard time removing it. With the Bowflex I can hit squats at an amount of resistance that I am sure is above what I lift overhead but I cannot compare it to a regular weight. But then again, I pretty much know what the maximum weight would be that I can lift so I will just go with that.

 

[teddy16410]

I'm not doing lower 1RM either because of the weight load/safety issue. I use the weighted vest for all lower work and load up what I feel comfy with for BB.
What I plan on doing for the 6-12 rep ranges (Meso 2 & 3) is what I do now for heavy lifting...I slow the move down to make it harder and frequently it makes it ALOT harder! lol ..I think there are plenty of ways to manipulate the work & get awesome results.

I plan on doing PLYO as one of 2 leg days - the other being Strength...My meso 1 plan looks like the P90X Format (minus YOGA!)

Upper Split
Plyo
Upper Split
Core Intensive
Legs
Kickboxing

 

[wendybdh]

I doubt I'll do 1RM for legs mostly because I have muscular legs anyway. I'll maybe do the 1RM's for deadlifts since I need to work on my hamstrings.

 

[orphylea]

DH and I started our 1RMs yesterday and I figured out that this will be an issue. We do have a squat rack but since we're doing STS together, we won't be using it. I have a 10# vest, but even when I loaded up the barbell I could go way beyond 10 reps. Any more weight on the BB would make me nervous that I wouldn't be able to lift it over my head. Oh well, I'll continue to do the 1RMs for the other leg exercises and see how it goes. I think I'll max out on some for sure.

 

[shoegoddess]

I'm not either. I have a shoulder issue and can't hoost to heavy of a bar up. I have a weight vest I'll be using instead. It goes to 20 pounds. That with dumbells should be OK.

 

[healthy_vegan]

I thought I was alone in this issue. I have grip strength issues (repetitive motion injuries) and have trouble holding the dumbbells. This was particularly a problem for deadlifts.

Even with a weighted vest, I haven't been able to lift enough to exhaust my legs for most exercises within 10 reps. I've just been lifting as much as possible and sometimes estimating where I think I would be.

I figure that if I can't lift it during the 1RMs, I may not be able to lift it during the DVDs either, so I'll just do as much as I can. I haven't decided yet if I'll do the 1 star exercises. Probably depends on when the DVDs arrive!