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Glenn,
I know I am new to the crew…so I was kinda curious as to your thoughts on tapering for a big competition…
How soon do you start tapering?
Do you just taper the volume of the lifts?
Do you reduce squatting frequency?
Do you reduce  the intensity?

It starts with hell week haha

 
Jared,
basically we cut volume, usually starting two weeks out, although I have found kids that did better with 3 weeks.  We continute to train heavy, really right up to the meet, but we will cut down the amount of heavy workouts.  Mon, Wed, and Fri afternoon usually remain heavy or maximal w orkouts, with the other workouts gradually going down to glorified warmup sessions.
We actually squat MORE often the last 3 or 4 weeks,..  but with much lower volume, so the total number of squatting doesnt really change all that much till the last week before competition, when squatting really decreases..

Do you still stick to the back squat as you get closer to a meet, or do you include some more front squatting?

Have your lifters generally had a harder time keeping their weight down during this “tapering” phase? Because of the less volume on MWF, and the “glorified warm ups” on tues, thurs, sat?

 
We normally increase the frequency of the front squats…  but still  back squat about a time or two a week.  The last few weeks have been a bit abnormal with NO front squatting, we normally do at least some every week but not lately.  We normally do, roughly twice as much back squatting as front away from a meet, and about 3 times as much front as back, again roughly, when tapering for a meet.
Front squats are just easier to recover from when done heavy, and  when tapering, we want to use high intensity to “peak” strength, while also obviously recovering from all the previous heavy training.

 
Jared, oddly enough, no.  Personally I think a lot of that is nerves.  Although the training volume drops, it seeems like for most people the metabolism just speeds up when a contest approaches.

Glenn if u increase my squat sets anymore than it already is during this tapering for the arnold. We are not friends no  more. i already do 18 sets of squats with a total of 98 squats for my work sets. That doesnt count my warm ups.
I cant deal wit any more squats

 
LOL, no my friend, after Saturday you have very very few squats to do for the rest of the time before the Arnold

Sweet!!!!! I made my sets at 150 yesturday too. It wasnt too bad

 
Just two more workouts…

maybe one of you guys can define “tapering” for all the lay people out there who might not know what it is =)

ITs when you put tape on Pete everyone knows that haha jk.
 
You usually taper when you are come off of a heavy work load with high intensity. you then decrease the duration and intensity of your workouts so your body has a full chance to recover and be prepared for a competition.

You are all speaking spanish to me, this is to complicated for me, your all useing big words!  I will tell you what though, whatever coach Pendlay is doing is working becuase I am strong strong strong baby!!!  and so is the rest of the cal strength team!  

 
When you decrease workload to allow your body to peak for a competition.

Is tapering different for bodybuilders than us weightlifters? 

 
Of course it is.  We are going for maximal performance, they are not.  Two totally different things.  A bodybuilder in “peak condition” probably has lower physical performance capabilities at that point than any other time throughout the year…  The opposite of what an athlete is trying to achieve.

How do you know how far out from competition to start tapering? Does it vary for different people?

Glenn,
What made you decide to start “altering/tapering” the training 2 weeks out from a competition? Is this just from countless times trying different tapers with different people?