Hey guys, I’ve just caught wind of a power lifting competition that’s being held at my school. I really want to enter, but I have no idea how I should prepare for something like this.
I’ll be deadlifting mainly, and maybe benching. I’m 15 and I can deadlift upwards of 300 lbs, my benchpress PR is pretty weak, I haven’t gone for a max yet.
Some of my questions are:
how often should I train said lifts?
= how many reps/sets on said lifts?
Personal experiences, tips, website links would all be appreciated!
Personally, since it is your first meet and you seem like a relative beginner, I would use this meet to kind of see where you are at and get some competition lifts under your belt.
I mean he doesn’t even know what he squats, its not like he’s going to add a ton of weight to his total in a short time.
Do the best you can and get some meet experience and more important some meet numbers. Then get back in the gym, and use to work with.
Zeff,
I just did my fist meet a few weeks ago and it was a great experience. Obviously you will want to do as well as possible, but it will also be a great learning experience. I got a ton of good advice from everyone here. Read through my post for tips to get ready on the day of the comp.
As far as preparing for the meet, you should find out the exact date. Start training your lifts like you will in competition. That means squatting to parallel or below, depending on what they require for depth. If you don’t know, ask the meet organizer. And start benching with a pause if you don’t already.
Depending on what you are doing for reps right now, I would work towards increasing the weights and lowering the reps…get down to some triples, doubles and even singles. I would plan on backing off on the weights at least a week in advance. I only took a few days off before my meet, but that was because I only found out I was entering 4 days prior.
Prepare for your heaviest lifts in practice just like you would for at the meet. Get mentally focused, develop a routine. Just get comfortable under (or over) the bar.
You aren’t going to gain a lot of strength with a month to go, but you can get more comfortable handling the heavy loads, so if you are used to training 8 or 10 reps, just working down to 2 or 3 reps will give you confidence, and an idea of what weights you should attempt at your meet. If you are already used to doing heavy weights, and low reps then continue to train that way, and focus on performing the lifts just like you will in competition. If you have a partner, have him give you the commands… squat/rack… down/press/rack …down…etc. Find out what the commands will be during the meet, and practice lifting that way. The worst thing would be to hit a PR and get red flagged because you didn’t wait for a rack or down command.
Good luck. Feel free to ask questions. This is a very helpful group here.