That is a very impressive list of resources.  As a pastor, it is awesome and very encouraging to see people take active roles in the pursuit Biblical knowledge.  God wants us to ask questions and engage ourselves not only daily devotion but daily discovery.  It is the best way I know to grow as a disciple of Christ. 

I love Lee Strobel as well.  Our Men's Wednesday night study group is going through "The Case for Christ" right now.  We just finished the second session last night and everyone is enjoying it alot.

Whenever I travel to contests, I try to take some of our products with me.  Shirts, books, DVD's, hats, etc.  Well, on one of my trips recently, when I was flying home, the baggage handlers really did a number on my stuff.  They crushed my suitcase, actually.  It's amazing that they didn't to this on purpose (at least I hope they didn't).

Regardless, the suitcase did it's job for the most part and protected most of the stuff inside.  The only exception was some books and DVD's.   So I decided to run a sale on specifically this inventory.  The products are slightly damaged.  For the DVD's, the cases are cracked, but the disk inside is perfectly fine.  For the books, the corners are slightly bent.  Though the damage is minor, I wouldn't feel right charging full price for this inventory.

If you are interested in buying some of this material, just use the coupon code sale25 in the shipping cart for 25% off the retail price!

Just to be clear, this discount is good for the following products from the store:
The RTS Manual
Mike Tuchscherer's Progressive Powerlifting DVD
Eric Talmant's Progressive Powerlifting DVD

The inventory available for this sale is limited and I don't expect it to last long.  And once it's gone, this offer will be too.

3/16
Raw Bench
135x8
225x5
290x1(paused here out)
330x1
380x1
420x1x1(second rep mainly all me i think, but not sure spotter put his hands in way)
360x3
350x3
need to change grip, not a great day everything felt heavier then usual
240x3x2
315x3
380x1

That's not what I would have you do.  I guess your last training week is okay.  I would stick to singles and go up to about 95%, but what you have is fine.

The week before the meet, I'd do multiple workouts, all 3 contest lifts, low volume, low intensity (<80%) and keep the efforts at 7 or below.  That's a good place to start.

Hey Kevin.

First be sure to cure your injuries.

Second, be careful not to do too much too soon. Going from 1 training session every 5 days, to 5 training sessions every 5 days has to be carefully managed in relation to volume and stress.

Cheers!

Diving off into the deep end of the pool.   I'm a former HIT guy, but injuries have made me take second look at my training.  While rehabing my knee,  low back and chest (There is a funny story to that mess) I began looking for better ways to improve my powerlifting training.  I had been following Mike T.'s training for awhile and decided to buy the manual.  I'm having to thow out everything I thought I knew about training and this is harder than I thought.  After reading the RTS Manual I'm very excited to get started.  Having some difficulty wrapping my brain around some of the stuff.  I think I got the basics down fairly well. 

 I am gonna follow the basic blocks of volume 3 weeks and intensity 3 weeks after 1-2 weeks transition to help reahab my aches and pains. I plan to follow the basic 3 day per week template mention in the forums.  Using fatigue stops until I get a full grasp on how to plan stress into my weekly plan, then fatigue percents.  Hopefully this will not take long as that is a very exciting aspect to me.  My first thoughts are this for the layout.

Monday squats, bench press, front squats

Wednesday bench press,  deadlift (comp), db bench presses

Friday Squat , close grip bp, good mornings, ohp

Adding xtra workouts for upper back, cardio and flexiblity/mobility on Tuesday, Thursday and Satruday.  The RPE protocol to be picked at start of week.

Just wanted to say hi and get any feedback on my starting point.  Thank you

Kevin F.

Mark Rippetoe is very adamant about the whole neutral head position thing, but I never really liked it.

Here are some JM Press videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09q-wob818M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck2KpzhIYY8

Mike, think I was a little unclear about what I meant. Here's an example of the time-line and work-out structure I'm talking about.

