Meet frequency advice

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

First, I’d like to say the updated 12-week strength program is some great stuff!

I’m 47, male and competed at 198 in my first meet on October 13th. I was not happy with my program at the time and switched the first week of September to the last 5 weeks of the aforementioned BBM program. I reduced the volume just a tad more the last week as I was feeling a bit run down but the weight flew up at the meet!! I was certainly too conservative and left many pounds off my total but it was my first meet. I’ve only trained twice (no deadlifting) since the meet but my deadlift seems to have gotten even better. I plan to start training again today but I just found out there’s a local meet on December 8th. Do you think this is too soon? If not, do you have a recommendation on the best place to start? I would really like to do the meet as I would not have to travel and it would give me more experience on the platform. I should also mention that I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease almost 10 years ago (if that matters from a recovery perspective.) My numbers are quite modest at a 440 squat, 310 bench and 505 dead after about 6 months of training specifically for powerlifting. I hope to improve these numbers as I’m relatively new to this type of training.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

2

Glad that programming is working well for you! I would not recommend competing so soon, rather I would take this time to further your training and prepare for another meet in early 2019. However, if you really want to do it for fun, that’s an option. It is just not at all optimal from a programming perspective. :slight_smile:

3

That was my thought as well. I’m new to the peaking thing so thanks for the info. Do you have any insight on why I seem to be stronger two weeks after the meet with only training twice after the meet? Does that give you any insight on how I should peak in the future?

4

Not based on this very short training history. It’s also pretty vague as to what the getting better in the last two weeks actually means, you know? The good thing is that for your first meet, you did well, and you know you have room to improve.

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5

Nice work on your first meet. I wouldn’t consider those results modest. :slight_smile:

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6

Thanks, Dave! I really appreciate it.

I think I’m going to save it for the USPA Tennessee Open in mid-January.