12 or 16 week meet cycle?

[sperez21]

Any drawbacks to doing a 16 week cycle as opposed to 12 weeks? You obviously get more training time in, just wondering if there are any major benefits to having a cycle go for 16 weeks than 12 weeks.

[Medley44]

In for responses. Good question.

[NorthStrong]

Well it really depends what you mean by cycle.

If you mean a peaking cycle/block, you'd be good with like 3 weeks or so likely.

If you are structuring the week by blocks of around say 3 weeks, then 12-16 weeks out you'd really still be working on more general strength / hypertrophy stuff anyway. 12 weeks out from a meet to me still seems like basically an off season to me.

Do you mean doing stuff like 10s, 8s, 5s, 3s, 1-2s, etc, or what?

Basically my point is that you only need a short period of time to peak, and then for a month or two before that you'd be wanting to drive up your sets of 3-5, and before that it would generally be higher rep stuff regardless if it's 12 or 16 weeks out.

This was probably really horribly articulated.

[sperez21]

Well it really depends what you mean by cycle.

If you mean a peaking cycle/block, you'd be good with like 3 weeks or so likely.

If you are structuring the week by blocks of around say 3 weeks, then 12-16 weeks out you'd really still be working on more general strength / hypertrophy stuff anyway. 12 weeks out from a meet to me still seems like basically an off season to me.

Do you mean doing stuff like 10s, 8s, 5s, 3s, 1-2s, etc, or what?

Basically my point is that you only need a short period of time to peak, and then for a month or two before that you'd be wanting to drive up your sets of 3-5, and before that it would generally be higher rep stuff regardless if it's 12 or 16 weeks out.

This was probably really horribly articulated.

I completely understood what you meant man, and I agree! However I should've probably articulated myself that I use concurrent/conjugate methods when I set up my programming. I don't really use certain "blocks" other than waves of percentages/waves of different exercises throughout those 12 weeks. Usually I would train in 12 week cycles, which would lead up to a meet, with the last 3 weeks of those 12 being my "peaking" period per se. I've seen other people use 16 weeks to train leading up to a meet too, which brought about my question.

[NorthStrong]

I completely understood what you meant man, and I agree! However I should've probably articulated myself that I use concurrent/conjugate methods when I set up my programming. I don't really use certain "blocks" other than waves of percentages/waves of different exercises throughout those 12 weeks. Usually I would train in 12 week cycles, which would lead up to a meet, with the last 3 weeks of those 12 being my "peaking" period per se. I've seen other people use 16 weeks to train leading up to a meet too, which brought about my question.

I'd say if you're using that style and your training doesn't change much due to the lack of distinct phases that you could just train however you normally would until you wanted to do your peak then, 12 or 16 weeks wouldn't really matter if you're doing a concurrent/conjugate system as it's typically understood on the internet.

[SA249]

With conjugate style I honestly don't think differentiating between a 12 and 16 week meet prep is very critical. I'm not entirely sure how to explain this, but the one thing that has helped me greatly in finding success with conjugate is thinking of the lead up to the meet as a way to peak your specificity.... that is gradually move to closer variations of the comp lifts as the meet approaches. Seen too many raw lifters go all the way into the meet doing box squats for ME work, only to have no idea what to do when the box is gone.

[jmil]

With conjugate style I honestly don't think differentiating between a 12 and 16 week meet prep is very critical. I'm not entirely sure how to explain this, but the one thing that has helped me greatly in finding success with conjugate is thinking of the lead up to the meet as a way to peak your specificity.... that is gradually move to closer variations of the comp lifts as the meet approaches. Seen too many raw lifters go all the way into the meet doing box squats for ME work, only to have no idea what to do when the box is gone.

That was a great way to put it!

To OP, I've done 12 weeks, I've done 16 weeks... honestly, you're not going to notice a difference. Just make sure you dial it in, as stated above.

[getbigordie18]

What program are you following.this varies a lot on how you will perform...

[sperez21]

That was a great way to put it!

To OP, I've done 12 weeks, I've done 16 weeks... honestly, you're not going to notice a difference. Just make sure you dial it in, as stated above.

With conjugate style I honestly don't think differentiating between a 12 and 16 week meet prep is very critical. I'm not entirely sure how to explain this, but the one thing that has helped me greatly in finding success with conjugate is thinking of the lead up to the meet as a way to peak your specificity.... that is gradually move to closer variations of the comp lifts as the meet approaches. Seen too many raw lifters go all the way into the meet doing box squats for ME work, only to have no idea what to do when the box is gone.

Thanks guys! Makes a ton of sense honestly. I made sure that for my last week, I peaked with straight weight since I compete raw. The way I've been programming my stuff is to kind of tighten up my variations to competition style lifts the closer I get to a meet, so it's assuring to get your feedback saying pretty much the same thing.

[getbigordie18]

Thanks guys! Makes a ton of sense honestly. I made sure that for my last week, I peaked with straight weight since I compete raw. The way I've been programming my stuff is to kind of tighten up my variations to competition style lifts the closer I get to a meet, so it's assuring to get your feedback saying pretty much the same thing.

Dry DUP training most people get injured doing the same rep range on bench press every week. Undulating volume is the way to go.