A few training questions

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello folks!

So, after being derailed yet again, I’m about to take up training yet again. I assume a reasonable starting place is the SSLP to get myself trained up again, but if not, please let me know what you’d recommend instead.

So a couple of questions:

  1. How do I know when I’m done? Training to failure seems like a bad idea, based on what I’ve heard you talk about before – so if I don’t have to actually fail a rep before we call my LP done, then how do I know? Just an RPE 10 for my sets of 5?
  2. Previous problems with the LP have been that, towards the end, while I’m not failing reps, I feel beat up and sore pretty much all the time. Not DOMS, since I’ve build up at a reasonable pace, but just generally sore and grumpy, to the point that it affects my sleep, and my job. Do you think that a switch to The Bridge will help with that, or is it just the fact that I’m 48, and training is going to hurt, so nut up?

Finally, I thought I’d ask if you still endorse your free program “The Bridge”. I ask because, in it, you say that you endorse Rip’s definitions of Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced, yet in a recent podcast, I recall hearing that you reject the Intermediate and Advanced definitions because they are too general, and don’t give you any practical information about how to program something. So if I’m right, your thinking has evolved on that, and I was just wondering if it had evolved around any of the other things in The Bridge as well?

Thanks for your help and your time!

2

Lamneth,

Thanks for the post and I hope you’re doing well.

  1. You will miss some reps if you follow SSLP as this is the way SSLP is set up that’s the way you “know.” That’s probably fine to experience once or twice as a novice. That said, you’re not bound by any contractual obligation to do it as written.

  2. I think that your age doesn’t really have as much impact on this as your training program. If you’re untrained right now then doing LP is reasonable and then switch to The Bridge. You don’t get a medal of honor for running out your LP to mediocre strength levels, right? So, the logical answer here would be when you approach your previous strength levels you just switch to the different program or start seeing a coach. Adding another 20lbs to your lifts in 4 weeks as a novice while beating the shit out of yourself is not a good trade off, as those 20lbs will easily be gained in future training and it’s likely more important for long term strength, hypertrophy, and health outcomes to modify training so it is productive.

Yes, we still endorse The Bridge, but we have come to reject any post novice description of training categorization because they’re useless in training management.

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