 Our next caller is Andrew from New York. Hey Andrew, what's your question? How can we help you? Hey guys, so I'm actually running Max PowerLift right now and I kind of had a question about how the one rep max calculation worked and then after you run the 11 weeks, how would you go back and calculate your new max to see how much progress you made? You know, one rep, there's a lot of one rep max calculators that you can find online. Obviously in PowerLift, we give you some ideas. Here's the problem with them. They're not super accurate. They're better than nothing. They're going to give you a general idea, but really the only way to know what your one rep max is is to test your one rep max. I'll give you an example. So for me, I have a lot of low gear strength or whatever you want to call it. I can lift way more at the low reps than a one rep max calculator will say. So one rep max calculator, for example, might say that my one rep max based off of 10 repetitions would be, I don't know, I'll make up a number 300 pounds, but then I'll end up being able to do 315 on my own. I've known other people to be the opposite where they do really well when the reps are around six, eight reps. And then once we go down low, they miss the one rep max calculator. So here's my advice to you. Are you able to work out with a partner? I could. I'm just working out from home right now. So if I were to do a one rep max by myself, I'd have to have someone come over who is comfortable with that during COVID. Yeah, I would either do that or do you have safeties that you can squat or bench with? No, not on the rack that I have. Okay. Well, do you have intentions of competing or are you just following the Maps Power Lift program to just get stronger? Well, I'm taking your advice from trying to move from that aesthetic look and being so anxious about what I'm eating and what I look like to push it more towards my performance. So that's really why I wanted to run power lift to just see how heavy I could, you know, get my big three lifts. So here's my advice. I think it's a little more important for somebody who is going to do show up to a meet and do a one rep max to use the calculator and to be like very rigid about it, where you would actually have a partner come over to measure it and figure it out like, okay, this is what 80% of my one rep max should look like and do all the math. I think using it just as a nice guide for you. Like for me, when I think 80%, I think I still got one more and one to two more in the tank. So I would just guesstimate where my weight needs to be because my overall goal is just to build strength. I'm not going to get up on a meet and compete against somebody. So if that's your goal, I wouldn't get so hung up on the calculators because of what Sal said. It is so nuanced and it is so individualized for everybody that one person, they might do the calculation and they're actually stronger on that. Somebody else might be weaker. So really, it's there for a good guide for you. And it would be a lot more serious if we were going to get out there and do a meet and we got to make sure that you are maximizing every single time. Otherwise, I'm using something like that. It's just a guide. Yeah. And Andrew, how long have you been working out for? Probably on and off for 60 years. That's good. You know, one of the most important things that somebody can develop when they're working out on a consistent basis is to kind of get in touch with their body and how they feel. Because I know from training clients for decades that your max can change from day to day just based off of how you feel, your energy, your sleep, your nutrition the day before. So what Adam's saying is the best advice. Use it as a general guide, but also and more importantly, go by the way that you feel. If MAP's power lift is asking you to lift at 80% and you're doing it and it feels more like 70%, then go ahead and add a little bit of weight. And especially if it feels more like 90%, then take some weight off. That's the best way to work out long term. Have you gone through all of Ben Pollock's masterclass about this at the end of the program? Yes. I went through it one time. So maybe I could probably go back and rewatch it. Yeah. Because I mean, we really were just trying to follow a lot of what he does to prep himself and his clients to getting into a meet specifically. So he uses a lot of these percentages and then changes it based off of the phase. So we try to kind of align with him and use his best judgment in terms of his calculations for that. But honestly, like they said, it's more of a feel thing than anything else. So I would really pay attention to that more than anything. Okay. Great. So where would you guys go after running power lift if you kind of wanted to keep that strength? Strong. Yeah, map strong. You're going to get more functional with map strong, but it's still a very strength. Yeah. Map strong after power lifts is beautiful. Oh, it's amazing. And it's funny. It's one of the more popular programs. People love map strong quite a bit. So I would say go there afterward. Do you have map strong? No, I don't. All right. We'll sit. We're sending it to you right now. Oh, sick. All right. Thank you. That's awesome. I really appreciate that. No problem, man. Thanks for calling in. Yeah. Thank you. I love you guys so much. Thanks for your awesome. Get easy. Another good question because complete transparency, when I go through power lift, I didn't use the calculator. And people get so hung up on it. I know they do. And there's, there's, yeah. Well, I mean, if you're, if you're at a, if you're going to compete and you're going to get on stage, like, I mean, excuse me, get up on a map or whatever you call it for the, for powerlifting, right? So you get up there. Platform. Yeah. Platform. You're going to, you're obviously that stuff matters, right, to maximize that. But if you're just an average person that's going through that, just following the program and going by feel, you're going to get incredible results as far as getting stronger. Plus think of the, the skill that you develop in terms of feeling your body and knowing when to go heavier and when to go lighter. That skill is so important for long-term success. Well, it's just, to me, it's no different than calculating macros. I mean, that, you know, your metabolism is like ever changing in foam. Right. So it's like, you know, no, the best macro calculator on the internet is still flawed because it's your, you could, your sleep, your stress levels, your activity for the day, hormones. Yeah. Everything could completely change your metabolism. So to, to follow something so rigid and be like, oh, it says that I need to put this much weight or it says I need to eat this many grams or calories. Like you got to have a little bit of flexibility and understanding that the body doesn't exactly work that way. And so that all these tools that we have created and came up with, I think are amazing because we didn't have them two, three decades ago for a lot of stuff. So I think it's a great, these are great tools to use, but then you also don't want to be married to- Well, it's like your readiness, right? Each time you go into a workout and this is why we like Joe DeFranco's, you know, version where he's trying to do the grip test and see kind of like, you know, where your readiness is for the day and like what you can actually like achieve. So, you know, sometimes you want to push through it, no doubt, and you want to keep, you know, making progress, but also you really got to listen to your body. Yeah. And also, I mean, again, I don't know how about you guys, but those one rep max calculators, never really accurate for me. Yeah. They always underestimate- It's just a standardized kind of generic framework for it.