I am currently 9 weeks out from my first meet and was hoping for some advice as far as my programming.
I have just finished my 4th cycle of 531 N.O.V. and was interested in following 531 for Powerlifting in preparation for my meet. After reading 531 Powerlifting I came up with an 8 week preparation program, referring and following what was written in the book (Switching the weeks around, adding singles, etc…). However, I have an extra week in my schedule and am not sure what I should do with it. I have just come off a deload and was thinking of using this week to just work up to potential openers and then jump into what I have planned.
Is this wise to do? Or should I just keep following my current program and just mix in singles?
Not sure if I am just overthinking this but was hoping for some advice.
For my first meet I did the standard 531 3/5/1 style with PR sets and jokers on the first and third weeks. I also had an extra week before the meet so I did some 80-85% squats the last Tuesday and some BP the same way on Wednesday then took the rest of the week off. I was fresh come meet day. Before my second meet I ran Coffinworm which has some optional jokers in the anchor cycles. I did my normal squats on Monday and bench instead of ohp on Tuesday and took the rest of the week off. It worked awesomely. I easily squatted 400 even though I never hit it in training and I deadlifted 475 easily even though my heaviest set in training was 435. I wouldn’t worry too much about doing any really heavy singles as the risk of injury is greater and your first me is really for learning the game.