Programming and Questions for First Powerlifting Meet

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

First of all, hello! I should provide you some background so you know what you are dealing with, so:

First time posting on here, but lately I’ve been reading articles and the forum. I’m soon to be 18 years old. For the last year or so I’ve been focusing on powerlifting. I really love this sport. There is going to be an amateur meet on May 1st in which i want to compete. I am weak, but i want to do it anyway. My lifts are 140 squat, 150 deadlift, 105 bench /i honestly think i can bench more right now/ (in kg). This is my progress from not being able to do a pushup till now.

I have been running Candito’s program and i saw pretty good progress imo, but decided to take things on the higher level and started doing “JuggerCube” (i believe i found it here), but that didn’t go well cause i injured my hip after some time off and recovery i decided to start doing Boris Sheiko’s 4 week program, and I am on week 2 right now, and i feel ok. My hip hurts a bit and i have trouble squatting atm but i think i am going to be ok.

That being said:
-Do you think this program is good for peaking? If not, do I have time to shift to another one?
-What variation of the squat should i do to let my hip recover a bit without loosing strenght?

Thank you in advance!

2

Welcome!

First, a couple of things that are very, VERY important.

1 - at your stage, it doesn’t matter too much which program you follow as long as you follow it faithfully and consistently for some time (we’re talking six or so months at least here). Don’t hop between programs just to ‘take things to a higher level’ as soon as you see some progress as it won’t help you. A nice and simple linear, progressive overload program will do just fine. So, I’d say if you had good results with Candito’s program, stick with it. You progress will slow down over time, but that’s normal. it doesn’t mean you need to immediately change to a new pogram. I’ve been using pretty much the same approach since mid 2014 and I’ve put 60 kg on my squat, 20 kg on my bench (weakest lift for me) and 47.5 kg on my deadlift in that period. I did make small changes (along the lines of 3 reps per set instead of 5, for example) here and there but ONLY when I had ample evidence something needed changing at the end of a 12 or eight week cycle.

2 - get your hip right. Drop the Sheiko, as the risk of making things worse is too high. Squat once a week, and not for too many sets or reps, until your hip is fixed. If wide stance hurts, go narrow and vice versa. If front squats feel better than normal squats, do front squats instead. You don’t want you hip to recover ‘a bit’ but COMPLETELY. Think about it: what would you prefer: small strength increase and a messed up hip which will pretty quickly stop you lifting; or a small loss in strength for a short time, a happy hip and long term big strength gains?

I think peaking is something to look at, but I’ve been through two meets so far and all I did was stop normal training a week out and have a light session three days out where I ramped up to doubles or triples of my openers. Peaking is probably more relevant when you’re more experienced. Set some realistic goals, set your opening attempts as something you KNOW you can hit no matter what (hence something you can hit for an easy triple); your second attempts you can try for a small PR if you like, or equal you training PR; and assuming you’re six for six by this stage, then see how you feel for your third attempts.

You will be better served by focusing on your technique and senisbly adding load to the bar than anything else.

So, in summary, go back to Candito and get your hip right. Don’t overthink things too much, be patient and keep it simple. Try to find a powerlifting gym to at least visit too.

3

[quote]MarkKO wrote:
Welcome!

First, a couple of things that are very, VERY important.

1 - at your stage, it doesn’t matter too much which program you follow as long as you follow it faithfully and consistently for some time (we’re talking six or so months at least here). Don’t hop between programs just to ‘take things to a higher level’ as soon as you see some progress as it won’t help you. A nice and simple linear, progressive overload program will do just fine. So, I’d say if you had good results with Candito’s program, stick with it. You progress will slow down over time, but that’s normal. it doesn’t mean you need to immediately change to a new pogram. I’ve been using pretty much the same approach since mid 2014 and I’ve put 60 kg on my squat, 20 kg on my bench (weakest lift for me) and 47.5 kg on my deadlift in that period. I did make small changes (along the lines of 3 reps per set instead of 5, for example) here and there but ONLY when I had ample evidence something needed changing at the end of a 12 or eight week cycle.

2 - get your hip right. Drop the Sheiko, as the risk of making things worse is too high. Squat once a week, and not for too many sets or reps, until your hip is fixed. If wide stance hurts, go narrow and vice versa. If front squats feel better than normal squats, do front squats instead. You don’t want you hip to recover ‘a bit’ but COMPLETELY. Think about it: what would you prefer: small strength increase and a messed up hip which will pretty quickly stop you lifting; or a small loss in strength for a short time, a happy hip and long term big strength gains?

I think peaking is something to look at, but I’ve been through two meets so far and all I did was stop normal training a week out and have a light session three days out where I ramped up to doubles or triples of my openers. Peaking is probably more relevant when you’re more experienced. Set some realistic goals, set your opening attempts as something you KNOW you can hit no matter what (hence something you can hit for an easy triple); your second attempts you can try for a small PR if you like, or equal you training PR; and assuming you’re six for six by this stage, then see how you feel for your third attempts.

You will be better served by focusing on your technique and senisbly adding load to the bar than anything else.

So, in summary, go back to Candito and get your hip right. Don’t overthink things too much, be patient and keep it simple. Try to find a powerlifting gym to at least visit too. [/quote]

Totally agree
Get your hip right.
Keep it simple, get your first meet under your belt and then look towards the future. Worry about peaking later, use your meet as a heavy workout day.
Take the week off the week before and the week after to heal.

Power4ull
SQ - 970
BP - 740
DL - 848

4

^I agree with what was said above. Invest in the time to correct your form now if needed and it’ll pay off in the long run. A simple program will work and it will only take a week to peak if you aren’t going to failure the week before the meet.