Female Powerlifting Meet

Hey guys.

I’m after a bit of advice for peaking my missus in her first power lifting competition.

She will be weighing in at 56kg on the day for that weight class.

Its on the first of December and her lifts after 2 years training are as follows -

Bench - 57kg - 125 lbs

Squat - about 100kg - 220lbs

Dead lift - 140kg - 308 lbs

This video on youtube shows her a while back struggling to get a 120kg deadlift but she has mastered dropping the bum a bit and using the legs more on the pull and I reckon on the day wouldnt be far off lifting triple bodyweight.

Any advice to help her peak on the day?

Any tips for competition?

Cheers for feedback - ta.

Everyone had different ways to peak, you have to experiment and find what works for you (or your missus)

The way I peak is to beat the shit out of myself during meet prep (12-16 weeks). If I get too beat up where everything is hurting/aching and the thought of training is like hell, I will skip a workout or dial things down.

4 weeks out I take my last real heavy lifts. 3 weeks out I will usually work up to openers, and start lowering volume on assistance work. 2 weeks out I will work up to a heavy weight, but below openers, and lower assistance more. The last week I will do a full body “assistance” day of band stuff, reverse hypers, etc on Monday and then chill till Saturday and get after it.

This has seemed to work the best for me after experimenting with several different ways.

Good luck to her!

cheers matt!

We are only a month out at the mo so if she maxes in the next day or two then works from there.

I’d be interested to see what your week looks like if you were 4 weeks out ie rep ranges, order of lifts , when to do assistance stuff etc

thanks for the help.

They’re some really impressive lifts at her bodyweight. Probably enough to win her the best female title in the IDFPA national champs in Wexford on January 26th '08. Might be a comp you could get her to have a go at!!

Where’s the comp on December 1st at??

As for peaking… Mattwray said it, everyone has their own way. Since he’s probably more advanced than her he needs to start to taper down earlier. I’m lifting on November 18th and I hit my last heavy deadlift last night. I pulled my opener for 2 reps.

Just keep it simple, increase the weight and decrease the sets over the next few weeks.

The comps like 5 weeks away? and say she’s shooting for a 150kg deadlift…

She’d want to be taking the week before the comp (23/11-1/12) off. Then the week before a heavy deadlift, but slightly less than her opener. The week before that something like a set of 3 with 130ish kg, and the week beofre that, which would probably be this week, 120kg 3x3.

As it stands the competition is probably too close to make any drastic strength increaes, just keep working hard and don’t let her do anything silly.

Are you familiar with all the different commands and rules of compeition?

[quote]arsefluff wrote:
I’d be interested to see what your week looks like if you were 4 weeks out ie rep ranges, order of lifts , when to do assistance stuff etc

[/quote]

This coming week will be 4 weeks out for me. I can’t say now what it will be since I haven’t done it yet though. I can tell you, for squats I plan to work up around 615 give or take (2nd attempt territory) and then hit shoulders, some lighter raw squats, abs and lower back, sets and reps I decide on the spot.

That is the only workout for next week I have even thought about, so I can’t really comment on the rest. I will stick to regular training though, the week after is when I start to dial things down.

[quote]Hanley wrote:
As it stands the competition is probably too close to make any drastic strength increaes, just keep working hard and don’t let her do anything silly.[/quote]

This is the key. Just take it easy, but not too easy…

Good luck!!

My last four weeks of training is very high volume with 70 to 85 percent of my max range. As hanley said the final couple weeks aren’t going to produce any huge gains in brute strength. Instead, I like to use that time to focus on conditioning and technique. I do a lot of speed work for all three lifts. I bench against bands, squat against bands, and do Romanian deadlifts and good mornings until I can’t stand upright anymore. Good luck.

Thanks for all the info guys. Should have asked sooner but it all came about last minute and I just want her to get one or two under the belt then really go for it in 6 months when she has the experience etc etc and is still classes a s a junior -

she is only 22 :slight_smile:

Very nice to see that your woman is into powerlifting.

My advice is to have the last heavy squats or deadlifts 21 days before competition. Apart from that I think already you have gotten some good advice in this thread.