what's everyone's training like the week after a meet? anyone taking their training in a new direction? i took a couple days off and am returning to hard training tomorrow ... not ME stuff, just putting in some hard work, squat a couple sets of 10 and some complexes

I'm back to my old style, pumping away.

With an interesting twist, though. I can' t remember ever having done the whole body in a single workout, yet that's what I'm doing now. Very old-school... 

So, for me: a radical break from powerlifting training. We'll see how this kind of training prepares me for the next meet... 

I'm competing in a real (i.e. "in the flesh") meet on Feb 24th, so my participation in the virtual meet was part of my preparation. 

I've been lowering my reps and upping the weight for about 6 weeks now.  This is the last heavy week (thank god, I'm getting a little frazzled) and next week is very light, resting up before competing.

After the meet I'm doing something completely different for a while, maybe 2 months or so.  The details are not quite decided, but it'll be some sort of whole body routine with an emphasis on losing a little weight and building GPP. 

what's everyone's training like the week after a meet? anyone taking their training in a new direction?

I would probably do a few light bodybuilding style workouts the week after the meet, but this time around I am taking the whole week off as I need to heal up. In retrospect, I think I overdid my training slightly for this meet (high-volume dieting cycle and then a 9-week Russian peaking cycle) and am just happy not to have totally killed my aching hips and lower back on the platform last weekend. Live and learn. 

I'm planning to hit the gym again on Sunday and begin the 12-week EliteFTS Beginners' Program, perhaps with a few modifications. Will at least be doing all the DE squat work with the SSB bar I bought a few weeks back and perhaps add some kettlebells. Westside should be a good break from all the percentage stuff I've been doing for almost a year. Anyone here doing any kettlebell work that you could recommend, btw? Am thinking mainly in terms of replacing some of the triceps, upper back and shoulder work with kettlebells.

I'm competing in a real (i.e. "in the flesh") meet on Feb 24th, so my participation in the virtual meet was part of my preparation.

I'll be very interested in seeing what kind of lifts you get in the real meet, not having to hurry through the whole thing in 45 minutes like you did for this virtual one. Good luck and keep us posted! 

So, for me: a radical break from powerlifting training. We'll see how this kind of training prepares me for the next meet... 

I'm curious to see how quickly you regain the muscle mass lost after switching from a bodybuilding oriented style to a 9-week powerlifting peaking cycle with no accessory work. From a meet standpoint, you did very well dropping some muscle while increasing your PRs 10-15kg on all lifts, but you do look a bit skinnier now. Won't be long until those biceps are again stretching your T-shirt to it's maximum. 

It will indeed... My morning weight today was 89kgs!! Dammit. Should've been that low on friday the 9th...
It was around 94kgs 9 weeks ago. Lessee how fast I can get back up there.  Eat large, lift heavyish... That's the ticket.

Unfortunately, I missed the virtual meet this time around... but I'll post on this topic anyways.
Normally, after a Saturday meet, I will take off until Tuesday. On that day, I'll go for maxes in my accessory exercises (close grip bench, nosebreakers, seated press) to see how they correlate with my bench maximum.
That way, I will know that a 315 BP equals a 195 seated press and so on... and when it's time to test where I am in a cycle, I needn't always max on an actual lift but a conjugate.

I'll go for maxes in my accessory exercises (close grip bench, nosebreakers, seated press) to see how they correlate with my bench maximum.

Extremely interesting! This should tell you a lot about weak points seeing how increases in accessory numbers affect the main lifts. I should really look into mapping out a few accessories a bit more regularly and your model sounds very intriguing. Might be time to dust off Poliquin's Achieving Structural Balance article as well.

John, good luck with your upcoming real meet! 

Even though I didn't compete the meet effected my lifts too. I can't mess with my squat and deadlift too much right now as I have a strongman competition in  May that is my primary focus. I did read in the rules though about the Military Bench press. So I am trying to add that back in. I can bench my own bodyweight easy enough but for high reps, not a chance.
I haven't really benched in quite a while due to it causing shoulder pain. This has been a nicer way to train the bench. As long as I stay under 300lbs, I don't seem to have the pain. Now I just need to work the weight up to 5 X 5 bodyweight and beyond.

