Hello – I’m currently running The Bridge and feeling relatively beat up (no injuries, just nagging hip/elbow soreness inhibiting my ability to push as hard as desired). Is this just adaptation that should be pushed through or should I adjust volume and/or splits? I have never run the traditional SS linear progression (I have, however, run other variations of LPs) so squatting/benching/deadlifting (or performing some variation of each) on the same day is new to me. For additional context, I’m 32 years old and have been training for 10+ years but am new to structured powerlifting-centric programming.
Hello and welcome! It sounds like you might be overshooting the RPE a bit here, do you think that might be the case? This is the first place to check at a time like this.
You might also find these RPE resources helpful as you’re adjusting to this programming:
Just finding this thread as I’m kind of in the same boat as the OP.
just finishing my 4th week of the bridge and I’m beat up, hip & forearm soreness affecting most workouts.
i thought it was perhaps just my body getting used to the increase in volume but its interesting to see that overshooting RPE could be a culprit. I have been aggressive in my weight jumps from set to set when going up in RPE say from 7 to 8. I know Alan mentions 5% per RPE so I’m going to stick with that going forward.
I can see where I may be over shooting the RPE 6 or 7 but 8 & 9 seem to be fairly easily interpreted and they are after all the most stressful sets of the workout. my questions would be: 1. 4 @ RPE 9 - I find sometimes that my 4th rep is a real grind, bar slows down significantly but I get the rep. At that point if you put a gun to my head I could probably get a 5th but it’d be close. is that a 9 or should a 9 be more like “I easily can do 1 more, if you put a gun to my head I might get a bone on bone 2nd?”
2. Alan mentions in the video that if you are aiming for an RPE 9 say and the set feels more like an 8, that set doesn’t count. I’m not sure my question about this other than, is this necessary? I could see this on a week where we’re only doing a set of 3 but is this necessary on a high stress week where we’re already doing 5-6 sets?
3. lastly, not RPE related but I’m finding my training sessions take up to 2 hours or more. The program states 70-90 min so I feel like I’m missing something. I’m in a home gym with with one rack, one barbell… so I can’t necessarily warmup one exercise simultaneously while doing work sets for another. I rest 3-5 minutes between sets, sometimes more when I’m on the final set of squats or deadlifts. Thanks,
Trevor