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How
to taper for powerlifting meets
Matt R. Wenning
Strength coach/ Powerlifter
Tapering for meets is very important for peaking correctly and
brings out the best of your potential at a given time. In this
article we will discuss some of the ideas that have been used with
many of the greatest athletes and programs in the entire world. Have
you ever been to a meet and heard some people say they were stronger
2 weeks ago, or that lift was easy in the gym last week. This
article should help you to hit your goals at meets or game time, and
bring out the best when it counts on the field or platform.
Rule 1: Know your timelines and when your competitions are. This is
important in order for you to set up your workout and mesocycles.
Try to have as much as a year planned out in advance, of what meets
you wish to do, the spacing between the meets, and have goals laid
out. Your goals will change based on your weaknesses, and so will
your workouts. Lagging muscle groups must be pushed to get them up
to par with the rest of the surrounding musculature, and may take up
to 3 years for that process to occur.
Rule 2: Taper correctly for meets. I don’t know how many people I’ve
heard of going for openers the week before a meet. Well if your
training correctly, you should have a good idea of where you’re
strength is at all times. I usually set out my openers up to 6 weeks
away from a meet. This gives me time to find particular weaknesses,
and fix them before a meet. When tapering the classical lifts (squat
and bench, since we rarely deadlift as a whole movement unless for
speed) the volume of these should drop dramatically. What increases
is the amount of assistance work. The more you bring up your
assistance work, the stronger your weaknesses become, and the higher
your GPP gets (especially with short rest intervals). Many do it the
exact opposite way. So what I got from that was tapering may take
much longer than we provide, and to reach our best potential,
tapering correctly is very important. I’ve also read that the taper
process can take up to 14 days, and the more advanced lifter may
take even more time. The training you take your body through for
months on end, will require a taper for you to see all the benefits
of training. Verkoshansky states, “The physical adaptation may take
multiple weeks to obtain, depending on training time”.
So what does all that mean, basically to get PRs in the meet when it
counts, no one cares what you did in the gym. All of my PRs in the
big lifts have been done in meets. Many of us including myself have
not tapered correctly in the past, but with all the information out
there all we have to do is open our eyes and see that maybe the ways
we have done things in the past is not the way we should do it in
the future.
I usually always bring up my lower back work, hamstring work, and
abdominal work before meets, although working on these muscles is a
year round process, picking it up just a little before a meet with
smaller exercises gives my body a chance to recover from the larger
lifts, while still hitting those lagging muscle groups very hard.
This will also keep you in shape and give you energy when you need
it; at the meet.
Weight class and tapering: This is one subject that I’ve never had
to encounter, but many of my teammates have. Cutting weight can be
detrimental to strength, but keeping a positive attitude and
rehydrating after weigh in can really benefit. Cut your weight
gradually to keep strength loss minimal. A dramatic change in weight
is what kills strength. Cutting over a 6-8 week period will help
with this issue. Try to eat correctly all year round, so that your
body fat stays low, and muscle mass is optimal. This is a tricky
process, which we will discuss in a later article.
Use of gear in training: There are many views on this subject, but
in the APF, IPA, and other non-USAPL organizations, many of those
athletes are very strong raw. At Westside, many of the athletes only
train with briefs on, and hit full gear rarely. This works well
especially with advanced lifters that don’t need to feel their gear
out, or get used to it. Knee wraps should seldom be used. Remember
raw strength will make you a better gear lifter. I train with briefs
and belts. In the bench I have many different strengths of shirts,
but train raw most of the time. After a few years, you should be
quite comfortable in gear without having to reassure yourself all
the time. Plus if you’re doing max effort work, as you should
weekly, you will have an idea of how strong you are on a consistent
basis. Remember one other critical point, when training you have
roughly 1 hour to complete your workout before testosterone levels
drop. This also includes putting your gear on and off before and
after your max effort work. This will limit the time you have to
actually train and hurt your progress.
Back to back meets: Many times my best meets have come after a
national competition, and then been talked into doing a smaller meet
about 6 weeks later. Now I know where my strengths, and my
weaknesses are, and can make adjustments and actually taper even
longer, while fixing any problems that I’ve encountered during the
past meet. For example, in 2003 I did collegiate nationals and
totaled 1898. About 6 weeks later I went to Chicago for a smaller
meet and totaled 1963 with the same gear. That’s almost 100lb
difference, and would have been if my last bench had been there. So
what I did was just fix my weaknesses as much as possible and then
went back to the platform with no anxiety and could really focus on
the task.
Hopefully this article has helped you prepare for your next meet,
train with purpose, and get as strong as you can, the key is to
learn from the best and don’t be afraid to experiment and read.
Always remember what got you to your current strength level may not
help you achieve your next goals: always adapt, grow, and learn.
Matt Wenning
BSUPL
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