Question

Mike is preparing for a weightlifting competition (Olympic lifting). He has two weeks left until the day of the meet, and has trained very hard using a periodized approach. His lifts in the gym are all personal records for him, but he is worried that he will lose these adaptations with the week of reduced training volume that his coach has planned for him prior to the competition. Mike wants to continue training hard up until the competition. Using your text, explain to Mike what the upcoming rest period is called and the physiology behind why it is either a good or bad idea, and whether the period of 1 week is too long, too short, or just right.

Answer 1

The rest period is called: Tapering period.

It is good because this type of rest has proven that it increases the muscular strength letting the athlete compete at their best level. The fundament behind that is that muscle fiber is recovered and rebuilt. But it needs to remain at rest to do so.

The ideal tapering period for weightlifting is from 4 to 28 days. So in our case, it is really good.

Step-by-step explanation:

All right, to understand this answer we need to analyze everything. First, the rest period Mike is going to go through is called tapering period. This period is really special because muscle fiber is healed. Now, by this, I mean that every day of training he consumes muscle fiber that when not used gets restored and by doing so the muscle fiber is increased and rested. So, if Mike is going to have more muscle and it won't be tired. Then he is going to perform better because f will not only have more muscle but better performance. In our case weightlifting needs from 4 to 28 days to function ideally. Thus, our week is the perfect measure to increase his performance.