MikeD

What are your current best rep maxes for each lift? We can probably help you estimate attempts from there. If you have vids then that's good as well. Some follow the template of: opener should be smooth and something you know you can hit, second attempt close to max, third attempt PR. But it sounds like you have not tested so attempts 2 and 3 might be PR's which is fine. Are you cutting weight? Not that I recommend you should for your first meet. I would just eat things that you are used to and comfortable eating around your workout, since you don't want to do anything out of the norm. Pack food to eat throughout the meet. If I were competing on Saturday, I would do my squat and bench opener Tuesday and the last deadlift warm up I plan on taking before heading out for first attempt. Then Thursday I would do my last planned warm ups for squat and bench and a light pull for deadlift and totally rest Friday. But tell us your general numbers so we can help more.

I think what is actually happening on the lift and what is best is dictated by gravity and biomechanics. I see it a lot in weightlifting (snatch, clean and jerk), where people say "Oh, but there's MORE than one way to do things and not everyone's the same!" Yeah, true, but there are some things that are just more efficient than other things, and just because some people are very good at/used to doing things inefficiently doesnt mean they're okay for everyone to do. That being said, the way you interpret these things and how you think about them is entirely individual. It's why cueing fascinates me. How the same cue can work magic in one lifter and fall totally flat on another, or how I could give one lifter 10 cues that are all telling him/her the same thing, but it doesn't click until the 11th. I could tell you, for each lift, a number of things that are absolutely ideal and what should happen, based on my knowledge of them. Do I KNOW for a fact that they are? No, but I have pretty good reason to think so.

If done right this could work. Working in the lower rep ranges obviously allows you to work much heavier, and the rest in between sets of a double or triple is much less than a set of 5+. So conceivably, you could do a 12x2 workout instead of a 5x5, and have the volume be the same (in terms of reps performed) but the average intensity be much higher. And because the weight is heavier, the total volume will be higher in the end as well. This would lose its potency if the rest is very long between sets, but it really shouldn't be. It's pretty easy to recover from a double for your next set.

Prolly not one or two. If you went on intermittent fasting in February and your lifts started to decline after that, it's probably the reason. It's not necessarily the weight loss, but being in an energy deficit. If you're not eating enough you're gonna feel crappy and get weaker.

I never really have knee pain and when I do I can usually tell why. It's usually from catching cleans/snatches forward, or squatting forward, or doing jerks forward etc. It also depends on how tight you wraps knee wraps. You can wrap them so they just keep everything warm, or you can wrap them until you can barely walk and you're springing out of the hold in a squat.

You really maintained a good back position in that vid and kept the bar over your center of gravity well. Actually a little behind it. There wasn't much forward knee travel but there was enough, you look like you went just a bit over the toes with them which is necessary. I think some people misinterpret or overdo Rip's cues anyway. Someone was at a seminar and he was yelling at all of them to stop shooting their asses up from the bottom. Cueing in general is an interesting thing. Rip also talks about how you will sometimes give the "wrong" cue in order to correct an exaggerated mistake. Like if the lifter is bent way too far forward, he will tell them to raise the chest, and it will balance out to a correct, "Starting Strength" squat. My main concern is my snatch and clean and jerk and using the squat as a way to make my legs strong in the right position. I'm fine with losing some power out of the hole from staying more upright because it means it's working my legs and back in the correct positions.

Like Ghost said, paused is good, as is higher frequency. You could do two bench days and one overhead press day. One bench day would be for volume and the other for intensity/higher weight. Also working up to a light single every session helped. Like if my max was 100kg I'd work up to 90kg, around.

3x BW is pretty common with high level oly lifters, but one of us squatting 3x BW would be pretty exceptional.

I think I was around 17 as well. My first PL'ing meet I did when I was 18 and my third squat was 350lbs at 165lbs This was wide stance, low bar, belt

Jesus, I thought I drank a lot of coffee! Having an espresso machine is dangerous business.

Need to know your body weight/height.

I'm excited. I'm glad the standards are higher. Having the new minimum number in my head while training is going to change the standards of what I expect from myself.

I would personally recommend doing all your reps dead stop if you're trying to get your 1RM up. When going for a max, the press will be done from a dead stop so that's how it should be trained.

The "Adult Male = 200lbs" thing is purely a tongue in cheek reaction to the skinny-male trend that was going on, nothing more. The whole hipster/men wearing girls jeans/Jamba juice thing. There is interesting discussion that's come out of it but I don't think 70sBig's words should be taken so seriously. I highly doubt anyone over there would call these elite sub-200lb athletes pussies.

Er, no, I meant which of the editors are on drugs? Justin made a post addressing this issue. All these people were emailing him saying "You know Coan and Pisarenko used drugs right?!!?!!!!?!111!!" And he basically said "Of course I do, do you think I'm fucking retarded?" Drugs were involved, but it does not really nullify the message of training heavy and eating a bunch.

Erm, which guys at 70sBig are on drugs? I think Lascek is being a bit facetious anyway. It's a schtick.

Aw, Ghost is all growed up now.

He was an awesome dude, very helpful and humble. Hope you get in touch with him.

Well this devolved quickly. We are forever 13.

Jay knows I like him for more than just his nuts. wut

Simon you filthy snake-oil salesman.

Make sure you're eating and recovery enough. And your form is strong and consistent enough to allow you to get to your goal weight without injury.