Prepping for first meet

[Deleted]

I decided to take the plunge and participate in my first meet, a Deadlift/Bench competition at the end of October. This is also my first time running Sheiko, and so far (2 weeks in) love it.

I have 10 weeks until the meet and was trying to figure out how exactly to peak. My plan right now is as follows:

weeks 1-4 #29 (finishing up week 2 right now)
weeks 5-8 #37
weeks 9-10 weeks 3 and 4 of #32

Look good? My concern is that by only running two weeks of the peaking cycle I'm not giving my body enough time to supercompensate. I ran 16 weeks of Juggernaut Training prior to this (fairly low volume powerlifting cycle; think 5/3/1 plus block periodization) so the volume is a bit of a shock to me right now.

Relevant stats:

6'3" 230
Squat 405
Bench 295
Deadlift 455x3

Thanks for any help you vets can throw my way
Dan

[0ni]

At your level of strength I would continue training as normal until 2 weeks out. 2 weeks out start running the last 2 weeks of sheiko. The Monday before the meet, take your openers if you wish. I perform better if I do this but not everyone does. A two week taper should be fine

[Deleted]

When you say " 2 weeks out start running the last 2 weeks of sheiko" what do you mean? Proceed according to my outlined plan?

[superaveragebro]

I would do 4 wks 29. 1-3 wks 37 and last 3 wks of 32 to be on the safe side since you have no experience to shieko and since you are not accustomed to such high volume. Should be good. I know guys who take their openers on the week of comp. I used to do that prior to using Shieko. I do not do anymore and I'm doing fine.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the help guys; I'm gonna play it safe and go with superaveragebro's advice and take the extra week to taper off. I'll check back in with results.

[0ni]

Good luck!
And yeah, reading again my suggestion was the plan you already had

[Deleted]

Question about progression:

While I won't say that #29 up to this point has been easy, it hasn't been as challenging as I had expected. I'm considering upping my maxes by 10 pounds for when I run #37. Is the additional volume that #37 provides enough of a stimulus for progression, such that the increase in maxes would be unnecessary?

[joeldibattista]

No probably not. If #29 wasn't really challening, then I woud up my maxes a bit. #37 has more volume, but slightly less intensity, so it should be similar in terms of overall stress.

The other option would be to run #30 with your current maxes and see how you go- that one is a killer.

[Deleted]

Guys,

Thanks for the help up to this point, I really appreciate it. My training (especially for squat and bench) is going great.

The trouble at this point is my deadlift. After finishing #29 using a 475 as my max deadlift (which I feel was a bit conservative, considering I tripled only 20 pounds less) I boosted my max to 500 to make the work sets more challenging during #37. Problem is, weights I have smashed on other programs are giving me more trouble than I feel they should.

E.g. today I did 5 triples with 375 (75%). I can do 375 touch and go for about 16 reps when fresh, but the sets today were a bit tougher than I expected. Granted, I did them deadstop, and I could probably just be dealing with residual fatigue, which after typing all this out seems clear to me. I guess I just want to get some opinions from the vets.

Thanks

[0ni]

Sheiko really f**ks with my mind. It uses accumulated fatigue so you can't really tell if you're getting stronger until you taper down to peak. For example I find 9x3x80% fairly hard at the moment but it's a weight (when fresh) I would be able to rep for 10 quite easily. That being said I would only increase maxes from cycle to cycle by 3% or less

[superaveragebro]

With Shieko you usually feel like shit and since weights are rarely over 85% you think you're getting weaker rather than stronger. But beleive me, once you taper down and go for the meet you'll be surprising yourself how much strength you have gained.