Common 1RM Calculation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Common 1RM Calculation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them After spending over a decade in the trenches—first as a competitive powerlifter, then as a strength coach for hundreds of athletes—I’ve seen the same spreadsheet errors, ego-driven miscalculations, and formula blunders ruin more training cycles than bad sleep or poor nutrition. Your one-rep max (1RM) isn't just a number to brag about. It's the cornerstone of periodization , the anchor for your percentages, and the roadmap for your entire training block. But here’s the hard truth: most lifters, and even some coaches, are calculating it completely wrong. Getting your 1RM right means the difference between a PR that actually moves and a stall that leads to a back injury. In this guide, I’m pulling back the curtain on the common 1RM calculation mistakes I’ve corrected a thousand times and giving you the exact protocols to fix them. What is a 1RM and Why Precision Matters? Before we debug the errors, let's align o...