I basically have a meet on july 8th and i really really want 550/300/550 and i want to deload this week, test me maxes next week. Do a 10 week program then do a 9 week peak. My numbers right now are around 485/250/485 do you guys think i can do it?
There’s not enough information to answer usefully. What do you weigh? How long have you been training? How are you currently training? What program are you thinking of doing? How good is your technique?
You want an extra 65 lbs on squat and DL and 50 lbs on bench, and you want this over five months. That’s an extra 180 lbs on your total, in five months. That’s over 10 lbs per lift per month. Possible? Yes, in the sense that it is possible to win the lottery. Realistic? No, not really. With good programming and recovery and staying injury free, I would say a ballpark realistic figure would be 20 lbs on your squat and DL and 10 lbs on your bench assuming you spend maybe six weeks peaking and 12 weeks training. Again, that’s based on not knowing too much about you at all. If you’re larger (242+ lbs) you might be able to push your squat and bench a bit further, but maybe not. If you’re 181 lbs or less I’d think you may have a harder time adding weight to the bar because at the weight you’re already moving a pretty decent amount. If your technique is shithouse, fixing it could buy you that extra 50 lbs in a few weeks and then you’d be able to add a little on top by getting stronger regardless of your size.
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I compete at 242, I squat with knee wraps. June 4th will be my 2nd year training. I’m doing off season work at the moment. I’m 17 if my age helps any more. My technique is pretty good and I wanna do two more off season cycles then meet prep.
OK, that helps a bit. Age certainly matters. I’m not sure what off season training is though. Do you just mean not peaking?
I stand by what I said: adding 180 lbs to your total by July is unrealistic, but 50 lbs is definitely possible.
At a guess, your bench technique is nowhere near as good as you think: your squat and DL are quite respectable for your age and weight but your bench is low for your bodyweight. I would focus a lot of energy on getting your bench technique bang on, because that could buy you 10 to 20 lbs right there. Arguably your DL may need work too, or you’re just much better suited to squatting and get a lot out of your wraps. Again, all this is a guess though - I haven’t seen you lift.
You’re probably going to be better off just training to get stronger and more muscular and minimising time spent peaking. You’ll get stronger that way and also progress more consistently. Off season and meet prep applies more to people at the sharp end of things as far as I’ve experienced it.
Pick a proven program and run it exactly as written. Off the top of my head I’d go with Cube, Juggernaut or my personal favourite, 5/3/1. The only issue with 5/3/1 is that sometimes people get confused with all the variations (I don’t understand how as the books are very clear), but generally anyone who does it properly gets great results.
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