3 questions about Strength III template

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’m currently running the Strength III template to prep me for my second powerlifting meet. I have 3 questions about some of the things I’m seeing in the program. The first question is the only one I really need an answer to since it will actually determine how I perform the work. The second two questions are just to satisfy my programming curiosity. If you’re pressed for time, I’d be happy just with insights on the first question.

  1. I’m starting week 7 tomorrow, and that will be the beginning of the deload. For comp squat, bench, deadlift, and touch and go bench there’s 5-3-0 tempo work after the set of 10 @ 8. The exact wording is “Then take off ~50% and do 5-3-0 tempo variation x 5 reps x 2-3 sets (RPE 8-9)” I suppose I have two questions about that bit. Firstly, does that mean I take 50% of the load from my 10 @ 8 off the bar for these sets? It seems like that would be too light to get to an RPE 8-9 even with a 5-3-0 tempo. For example, my e1rm on squats is around 380 right now, so I was planning on squatting around 255x10 (68% of e1rm) for my set @ RPE 8 if that feels right on the given day, but if I take 50% off that including the bar weight, that means I’ll only be squatting 125ish for sets of 5 on 5-3-0 tempo. That seems like it would be way easier than an RPE 8 or 9 even with a really strict tempo. What do? Secondly, it says 2-3 sets, but it doesn’t say how to decide if I do all 3 sets or not. How do I know if I should stop at 2 or 3? Or is the RPE 8-9 command to cap the sets once I reach either of those and there’s no specific RPE command for the 5-3-0 tempo sets?

  2. My second question has to do with the timing of the deload and of the peak. In his talks about Emerging Strategies, I’ve heard Mike Tuchscherer say something to the effect that the average time for most people to peak in performance on any given lift is around 6 weeks. Is that why the deload is on week 7? If the time to peak is week 6, then one would expect there to be a performance drop off on week 7, so putting a deload then would make sense to me. Furthermore, if week 8 right after the deload is considered the start of the next major block of training, then that would put week 13, or meet week, at 6 weeks out from the start of that block, and that would be the second time to peak during this program, but then unlike the peak on week 6 in the program, its effect would be amplified by the appropriate manipulation of training volume, intensity, and fatigue to generate maximal performance on singles for meet day. Is this part of the thought process that went into these programming decisions, or am I reading into it too much?

  3. Starting on week 10, the sets and reps for the squat and deadlift are very confusing to me. On week 10 in particular, for both the squat and deadlift, there’s…

The arrangement of sets and reps is similar in week 11 and 12, but also different. I suppose I just don’t understand the rational behind working up to a high intensity on a lift, bringing it back down, then bringing it back up all in the same training session. I’ve just never had that programmed before even in BBM templates that I can remember, so it seems foreign to me.

Thanks!
-Perry

2

Hey Perry,

Thanks for the post and I hope you’re digging the template.

  1. Yea, usually somewhere around 50% of the 10 @ 8 weight is right, but it might be a little more or less. Choose the appropriate load as needed. It doesn’t matter if you do 2 or 3 sets and I left it open intentionally with the idea that people would self regulate based on how they felt in the face of an odd tempo. If the 2nd set is hard, move on. If it’s not, do a 3rd.

  2. I don’t think that people can sustain their peak nor do I think that most people can continue on the same training while showing demonstrable performance improvements for > 6 weeks on average.

  3. More volume and controlling the average intensity.