cycle, peak, taper, dominate

Cycle, Peak, Taper, Dominate

by Jack Reape

Two of the hardest things about competing are sending in the

entry fee for a competition and then not pulling out the last

few weeks. Some of you don't compete and are just training

for self-actualization, self-esteem, and to be healthier and

more whole in your daily interactions in the journey we call

a life experience.

That is really wonderful, and makes superb small talk over a

nice Pinot Noir, but the cold reality is unless you train for

and compete in a powerlifting meet, an Olympic lifting meet,

a bodybuilding competition, a strongman event, or just

schedule a photo shoot with your thong on, you're not going

to reap the maximum benefits of your training.

You're not going to fully learn about how your body works,

and you're not going to get the maximum carryover into your

"life experience" from training that simply performing on

somebody else's time schedule brings. Building a training

plan that produces maximum results requires a cyclic

approach to a peak, using a taper, and then a mental and

physical plan to enter the arena and to dominate both

yourself and your competition.

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Make no mistake, we're all our own worst enemies when it

comes to a stressful situation, and competition is stressful.

Stress, however, is far superior to wondering about what

could've been with a Pinot hangover. You can minimize and

harness stress with the knowledge that you're bringing your

best to the arena of competition, and you're going to deliver

your best due to your mental and physical preparation.

The discipline and confidence you gain from this experience

will make the next cycle more refined and your ability to

handle stress and other problems will skyrocket. While the

principles and ideas I'll share are going to be mainly applied

to powerlifting in this article, these principles are universal

across all sports, allowing for more focus on skill, speed

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strength, strength endurance, VO2 max, etc., depending on

the event and what it requires.

Training 302

How we train boils down to either doing the most we can and

still recover, or the least we can and still progress. The five

variables we can manipulate to accomplish this are:

1. volume

2. intensity

3. sequence

4. rest between sets

5. recuperative methods (1)

Let's take a look at each.

Volume

Volume can be described as either the total number of barbell

lifts (NBL) you do in a workout per exercise, or with this

formula: reps x weight = total poundage. The total poundage

method is misleading as it only tells poundage and has no

indication of the intensity of the load. I like NBL for its

simplicity. It's what I'll use as it saves a lot of number

crunching.

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Intensity

Intensity is the percentage of our 1RM (rep max) and is the

average of all your work sets. So as an example, if your

workout is:

50% x 3, 60% x 3, 70% x 3, and 80% x 3 x 5

Then your average intensity is (50 x 3) + (60 x 3) + (70 x 3)

+ (80 x 15) = 1740/24 =72.5%

It's easier if you just do the same warm-ups to your work sets

every workout and not worry about averaging them in. If you

do a fixed weight workout it's a simple computation, and by

just changing your reps each set (a la Poliquin) you have a

very effective approach.

If you're doing rack pulls, shirt benches with boards, or high

box squats, compare them to your meet lift in full

competition gear, not your PR for that pin, board or box to

get a percent. This is pure overload training and you need to

be aware of that. Not much more than 10-15% over your

meet max is a good tradeoff between the benefits of overload

and injury risk.

These lifts dramatically raise the intensity of your workout

and must be limited and managed carefully. The key idea to

apply to your planning is that you use percents as guidelines,

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but in the gym you're going to use bar weight rounded off to

easily loadable weights. There are no weights in any gym I

know that say "45%."

Sequence

Sequence is the order in which we do exercises within a

workout, week, or training block. You can use sequences of

bench-squat-bench or squat-bench-squat to jack up your

volume and intensity in a workout. The lift in the middle can

be a hard workout or just an extra workout. I'll discuss that

more in depth later.

Rest Between Sets

Rest between sets isn't just the rest between each set in a

workout, but days off between workouts. In general, never

sacrifice a good set to maintain a given rest period. When

you're in top training shape you can do 8 sets of 2 with 56%

and choked blue bands with 60 seconds rest in the box squat.

Otherwise, lengthen your rest periods and work on GPP

(general physical preparedness) afterward.

Recuperative Methods

Recuperative methods include all manner of enhancing

recovery. For the most part, almost all weight training falls

under doing the most we can do and still recover. The

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technical name for this is "concentrated loading." It requires

a back-off week after every 3-4 weeks training period. (2)

The other approach uses much less volume but still requires

a back-off after every 5-8 week training block. (3) The

technical name for this approach is "distributed loading". It

can yield some results, but its effectiveness quickly ends

because of the rapid ability of the body to compensate to

training. (4)

Trained, high level athletes can handle three of these training

blocks in a row, separated by a back-off period of 7-10 days.

