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On Saturday, October 29, 2012, Dr. Start Fife of Fife Therapy, located at 6 Mall Terave, Savannah, Georgia, came on the Karl DeMasi Sports Report (KDSR) and discussed how to prevent injury by using a formula to figure out an athlete's one max rep using lower weight with reps (lifts). Dr. Fife has been involved in the science of physical therapy for over 30 years and has seen a lot of athletes with lower back pain or injuries from athletes doing a one-rep max. In his expertise, there is another way for the athlete to find this number by trying to lift only a little weight one time. Here is the conversation about the one rep max and formula.
KDSR: It's just that you're in it to prevent injuries. You don't want to see the kids get hurt. You don't want to see them come in hurt. It just so happens that when they have to come in, you know what you're talking about, How do they get hurt regarding weight training?
Dr. Stuart Fife: Yeah, and we always see lots of injuries, and it is nice to be preventative, and obviously, you can do a lot. You can't prevent trauma like getting a hit, but we can do much on the preventive side.
So I was going to talk a little bit about weight training, in particular, the one rep max, so we've had a bunch of kids injured in the weight room, which ideally would have no injuries, as it should be a very well controlled environment. Obviously, the low back is a particular concern, often when kids push themselves. Weightlifting is a separate sport with specific expertise and coaching. For example, people spend years at the gym trying to perfect weightlifting techniques. And then we have athletes training to get stronger in a particular sport, whether football, soccer, or whatever. Maybe sometimes I think we're treating these athletes as if they were weightlifters, and that's not their sport. That's not their skill set; they are athletes trying to get stronger for their sport.
There's a formula in the literature that we can estimate the one rep max with a formula, which is simple to use. It is the weight multiplied by 36 divided by 37 minus the reps. So the one rep max can be calculated without actually performing that maximum lift.
For example, if an athlete is doing 100 pounds and can get five lifts, and that's the max he can do, he can't manage the 6th rep. To the calculator, 100 multiplied by 36, then divided by 32. So that will give him a one-rep max of 120#. So the coaches could still put that one that Max on the board. And then, if he trains for strength, you're going to do 85%- 95% of that one rep max, which will be five sets of five reps per set.
So say, for example, in three weeks, he can do 110 pounds five times max effort ( he got stronger), then the calculation would put him at 123.75 one rep max. So we can still say the one rep max goes up without exposing the athlete to having to perform a one rep max, where we see many of the injuries. So there's no downside to that other than protecting the athlete who isn't a weightlifter. His job is to try and get stronger. And I said that formula is in the literature. It's been around for a while. It should be used in the weight room a lot more because it will reduce injuries and the risk of injury. I would love to see that.
PSR: You can watch Dr. Fife's interview on the Karl DeMasi Sports Report Youtube Channel - Click on this link - KDSR YouTube channel and then go to 22:00 mark
