We’re starting to get a little psycho serious with our scaling.  And by “psycho” “serious,” I mean busting out the Strength & Conditioning text book, pulling out Rippetoe’s “Strength Standards” chart, looking up 1RM charts, running calcs with an iPod calculator, and strategizing.  Psycho, no?

So, tonight’s WOD of:
Shoulder Press 3-3-3-3-3-3-3
was the perfect opportunity to test out scaling.

Theoretically, since I was completing sets of 3 reps, I could (should?) lift at 93% of my 1RM.  (For shoulder press, my 1RM is 75#.  Thus, 93% of 75# = 70#)  My goal was to lift 70# by set 4 and finish the WOD at 70#.  And since the purpose of tonight’s WOD was strength development, we made sure our rest between sets was capped to 2 minutes.

As it turns out, the scaling in relation to our 1RM was right on point!  Like, whoa.  What I like most is that there is a lot less guess-n-check going on.  EFFICIENCY, baby.  Looks like I might be busting out the ol’ calculator more often for powerlifting WODs.

Do you guys calculate your theoretical loads based on your 1RM’s?  What’s your strategy?