PEAKING FOR A WEIGHTLIFTING COMPETITION: Think Long Term

What is the meet that your athlete is peaking for?  How many weeks are there to prepare?  What are the goals for the meet, and how will you program to attain those goals?  If you aren’t thinking about these questions well ahead of time, your chances of success are lessened.  Develop a progressive plan to meet the goals, and the chances of success on meet day are strengthened.

Having determined the competition, it is time to “backward map”.  This means counting the number of weeks remaining, and, starting with the desired outcome, work backwards until the present day.  Utilizing basic periodization principles, set up a Macrocycle (long term plan) with the calculated number of weeks in mind and then break it down into Mesocycles (4-5 week blocks) and eventually into Microcycles (weekly breakdown of training).   Within the scope of the Macrocycle there may be “non-peak” meets and any other “life events” that are foreseeable: work, travel, family events, etc.

Example:    Peak Meet American Open Dec. 4-6

Week Date Cycle Event

12 Sept 14-20 Prep One

11 Sept 21-27

10 Sept 28-Oct 4

9 Oct 5-11

8 Oct 12-18 Prep Two Gold Cup Challenge (non-peak)

7 Oct 19-25

6 Oct 26-Nov 1

5 Nov 2-8

4 Nov 9-15 Competition 

3 Nov 16-22

2 Nov 23-29

1 Nov 30-Dec 5 American Open

Macrocycle: Weeks 1-12

Mesocycle: Weeks 9-12 Prep One    High Volume / Low Intensity / Build the base

Weeks 5-8 Prep Two Volume decreases / Intensity Increases / Build strength

Weeks 1-4 Competition Volume continues to decrease / Intensity continues to 

    Increase / Build power and contest preparation

Microcycle: Each individual week Manipulate volume and intensity within

Week 8 “Non-peak” Contest (heavy training day; don’t cut weight)

Week 12 Peak Contest

In the example provided above, there is a non-peak meet planned for Week 8 which was actually the first week of the second Prep Cycle.  How should this meet be handled?  We would still have lifters hit the intensity fairly heavy but cut the volume back a bit, remembering that this is only a test meet and basically a heavy workout.   We don’t ask athletes to cut weight or anything that would resemble a peak.  The goals are to have them test the lifts and get some more competitive experience.  

Of course, in an ideal situation, the non-peak meet would fall on 4^th week of the mesocycle which is normally our test week anyway.  But, as we all know, the schedule never seems to work out the way we would like it to.  So we adapt.  (You know…adapt or die, right??)

Non-peak meets give new lifters more meet experience but for the more experienced lifters, they have additional benefits.  Because we are constantly evaluating the effectiveness of the program design, these meets give us an excellent chance to see how the training has readied the athlete, and where adjustments to training may be appropriate.  A specific example of this is that if lifters hit PRs (which often happens), we adjust the 1RMs that they use in training.  Another big boon is that athletes like to compete!  

We also test the lifts and assistance exercises throughout the cycle.   Early in the plan, we test parts of the lifts, but not the full lifts.  For example, if power snatch + overhead squat is in the program, we might test that for a 2+1 max.  Or if the jerk is an issue for a particular lifter, we might test front squat + jerk for a 3+1 max. 

We typically don’t test the full snatch and clean & jerk lifts until the third mesocycle (competition phase).  The full lifts are so “nervous system” oriented, that it is very difficult to maintain good technique throughout the full 12 weeks with all the volume of work being done, and the morass of personal stresses that enter into the lives of lifters (work, school, relationship, etc.)

Since hitting top lifts at the peak competition is the goal, the question becomes when is the most effective time to test?  After all, we need some measure of what is realistic in terms of meet goals.  I know that many lifters like to use the “Bulgarian” method of regularly lifting heavy snatches and clean and jerks in training.  But my thought has always been that we are not Bulgarians, don’t have the background of training that they have, and shoulder stresses in our lives that they as professional lifters avoid.  So the last 3-4 weeks are when we hit the lifts more often and heavier.  At that point, the nervous system has been rested, more of a base has been built with higher volume of pulls, squats and auxiliary exercises and the lifter is fresh mentally as well as physically.  This leaves athletes primed to peak at the right time.

It varies from lifter to lifter, since every athlete responds to the workload a little differently, but generally, we start pumping up the intensity of the lifts as the overall volume drops.  Typically, we will test the clean and jerk about 10-14 days out and the snatch about 7-10 days out.  These tests afford a good idea of how well the program is working and how well prepared athletes are for the meet.  The remaining days are then for sharpening technique but still with fairly high intensity (85-90% for the most part) so that lifters keep the feel of the heavier weights without stressing the body too much.  

During these early phases, we use video analysis a lot as it is a great learning tool. Everyone learns differently and having a visual of what they are doing and breaking down the movement helps them continue to improve.  Most of the video analysis that I use is directly from the side so that the bar path is evident.  It is the same when I coach as I find that angle to be the most beneficial.  As we get into the competition cycles, we cut way back on the video analysis as we want lifters to be more focused on the full effort of making the lifts and backing away from extra analysis.

A word of caution about video analysis: some lifters are hypercritical of their own lifting and tend to overthink or overanalyze.  When such is the case, we severely limit the amount of video analysis.  At the risk of belaboring the point, there are lifters out there who are addicted to watching other lifters on YouTube and other media sources. In the final weeks before big competitions, lifters need to be focused on their own relaxation and goals, and energy should not be squandered on worrying about other lifter’s styles, training, etc.