Charity powerlift competition training help

[Halfnattyman44]

My local gym does a charity powerlifting competition every year in December and I've never participated. I'm thinking I might do it this year and I'll have about 3 months to train for it.

Bench, squat, deadlift. I'm 6'5 220 lbs currently and probably 12-14% bodyfat. They measure it as a multiple of your weight so it's kind of a function of getting stronger while keeping weight in check. I'm a pretty good bencher and decent deadlifts, my squats are ass to grass but not very strong.

Any advice on how to train for this. I've done blocks where I focus on strength in the 5rm area on bench, squat, deadlift, but I also throw in BB rows and overhead press too. How often do you hit each lift a week? Is there a light day and a heavy day for each? I'm afraid if I go too low of reps for too long I'll just fry myself so do you deload or what?

 

[Smont]

@Hyde to save the day

 

[Jimbabwe]

With 4ish months until the meet, name of the game is really going to be working on specificity to get the most out of the muscle you already have to put up the biggest total. Can build a little muscle in that time, too, but that's not going to give you as much value as specifically practicing squat, bench and deadlift.

Would look into Jim Wendler's 5/3/1. Sort of the gold standard for getting into powerlifting. Doesn't really matter which ancillary setup you use. Would just pick the one that keeps you engaged with training.

Boring but big might be the best bet in a vacuum to get the largest total, so I'd lean towards recommending that version, but if you wouldn't enjoy training that way then you won't have the best results.