Last heavy training done with my ~2nd attempts at the meet! (7 Days out)

Small Prs (Conservative maxes)
Squat: 228 kg/502 lbs (+2 lbs)
Bench: 145 kg/319 lbs (+4 lbs)
Deadlift: 262.5 kg/578 lbs (+5 lbs)

god damn you're strong... my gains are slowly going up but it will be a long ass time until they are anywhere near yours

so the week before the meet you want to go really heavy? like rpe 9 or 9.5? I always thought you'd want to deload, or that might mess with you having an entire weak of sub maximal training

I love/hate the fact that you are one of the few people that I can not see any thing that needs work. All your lifts are basically identical from 50% up to ''1RM''. Looks like you are good for 240/155/275. LMK if you need some help with mental approach (which seems to be the only thing I can actually help you with).


~1 week before contest you typically want to do either lifts similar to planned first or second attempt. If you've had a long prep-phase you will probably want to do around second'ish attempt.
If you do classic lifting (belt and sleeves) you should do last heavy workout 1 week out, and then do like 2 real light sessions during the week of competition.

This post was edited by PlaaD on Apr 16 2016 08:15pm

Alright, that makes sense. I could actually use help with mental approach, I psyche myself out at heavy weights. Some days I'm able to just focus on lifting and doing what I need, but some days I just feel weak as soon as I approach the bar

Mental/psychological approach is something I focus a lot on.
I study psychology with a focus in sport and I do assist PL/OL team with that when they have training camps here. I do work a bit with our club in this aspect whenever nationals etc is coming up.

Thing is that it's rather hard to apply on people you've seen only seen lift through videos.
To create a solid mental stage you need to experience a minimum of 3-4 workouts and preferably 1 competition.

E: But ofc it's still possible to apply but it might just not transfer as well. But I'd gladly try and help anybody who might need it.

This post was edited by PlaaD on Apr 16 2016 08:49pm

What are common things you see during the workouts/comps and how do u help with that?

I mean, lots of things get solved just by talking with people from time to time. But some examples;

1) Life events increasing risk of injury.
- Make sure the person make priorities during a certain time, very hard to combine school, work and heavy training for example. Might be worth it to train one time less/week or if possible not work 1 shift. It can be real hard for people to understand that it's not the end of the world if they can't train 6 times/week all the time.

2a) Mental approach in training. Most lifters who lack experience go for max/heavier than planned far too often.
- Easiest is actually just let them go retard for a while (preferably early into lifting) and when they miss the peak for competition or plateau cause of constant fatigue they will be easier to talk with and make them understand that the ''give 100% mentality'' can't be applied 24/7.

2b) Mental approach in competition
- Everybody gotta PR every lift every competition and never take the things that has happened the weeks leading up to the competition into account.

3) Laziness
- So many lifters (mostly in powerlifting) think that they only need to do the competition lifts and never work on stability, mobility and weak points. This result in injury a lot of times.

4) Competition anxiety
- People get nervous and stressed when they suddenly have to listen to commands, hear people in the audience screaming, gotta think of rest timing/increments/other lifters etc.
Most of the times the coach don't really know how to help here but instead just try to psyche them up more.
Gotta learn what kind of arousal people need when lifting, some need to be really pumped whilst some need to stay calm.

wow, that's a lot to take into account =o so much more to lifting than just picking up weights.

Your friend sounds like a genetic outlier. Size doesn't guarantee strength and vice versa, but the bigger guys are usually the stronger guys the vast majority of the time.