So, reading through a lot of the material I’ve bought, all you share here and on jimwendler.com- I see different % for TM, the originals say 90% and I’ve only ever applied my TM at 90% relative to my tested maxes. More recently I’ve seen the 80% and 85% mentioned and the general comments are “depending on your goals”.
How would you categorize those 3 different % applications in terms of when to use them?
do you that % across all lifts? For example- my SQT, Bench and Dead do fine on 90%TM but my Press just stalls much quicker. Is switching the Press to a lower TM% say 85% while keeping other 3 on 90% a process you utilize?
Not Jim, but one factor is bar speed as well as volume, for example bar speed will be greater using 85% TM, when you are doing your 5x5 FSL work for example as compared to doing the same with 90%, of course this can be manipulated multiple ways and still utilizing 90% TM but Jim knows how guys get caught up on their training max, so he accounts for that by reducing the percentage so that the added volume doesn’t lead to reps being grinded out etc since he’s not there to monitor it personally.
Put another way most guys would rather say/see their training max at 270 using 90% rather than 255 using 85% assuming a true max of 300lbs but bar speed and quality reps count too. Just my two cents