Hello guys i have a question, i have this big meet comming up the week of December 9-11 and my team is tapering for it. My question is that while tapering should i stop going to the weight room or am i able to keep going?
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I did that exact taper from weights several times in the last few years. I found that I recovered pretty well, but this season I didn't do any of the 21-rep sets at all- I just stuck between 6 and 10 reps since May.
The 4 weeks leading up to my meet on Dec 4th consist of 4x6, 1x6, 1x4, and this week is 1x2 at the heaviest I could do at 4x6. Next week will be no lifting and the meet is on the 4th.
So, slightly different this time, but I didn't want to "forget" what lifting heavy feels like but also want to recover. We'll see how it goes.
Regarding the OP, most folks stop lifting hard a few weeks out, but some like Ande swim fast with only a few days of rest from weights. Experiment- everyone is different.
From May to the end of October for weights I did the stronglifts program which is 5 sets of 5 reps of squats, deadlifts, bench press, standing overhead press, and barbell row (Pendlay row). I had a meet a week ago and most events I went similar times as last year for a tapered but not shaved down meet but my 50 fly was over 0.6s faster than I ever swam at a meet not shaved down.
The last time I stopped weights only 1 week before a meet I did a timed 50 in practice the week after the meet faster than I did at the meet. I have found I am very fast for a couple weeks after a taper meet so for me it is better to error on stopping too early. This is with lifting heavy until I stop lifting. If the weights were tapered like Jason Lezak's program lifting until 1 week before would probably work well.
I did that exact taper from weights several times in the last few years. I found that I recovered pretty well, but this season I didn't do any of the 21-rep sets at all- I just stuck between 6 and 10 reps since May.
The 4 weeks leading up to my meet on Dec 4th consist of 4x6, 1x6, 1x4, and this week is 1x2 at the heaviest I could do at 4x6. Next week will be no lifting and the meet is on the 4th.
So, slightly different this time, but I didn't want to "forget" what lifting heavy feels like but also want to recover. We'll see how it goes.
Regarding the OP, most folks stop lifting hard a few weeks out, but some like Ande swim fast with only a few days of rest from weights. Experiment- everyone is different.
From May to the end of October for weights I did the stronglifts program which is 5 sets of 5 reps of squats, deadlifts, bench press, standing overhead press, and barbell row (Pendlay row). I had a meet a week ago and most events I went similar times as last year for a tapered but not shaved down meet but my 50 fly was over 0.6s faster than I ever swam at a meet not shaved down.
The last time I stopped weights only 1 week before a meet I did a timed 50 in practice the week after the meet faster than I did at the meet. I have found I am very fast for a couple weeks after a taper meet so for me it is better to error on stopping too early. This is with lifting heavy until I stop lifting. If the weights were tapered like Jason Lezak's program lifting until 1 week before would probably work well.
