I realized while watching The Incredibles today that I need to get back into competition and hit it hard, frequently, and successfully. I'll accept any form, but for now it's powerlifting. Victory is important and I haven't had much of it recently.
My favorite programs thus far have been Bulgarian, Linear, and the Texas Method, probably because they all involve some frequency of heavy work. I've posted my Texas Method idea, and my previous Bulgarian experiments have been...mixed. I'm also considering Sheiko.
My last meet performance was 375/215/415 for a 1005 total at 165 (170 walking weight). I intend to beat all of these at 148 at my next competition (minimum 380/220/420), and I've got about 20 weeks to go. My last Bulgarian experience ran 9 weeks and worked quite well for my squat; I'm not sure if I can get it to work for my bench, and I suspect that high-bar squatting and a better approach to speed pulls will handle the deadlift. I also get quad pain from squatting in this style now, but I'll have to get over that anyway.
For cutting weight, I'll start with half an hour of fasted rowing in the morning (and do an experiment without yohimbine or caffeine to figure out the right pace to use for each day). I'm also going to pay very close attention to my mood - it's possible that keto is hitting me harder than I'd like, in which case I'll switch to the mildly TKD-esque approaches I outlined a while back.
For LP, I've tried 3x5 with paused deads and weight gain, and 5x5 with touch-and-go deads and weight loss. That cut was more aggressive than this one, and I don't want to disregard this as an option - I had great success on the 3x5 (albeit with weight gain), can easily mesh the beginning of this with my cut, and can use it to segue into the Texas Method later. It's also one of the most versatile and forgiving.
Here I'd go 3x5 Squat/Bench and Dead/Press, starting 185/135 and 225/95, with chins and external rotation work afterwards. I'd need to go back to my old logs to figure out exactly what I did during the weight gain period. I'm probably most in favor of this to start, actually - 5s with moderate rest are good for testosterone levels, I can get it done quickly each day while I'm working at Cypress, and with 20 weeks I can realistically get somewhere very solid and/or transition to the Texas Method for peaking.
If I take the TM approach, I've got roughly 20 weeks of progress; if we split that into 3 cycles of 6 weeks progress, 1 week deload, you're looking at (ideally) 90lbs on the squat, 45 on the bench, and 75 (jokingly) on the deadlift. I won't be crash cutting this time, so the deadlift progression should actually be sustainable (barring squat interference) starting at 315, and using the 0.75in increments Emevas uses (6-5-4-3-2-0-Deload). High-bar squats, close-grip bench, rows on the light day. This approach also involves a lot of heavy 5s with reasonable rests, which we know are good for testosterone.
Sheiko would have me run #29 4 times and then peak with #32. This will probably be attractive in the future, but right now I think the lack of any real foundation or maxes is kind of a problem.
Bulgarian is...interesting. Broz's recommendation would be max squatting daily plus some backoff doubles/triples, alternating bench and dead for the other 3 days (CG maxes and volume for bench, speed pulls for dead). Suggestions here put a useful cap on the bench volume, though the deadlift advice is a bit lacking. This one's the most compatible with keto. Here's some more specific suggestions. This one has the added bonus of letting me focus on pressing overhead for a bit while I get my shoulder healthier (LP/TM would be less forgiving here). This one also worked really well without a team or any online guidance; very introspective, but fairly antisocial, with ups and downs to both of those.
I guess I'll figure it out later.
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