Monday, March 16, 2009

Week A #1

Gear:
None / no belt

Holy crap was I tired for all this.

Shoulder-Stance Back Squat:
345 x 3
325 x 4 (ugh)
315 x 5/5/5 (UGH)
280 x 8

REally need my squat workload tolerance back...

Medium-Grip Bench Press:
305 x 3 (ugh)
285 x 3 (UGH)
275 x 5/5/4 (!@(@#$)
255 x 8

Triceps are sore as hell (in a good way).

Stiff-Leg Deadlifts w/ Quarter Plates:
325 x 8/8/6 (+10 PR)

At least the SLDLQs went up. Weird, my pull has been going up and everything else has been feeling shitty. Also, big congrats to Spencer for that pull, Dave needs to catch up!

6 comments:

Jake Ceccarelli said...

Don't go down to zero volume before a meet. Just go down to a few sets of 3-4 with like 60%. It'll keep you from detraining when you get back from the meet.

Nathan Beckmann said...

For the record, that definitely isn't Phil's problem. If you check the logs, he went for a 3rm on squat the Monday before the meet.

Jake Ceccarelli said...

My bad. I guess my next question is: What were you thinking doing a 3RM the week the meet? Actually though, especially if you're not in gear, I would expect it to be ok to go up to 90% (maybe not for a triple...but I guess that works too) the week of the meet. I mean, Bulgarian weightlifters would not decrease intensity the week of the meet, just the number of training sessions. They would hit competition level weights that week.

Nathan Beckmann said...

I've always felt that this was an instance where there's a true difference between PL and oly. Oly has much greater emphasis on perfect technique in order to execute maximal lifts, so you need to do them closer to a meet. PL doesn't so much, and maximal PL lifts are more draining. So I don't really think 90% week of the meet is a good idea. Sheiko does that 3 or 4 (can't remember) weeks out.

Phil Russell said...

I got the idea from Bill Starr's "Defying Gravity: How to Win at Weight Lifting". He states that a big mistake most people make is to reduce intensity prematurely. I don't think that I would hit quite that high so close to contest again, although going to 90-95% the week before is a must. Next time I'll try sticking to 70-80% the week of.

Jake Ceccarelli said...

I actually agree with Nathan on this. The guidelines for weightlifting from Russian coaches say that you shouldn't go heavy in the clean and jerk less than 10 days from a meet. I think it's the same for squats, but it may be 14. So for powerlifting I'd say no less than 2 weeks out you hit 90% or openers or whatever then start to decrease intensity.