I use this in two situations:
- Peaking for a competition (The main reason/time I use it)
The week before a competition, the goal is to be as fresh as possible without losing movement efficiency and feeling for the weight/movement.
You could rest completely, but you risk being flat and maybe losing some coordination in your lifts (especially if we are talking about the olympic lifts).
If you keep on with your regular program you might not be as fresh as you could for the competition.
It also doesn’t make sense the week before a competition to do assistance exercises: you are not going to fix weakesses 5-7 days before a competition.
So what I like to do before a competition is to drop all assistance work and only do the competition lifts. I also like to use all 2 or 3 (depending on your sport) in each workout to get used to doing all three movements on the same day (which is what you do in competition).
This gives you 3-4 workouts where you can practice your movements and go into the competition super confident.
I like to do it like this (for a Saturday competition):
Sunday: Work up to your planned openers on your competition lifts
Monday: 4-5 sets of 3 reps at 70% of what you used Monday
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: 4-5 sets of 1 rep at 90% of what you used Monday (but only squat and bench, not deadlift)
Thursday: OFF
Friday: Do a warm-up for the squat and bench… no heavier than 60% of your opener for a few sets of 1, just to keep moving
Saturday: compete
- When using a modified Bulgarian-style program or a Daily Undulating Periodization approach. In which you essentially only perform your main lifts and maybe one isolation exercise, but do them 4-5 times a week.
Here is an example: