Having stated the type of personality and lifter that I am this is not to say that in this last 4 weeks with about another 3 to go before I need to knuckle down to my next competition I haven't been enjoying just been able to try different lifts and styles. It has actually yielded some surprising results which I can share with you here.
1 - You've all read it before but I can certainly vouch for it in this last month. Changing the reps and exercises that you do can really add not only some muscle but some serious soreness to go along with it.
2 - Training max lifts and then finishing with some dynamic efforts of 3 reps at 50% of your 1rm can really build some explosiveness that aids your max lifting
3 - Nothing beats staleness than trying some things differently. As an example in my last 3 squat sessions I have done 20 rep set, maximal effort squats and band speed squats over 3 various sessions. As mentioned above each have really led to some serious muscle soreness.
4 - Training arms can be fun. Whilst I predominately train for strength incorporating some bodybuilding type arm routines has resulted in a little more mass and some fun workouts.
Bottom line is don't be afraid to change things up occasionally. I have reviewed my last few workouts and have on the past 3 out of 7 sessions exceeded over 11000 total kg's lifted. When I looked at the average weights I was throwing around leading to my last competition it was more in the 7000kg's to 9000kg vicinity so if nothing else this extra volume in between competition cycles has taught me that I can possibly add even more volume leading up to this next competition which will hopefully yield some tremendous results.