Hi everyone,
On Dec 15 I’m signed up for my first powerlifting meet. I signed up only for “fun” and the social aspect, and to keep myself training when the summer ended. I don’t really care about peaking, as my primary goals are to take the long-road view and be stronger 2-5 years from now. But, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care at all about getting myself a total that I can be proud of and use as a bench-mark to look back at in the future.
So, some history. 39 yrs old. Male. 5’9". Currently 178 lbs (down from 192 at the start of the summer which I had recently let creep up above my adult “average,” so to say). 36.25" waist (down from 39.25" at start of summer). This weight loss occurred over about a 4 month period of time, and I’m really happy with the body composition changes. After reading Jordan’s advice for many years, I feel like I have tight controls over my body weight, which is a great feeling!
I ran a basic LP, then ran the Bridge 1.0 at the end of this summer. I went directly into the Hypertrophy 2.0 3-Day. I’m currently in Week 3 of this.
So, when I finish the Hypertrophy program I’ll have a full 4 weeks until my meet. If there was no meet, I’d plan on going straight to the 12-Week Strength program. I track macros carefully (thanks, Jordan!), and am starting to add back in some calories slowly (50 cals every 3-4 days until I start to see the scale moving like I want it to).
Is there a good month-long program to gain strength and not throw me off this trajectory, or could I just start the 12-Week program and show up for a meet 1/3 of the way through it? I don’t know when the 12-Week program starts adding in some higher-intensity work that would allow me to practice top attempts before going into the meet. As of now, I feel like I’m making good progress, but I’m also not really in practice for singles.
Any advice would be much appreciated!