The Big 3
Last July, I was fortunate enough to be a part of something really cool. A private Facebook group was started and all of the members had committed to a “Year of the Beast“, which essentially meant 4 rounds of the Body Beast program. Along the way, we decided it would be fun to test ourselves to see just how strong all of us had gotten and the “Big 3” competition was born.
Over the course of 4 days, we would all test our 1RM (1 rep maximum) on 3 different exercises. When testing your 1RM, traditionally there are only 3 exercises that are considered. Squat, Bench, and Deadlift. We would only perform one exercise on each day and the forth day was there to make up or improve upon any of the 3 previous days’ lifts.
It was a lot of fun watching everyone reach new PR’s with this competition. We were all both competitive and supportive with each other, which kept everyone wanting more of the same. So immediately following that competition, we scheduled Round 2 of the Big 3, roughly 4 months later.
Safety First!
Pushing yourself to test the maximum amount of weight you can physically lift can be an awesome experience! However, you don’t ever want to jeopardize your own safety at it’s expense. Be smart when performing these lifts otherwise, you can get yourself seriously injured! Leave your ego out of the lifts. There is nothing worse than seeing someone go way beyond what they know they can do physically and find themselves injures as a result.
You should always be sure you are using safe equipment and a spotter (or spotter arms) when lifting weights and this is especially true when you are attempting to test your 1 rep maximums.
With heavier weight, proper form is key. There will be some slight drops in form, this is expected, but you know when you’ve gone too far and form is way off. Maintaining proper form will not only ensure you get the most of the lift, but you don’t suffer injury.
The Warm-up
- Pick a weight that’s roughly 30% of your estimated max (it’s ok to guess). If you expect to squat 250 lbs for instance, take 70 to 80 lbs as your first set and perform 8 to 10 reps
- Add another 50% to this (taking you to around 45% of your estimated max) and perform another 8 to 10 reps.
- Jump up again (so you’re at around 60% of your predicted max) and do 5 to 6 reps.
- Another jump up in weight should take you to 70% – do a set of 3 to 5.
- Take one more weight increase up to around 80% and perform 2 reps. If you estimated a 250‐pound 1RM, this set would be 200 lbs for 2 reps.)
From here, you’ll switch to single reps. Perform 1 single at 90%.
- Keep putting 5 to 10 lbs on the bar and performing single reps until you reach a weight where you feel that another increase would lead to a failed rep.
- You’ll need a good 3 to 4 minutes between sets once you start getting heavy and at least 10 minutes between the different lifts (if you plan to do this on a single day), so have some fast‐digesting carbs or at least a workout drink on hand to sustain you through this lifting marathon!
Pro Tip
I certainly don’t consider myself an expert or professional weight lifter, so I have included some videos from guys that are and they can help you get the most out of these lifts with their own instruction. Check out the videos below for a great guide on the Squat, Bench and Deadlifts exercises.
Squat
A Squat Tutorial – Lanye Norton
Bench
Bench Tutorial – Layne Norton
Deadlift
Deadlift for Beginners – Elliot Hulse
Your Wilks Score
Traditionally, I would not be competing against other men (or women…) who were “bigger” than I am. However, there are way to level the playing field and allow me to compete against others who outweigh me and this is accomplished using Wilks.
From wilkscalculator.com – “The Wilks Formula is used to compare the strength of powerlifters against each other despite the different weights of the lifters.”
Once you plug in your weight and the amount of weight you lifted, either per exercise or in total, you are given a score and is relative to your weight. This number can then used to effectively compare pure/raw strength against others.
Final Numbers
Here is a look at my final numbers for this round as well as the numbers that I accomplished in round 1. Overall, I am really happy to see the improvements. I expected to have some given that I had been just coming off of my first NPC competition the previous weekend, so I was somewhat depleted at the time.
Regardless of that, I still made some pretty decent progress over the course of the 4 months.
Round 1 (4/12/2015) | Round 2 (8/21/2015) | GAINZZ! | |
---|---|---|---|
Squat | 245 | 290 | +45 |
Bench | 235 | 255 | +10 |
Deadlift | 345 | 390 | +45 |
Totals | 825 | 935 | +110 |
Wilks | 260.04 | 290.98 | +30.94 |
All numbers are represented in pounds.
If you are ready to walk along side a great group of leaders that will show you what it takes to get the physique that you desire – you’ll have to commit! Everyone else in the group (150+ at the time of this writing) has committed and agreed to these requirement – so it’s a level playing field!
Submit your request to join the Facebook group and we will start adding new people right away!
Here are links if you need:
Lift Big!
Need a Coach?
If you need to find someone that will hold you accountable, answer your questions, help you, and PUSH YOU for the entire duration of your workout! Luckily for you, that’s what me and my team are here for. If you don’t have a coach yet and want one, I’d love to be your coach and help you through a fitness program. I am available to help you reach your goals!
Email Me: coachchris@yourfitnesspath.com
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YouTube: https://youtu.be/coachchriscoburn
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