Jose Cabrera Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Good evening gents. I am looking for some tips on contest preparation. I have been out of training for more than a week now because of a BAD tooth absess which ended with extraction 4days ago. I have a month till The Throwdown, any tips on peaking? All help is greatly appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvance Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Ill defer to someone who's actually performed their best at a contest but ill tell you what didn't work for me; specific training. Off my usual training plan I lost track of what actually works for me. Don't try to be the strongest in the events, try to be the strongest, period. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJ Livesey Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 A week before the comp stop all training and eat, eat, eat. Day of comp eat atleast 800 calories an hour before the first event. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Cabrera Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Thanks Jvance that makes perfect sense, thing is what about the technical aspect of certain events? How would you throw that in? This is my first comp and I will train to be as strong as I can be! EJ I will eat like a maniac that week! Good food of course as I work in the food industry lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climber511 Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 I'm the opposite of many people. The only time I really trip grip specifically is a couple months before the contest itself. And I do train the actual events for that contest - more so as a skill and CNS drill than a strength development period - you should have developed the strengths long before this. Let's face it you are not going to get much stronger in a month, but you can get much weaker if you mess up. I still do my overall body stuff with a gradual taper - for grip I go short and heavy fairly close in, for example my 2HP work will be up to a max single as close as 14 to 10 days out (but I do it in about 6 total reps). The best thing I have found for myself is to set up a HUGE medley of everything in the gym a few times a couple weeks out. My last grip workout will be the Sat before the contest - little of everything but sort of medium. My last overall body workout will be Tuesday (light) - then maybe some Asthanga or plain vanilla stretching a few days out. If you have to make weight start as far out as you can to do so unless you already know what works for you with something like a 3 day water drop etc. If you don't have to worry about weight - eat normally or a bit heavy the last day or so - this is not the time to try any new supplements or anything different. Hydration the day of the contest is the biggie for me - if I don't have to pee at least every hour, I consider myself dehydrated and need to drink more (this is huge). Know how things like caffeine affect you ahead of time, don't try and learn that on contest day - and learn to turn off and on between events and attempts, staying "up" all day will exhaust you quickly. Mostly everyone is different in what we all do - it's learning what exactly works for YOU that's the secret. Keep some notes before and after so you can refer to them later on as to what went right and what didn't. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Cabrera Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 I'm the opposite of many people. The only time I really trip grip specifically is a couple months before the contest itself. And I do train the actual events for that contest - more so as a skill and CNS drill than a strength development period - you should have developed the strengths long before this. Let's face it you are not going to get much stronger in a month, but you can get much weaker if you mess up. I still do my overall body stuff with a gradual taper - for grip I go short and heavy fairly close in, for example my 2HP work will be up to a max single as close as 14 to 10 days out (but I do it in about 6 total reps). The best thing I have found for myself is to set up a HUGE medley of everything in the gym a few times a couple weeks out. My last grip workout will be the Sat before the contest - little of everything but sort of medium. My last overall body workout will be Tuesday (light) - then maybe some Asthanga or plain vanilla stretching a few days out. If you have to make weight start as far out as you can to do so unless you already know what works for you with something like a 3 day water drop etc. If you don't have to worry about weight - eat normally or a bit heavy the last day or so - this is not the time to try any new supplements or anything different. Hydration the day of the contest is the biggie for me - if I don't have to pee at least every hour, I consider myself dehydrated and need to drink more (this is huge). Know how things like caffeine affect you ahead of time, don't try and learn that on contest day - and learn to turn off and on between events and attempts, staying "up" all day will exhaust you quickly. Mostly everyone is different in what we all do - it's learning what exactly works for YOU that's the secret. Keep some notes before and after so you can refer to them later on as to what went right and what didn't.Thank you Chris for the honest advice. I keep an intricate log of all my training. Its almost a diary, food, work related stuff,how I slept etc. I wonder how the anticipation will affect me the day of the comp.Im especially looking forward to meeting everybody in person, you know.... hangin with the fellas so to speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electron Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Unlike John, specific training is all that works for me. I'll take a lift and study it inside and out... What hand placement will benefit me most in pinch? What stance will help me set a gripper the best? Will cleans translate to explosive speed and quicker lockout for axle? Sure, being strong in general is useful. But only when you learn the intricacies of a lift will you perform at your maximum. This is the other half of the equation. Get strong. But don't abandon specific training. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Cabrera Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Thanks alot Yori. Good questions to ask myself. Technique is huge, especially with grippers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Ruby Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 (edited) A week before the comp stop all training and eat, eat, eat. Day of comp eat atleast 800 calories an hour before the first event. This is probably the best advice I would give also. You will be surprised how much stronger you are just in general with a good week off. Get good sleep before the event also. My first contest I listened to others and took a week off and I pr'd in every event compared to my training lifts because I was well rested. Also just avoid any injuries you don't want to miss out on the contest for being careless or overworking your hands. Edited June 29, 2014 by Stephen Ruby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Cabrera Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 Thanks Stephen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucasraymond Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 I also follow what Yori and Chris do; as I feel the strongest when I focus on specific contest events the 2-3 months before a comp. However I also train full body movements along with my grip to help fire my CNS and makes my grip lifts much higher. I was able to add 30lbs to my Axle DL and 10 lbs on grippers in 2 months and overall just increased my grip strength for the events at NAGS by focusing on those lifts. It helps being physically strong as we all saw Dave Labbe and Jeremy Hartman compete at NAGS and do very well with minimal technical skill with the events as they are both strong as hell. So I would say a combination of technical skill and straight up strength works best. The other thing which Yori touched on is technique. Despite the controversy of my sledge choke technique it took me many sessions of training with the sledge trying different wrists, body, and coin positions to figure out a technique that worked for me but also optimized my lifting ability and allowed to be break the WR. I would say the reason I did so well was the fact that I was the most prepared person for the event so technique can be just as important if not more depending on the event. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbe705 Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Spend some time figuring out safe openers. especially with rising bar events you want to make sure that nothing can prevent you from getting your first lift in. once you're on the board you can push. going for lift 2 or 3 just to get a mark can screw you up mentally. and with 4 lifts there's no need to push that hard on openers. make sure you pack everything you'll need and double and triple check it. even if the events are lighter pack a belt. long drives and minimal warm up can lead to tweaking things that would never bother you in your normal training enviroment. don't assume anything will be provided. this goes with the bag packing. food, water, warm up equipment, first aid kit, pipe roller, bands, extra clothes, etc. if you have a decent sized gym bag you can fit all that in and not be caught without. with experience you'll know how far out you need to start slacking of/deloading. this is different for everyone. takes notes on how you prepare so you can improve on it. bring a chair. sit down between events when you can. ignore the above and help run the comp. these events require everyone to pitch in. ask the AD what you can do to help. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Cabrera Posted July 1, 2014 Author Share Posted July 1, 2014 Thank you very much for all the insight gentlemen, its very interesting to see how many things I've overlooked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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