(5) Our back-off weeks will consist of either following the

60% rule and doing about 60% of the volume we did in the

previous week at about 60% intensity, or doing some higher

rep dumbbell, barbell, band, sled pulling, or bodyweight

workouts.

You can also just take the week off like the Metal Militia

does. Do no assistance work on your back-off weeks, but

some easy GPP work can be done. The point of the back-off

weeks is to let the body catch up a bit, but it may test your

stay-out-of-the-gym willpower. Do you want to be a gym rat

or do you want to be the one to dominate? Think about it!

In my example we'll be using three training blocks and a

taper block, but you can taper after only 1-2 training blocks

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if time requires it. This can be endlessly studied and

examined in chapters 5 and 6 of Supertraining.

Picking and Applying a Training Template

I'm not going to lay out a sequence of particular workouts for

peaking, because this isn't a specific workout article. You can

select from many superb approaches including:

Dave Tate's The Art of Program Design

Chad Waterbury's Science of 10 x 3

Ian King's Wave Loading Manifesto

Charles Poliquin's Manipulating Reps for Gains in Size and

Strength

Westside Barbell's "Don't Chase Your Tail" or "Importance

of Volume" by Louie Simmons

The set, rep, rest and sequence template you choose or blend

is up to you, but there are some important things to consider

with respect to your workout time constraints, areas of

weakness, level of (or lack of) overall fitness, and technique

issues. You must pick a template that fits your life and

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training facility.

If you're woefully out of shape, your GPP needs to be

considered and addressed in picking a template. You don't

need to be able to run a 10k to train for powerlifting, but you

do need to be able to make it through your workout and

recover in time for the next one. If your technique is lacking

or you're just starting out in the sport of powerlifting, you

probably want to pick a template where you practice the

main lifts a great deal.

When you look at these templates, you need to evaluate them

objectively in terms of number of barbell lifts, intensity,

technique building, and rest periods required in the pursuit of

big lifts on a certain day. If you were more bodybuilding

focused, you'd focus more subjectively on how your program

addresses your preferences and weak body parts. In both

sports, as competition day approaches, the variables and how

we manipulate them begins to change.

Planning Guidelines

Now that you've picked a template, let's lay out some basic

guidelines to consider when planning a training cycle.

1) The volume and intensity aren't going to increase together.

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In fact, they should be independently waving over the

training blocks before the peaking and tapering phase.

However, the intensity and volume will rise overall. Once we

move into the peaking phase, the volume will drop 15-30%,

but the intensity will ramp up a bit more.

2) Keep in mind that volume builds muscle mass and

connective tissues in the joints, and that change in intensity

has a much higher effect on training than change in volume.

(7, 8)

3) Use the Bill Murray Ghostbusters rule when it comes to

planning volume, intensity, and training guidelines: "It's

more of a guideline than a rule."

In your planning, say you decide to do 8 sets of 2, or 10 sets

of 3 with 65% of your max of 450 (.65 x 450 = 292.5). Don't

get caught up in worrying about whether to go up to 295 or

down to 290. When in doubt, avoid using 2.5 pound plates!

Use percents to plan and training results to adjust. Those 2.5

pound plates are for PRs, not for training!

4) As the military knows so well, no plan ever survives

contact with the enemy. A plan is really just something to

deviate from. I've had a training cycle planned for every

meet I've ever lifted in, and not one of the almost 100 plans

has been carried out to the letter due to school, work, injury,

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weather, etc.

Not only do you need to be able to adjust on the fly, you need

to keep an excellent training log so you can evaluate what

worked and didn't work in the last cycle when planning or

adjusting the next cycle.

5) All lifts don't handle and recover from the same volume

the same way. The bench press can handle more volume and

can be trained much closer to the meet than the deadlift. The

deadlift needs two full weeks of taper unless you're very

young and very small.

Your last squat workout is a little over a week out, but you

can bench press up to five days before the meet. These

workouts are very abbreviated, but not light. In studying

Sheiko's workouts, I've come up with an optimal ratio per

training block of 5:4:3 for bench, squat and deadlift.

6) We'll count as NBL all the main lifts, the lifts that mimic

the main lifts, and any partials. For example, in the bench

we'll count bench press, board press, and floor presses. We

may do some extensions or flyes, but they don't count in

NBL for the bench.

