Beyond the Bridge 1.0 as an early intermediate

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1

Hi,
I’ve just finished the Bridge 1.0 and can’t decide what program would fit me best next.
I’ll give some background first:
I’m 32, 5"8 150lbs.
S: 260@8
B: 176@8
D: 286@8
P: 110@8
I started training about 15 months ago with no structure and some random fluctuating split. About 1 year ago I followed some sort of push pull legs/push pull legs program, trying to do a little too much of everything, trying progressive overload but stalling at some point on various lifts. At the beginning of the year I started to do some 3x5 on the main lifts, but still keeping my p/p/l program and doing probably too much fluff volume. I quickly plateued on the 3x5 and started to get really fatigued and exhausted, probably not recuperating properly.

During the last 12 months I pretty much hovered around the same weight (±4lbs), but obviously recomped, and my main goal was to improve my pheasyque but have 6pack abs, but I could never get lean enough to get rid of belly fat.

I never did NLP, but 2 months ago I started the Bridge and got some decent results in terms of strength gains. It felt like less volume than I was doing before. I did not gain weight even though I upped my calorie intake by 10-15% (via carbs), but I still recomped a bit, as I know feel like the leanest i’ve been since starting training.

Tl/dr
My goals right now would be to gain some 10lbs of lean muscle mass, continue strength gains and lean out to where I’d have a 6 pack, and I’m not sure if I should redo Bride 1, do Bridge 2, other strength templates, or maybe a hypertrophy one…

2

If you enjoyed the Bridge 1.0 and got decent results, you could definitely give it another go. I think the Hypertrophy 1 or Powerbuilding 1 templates would be well suited for your goals too.

However, I think it’s going to be tough to simultaneously gain 10 pounds of lean mass while also lowering body fat enough so that visible abs will show. Whats your waist measurement? Are you planning to continue recomping, or do you want to do a bulk & cut?

3

I ran the legacy hypertrophy template followed by the power building II template both while cutting and saw my Wilks score improve slightly as I lost 30 pounds. I found the power building II cycle yielded some LBM gains while the legacy hypertrophy did not (measured with skinfold calipers) but it’s well within the margin of error.

My advice is to run power building II now in a caloric deficit and maintain a daily log of weight, waist, and maybe caliper measurements. Your goals are probably not achievable in one 12 week cycle, so start planning long term (6 months - 1 year).