Git‘er Done

Ever wonder what weight you should be using on your 5 x 5 max effort day? What about the 3 x 3? The 5-3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1?

I recently sought some clarification from Neal Thompson, principal and head masochist at Crossfit Boston. Here’s what I got:

Your 5 rep load should be 80-85% of your one rep max.
Your 3 rep load should be 85-90% of your one rep max
Your 2 rep load should be 92-95% of your one rep max

Of course, your 1 rep load should be at or damn close to 100%. When you’re ramping up to singles, earmark the last rep for a PR attempt. As your 1RM goes up, your other loads should go up in lockstep.

You may need to bring a calculator to the gym, or at least a pen. Don’t worry—the meatheads glaring at you from the Smith machine are only mad because they don’t know what you’re writing down or exactly how to work a calculator.