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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