Train WHEN You Compete

One of the most overlooked yet critical pieces of preparing for competition is the time you do the bulk of your training. Many new athletes don’t realize how there body responds to stimulus at different times of the day, especially if they haven’t trained at different times of the day.
The variance depends on the lifter. I know many lifters who are relatively strong in the mornings and feel slow and sluggish in the evenings. The reverse may be true for you. Personally I just am not able to muster much quickness or explosive speed early in the morning. Those types of movements are best reserved for midafternoon. Furthermore, I am practically useless after 5 PM. My body immediately begins going into sleep mode at that point. This happened the second I graduated from college and started to feel older. I can only imagine that it will get worse. Some of you Masters lifters can probably confirm that for me.
Whatever the case may be for you, it is important that you first figure out how your body trains at different times during the day and as you approach competition, train at the time you will be competing at. It is important that you go ahead and get your body and mind adjusted to competition time at whatever time that may be. One of our Power and Grace lifters preparing for Nationals typically trains in the afternoon or evening. When the start list came out she realized she was competing at 8 AM. For that reason she has begun completing her workouts earlier in the morning. She has specifically focused on completing the snatch and clean and jerk during those time periods. What she found this week was that she was nowhere near as crisp nor as explosive that early in the morning. It was much more important for her to find this out three weeks out from Nationals and begin adapting and preparing for it rather then figure that out day of.
If you know when your next competition is and you know what what time of day you will be competing, it is in your best interest, if possible, to begin completing workouts at your scheduled lifting time. Prepare your body and mind for the platform. Don’t expect to just figure it out day of.