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The board press

We'll also not count anything under 50% intensity in our

NBL. Some may argue here that they want to count every rep

of everything they do, but this greatly complicates an already

difficult exercise in training management. You ultimately

have to decide for yourself on how you do everything, but a

great deal of experience shows that counting and analyzing

only the main lifts above 50% in NBL simplifies and focuses

our attention on where it needs to be.

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The floor press (with chains)

Assistance work is best handled after the main lifts in both

planning and practice. The fixed volume/rising intensity

approach works well here. Using the Bill Starr guideline of

25-50 reps of assistance for a body part, you can do

pushdowns, board work for 3-5 reps, upper back work,

reverse hyper, glute ham raise, Romanian deadlifts, etc. Pick

one exercise of assistance per body part, prioritizing

weaknesses first. Sometimes time and fatigue may dictate

you drop some assistance.

There's also the option of alternating hard assistance weeks,

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where you go a bit heavier and with more volume, with an

easier week where you don't push it as hard. One caveat: If

you do good mornings, count them on their own as a separate

NBL. Russian Olympic coaches had great respect for this

exercise and if you do them either as Max Effort work or as

assistance, you'll quickly understand why you need to count

them as a main exercise on their own. You'll find they impact

your squat and squat recovery more so than the deadlift.

7) As we move along our three training blocks, we'll be

getting stronger, but our short term recovery ability and our

long term "current adaptation reserves" are going to be

tapped more and more deeply as we progress. (9)

We can't stop this process, but we can use more and more

recuperative methods to enhance our recovery. We delay

using these methods until after the first training block

because enhancing recovery too early in the cycle can limit

the body's super-compensation ability. (10)

8) We use the taper to allow the process of super-

compensation to enhance the specific abilities we've worked

so hard on developing. Concentrated loading forces the body

to extend its ability to adapt, but at the cost of speed strength,

limit strength, and even technique. We have to address this

with back off weeks and a taper.

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9) Our goal is to constantly challenge our body and its

adaptive ability by changing our training variables. We're not

looking to let our body maintain equilibrium with our

training, but to "keep a definite level of imbalance between

the body and the (training) environment at a given time," to

quote the late great Mel Siff. In other words, change is good

in training, so plan a lot of it in from the start in all five

training variables.

10) There's a definite and specific place and time to miss

reps and train to failure. The place is on the platform when

my competitor is lifting, and the time is the training block of

that same competitor.

Yes, I miss lifts once in a while, but I'm shocked and

annoyed by it! If I'm out of gas on a max effort day, I stop

doing singles and will do a "down set" or two, leaving

something in the tank. Better to get two sets of 3 at 90% than

one set of 4 or 5. If I'm struggling on a Sheiko Bench

Marathon or 10 x 3 workout, I'll take the rest time I need

between sets to make sure I get the reps.

If you're having a bad day, back your weights off that day. If

you're short of time, get your heavier sets of your main lifts

in. Very few individual workouts really matter in your

training cycle; it's the totality of the training that delivers the

PR.

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Enhancing Recovery

After our initial training block, the need for enhanced

recovery techniques becomes obvious. The most powerful

recovery enhancer I know is the hydrotherapy bath, taken 6-9

hours after a workout. Talyshev (1977) showed this

technique significantly enhanced both work capacity and

recovery the day following the hydrotherapy. (11)

Other recovery enhancers are high rep (25 and above)

isolation movements with bands or light weights. Triceps

pushdowns, good mornings, and band leg curls all work well

here.

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Band leg curls

Massage, chiropractic, and A.R.T. work well, too. A few

light squats after or during bench day and a few light

benches after or during squat day help a great deal. Just 2-3

sets of 2-3 reps with less than about 50% works well. The

kettlebell swing and sled dragging can be very therapeutic

when done lighter, and are great GPP enhancers when done

heavier.

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A brisk walk, hike, or even walking on an incline treadmill

will do wonders for your recovery without tapping into your

strength. Of course, distance running will kill your lifts.

When it comes to distance running, just say "Hell no!"

Assistance Work

Like choosing a training template to follow, picking how and

when to do assistance work has numerous options. A lot of

misguided lifters focus on hypertrophy early in their training

cycle and then move away from it as they peak. If you need

more muscle mass, then you need it when you compete, as

you need all aspects of strength when you take the platform.

A better approach is to use the GPP to SPP to GPP transition.

