Mathematically challenged but happy trainee!!

OK, It happened to me today for the first time in a ages while doing Bent-over-Rows. I’m sure a lot of you have been there, but it brought such a smile on my face I just had to post to see how often others had done this— Stack the weights on the bar for the set at your perceived max for say 10 reps, and only been able to grind painfully 7 or 8 out. You curse for having LOST ground since your last workout- was it your diet? Overtraining? Lack of sleep? Training this body part too frequently/little?? THEN it dawns on you. You recheck the weights on the bar- Damn if I didn’t miscalculate and add an extra plate on each side!! Suddenly despair turns to triumph in a millisecond. I’m a superhero! I’ve smashed my PB and then some! I wasn’t even considering trying that weight for at least a few weeks!!
Sorry for my enthusiasm. As I said, it happened to me for the first time in ages. and those of you who’ve done it too WILL understand!! Happy lifting.

ya i can relate, did this on shoulder press a bit back, was adding 10 pounders to each side, and talking to someonw (lost my focus usually bad) and put 25 plates on each side. Did my set and was pissed it felt so heavy compared to last week, did 2 more sets, still pissed, and then noticed my mistake when i was unloading the machine. A sign from god that i was cheating myself and need to add alot more weight. I think we all do it!

Only did this once doing deads. Set a new PR for singles!

There’s a kid in Auburn that I read an article about. He’s 17, I think, and is developmentally disabled, but strong as a bull. He regularly enters powerlifting meets and does well. Since his diability makes it extremely difficult to do simple math, even without the added physical effort, his dad color-coded the plates for him so he can have the same weight on each side of the bar. This guy just makes sure both sides match color-wise and heaves away. A quote from his dad went something like this – I had to take away some of the plates because I thought he was going to hurt himself. Man, that’s just raw strength.

I did that on deadlifts. I didn’t think of the fact that the bumper plates were in kg, not pounds and ended up hitting a personal best. It was great after I realized it.
Danny

brider: Isn?t most plates already colorcoded in some way ?

Course, I forgot to add it works the other way too— I’ve also several times powered out a good 5-10 reps more than I thought I could ever do at that weight, and only after having finished 3 amazing sets, realised I should have had an enxtra 50lbs on the bar! Doh!

This isn’t always good. Think about it this way, you load an extra plate the bar while you’re doing seated goodmornings… hope you’re well versed in rehab!


that is what happened to me once anyway. Just be careful, I guess.