I just finished week 4.6 of the beginner template/prescription and am really enjoying the program. I’m 25, 5’7, and weighed at about (205lbs-210lbs) with a huge waistline (had to be over or around 40in tbh), but now weigh 190 and have significantly decreased my waistline/body fat while increasing my e1rm and also increasing muscle mass. My e1rm for deadlift is 287lbs, 260lbs for squat, and about 165lbs for my bench. I really have to credit all of the BBM medicine team for providing a solid program for me and so much great info online, thank you so much.
I don’t see any signs of slowing down increasing my deadlift and maybe my squat soon, but I have to admit its tough to see improvements in my e1rm for my bench(similarily for overhead press/barbell rows). It either stalls or goes up maybe 3lbs at most. Although I understand everyone’s progress is different and I’ve read that the bench does improve slower than other lifts, but is this progress/e1rm normal? For me, increasing my deadlift/squat each week by at least 0.03% so far is doable, but with my bench it’s definetly slower/stalls.
I should also add that a lot of times my bench/overhead/row sets that should be @7 sometimes end up being @8, and then when I try for the final set(at that same weight) it sometimes ends up being a @9 or even @10. Since my squat and deadlift have been increasing fairly linearly I’m not sure if this could be a problem with my form/how many sets I do at certain RPE’s, or if from other people’s experience this is a normal progression for the bench/overhead/rows?
Thank you for taking a look into this, although it seems like progress its just a few pounds or maybe a set where I would have been 9RPE but ends up being an 8RPE, so I guess its progress albeit slow?
