I have lost around 7kg due to sickness, which is sorted now. However, I got significant weaker (of course), and I look way less jacked (no more defined abs). My current numbers now are Squat 165kg, Bench Press: 105kg, and Deadlift 230kg, at 72kg bodyweight (34M, 5’9 height). The issue is: I only have 12 weeks left to my competition, which I initially wanted to compete in U83kg.
So, I’m wondering if it is wise to do couple weeks of hypertrophy, whilst increasing my calories intake around 300kcals a day, or should I just train for my competition as before and doing hypertrophy after that? Thank you
Sorry to hear about your recent illness. Depending on the duration of being sick, it’s possible (if not probable) that most of the weight loss was water, which can definitely make you look a lot smaller, feel weaker (in addition to the illness), and so on. If you were maintaining your weight on your previous diet, getting back to that intake would be reasonable, though you could also add 300 Cal on top of that because you have ~ 3kg to the top of your weight class from your previous weight. Either way would be fine.
In any case, I don’t think powerlifters should do dedicated hypertrophy blocks regularly. For clarity, I take “hypertrophy block” to mean not training the squat, bench, and deadlift specifically for sport, lots of isolation work, and a relatively great proportion of high rep work in general. A good strength or powerlifting program will produce adequate hypertrophy stimulus for sport, so I don’t see a need to do one specifically unless someone wants to. To your specific question, I wouldn’t recommend one now or after competition (unless you want to), but rather would train for the meet and then continue to train for your sport of choice afterwards, though with more variation in exercise selection, rep range, and so on because it’s the off season.