This morning my friend frantically texted me-
I am having pretty intense collarbone pain again. I know there’s a knot in my trap causing it and I can’t get it out. I was supposed to double 165 and got two really shitty singles instead. Can’t get tight or externally rotate. Couldn’t close grip, floor pressed instead, slightly less painful. Trying to db bench and it’s still bad. Idk what to do. I only have three weeks of training left.
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I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we've all experienced a scenario like this:
You're in the home stretch of meet prep and you have all of your lifts laid out for those training sessions. Without fail, however, something happens, be it in your life or in training, that doesn't fit into your perfect little plan.
-Bad training session where weights are feeling heavy.
-Someone calls off of work and you have to cover their shift.
-You get sick.
-Or even a missed lift.
Whatever it may be, it opens the door to allow some doubt to creep in. But I'm here to share a little secret - It doesn't matter!!
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The last few weeks of a training cycle are actually the least critical. I've experienced plenty of less than optimal home stretches with meet preps whether it has been myself, my training partners, or my clients. And I can tell you from those experiences that you can put it all together on the platform regardless of what happens in the last four weeks of training.
Some things to keep in mind if and when you hit this point in your preparation:
If you're feeling run down or beat up within the last 2-3 weeks of training, that's usually a sign of a good training cycle.
-I had some amazing mentors along the way share this piece of advice with me. And it was the same across the board- if you're feeling like shit you're probably right where you need to be.
You don't have to hit PR's in training in order to hit PR's at the meet. In fact, you should be saving your big lifts for the platform.
-I've found in my own training that I can add anywhere between 5-10% to my training numbers once I'm on the platform. Why? Mainly being fully recovered from training and potentially a little boost from the adrenaline! But it took me a few years to really dial that in and TRUST that I didn't need huge numbers in training.
You're not getting any stronger in the last month of training. All you're trying to do is prepare your body for 9 maximal attempts on meet day, if that.
-I see lifters struggle to put together their best totals at meets and I think that's a direct link to either doing too much in the last few weeks of training OR not enough.
*When a training sessions goes south at this stage in your training cycle, keep this in mind-
You DON'T need to hit a max or a PR in any lift to be prepared for the platform.
You DO need to hit weights in training that will prepare you both mentally and physically for the platform. The trick is learning what that means for you as an individual. If you're being coached by someone, you need to be communicating if and where you're lacking confidence with your coach.
You DON'T need to drop your assistance work in an effort to stay fresh or be ready for the training sessions in the last few weeks.
You DO need to maintain your overall training volume up until about 10 days out. We're not trying to be fresh for training sessions. We are trying to be prepared and conditioned for the meet. So that means the volume of your assistance work should be relatively flat in the last month, while the intensity can start to decrease. And then at that ten day mark everything starts to taper.
