Deadlift very taxing to low back on the Bridge

Doing the Bridge over a week, I feel Deadlift is very taxing to my low back. My 5rm is 120kg so I did 110kg of Rack Pull(7 reps x 2 sets) on Monday and 110, 110, 107.5kg of Deadlift on Friday. But today after doing 112, 112, 100kg of Deadlift, I was almost exhausted. After the deadlift, I couldn’t do Bench Press with 65kg, which is my usual weight. So I deloaded 5~7.5kg from today’s bench press which made RPE @8. And I just skipped 303 Squat cause I felt like I was gonna get sick if I squatted.

So, my question is, what am I doing wrong with this Bridge? my form is just okay. It is check by SS coaches several times. Sleep ok, Protein intake ok, 4~5 mins of rest ok.

Does my Rack Pull or Deadlift was too high weight?

Yes, you probably started out too heavy.

Hey Kang,

I had the same issue my first week of the Bridge. Definitely hard to gauge the appropriate weight for RPE at first but it’ll come around. I had to remind myself that my previous stress with DLs was only 1 heavy set of 5 every other workout (coming off the SSNLP)…obviously that is much different than the Bridge volume. If you keep your intensity too high (i.e. don’t consider reducing weight appropriately) and multiply your volume by 5 (25 on medium stress weeks compared to 5 on SSNLP) one can only assume you will feel over fatigued and its gonna wear you down eventually (if not already). Best of luck brother, let the ego take the back seat in your next few workouts and I bet you feel much better.

I, too, feel lots of fatigue in my lower back since starting the bridge (I felt it in the LP on deadlift days as well). Is this something we get used to? I was hoping that the bridge would build up some stamina in the area over time.

You will definitely get used to the volume, yes. However you do want to watch your RPE. People seem to be pushing that up often on the rack pulls. Remember that you use the calculator to give your a guide or range for the day, but your MUST evaluate that load for you, on that day. If it was RPE 8, was your technique solid and you could have done 2 more reps?

I’m still figuring out RPE. I feel that I overshoot it, as the OP probably did as well, more than undershoot it. I guess going under is probably the better option assuming it gets worked out. I have started sets I thought would be @8 and started grinding two reps in.

Yes I did 110kg x 7 reps before. 115kg x 6 reps too(probably I could 7 reps too). I felt warming up sets of 5reps were hard too!

The question is not whether you have done more in the past, or whether you had two more reps in you the last time you did it. The question is, how are you performing THAT DAY?

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