Quit Repeating Your PRs!
There’s an almost irresistible compulsion to always try to make big PRs—a 5 kg PR is a lot more exciting than a 1 kg PR.
But I see lifters attempting these big PRs because they get greedy, or because they only like weights that end in 0 or 5… and missing.
Over and over.
For months and months… and even years.
A 5 kg PR is a lot more exciting than a 1 kg PR, but a 1 kg PR is a lot more exciting than continually failing to exceed your best lift.
Even worse, often to set up these big PR attempts, these lifters will actually lift their current PR…
If you can lift your current PR on a given day, you can lift 1 kg more—why repeat a weight you already know you can do when you can add 1 kg and make a new PR?
Making smaller, more frequent PRs not only demonstrates the effectiveness of your training, but keeps you motivated to continue—a nice improvement over a long string of stinging disappointments and regret about your bad decisions.
Always aim for that 1 kg PR first—if you can do more that day, you’ll be able to follow that PR with another one a few kg higher. In some cases, you can aim for more if you know with near certainty you’re good for it.
This is more common with strength lifts like squats. Often in your training cycle leading into a testing day, your numbers will be such that it’s nearly guaranteed you’ll hit a big PR. In these cases, feel free to go for it. Just don’t get too greedy.
If you can’t honestly tell yourself you have 99% or more confidence in making a certain weight, be more conservative. If you don’t have that confidence, you won’t make it even if you’re ready physically.
When it comes to actually making your 1 kg PRs, you need a sound strategy to set it up.
For example, let’s say in the snatch, your best is 125 kg, and you always take 5 kg jumps past 100 kg: 100-105-110-115-120. But now you want to shoot for that 126 PR. If you take your normal jumps, you get to 120 and suddenly your normal 5 kg jump matches your PR, and to make a PR, you have to take an odd, and larger, 6 kg jump.
At the very least, add that extra kg early on—so you’re doing 101-106-111-116-121-126.
Even better, use decreasing increments. Something like: 100-105-110-114-118-122-126 or 100-105-110-115-119-123-126, depending on your historical consistency and confidence.
In the first, we keep the final jumps all to 4 kg (3%), and in the second, we start with 4 kg jumps and then take only a 3 kg jump to the PR attempt. With smaller maximal weights, I would aim to get this final jump down to 2 kg—a weight 1 kg under the current PR and then a weight 1 kg over the current PR.
Have this plan in place before you even begin the lift. Knowing from the beginning improves your confidence and keeps you on pace lift to lift rather than leaving you scratching your head and over-thinking the process between each set as you near your PR attempt.
But I see lifters attempting these big PRs because they get greedy, or because they only like weights that end in 0 or 5… and missing.
Over and over.
For months and months… and even years.
A 5 kg PR is a lot more exciting than a 1 kg PR, but a 1 kg PR is a lot more exciting than continually failing to exceed your best lift.
Even worse, often to set up these big PR attempts, these lifters will actually lift their current PR…
If you can lift your current PR on a given day, you can lift 1 kg more—why repeat a weight you already know you can do when you can add 1 kg and make a new PR?
Making smaller, more frequent PRs not only demonstrates the effectiveness of your training, but keeps you motivated to continue—a nice improvement over a long string of stinging disappointments and regret about your bad decisions.
Always aim for that 1 kg PR first—if you can do more that day, you’ll be able to follow that PR with another one a few kg higher. In some cases, you can aim for more if you know with near certainty you’re good for it.
This is more common with strength lifts like squats. Often in your training cycle leading into a testing day, your numbers will be such that it’s nearly guaranteed you’ll hit a big PR. In these cases, feel free to go for it. Just don’t get too greedy.
If you can’t honestly tell yourself you have 99% or more confidence in making a certain weight, be more conservative. If you don’t have that confidence, you won’t make it even if you’re ready physically.
When it comes to actually making your 1 kg PRs, you need a sound strategy to set it up.
For example, let’s say in the snatch, your best is 125 kg, and you always take 5 kg jumps past 100 kg: 100-105-110-115-120. But now you want to shoot for that 126 PR. If you take your normal jumps, you get to 120 and suddenly your normal 5 kg jump matches your PR, and to make a PR, you have to take an odd, and larger, 6 kg jump.
At the very least, add that extra kg early on—so you’re doing 101-106-111-116-121-126.
Even better, use decreasing increments. Something like: 100-105-110-114-118-122-126 or 100-105-110-115-119-123-126, depending on your historical consistency and confidence.
In the first, we keep the final jumps all to 4 kg (3%), and in the second, we start with 4 kg jumps and then take only a 3 kg jump to the PR attempt. With smaller maximal weights, I would aim to get this final jump down to 2 kg—a weight 1 kg under the current PR and then a weight 1 kg over the current PR.
Have this plan in place before you even begin the lift. Knowing from the beginning improves your confidence and keeps you on pace lift to lift rather than leaving you scratching your head and over-thinking the process between each set as you near your PR attempt.