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(12) In your first training block, since we're not focusing on

recovery, our assistance work focus will be on building GPP

via heavy sled dragging, truck pushing, sprints, incline

treadmill, and high rep band work, along with some SPP

(specific physical preparedness) such as lat work, straight bar

extensions, glute ham raise, etc.

As we transition into our second training block, our

assistance transitions fully to SPP, where we ramp up the

volume and intensity on assistance work more focused on

weaknesses. As we move to the peak and the taper blocks,

our assistance work SPP will drop a bit and lighter forms of

the GPP work we did in our first block will return to enhance

recovery.

So, for an example, in our first training block we might do

glute ham raises after squatting one squat day, and then sled

pulling/truck pushing on squat day two. We'd also do a

limited extra workout of kettlebell or dumbbell swings on the

day following squat day two. In our second training block,

we'd drop the GPP work and add in more SPP work like

partial rack pulls and step-ups or reverse hypers, while

continuing to push up the glute ham raises and extra workout

kettlebell swings.

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The reverse hyper

In our peaking and tapering block, we really want to enhance

recovery and maximize super-compensation, so we drop

about half of the SPP work of glute hams and reverse hypers,

and add back in some lighter sled pulling to go along with

the other recovery enhancers mentioned previously.

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While there's no "off-season" in powerlifting, an excellent

time to focus on GPP is when you're not in a meet cycle. The

previously mentioned GPP work, combined with other

strongman type lifts, can bring your GPP up to a level where

SPP can be your main focus in the training cycle before the

peaking phase begins. I've done out-of-meet cycle training

with Jesse Kellum and his maniacal Krewe where we raced

as teams of two pushing Dodge Ram trucks up hills three or

four times each, then pulled a sled backwards, did farmers

walks with heavy dumbbells, then flipped tires in the midday

July heat.

I almost puked and was just glad to be done. Jesse handed

me a Coke and told me to rest up and drink it before we

squatted raw! I then worked up to a PR gearless, beltless, and

very fast squat of 565. Moral of story: Lose your

pre-conceived concepts of proper sequence in a workout and

what GPP brings to your training.

Let's Do It

We have a template and some guidelines; now it's time to get

out a calendar and get to work building this plan to dominate.

Pick a meet, check the date, and make sure you determine

whether you lift Saturday or Sunday. Count back 14 weeks

and include the week before the meet when you're finishing

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your taper. Check your calendar for obstacles like birthdays,

holidays, anniversaries, vacations, etc. It's possible to

overcome these obstacles but it's not always in your best

interest.

If you have a few weeks before your training cycle starts, a

simple and basic approach like 5 x 5 for a few weeks is well

suited. However, the week before you start your cycle is an

easy week, if not a back-off week.

Now take a legal pad and pencil and lay out your template

applied to your training days. The possibilities are endless,

but as you map it out, keep in mind you want to wave the

volume and intensity independently. Also keep in mind that

percents are guidelines, and a peaked max in full lifting gear

in competition doesn't always apply easily as a 1RM to

training percents or to any raw work.

When comparing apples to oranges, remember to correct for

taking the rind off the orange! For example, if you just

squatted 600 in a meet in single ply gear and now want to

start to box squat with 50%, 300 is too high! You box squat

in a suit with straps down and a belt, but you'll also have

bands and chains loaded and you're off your peak. Might

want to start at 275!

If you're doing the 10 x 3 program and just benched 400 in a

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shirt in your last meet, you know you want to be working

with around 85% of your 1RM, but 85% of 400 is 340 and

that won't touch in your shirt, and you have no idea what

your real raw 1RM is. Well, assume about 100 out of the

shirt, as it doesn't really matter because you weren't going to

start at 85%! So if your 1RM is 300 raw, 85% would be 255.

I'd say start at 215, around 70%, just to be safe.

You have 14 weeks to train so you don't need to be a gym

star on week one! You don't need to hit 10 x 3 the first week;

do 8 x 3 the first training block, working up to 10 x 3 the

second, then 7 x 3 the third block as you move into your

better bench shirt, for example.

You need to decide on when to start using your gear. In the

old days you could lift raw then throw it in at the end for a

few workouts. Those days are long gone due to the evolution

of gear and its affect on your groove. On the higher volume

Sheiko and 10 x 3 programs you'll probably need at least one

size looser gear to train in so you can get lighter benches to

touch and squats to white light range. The looser gear is also

advocated by Westside for box squats and full range shirt

benches.

