When to stop workouts before CFA?

[Shelbyboyz]

Hi everyone,

DS is taking the CFA this Friday. Currently, he has been training for it 2x/day doing all the events in the morning and everything except the run in the evening. When would be the optimal time to stop working out so that he can hopefully have a great showing on Friday (evening)?

Thanks in advance for your ideas

 

[mademu]

Don't stop, taper off. Drop down to one per day and keep it easy.

Say today he does some pacing work, such as 6x20 sec push ups and sit ups and 6x pull ups until he feels a slight burn. 6x400s at goal pace.

Do the same thing tomorrow, but drop sets to 4x, and replace the 400s with a 20 minute run at a moderate pace (fast but not straining).

On Thursday, do an easy easy 1 mile run, maybe do a set of 30 sec push ups, sit ups and do 3/4 of what your max pull ups is. If you pull 12, do 9.

This is what I do, a lot of this is based upon Stew Smith's stuff for tapering off. This is my own taper program and it works for me, so do what you will with it.

 

[Shelbyboyz]

Thanks mademu - today's workout was scaled down and DS will take the CFA tomorrow.

 

[goldfarb1]

Taking mine saturday. What works best for me is actually taking the week off. I compromised and did my last workout Monday. My training scheme isn't two a days, only because I'm a proponent of letting the body rest, but whatever suits your child best is fine.

When I take the week off I'm able to come back and pound endurance excercises, not the same for lifting though. I do recon ron for pullups, 3 x max sets of pushups, 3 mile run twice a week, 3 x max set of situps. A few weeks back I took a week off, came back and went from 13 pullups to 15 pullups (just as an example). I'm a huge fan of keeping the body fresh before a competition, etc.

 

[Shelbyboyz]

Funny that you mention pull-ups...DS changed his technique for the basketball throw and for some reason it impacted his pull-ups. Even though the basketball throw increased, his pull-ups took a hit. We will just hope that having a little time off will help and he will feel stronger this evening. Good luck Saturday goldfarb1!