Last Training Week:

#1 Regular training

#2 Mini-competition

    Work up to max doubles

Week of Meet (assume its on Saturday):

#1 Mini-competition
   
    Work up to max fives

 Do you think this sort of structure is sub-optimal based on your experience?

You're right -- it is a very individual thing.  And I don't have the definitive answer yet, so we'll see how it goes.  But I can say from my personal experience...

Doing nothing failed
Doing one sorta-workout failed
Doing multiple sorta-workouts was much better, but still posed problems
Continuing to train full bore was a small, but dangerous, improvement

I think the type of deload that is best suited to you will depend on (among other things) classification.  I know for the higher-level guys I train, the last training block before a meet is occupied by lots of practice-meets.  This helps immensely, but the deload can't be "just another training week".  It's too risky.

I've tried tooling around YouTube for a good J.M. Press video, but have yet to really find a good one.  Maybe someone else will have more luck.

Regarding my squatting...
We'll see.  To be honest, the head down position is much more comfortable.  I'm not recommending it yet -- we'll see how it goes in the days and weeks to follow.  But so far, it feels pretty good.  I can say on the work I did today, it was some of the best technical squatting I've done in a long time.  But that was with bands and chains, so did that have an effect?  Maybe.  I'll see as things progress.  I'm not going to be hasty to make a decision.

Really? So the Deloads might actually hinder my competition day lifts?

I'll try to use a more instinctive plan for deloads.

Thanks

Was checking out your blog and your head position experiment. I'm hardly anyone to speak on your squatting, and I do understand it is an experiment, but I can only see as the weights get heavier, and like most we hit that mid-point and need to drive through, the head down, more than likely, will cause you to round over and get forward. Also, will probably keep your hips higher on descent. I'm sure it can work for some, or I just may be way off on this.

Anyway, is there a link to the JM Press or maybe a video. I am somewhat familiar with it, as a skullcrusher variation with a straight bar. Maybe you could just explain the difference and why one might be preferred based on a specific weakness.

Thanks, Brian

To answer your original post... I don't think either way will yield vastly different results for you as long as you manage your stresses properly.

In Bob's case we were noticing a pattern.  He would train for a period of weeks and after about 3 weeks, he noticed feeling beat up and if he continued to push, an injury sometimes resulted.  So we're doing 3 on 1 off to account for his natural tendency.

Once TRAC comes online, this will be a much easier question to answer as well.  When your physiological indications get to a certain point, you know it's time to back off and let things go.  This will allow you to both manage reduced training loads for workouts or schedule entire deload weeks based on physiological response.

Regarding the deload before a contest, I don't even really do them anymore.  My current thinking is this -- I am not trying to lift beyond what I've done in training.  If I go to the meet and I lift how I did in training, then I will have a good day.  And on that same note, if I got stronger throughout the training cycle and displayed that strength without the deload, then why add a deload for the contest?
You know, this is a pretty tough question and one that I haven't totally figured out.  There are obviously many ways to do it.

Another interesting thing I've learned from TRAC is that what reduces CNS potential the most is not lifting maximal weights.  It's avoiding maximal weights for a prolonged period.  Exactly what that period is, I can't tell you.  I know for me, it's about a week.  I need to lift something in the 80%+ range at least once per week or my CNS potential will drop.  This is showing to be true in others as well.

With that in mind, how do you approach deloading?  It just highlights something we all know to be true -- you have to time things right.  Lift heavy in close enough proximity to the contest that you are well prepared, but not so close that you are overtrained.  Tough call.

Just to chime in here...

I'm in agreement that it turns out to be an in-between speed.  An interesting observation about the McLaughlin study... just because elite benchers lower the bar more slowly doesn't mean that non-elite benchers should as well.   Just like non-elite lifters should NOT train like elite lifters (sets, reps, frequency, etc), some things like descent speed will no doubt change as a lifter's skill improves.

The cue I have always used is "quick but in control".  I'll also say that geared lifting seems to require a faster descent.  The more gear, the more aggressive the descent needs to be.