Weightlifters... got a question.

[RocketManJames]

I don't lift any real weights, though I hit the gym regularly. So, anyway, I'm at the gym, and there are a couple of young guys talking about who could lift more, blah blah.

I then thought of this question, and was wondering if those who really understand weight lifting could answer it for me. I'm just curious.

Let me define "Total Weight Lifted" as equal to the total weight benched in a two hour period.

Now, say you have a guy that maxes out at X. What is the best way for him to maximize his TWL? Would it be to do tiny amounts a ton, or good sized amounts fewer times? What would the best strategy be for a typical weightlifter?

Would it make sense to vary the weight being lifted? Or, is the optimal strategy to pick the optimal weight and do it as often as possible in the two hour block?

-RMJ

[danderso8]

tiny amounts a zillion times.

if you are doing a small amount, say, 10% of your single-rep max, you could do it all day.

at some point, though, you're right that there would be an optimum...if you get too low, the weight of your own arms dominates and forces you to spend too much effort accelerating them. I suppose the optimal amount would be just slightly over the amount you could do very quickly and keep it up for the entire time window. 2 hours is a very long time though, and i know my arms would get tired even doing featherlight invisible weights for that long. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

varying the weight...hmm.. I would guess you would be best to start with something that you could do very fast for most of the contest and then whe fatigue slows you down significantly, swap to something that you could do at the original speed for most of the rest of the contest...etc.

next time yer down here...yer on. Doh! just gave away my strategery. heh.

--dan