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Endurance on competition day? RT and Axle


Bryan Hunsaker

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If this has already been addressed, apologies for being redundant.  I'm looking for guidance on having enough endurance to hit consecutive lifts that are similar in nature, like RT and Axle.  As quick background, I competed in the Odd Haugen Visegrip Challenge in Anaheim this past weekend, and was caught by surprise at how poorly I did on the axle.  Everything was rising bar, so we hit a lot of heavy reps, gaming for position.  We started with the Rolling Thunder and I got an ok lift at 215, but failed 227.  I think I overexerted on the RT because when we jumped to the axle I missed 396, and I can normally hit that without trouble.  I've pulled 433 on the IM axle, for reference.  Fatigue seemed to have gotten the best of me, on only the second event, which is really frustrating!  I could feel the centers of my forearms cramping, and power was just gone!

My question is this: are there good ways to train volume in preparation for a competition, so this doesn't happen? 

I look forward to any suggestions.  Thanks in advance!

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The following articles may help:

http://strengtheory.com/peaking-aka-how-to-hit-prs-in-meets/

http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2014/08/12/peaking-powerlifting/

Programming for a peak should involve a stage of overreaching where you do a load of volume before tapering off before the meet. That should give you more gas in the tank. Otherwise, I am interested what some of the experienced competition grippers have got to say.

For example, my peak programming for King Kong Grip is going to work like this: three weeks out I am going to double volume, doing lots of singles, doubles, and triples and a lot of stuff at >80% 1RM (this is my overreaching phase); two weeks out I will drop most of the work to 75-90% 1RM and cut volume big time (this will keep intensity high but start to allow recover); one week out I will drop intensity to circa 50% 1RM and very low volume (basically doing warmups seems to prep better than taking a week off). After that I expect the adaption to the overreaching to kick in along with being very well rested.

Edited by Liam Trott
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Bryan, do you currently train RT and axle on the same day? If not, you could start doing that, so by the time you compete again, you'd be use to doing both.

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@Tom Scibelli That's definitely one take-away I immediately planned on, following the show, and a good recommendation.  Today, I trained all of the KKGC events in order, with burnout/volume at the end, so we'll see how that feels tomorrow.  I'm contemplating taking a more "strongman" approach with heavy build-ups and big back-offs, equivalent to the 20 rep squat sets, that really work.  Appreciate the rec!

@Liam Trott I feel like I peaked ok, and was moving decent weights a couple weeks out.  I think part of my problem is that I had to back-off two weeks early to go on a long business trip.  Regardless, my endurance wasn't there, so perhaps my "peaking" needs some help.  I'll give the articles a read.  Thanks!

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