A hypothetical cycle will look like this, representing volume

and intensity on a scale of 1-5:

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WK1 WK2 WK3 WK4 WK5 WK6 WK7 WK8

Volume 2 4 3 1 3 5 4

Intensity 3 2 4 1 4 3 4

WK9 WK10 WK11 WK12 WK13 WK14

4 2 3 1 3 2 Volume

5 3 5 1 4 3 Intensity

The Taper

The taper isn't a back-off week. In back-off weeks we're

letting our body recover via reduced volume and intensity,

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and very little assistance. Taper weeks are focused on

allowing super-compensation to occur.

Gene Bell once told me that you can't make yourself stronger

in the last two weeks, but you can let yourself get stronger.

Volume is down, but intensities in the 85-90% range can be

used to hone the neuromuscular system. (13) During the

taper, we also focus on checking and correcting any

technique issues, work on improving speed lost in the heavy

training blocks, and maintain only a slightly reduced level of

assistance work. Week 11 would contain our last 95% plus

work, and the last of any overloads, partials or walkouts.

Week 12 is a back-off week, 60% rule or some reps above 7

with light weights.

Week 13 is a critical week. Our main lift volume will stay

low, but some 2-3 sets of 1 to 3 reps in the 85-90% range in

the squat and bench press are done here in full gear. Some

speed work in the squat and deadlift also fit well here. Do

your normal assistance work for triceps, lats, abs, and

posterior chain. Week 14 is meet week, and I highly

recommend the "Three Day Cycle" from Consistent Winning

by Drs. D.D. Lobstein Ph.D. and R.D. Sandler D.P.M,

adapted to powerlifting.

For a Saturday meet, on week 14 you'll do a light bench

press workout on Monday. This is a great time to use chains

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over bands for speed work as they're easier on the body. Do

some light and limited raw squats, and some lat work.

Tuesday and Wednesday, don't do a thing but relax, walk a

bit, and stretch. These are two days to review your training

and make your final meet plan.

You had goals at the outset of the cycle and laid out a plan to

get there. If your training went well or not as planned, adjust

accordingly. Get it right in your head because after

Wednesday night you're done thinking about it. Thursday

you go to the gym and do your first two warm-up sets of

bench and squat which will feel good.

Friday, you do your first three warm-up sets of bench and

squat, preferably at the meet site. These will feel better than

the day before. You'll feel amazingly fresh physically, and

your adrenaline will rise. You need to suppress this

adrenaline rush by distracting yourself and by putting the

meet forcibly out of your head. I strongly advise wearing

regular clothes and not warm-ups until you weigh in or start

to warm up the next day.

Go Time

In all seriousness, stay in your happy place as long as

possible on meet day. Some lifters like to stake out a corner

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and put on their game face early. I think you're just burning

adrenaline, literally and figuratively, by showing up too

early. Relax, take a nap, say hi to friends, walk around, do

some mobility work, but don't stretch. When it's time to

warm up, you'll be ready to go.

Nervousness is a direct byproduct of fear, but fear can be

channeled into rage. Save your psyche for the platform, but

let your rage build. This isn't a good time to be around dates,

spouses, or life partners. You need a trusted training partner

who knows when to fire you up and when to reign you in.

Whether you show it or not, you need to be at a full state of

mental arousal at this point. However, don't let your

emotions get out of control in the squat as you still have a

long day ahead of you.

The warm-ups you've done the past two days will feel even

better, and the rehearsal of the past few days will pay off

here. Everything in your universe now must focus you on

how important it is to get that first squat in. You've planned

your cycle and planned your meet, now lift your plan.

In most meets, 8 or 9 for 9 is going to do well, and 9 for 9

always yields PRs. Strategically, building the biggest

subtotal possible is your goal. Open your deads easily, go get

a PR on your second unless an easier second attempt locks in

a place if you care about the meet, and then go big on your

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third deadlift.

To dominate isn't always to win, but to dominate is about

what you do compared to your plan, expectations, and

ability. You're the only one who really knows how you did,

and a trophy without a PR will make this point very clear.

About the Author

Jack Reape is a three time Military National Powerlifting

Champion and competes several times a year when not busy

with family and work. He graduated from the US Naval

Academy with a B.S. in Operations Analysis.

References

1) Supertraining pg 353


3) Supertraining pg 319/347



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cycle, peak, taper, dominate

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