I just finished week 4 of the Bridge. It’s a great program. I am running into two issues that I was hoping to get some advice on:
The workouts are taking me a long time. I had to catch a flight on the day of the last workout of week 4 and had to cut the number of sets. Should I instead do the prescribed number of sets but reduce the rest times, and accept that the weight on the bar will be lower (but RPE will be at the prescribed level)?
I usually work out Sunday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday but next week I have a short week (Sunday-Wednesday) because of work related travel on Thursday and Friday. Should I just compress the 4d workout into those 4 consecutive days, again accepting that the weights will lower but RPE will be at prescribed levels, or is that a bad idea because of no days to recover in between?
Yes, get the total work in that week regardless of how you have to do it. It’s ok to train 4 days in a row. You don’t need rest days in between.
Don’t get hung up on the weight on the bar. As Alan states in that video, the most important factor is getting the total volume in for the week. You’re also training not testing. Far too many people treat every training day like it’s a test, I’ve been there and done that as well. It gets very stressful and when training with RPE that mindset can actually be counter-productive. There is a time and place to worry about weight on the bar, and that’s if you ever compete, on the day you compete. Other than that, just get your volume in and the weight on the bar will take care of itself over time.
I am running the bridge now, in week 5, and I have made rest times strictly 3-4 minutes tops and always time them. I have also not taken rest times during warm ups until after the last warm up before the first work set. The times have not exceeded 1:40 for me and most are 1:20-1:30.