Hello docs et al.,
Right off the bean I want to express my gratitude for all of the excellent work y’all have put in towards developing such an awesome set of resources for folks who are fostering their interest in training. You are collectively a generous, motivated, inspiring, and certainly not least of all cool group of coaches that I am always encouraged and edified by. As we say in the south, appreciate ya. On to my questions.
I am in week 3 of the bridge, week 11 of overall training, and feel like I am responding well to the volume, etc., and am overall happy with my progress. I feel that I am responding especially well to the increased bench volume, but unfortunately it doesn’t appear like my press is going anywhere. NBD, as the press template will be available a few mesocycles down the road. My first question would be, though I believe I have RPEs dialed in pretty well for presses (have occasionally attempted an extra rep or two in the RPE 8-9 range to see where I stand), I often feel like I have some gas left in the tank to pull another set of 6-8 at what I estimate to be the very low-end of useful intensity based on the last RPE 8-9 set, and so I add it in at the end as a back off by doing AMRAP until I feel I am at an RPE 9. How do you feel about this modification, useful stress or waste of time? Estimated 1RM keeps going up on the bench, and as I mentioned, is barely moving on the overhead.
My second question- my goals on the bridge are about 50/50 strength gains and recomposition, as my BF shot past 20% during my GOMAD LP. Currently 198 lbs. at 5’9.5" (the half inch is very important). Happy with my strength gains thus far, (estimated 1RMs- S 355, DL 405, BP 210, OHP 155), so how would you feel about me adding low intensity cardio on both of my GPP days and only doing pull-ups on one day (worried about aggravating a minor golfer’s elbow which flared up at the end of LP) with the goal of shaving off 2-4% BF?
Thanks again, and best wishes from sunny Tennessee.