3 Week Meet Prep Plan

[ChrisLindsay9]

I am considering the following training/preparation plan for the 3 weeks leading up to my first powerlifting meet. If you have any opinions/advice, your feedback would be welcome. (MF, I did adjust it based on yours and another person's feedback that I received - thanks!).

3 Weeks Out - Planned Openers
Tuesday
Deadlift: 1 set for 3 reps, 2 sets for 1 rep (with commands)
Deadlift accessory work as usual

Thursday
Bench Press: 1 set for 3 reps, 2 sets for 1 rep (with commands)
Bench Press accessory work as usual

Friday
Squat: 1 set for 3 reps, 2 sets for 1 rep (with commands)
Squat accessory work as usual

The idea is for me to confirm the weight I've chosen to open with and also to get a feel for commands.

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2 Weeks Out – Combining all three lifts in one workout session
Tuesday
Squat: 1 set of 1 rep at 80% of planned opener, with commands
Bench Press: 1 set of 1 rep at 80% of planned opener, with commands
Deadlift 3 sets of 1 rep each at planned opener, with commands
Deadlift accessory work (upper back, lower back, abs); low rep/low-weight and bodyweight (stopping prior to failure)

Thursday
Squat: 1 set of 1 rep at 80% of planned opener, with commands
Bench Press: 3 sets of 1 rep each at planned opener, with commands
Deadlift: 1 set of 1 rep at 80% of planned opener, with commands
Bench Press accessory work (chest and triceps); low rep/low-weight and bodyweight (stopping prior to failure)

Saturday
Squat: 3 sets of 1 rep each at planned opener, with commands
Bench Press: 1 set of 1 rep at 80% of planned opener, with commands
Deadlift: 1 set of 1 rep at 80% of planned opener, with commands
Squat accessory work (glutes/hamstrings, lower back, abs); low rep/low-weight and bodyweight (stopping prior to failure)

The idea is for me to get a feel for what it'll be like doing all the lifts in one day/session. On the day in which I normally do that lift, I would go with my opener again. For the other lifts, I'd go about 80%.

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Week of Meet – Combining all three lifts in one workout session (deload)
Monday
Squat: 50% of planned opener, 3 sets for 5 reps
Bench Press: 50% of planned opener, 3 sets for 5 reps
Deadlift: 50% of planned opener, 3 sets for 5 reps
No accessory work

Tuesday – Friday
Recovery/Rest (Massage on Thursday evening)

Saturday
Meet

 

[PillarofBalance]

That should work. You'll be nice and fresh for the meet. Do mobility work on the shoulders and hips and just stay loose in that last week. I'm overly cautious but I do a massage as far away from the meet as I can. I have one planned for the monday of meet week.

 

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Cheers Chris, I just replied to your last message before I saw this thread.

Looks good man ~ all the best !!!

 

[porky little keg]

Pretty good start..... and good luck.

But there are a few goofy ideas in here..... have you asked Clay for help yet?
Clay at DBB or Jeff Johnston in Howell both have coached and competed at a high level. I've lifted with both of them and they both know their stuff. This really is the sort of thing where you need one idea of what you are going to do and just follow that. What you have here is a little bit of a few different systems to peak for a meet. Could it work? Sure. But you'll get more from starting with one cohesive idea.

 

[ChrisLindsay9]

Pretty good start..... and good luck.

But there are a few goofy ideas in here..... have you asked Clay for help yet?
Clay at DBB or Jeff Johnston in Howell both have coached and competed at a high level. I've lifted with both of them and they both know their stuff. This really is the sort of thing where you need one idea of what you are going to do and just follow that. What you have here is a little bit of a few different systems to peak for a meet. Could it work? Sure. But you'll get more from starting with one cohesive idea.

Thanks! And I'll hit Clay up sometime after Relentless and when my schedule opens up a bit. I told him that I'm pretty much doing this competition for the experience and if I end up liking it, then I'll meet with him about a starting a program with him.

Yeah, this plan is a mish-mash of different ideas that seem appealing to me. A few things came from other first-time competitors that I've come to know. I actually had to dial it back a bit. It's probably not optimal for physical preparation (especially for experienced lifters/competitors), but I am hopeful that it will get me mentally prepared for it. Once I get competition experience, I'm sure that my approach will be more conventional.

 

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Chris, I forgot to add that I would also look at bringing your massage back a little bit. Thursday is a bit close to the meet, if you get any soreness or you tweak something you don't have much time to do anything about it. I often get one done on the Monday or Tuesday leading up to a Saturday meet ~ works well. You also want to a allow a good 24-48hrs to flush the toxins from the body as well as let your muscles adjust/recover ~ especially if it's a deep tissue massage.

 

[ChrisLindsay9]

Chris, I forgot to add that I would also look at bringing your massage back a little bit. Thursday is a bit close to the meet, if you get any soreness or you tweak something you don't have much time to do anything about it. I often get one done on the Monday or Tuesday leading up to a Saturday meet ~ works well. [\QUOTE] Yeah, you and PoB both thought moving back would be a better idea so I re-scheduled it for Tuesday.

 

[ChrisLindsay9]

Chris, I forgot to add that I would also look at bringing your massage back a little bit. Thursday is a bit close to the meet, if you get any soreness or you tweak something you don't have much time to do anything about it. I often get one done on the Monday or Tuesday leading up to a Saturday meet ~ works well.

Yeah, you and PoB both thought moving back would be a better idea so I re-scheduled it for Tuesday.

 

[MJR]

Good luck! Your gonna love it! Run your work up and see how it goes. Tweak it for next meet just stick to your plan and go crush it!

 

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Assuming nothing goes wrong for you I think you will do pretty well Chris. Hopefully you get a few people in your class to compete against as that's the only downside for the 130's ~ you quite often don't get many people to go up against compared to the other classes.

 

[ChrisLindsay9]

Good luck! Your gonna love it! Run your work up and see how it goes. Tweak it for next meet just stick to your plan and go crush it!

Thanks, much appreciated! I figure that once I get the experience of the event, I won't have to prepare for the mental part of it for subsequent meets. And I'll have a more conventional meet prep. We'll see. I'm actually excited about this plan because it'll give me a mental break from the monotony of 5/3/1 as well as give me a chance to work on putting everything you can into that one rep.

Assuming nothing goes wrong for you I think you will do pretty well Chris. Hopefully you get a few people in your class to compete against as that's the only downside for the 130's ~ you quite often don't get many people to go up against compared to the other classes.

I'm hopeful for that as well. I imagine the closest competition I'll have will be women or teenagers, heh! I heard that there's some little people competing in the Bench only part of the event. Not sure what weight class they'll be in though. I just don't want to be out-lifted by any of them lol (although if I do, I'm giving props).

 

[ChrisLindsay9]

I decided on my planned openers....

Squat: 235 (current PR is 260)
Bench Press: 165 (current PR is 185)
Deadlift: 325 (current PR is 335, lol this will be destroyed)

...

3 weeks out from the meet.