Offseason/Upcoming Meet Prep

This will be my plan for any off season I get from now until the next meet, and working up to the meet. I will take most of this week off to get things with work/school/personal life back into focus and to recover from the meet (that means eat a lot and sleep as much as possible, with some stretching). After this coming weekend, though, I'll be back in the saddle.

Here's the template I put together with one of my undergrad buddies in the Kinesiology department:

TRAINING TEMPLATE FALL 2010

SUNDAY – Max Effort Bench Press
-Bench Press = heavy 3, 2, or 1
-JM Press 5 x 10
-Scarecrow 2 x 10 (for shoulder health)

TUESDAY – Repeated Effort Squat/Dead Lift
-Leg Press 5 x 10 (my hip cannot take higher rep squats, so I replace them with this)
-RDL 5 x 10
-Pull Through 5 x 10

THURSDAY – Repeated Effort Bench Press
-Dumbbell Bench Press 5 x 10 (Speed bench press every 3rd week, 8 sets of 3)
-Face Pulls 5 x 10
-Dizenzo Rows 5 x 10

Saturday – Max Effort Squat/Dynamic Effort Dead Lift
-Squat = heavy 3, 2, 1
-Dead Lift = dynamic 8 sets of 3
-Abs

Notes:
Primary goal is hypertrophy (using anti-estrogen and anti-SHBG).
Secondary goal is to improve bench press off the chest, upper back strength, hamstring strength while avoiding planned de-load phases.

M/E days are working up to 2 sets of triples in the high 80% range, 2 sets of doubles in the low 90% range, or 3 sets of singles in the mid to high 90% range. Decrease reps as meet approaches. This is set up so that there are no planned deload phases.

As you can see, this is sort of a modified Westside style setup (who's isn't? haha). I plan to keep myself in good enough condition so as to avoid back off weeks because they end up usually hurting me more than helping me. I'm only 24, so I don't think that's such a bad thing. I got this idea from Bob Youngs.


And here is the schedule:

12 WEEK MEET CYCLE WITH HYPERTROPHY
(Using Training Template Fall 2010)

Weeks 12 - 9
2 sets of 3 in high 80% range for heavy days
assistance as written

Weeks 8 - 6
2 sets of 2 in low 90% range for heavy days
assistance as written

Weeks 5 - 2
3 sets of 1 in mid to high 90% range for heavy days
taper off assistance work as meet approaches staring in week 3

Week 1
stretching and soft tissue work only

Saturday/Sunday
Meet.

I go mostly by feel, so the percentages take on a rather loose interpretation. When I'm actually in meet prep, I'll be using percentages of my goal weights (not yet determined, but I'll post as soon as they are), but if I think it's too heavy for that day I'll just back the weight off a bit. While I'm in off-season, I'll be using my goals for the last meet to calculate the percentages (squat=525, bench press=375, dead lift=535).

For the off season, I will be rotating the 12-9 weeks over and over and maybe using some of the 8-6 weeks if I get bored. I will not work into singles. I definitely think, given my current body composition, that I have a lot of gains to make from hypertrophy (as opposed to CNS activation and muscle contraction coordination via very heavy M/E work), so that is the main goal here. If the meet is really far out, I may do some deloading after 10 weeks or so. I am not particular to a weight class. It would be nice to stay in the 275 class, but if I end up in the SHW, I don't really care. I'll just change my goals to hit elite in that class. I seriously doubt that will happen, as I'm only 5'10" and I want to be able to walk from my car to my desk without working up a sweat.

Here is my plan for nutrition/supplementation:

Nutrition to me is more about my time/budget constraints than it is eating "optimally". I have a demanding social life (I'm not some diva, it's just that I have a serious girlfriend and am a very social person) and I work in a field that is far removed from kinesiology/dietetics/nutrition/exercise physiology. Because of that, I end up eating out a lot and just doing what I can. So, given that, my plan is like this:

Breakfast: Drink some hot tea. That's it.
Lunch: Eat mostly protein and fat. Limit carbs as much as is practical.
Dinner (or post-workout): Eat mostly carbs and protein. I'm not worried too much about dietary fat.

I'll basically eat as much as I want and make sure that protein makes up a good portion of my diet. This is the good thing about being heavy. My girlfriend doesn't care if I don't have a six pack, so neither do I. I'm really in a lot better shape than most anyone else in the world who weighs as much as I do, so I'm not gonna get all crazy about my diet. I'm basically following (loosely) a set up put together by a guy named Kiefer. There is a load of free info at his site http://www.dangerouslyhardcore.com.

For the supplement component, I'll be using "UNLEASHED" for a month and then using "POST-CYCLE" for a month. I'll just cycle this over and over. I really have high hopes for this because Zach uses it and has some damned strong lifts. You can purchase both of these here on the site and both are very reasonably priced.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano