Hi, I’ve entered myself into a power lifting meet in April. And I’m after some advice.
I’m doing 5/3/1 after 6 months of SS. So far I’m loving it. The 5+/3+/1+ are great fun. And engage the competitive side of me.
My question revolves around the weeks before and after the meet. My plan had been to engineer a deload week before the meet. With regards to the workout, I was going to stick to the normal 5/3/1 template but reduce my assistance in the weeks leading up.
Week 1 75% assistance
Week 2 50%
Week 3 25%
Week 4 deload as per 5/3/1 programme
Compete.
After - I was gonna run the last meso again. I have a shoulder injury I don’t want to upset.
Does this sound about right?
I might be over thinking it. I’m only just totalling 500kg (1100lb) at the moment. So it’s not like I’m going to wreck myself. But I want to have a plan in place.
Btw
Any other advice - like on the day tips etc would be appreciated.
If you are determined to use 5/3/1 then use one of Jim Wendler’s peaking plans, because otherwise the whole program goes out the window. “5/3/1 for powerlifting” has a peaking plan, or you can see what @khangles is talking about in the thread that he linked.
Make your openers something you can smoke. Seem it too many times people grinding weight in the back and miss openers or hit a hard opener and have no where to go after. Build a total and it’ll give you give confidence with each good lift. Confidence is a big part to being successful in a lift attempt.
Yeah - I’ve been told get the first out should be easy. As in something you can do 4-5 reps with. I’m an ex rugby player so I know what happens in your head if your first touch is a poor one. You play with a monkey on your back the whole game. If I miss my first squat on my first meet… I can only imagine how bad that would be.
If your gym has mirrors infront of the squat rack, it might be worth practicing judging depth without a mirror. I’ve only ever squatted in a mirror facing rack so its something I’m going to have to do before my first meet.
Also check your grip width, I only, by chance, had a measuring tape with me at the gym and found out I was too wide. I’d assumed the rings in tbe knurling were always set at legal width.