Hi guys and thanks to the BBM crew for all of this awesomeness you provide. I recently purchased the 7 Week GPP Hypertrophy Bias (3-Day) – Version 2.0 and I am currently trying to work out the details befor starting next week. As part of this I have a few questions. I will most likely manage without answers, yet it would be nice if I could have some thoughts addressed.
a) How am I suppose to gauge my rep maxes for the supplemental lifts? I am comfortable performing them, however, I have no idea of my 1rm for the RDL, the close grip incline bench, the stiff leg DL or the leg press. Perhaps this is because I am still just an intermediate lifter (about a year in of more serious training). Should I simply get to the gym and grind it out for a few sessions? Can I use proxies? How?
b) Just to clarify, with respect to the above I do get that I can also try and use RPE, which I will. That being said this will be my first time with RPE and it would be nice to use percentages as a start.
c) Can I expect my 1rm for the major lifts to be about the same after as before these seven weeks? The way I read the instructions I would think so. I am asking cause I really would like to just plug this in for a period of time while I also work on some body recomposition. After that I would like to get back to chasing gainz!
d) HIIT. I dont have a prowler at my gym. Nor are they equipped with one of those arm cycle things that seem to be popular. I do have simple elliptical cross trainers, treadmills, rowing machines, bicycles and also some concept rower that is more like skiing. Fo you have a preference here? Can I go with any of them?
a&b) I was going to say just work your way up, then I saw your “b.” For a close variant, say Close Grip BP or 2ct pause BP, I usually take 5-10% off the competition lift, and gauge the RPE going up through @6,@7,@8. It is common that I over or undershoot. In these cases, I don’t heartburn if my @6 turned out to be an @7 and just carry on and let the next jump @8, and do the work as prescribed, but with no @6. If I get up to what I guessed I could do 2 more and it’s still way too easy, I add weight until it becomes an @8.
The prescribed @6 does contribute to your working volume, but very minimally, so accidentally skipping it one day isn’t the end of the world. In terms of hypertrophy, generally the 5 reps in proximity to failure (technically only 1 rep of an @6 set) are of much significance.
c) This depends on a lot. How you as an individual respond to this particular mode of training, your nutritional status, your training status going into the block… If you are coming off of a peak, you may have to run another peaking block to compare apples to apples yaknow? But if you aren’t in a marked caloric defect, you should be fine, or better than fine.
d) HIIT. There are a few things that might matter.
Prowlers and rowers are popular with powerlifters because of some transference to the motions they do in competition, but many of the adaptations sought in HIIT and general cardio are independent of the movement patterns.
For my time, I avoid impact work. Impact work like jogging has a higher recovery cost than non-impact work. Which means to me, if I avoid impact work in my cardio sessions, I’ll have more recovery resources for my strength training.
One of the affects of cardio is that it increases the capillary and mitochondria density of the muscles worked. This contributes to what Jordan describes in The Bridge as “some aerobic conditioning to get good at clearing metabolic byproducts.” So ideally, the cardio exercise method chosen should work the whole body.
That said, do what you enjoy. I really like biking, and I like a stationary bike that can track my heart rate as well as provide a session timer. So I ride a bike that does those things even though an elliptical thingy magummy might give some benefit to my upper body that I’m missing out on riding the bike.
Enjoyment is one of the main predictors of adherence.
Thanks a lot for the answer. Will be starting out next week and I am just gonna try to use the RPE thing. 10% off seems like a good place to start. Will try it for the RDL as well.