more to learn

I was at the gym the Saturday before my competition and my would-be training buddy (aka Steve, the one who put the idea of competing in my head in the first place) happened to be there, so I figured I’d ask him if there was anything I should do differently. For the last competition, I gave myself a rest week the week before and kinda didn’t really all that much, which I thought was a bad idea, but there’d been so much emphasis on rest, I figured I should take their advice.

Apparently, “rest” doesn’t mean do nothing. (I should’ve known.) But I’ve apparently been doin’ it wrong. :O

Last year, when he’d said “3 reps,” he’d meant that I should be cutting down to 3×3 and for the 2-3 weeks before, I should be doing heavy weights but at a very, very low volume. (I’d been doing 5×3 for the exercises I’d be competing in and 3×10 for accessory exercises, har har. Ever the overachiever, I guess, except this is a pretty bad idea when you’re training for a competition.)

If you think about it (which I clearly did not), it makes sense. You’re training your muscle fibers for a specific task. In powerlifting, it’s pretty much composed of explosive movements. You just pick the weight up, move it, and put it back. It takes all of a couple seconds (unless you’re seriously putting up a good fight/struggle). If you’ve been training your muscles to do multiple reps of less weight, they’ll be better at that instead of a couple ginormous lifts, which is what you really want. Muscle memory.

Anyway, he essentially kicked me out of the gym, told me to do bench on Monday, squats on Wednesday and then Ibuprofen Thursday through Saturday. We shall see how this goes!

I’m also possibly gearing up for something else in early November. (It’ll help keep me motivated!) I will be likely experimenting with my dietary/workout habits after the competition to work on that. (Also because I need a break from my current workout plan, or I’m just going to plateau and be sad. This whole tracking my macros thing sounds pretty promising if I actually stick to it, and if I want to kick ass in November and next year when I cut to 114, it might be a good idea. Separate post on that to follow!

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