Peaking, is it for everyone(past novice)?

[BarryF]

How strong or adavanced of a lifter should one be before peaking becomes relevant or important?

[Adam Skillin]

How strong or adavanced of a lifter should one be before peaking becomes relevant or important?

Until and unless you're going to compete, I'd get the word "peaking" out of your vocabulary. If you mean periodization, that's another question entirely, and the subject of the book Practical Programming for Strength Training, 3rd edition.

[BarryF]

Thinking about doing a meet in March. At this point I plan to train as normal up until the week before the meet, then take it a bit easier the week of.

[Bryan Dobson]

Peaking, takes time away from getting stronger, and is an entirely different stress.
For a first or minor meet I wouldn't. I would just take a little additional rest before the competition.

Hitting a peak and hitting those weights stakes a lot out of a lifter.

[Adam Nelson]

Simplistically, a novice is peaking between each workout (i.e., going through the complete S/A/R cycle). I guess it would follow that an intermediate peaks weekly, in some sense. Think about running TM, where you're hitting PRs weekly. Obviously, more advanced lifters do some more exotic, long-term things, but I'd say your plan is pretty solid.

[Sean Herbison]

Thinking about doing a meet in March. At this point I plan to train as normal up until the week before the meet, then take it a bit easier the week of.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

[Adam Skillin]

Sounds like a good plan to me.

+1. Don't let your gainzz suffer much for the sake of competing unless you're going to set some records/qualify for something/get sponsored and paid.

[Les Hahn]

I sort of agree with what everyone is saying, but I will put the counter point out there. I pretty much peaked for every meet that I ever did. This includes my first meet after 10 months of lifting. You don't need to do anything fancy. In the context of intermediate programming, you really just need to peak a little on the intensity day. You could start with 5's and slowly move down to maybe 1 week of singles. This will at least give you a ballpark idea on where you are at. The week of the meet you can take off, so you can really rip it up on Saturday. :-)

Some of the advantages of doing a mini-peak would be that you could better gauge your attempts. By only doing 5's and walking into a meet, you have no idea where you singles are going to be at. And more importantly, you really aren't ready to push singles without any practice. If you play it really conservative you could be ok, but I think you would either not of hit your potential, or you could really blow it. I have seen people bomb doing stuff like this. Of course if they had a friend or coach just tell them to open a little lighter, at least they would have been on the board.

The way I look at it is that I traveled (50-200 miles), probably stayed at a hotel, and paid 80-100 bucks to do the meet. I at least want to push myself and know where I am at. This will give me better data for my next training cycle, and the week off for the meet will help you come back even stronger.

Like I said originally though, both schools of thought are ok. But if you want to do a meet, you might as well really do it. :-)

[Chris McCarthy]

I probably wouldn't recommend peaking for your first meet because it would be relatively easy to fuck it up on top of all the other things you'll have to go through on a first meet. But after that, and assuming you are not making ten pound jumps every week in your basic training, have at it...

[lou t]

I sort of agree with what everyone is saying, but I will put the counter point out there. I pretty much peaked for every meet that I ever did. This includes my first meet after 10 months of lifting. You don't need to do anything fancy. In the context of intermediate programming, you really just need to peak a little on the intensity day. You could start with 5's and slowly move down to maybe 1 week of singles. This will at least give you a ballpark idea on where you are at. The week of the meet you can take off, so you can really rip it up on Saturday. :-)

Some of the advantages of doing a mini-peak would be that you could better gauge your attempts. By only doing 5's and walking into a meet, you have no idea where you singles are going to be at. And more importantly, you really aren't ready to push singles without any practice. If you play it really conservative you could be ok, but I think you would either not of hit your potential, or you could really blow it. I have seen people bomb doing stuff like this. Of course if they had a friend or coach just tell them to open a little lighter, at least they would have been on the board.

The way I look at it is that I traveled (50-200 miles), probably stayed at a hotel, and paid 80-100 bucks to do the meet. I at least want to push myself and know where I am at. This will give me better data for my next training cycle, and the week off for the meet will help you come back even stronger.

Like I said originally though, both schools of thought are ok. But if you want to do a meet, you might as well really do it. :-)

I agree with Adam and Callador. I peak leading to ever meet including my first. But what has been said here, for my first I didn't do anything crazy just a mini. I lowered the volume and increase the intensity some by doing triples, doubles and singles. I also have always done a 3 week taper 3 weeks out. If you are a novice or early intermediate you won't need much of a taper because of your recovery abilities.

I think it is terrific you are competing. I would suggesting going to a meet as a spectator if you can. If you never competed before and show up, the environment may provoke more stress. Read the rules of your federation, practice the commands. Have a plan for nutrition the day of the meet...when to eat, what to eat, when to dose bcaa, karbolyn, poptarts etc. Have some fun