Just bought the above template after working on a 4 day split over the last 12 weeks where I made some nice strength progress. My goal now is to drop some body fat but looking at the template it’s about half my current volume per each workout and I’m worried I’ll lose my gainzzz (jk). But I am worried about the reduced volume.
Has any else here used the same template in a similar scenario?
I’m not knocking the template and will complete it as prescribed just concerned, I was expecting to get smashed by it.
I’m running the 7 week GPP Endurance right now after Bridge 1.0. My strength has dipped in squats and press but deadlifts have gone up and bench is about the same. I’ve dropped 9.5 pounds and 2" off of my waist in the first four weeks. I probably have my calories too low but I’m almost back to my pre-LP body fat and my waist is right at 40" so I need to go ahead and get it down.
Not exactly what you are looking for but it is my experience. I have a feeling that I’ll be able to regain my losses quicker than I initially obtained them after the fat is gone.
You should not lose strength. Your skill for lifting heavy may temporarily go down, but all it takes is a couple weeks to gain that skill back. In my past experience when I do a cut my e1rm’s do temporarily go down on some of the lifts after a few weeks of a caloric deficit, but it comes back very fast as soon as I start eating more calories again. Any lowered performance has been more of a byproduct of lower energy from less calories than any actual lost strength or muscle mass. I wouldn’t worry about it, especially since we’re only talking about 7 weeks here. You’ll also re-sensitize to volume again so your next block can be more productive. You do want average volume over a long time period to go up over time, but that doesn’t mean it has to go up linearly between every block. It’s ok, ideal even, to wave it up and down a bit block to block.
I’m doing this program and will start week 3, too soon to say where it will leads me, it has also less squatting volume but I still dont experienced any problem. I’m also cutting, in a very conservative way, reducing 700 cals per week until I start see my waist going down. Did not lose too much weight, but body composition is improving which is my main goal right now, the template seems perfect for cutting.
Contrary to your case, it has much more volume on deads and sligthly more on pressing movements. Deads are blowing up which is normal bcz of increased volume, and presses stayed the same for now, also new to RPE so it’s not very reliable data
But I try to see this program as an opportunity to improve my conditioning sets of five at 5mins rest compared to sets of 6 plus 4 mins of rest time is a hell of a change, I was so sore after the first week. If this changes also affects you, ours e1Rm may grow slowly.
I mean it changes the focus a little and it is a pretty fun template to do, I’d say start and see how it feels, and don’t be so worried it may stress you and lose (a little) of your gainzzz