I've got a question that's been on my mind lately as I've been looking forward....

How do you guys handle those final days leading up to the meet?

What I mean is this: My meet is July 20. The way my schedule works out I'll have a BP session July 9 and the next one would be July 15 but I think that's too close to the meet. Do I just take 11 full days off from benching or do I do something at some point in between? Same with my last DL day. It's on July 11 which leaves me 9 days out. Do I just hit it hard and then relax for 9 days? How would you counsel someone to handle this? My only other meet was years ago and I had no clue what I was doing. I want to be more mentally armed for this one.


Thanks guys!!

I wouldn't take 11 full days off...no way. What I would do is a couple of light, pump days in there, just to keep the blood flowing and to help keep yourself focused mentally. I usually still have a final heavy day as close as a week out, personally, and a bodypart-specific lighter day as close as 4 days out.

In my opinion, if you take 11 days off, not only will you have mentally damaged yourself as far as questioning your strength, but, in my experience, your endurance goes as well. Now, I realize people who have never powerlifted may think endurance isn't so important if you only get three lifts (is that what you are getting in this meet?? That's pretty standard around here...). BUT...endurance is a HUGE thing, because if you aimed too high on your first lift, and blew a lot of your power on that first lift, unless you have some endurance to help you recover, you are likely done.



Arttie

Thanks.....all that makes sense.

Yeah, traditional 3 lift/3 attempt meet.

You're right about the endurance thing...that's warm ups for three lifts and then up to 9 total heavy attempts. A lot of lifting!

In the past I would take the entire week before a meet off(meet week). What I am going to do for this meet is take a few lifts the week of the meet just to keep my body in the right groove so to speak...reinforcing the mechanics of the lift. For example, I do squats on Mondays, Bench on Wed and Deadlifts on Fridays. The Monday of meet week I will do Squats and Deadlifts but with no more than 225 on the bar. This is well below what I can do. It really would only be warm up weight but I will focus on PERFECT form on each rep(no more than 5). On Wed I will do the same thing for bench but probably only go 135. Then rest until the meet.

Good info......let me know how that goes, Jim. Looking forward to hearing about your meet!!