Dead Time Before Meet

Hey everyone. I was preparing for a meet approximately three months out. It gave me time to finish my current ten week program, one week rest, and another six week program. It would’ve allowed me to peak the week of the meet. A different meet can open closer to home. Now I will have two weeks dead time before this new meet. Does anyone have suggestions on what to do? I don’t want to spend two weeks doing nothing and lose strength not do I want to over work myself.

Do you mean two weeks, including meet week? The answer may vary depending on how you’re counting the weeks. For me, two weeks out is this:

Training week
Meet week

While other people don’t count meet week, meaning that two weeks out is this:

Training week
Training week
Meet week

My general suggestion would be to just rearrange your training so it fits better. Find programs that are a more appropriate length. If you really want to keep you current programs (for examples, if you are absolutely dead set on doing the Coan/Phillipi deadlift program), add in a couple of high volume weeks before you jump into your main programming, do the first week twice, or something along those lines.

[quote]Colbey17 wrote:
Hey everyone. I was preparing for a meet approximately three months out. It gave me time to finish my current ten week program, one week rest, and another six week program. It would’ve allowed me to peak the week of the meet. A different meet can open closer to home. Now I will have two weeks dead time before this new meet. Does anyone have suggestions on what to do? I don’t want to spend two weeks doing nothing and lose strength not do I want to over work myself.[/quote]

I would do this, it’s a very effective peaking program and you’ll feel very comfortable at the meet.

Monday:
squat to a comfortable max, like your opener, then drop to 90% of whatever number you hit for 10 singles.
bench 80% for 6 sets of 2

Wed
deadlift to a very comfortable max, not even your opener, and by no means should you get psyched at all. focus, but no psych, many people have screwed themselves pulling too heavy before a meet, do not be one of them.

Friday
squat - 80% for 6 sets of 2
bench - comfortable max, around your opener, then 10 singles at 90% of your max for the day.

repeat for week 2

Meet week
monday - comfortable max, or opener for squat and bench, work up to 85% in the deadlift

wed - 10 singles in all lifts with 65%

Saturday- compete

You’ll notice I want you lifting the week of the meet, this is very imporant as it’s better to head into a meet tight as shit, than get all stretched out and loose. Be tight my friend, it protects you from injury and makes you lift better, stretch your hips and ankles everyday, but don’t touch your quads or hams no matter how tight you get. Suck it up until the meet is over and you’ll thank me.

There should also be a ton of back work done after every workout, other than that, no assistance.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[quote]Larry10 wrote:
I would also advise you to change your attempts so that you’re hitting 5-10 lb PRs on your 3RD attempts instead of seconds. Do not set yourself up for failure by trying to have a perfect meet under imperfect conditions.

You’ll notice I want you lifting the week of the meet, this is very imporant as it’s better to head into a meet tight as shit, than get all stretched out and loose.[/quote]

I agree with your second statement, but not so much your first thought. I don’t disagree, per se, but I think it is better to have your attempts put together with more thought than just 5-10lb PR’s, or some of the dogmatic advice we see like “open up with an easy triple” or “go for a small PR on your seconds, and then go balls out on the 3rd”.

Attempts should be aimed directly towards specific goals, and put together around your specific performances in each lift. For example, many people can hit a big squat or deadlift PR, but not both. Some people know they can only hit one big attempt in each lift, but they would have nothing in the tank left afterwards. In my case, for example, I know that I can take a lot of deadlift attempts and be fine; I’ve gone for fourth attempts twice and had enough left in the tank to go at them both with everything I have, even after hitting a PR on the previous 3rd. One lifter that I train with on occasion knows he can only hit one PR pull before being completely spent. So, our plans for each lift will be different.

Here is a very good article, written by Kyle Keough, who has a 1355 total at 148lb:

http://www.iowapowerlifting.com/Articles/AnotherApproachToAttemptSelection.html

hey man, I agree, I personally roll into meets with very specific goals.

Just in this situation, the kids training is a mess and hasn’t even peaked, I don’t think it’s the best time to really be trying to go nuts. That’s all I meant.

Cool article, I liked it

[quote]Larry10 wrote:
hey man, I agree, I personally roll into meets with very specific goals.

Just in this situation, the kids training is a mess and hasn’t even peaked, I don’t think it’s the best time to really be trying to go nuts. That’s all I meant.

Cool article, I liked it[/quote]

Like I said, I don’t disagree with you, I just have different thoughts.

ohhh… I misunderstood, I thought he was skipping the 6 weeks peak all together, but the closer meet is an additional 2 weeks away… I get it now… thanks for pointing that our Black angus

[quote]black_angus1 wrote:

[quote]Larry10 wrote:
hey man, I agree, I personally roll into meets with very specific goals.

Just in this situation, the kids training is a mess and hasn’t even peaked, I don’t think it’s the best time to really be trying to go nuts. That’s all I meant.

Cool article, I liked it[/quote]

Like I said, I don’t disagree with you, I just have different thoughts.[/quote]

hey man, I appreciate your thoughts, I’m here to learn something, and I just did, thank you