Beyond is definitely the right word to use...

The current Finnish Champion in the Military Bench Press (for reps) has something around 40reps on it, so... 
Okay, so he's light. But still, 40reps with bodyweight ain't shabby, no matter what you weigh.

[Class]

The current Finnish Champion in the Military Bench Press (for reps) has something around 40reps on it, so... 

The current Finnish records (in kilograms, multiply by 2.2046 for pounds) are as follows:

MILITARY BENCH: Bodyweight for reps
http://www.sppojat.com/sp_ennatys.html

Class	Name	Reps	Bw	Weight	Date and place
Men under 65kg	Jouni Heiskari	63	54.0	55.0	05.11.2005 Helsinki
Men 65kg - under 80kg	Timo Parviainen	56	74.8	75.0	2.9.2006 Forssa
Men 80kg - under 100kg	Timo Parviainen	52	79.5	80.0	7.10.2006 Lahti
Men 100kg - under 110kg	Jouko Raukko	41	99.9	100.0	5.11.2005
Men 110kg +	Fredrik Smulter Aleksander Kolomiets	29	132.2 108.6	132.5 110.0	7.10.2006 Lahti 10.9.2005 Tampere
Women under 65kg	Iina Laine Irmeli Vaulakorpi	52	51.0 49.0	35.0 32.5	7.10.2006 Lahti 22.10.2005 Loppi
Women 65kg +	Katja Törnqvist	41	78.8	52.5	9.4.2006 Loppi

MILITARY BENCH: Single rep max
http://www.sppojat.com/max_ennatys.html

Class	Name	Bw	Weight	Date and place
Men under 65kg	Tuomas Nikkilä	64.9kg	145.0kg	9.12.2006 Forssa
Men 65kg - under 80kg	Markku Väisänen	79.9kg	190.0kg	27.8.2005 Tampere
Menen 80kg - under 90kg	Markku Väisänen	84.4kg	192.5kg	9.9.2006 Oulunsalo
Men 90kg - under 100kg	Raukko Jouko	99.7kg	200.0kg	8.4.2006 Loppi
Men 100kg - under  120kg	Järvi Juha-Matti	118.4kg	240.5kg	2.9.2006 Rauma
Men 120kg - under 140kg	Järvi Juha-Matti	125.5kg	240kg	8.4.2006 Loppi
Men 140 +kg	Mikko Hämäläinen	148.3kg	250kg	27.5.2006 Tampere
Women under 65kg	Hanna Rantala	54.6kg	85kg	9.12.2006 Forssa
Women 65kg +	Merja Mynttinen	92.1kg	102.5kg	27.8.2005 Tampere

A few well-known Finnish powerlifters are represented. In the reps category we have Fredrik Smulter, a IPF lifter who placed 4th in the World Championships in the bench press in 2005. In the max reps category, we have Mikko Hämäläinen whose shirted bench was 380kg at the time. Here's a pic of this lift (EDIT: this linked image is no longer available).

This shows clearly what a military bench is all about: a bare chested (for men) paused bench press with no wrist wraps or other supportive gear, a minimal arch and feet kept up in the air above the height of the bench at all times with belly pressing strictly forbidden. The current Virtualmeet.net rules draft only has provision for the max rep variety as I felt that would appeal to more powerlifters (basically a very strict raw bench that puts a lot of emphasis on starting strength). If there is interest, I'll add the rep variety as well.

I'm not trying to see I'll ever be on those tables. I  just like the concept of the event. I don't exactly squat with the intent of ever hittin 1200 lbs either. 63 reps is freaky though.

I might just try to persuade my training partners into battling each other on the military bench press. Never heard of the concept before.

I might just try to persuade my training partners into battling each other on the military bench press. Never heard of the concept before.

Hope they catch the bug! I suspect we will need to arrange our first military bench meet before this year is over... all in the interest of testing the rules before they are cut in stone. 

While doing some chain suspended GMs yesterday the thought struck me of also adding a paused full range squat to the recognized lifts. Perhaps not after all, but I can definitively forsee arranging the occasional "fun meet" where we can have a go at stuff like this.

...Or strongman stuff like brickholding, which seems totally cool and incredibly hard