One Rep Max 1RM
From TurboCASH Wiki
With regards to 1RM, I think that most players need to improve the 3RM which will improve the 1RM by default. However doing a 185kg knee bend for 22 reps and saying that equates to a 320kg squat is also not helpful. If we use Simo as an example he has squatted 185kg for a single full depth (hip below knee) in gym here and he was the third strongest player at WP. He did 22 reps to the required depth (24 but wasn't given 2) in his test and was told that this equates to 320kg squat. I doubt he could even take 320kg out the rack and I doubt that any other players on that team will lift 300kg out the rack.
Why train at that level of strength. Using Simo as the tight head prop as an example. The force that a prop has to transmit through his torso and legs is enormous. They should be capable of holding those forces and simultaneously generating more. Heavy squats and dead lifts approaching 1RM maximums are important. The average scrum last about 8 seconds from the call engage. If you time a 1RM squat from taking the bar of the rack walking back one step set up the feet squat then rack the weight I'm not sure that the time difference is significant. A double or triple squat will probably take long as will a dead lift. Why I like dead lifts is that they develop starting strength as there is no preloading the muscles, you start from a dead stop.
What about back line players they need to have strength to drive through tackles and contribute to effective clean outs over rucks. They need to impact players at high speed and the forces transferred at the higher speed are also quite high. Being capable of handling those very high forces is important.
My full depth squat raw is 200kg I would suggest that this is a minimum standard for all players at most levels. If I recall Barry Sanders (3rd all time running back) who was 5 ft 11inches tall and 210lbs could squat 600lbs ( 272kg) and bench 400lbs (181 kg). He was a running back who made people miss with some of the most special moves in football, but he also broke a lot of arm tackles or poor form tackles because of his explosive strength and once he had broken the line he was almost unstoppable because of the incredible agility which he enabled through the very high strength in his legs which enabled him to cut the wrong way a a foot which meant he wrong footed even the most experienced defenders. Calculating the force through the leg of a runner cutting off one leg has forces in excess of 3 times body weight o one leg. High levels of strength are important.
If I remember Verkoshansky's work on special sport training he seems to work in the range of 60 to 90% of 1RM (depending on which characteristic he is developing) based on the loads expected in competition . Figure what the load is of a a 100kg person moving at 8m/s if you are to tackle them backwards in a hit that lasts 0.5 of a second? Ask me again why I want high 1RM max ability?
