trusting the process

[jumdumpster]

How so you guys do mentally when you’re prepping for a bodybuilding show or powerlifting meet? I’ve done a pretty decent amount of powerlifting comps and I know how the training process goes, but I have such a hard time dealing with not being as strong as I’m going to be, or doubting that I’m going to get up to the numbers I want by the end of my prep. It’s literally week two and I’m already driving myself insane.
How do you guys cope? Do you just live with the the insanity? Distract yourself? Personally I get consumed by it. I’ve had times where I’ve had other distractions that helped, but they were mainly negative and/or contributed to the stress.

 

[JDLift]

Find a training method that works for you. I'm not perfect (See: Status lol) but what I have done for a while that works nicely is incorporating a set or two to failure and tracking the rep counts. Prep for a meet gets boring for sure when you're just going in and hitting the same 60-92% range for triples, fives, and maybe 8-10s but by adding failure sets after the main compound of the day I am able to track strength fluctuations/gains and also it gives a new stimulus (endurance/muscular endurance), gives an opportunity to focus on speed, control and breathing during the set, and gives you records to track. Simple stuff, just add one or two sets of 50-80% (or flat numbers like 135, 225, etc if those interest you more) after you finish your 5x3 or 5x5 or whatever boring shit you did that day and log the counts. Example from my logs tracking two bench days per week alternating with 2 sets to failure of 75% one day and 60% the second day:

W1
32 reps, 50 reps
W2
31 reps, 50 reps
W3
33 reps, 45 reps
W4
35 reps, 52 reps
W5
34 reps, 51 reps
W6
34 reps, 56 reps

So I can look back at these numbers and instead of thinking "Ah shit I only did a 5x5 @LOL%" I can instead see that my strength fluctuated but overall trended upward over 6 weeks with a peak gain of +3 reps on 75% and +6 reps on 60%, and I can see how consistent or inconsistent my strength is (Week 3 for example shit felt awful on day 2). So by doing this kinda thing I have the opportunity to set a new personal record on rep counts every session or at least attempt to, and honestly it is quite fun slamming weight around. Deads and Squats to failure is a nightmare, squats you have to stop early so you don't get pinned but overall it helped me a lot. Buuuuut I may not be the best guy for advice tbh since I just snapped my shit up so tread carefully if you take my advice lol.