Moving to Phase 2?

[Roman Messali]

Hey Doc,

I just finished Week 4.4 of the Beginner Template and have been making good progress (about 30lbs on my squat, 35lbs on my DL, 20lbs on my bench, and essentially no progress but that was more so due to technique issues which I am really honing in on now). Over the last week, I have noticed sessions are becoming more and more fatiguing and the RPEs tend to climb up a little bit. My deadlift and squat progression seem to still be going fine, though my bench and press have slowed down quite a bit. I'm sure I could probably squeeze out maybe one more week, but the sessions have become very fatiguing and seemingly do not generate much stress. Should I move onto phase 2?

Thanks!

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Sure, that's reasonable. If the RPE's are climbing, I'd really, really look at load selection. I'd rather you not increase weight if the RPE is going to go up, which is kind of the point of using RPE in the first place you know?

[Roman Messali]

Right, yeah. Admittedly, I have been letting myself put on more weight on bench and having the RPE rise to an 8.5-9 just to get more pounds on, which I know is not the proper approach. I'm sure I could run 1-2 more weeks of the first phase, but I don't think it really matters much in the long run. I'm probably just going to switch to the next phase. As a bonus question, should I do split squats with one leg on the bench or just how you performed them on that one Instagram video from a bit back where you talked about the benefits of some unilateral work? I'm assuming it won't really matter much, but I'm just curious. Thanks!

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Right, yeah. Admittedly, I have been letting myself put on more weight on bench and having the RPE rise to an 8.5-9 just to get more pounds on, which I know is not the proper approach. I'm sure I could run 1-2 more weeks of the first phase, but I don't think it really matters much in the long run. I'm probably just going to switch to the next phase. As a bonus question, should I do split squats with one leg on the bench or just how you performed them on that one Instagram video from a bit back where you talked about the benefits of some unilateral work? I'm assuming it won't really matter much, but I'm just curious. Thanks!

I do split squats with both feet on the ground and bulgarian split squats with the rear foot elevated.