In-person coaching for The Bridge

[d4nielkim]

Firstly, here’s a background of myself: I’m a 26 year old male that just completed Starting Strength NLP two months ago. After that, I was told by my SSC to take a deload week and move on to the next step: Texas Method (3 day split).

I ran that for 6 weeks and made decent gains, but I’m the type of person that does a lot of research (that’s how I learned about SS) and found out that TM is a suboptimal intermediate program.

So, I asked myself: “What’s next?” Well, once again I started doing a lot of research and discovered about The Bridge.

To be honest, I really like the idea of RPE style of training and I have immense respect for both Dr. Austin & Dr. Feigenbaum. Last but not least, there seem to be a lot of positive reviews regarding The Bridge, so I’d love to give it a try.

Here’s some of my concern though:

1) Are there any in-person coaching available in the Austin, TX area? If no, then next question:

2) There’s a gym called Ignite Fitnez. I was thinking of asking a coach over there but use The Bridge as my preferred program for coaching. Would this be a viable option?

Thanks for reading!

[Austin Baraki]

I'm sure there is someone in the ATX area who would be willing & able to coach you -- however, we do not have any coaches in the area ourselves.

And we don't know anything about that gym, unfortunately.

[mdboxberger]

My personal experience with trying to get a coach at my club to help me with my lifts wasn't particularly good. Unless the coach already knows and coaches the lifts, they may try to steer you to what they are already experienced/comfortable with. You already know the lift mechanics if you've worked with an SSC, so it seems now you just need to add RPE to do the Bridge (and maybe learn some of the supplemental lifts you haven't done before).

The use of RPE is something I think is most effectively 'self-taught' -- after all, it's your perception that you're using - not a coaches necessarily (although they may be able to share their impressions based on experience). My own learning on RPE was to initially think about/repeat my final NLP lifts -- I was essentially going to RPE 10 on everything at the end, so just needed to pay attention to what the last 3-4 repetitions before that had felt like to identify my RPE 9,8, and 7 -- based on the 'reps in reserve' concept.

For the supplemental lifts there's lots of Youtube content out there -- and Jordan was kind enough to make his videos available on the 'Resources' tab of the free peaking template.

Maybe post on the BBM Facebook page to see it there's anyone in the Austin area willing to help / coach you getting started, even informally.

Matt

[d4nielkim]

I'm sure there is someone in the ATX area who would be willing & able to coach you -- however, we do not have any coaches in the area ourselves.

And we don't know anything about that gym, unfortunately.

Thanks for the quick response, Dr. Austin. Earlier I had a conversation with my SSC and she said she wouldn't recommend The Bridge (which was expected since SS & BBM has a different approach when it comes down to intermediate programming. Correct me if I'm wrong though).

Honestly, I just wanna continue getting stronger but I’d prefer if I could do that in a less time consuming way. According to my research, The Bridge or other RPE based programs are the way to go when it comes down to intermediate & advanced.

Also, if Austin area is out of the option, then which other cities in Texas is the in-person BBM coaching available?

My personal experience with trying to get a coach at my club to help me with my lifts wasn't particularly good. Unless the coach already knows and coaches the lifts, they may try to steer you to what they are already experienced/comfortable with. You already know the lift mechanics if you've worked with an SSC, so it seems now you just need to add RPE to do the Bridge (and maybe learn some of the supplemental lifts you haven't done before).

The use of RPE is something I think is most effectively 'self-taught' -- after all, it's your perception that you're using - not a coaches necessarily (although they may be able to share their impressions based on experience). My own learning on RPE was to initially think about/repeat my final NLP lifts -- I was essentially going to RPE 10 on everything at the end, so just needed to pay attention to what the last 3-4 repetitions before that had felt like to identify my RPE 9,8, and 7 -- based on the 'reps in reserve' concept.

For the supplemental lifts there's lots of Youtube content out there -- and Jordan was kind enough to make his videos available on the 'Resources' tab of the free peaking template.

Maybe post on the BBM Facebook page to see it there's anyone in the Austin area willing to help / coach you getting started, even informally.

Matt

Yes, I'm pretty familiar with the lift mechanics. However, if possible, I'd still be more comfortable training under an experienced coach. Perhaps if I train for another year or two then yes, I'd be fully comfortable training by myself. I did join the BBM FB group like you suggested, so hopefully I'll find something over there. Thanks for the advice btw

[Austin Baraki]

Thanks for the quick response, Dr. Austin. Earlier I had a conversation with my SSC and she said she wouldn't recommend The Bridge (which was expected since SS & BBM has a different approach when it comes down to intermediate programming. Correct me if I'm wrong though).

Of course they don't recommend it.

Honestly, I just wanna continue getting stronger but I’d prefer if I could do that in a less time consuming way. According to my research, The Bridge or other RPE based programs are the way to go when it comes down to intermediate & advanced.

There are numerous options for training approaches to get stronger. We obviously like our programs, but there are lots of other organizations out there with their own approaches that can work well for people. Rather than getting this bogged down with this decision process, I'd recommend picking something and moving forward with it to see how you respond. If you get stronger, that's great -- and if not, you've learned something, and you can try something different.

Also, if Austin area is out of the option, then which other cities in Texas is the in-person BBM coaching available?

I am the only member of our staff living in Texas and I am located in San Antonio. I am happy to do a coaching session, but I do not offer ongoing in-person coaching on a regular basis.