Entering second week of The Bridge, it is expected to have to adjust RPE's?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi,

I just finished my first week of The Bridge and I was checking the plan for next week, which is basically the same but with a ton more sets, I have as a reference my RPE weights from this past week, but I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to maintain the same weights for each RPE if I have to do like 4 sets instead of 1. So I was wondering, it is expected to have to adjust the RPE’s here or should I go with the same even if maybe I end up missing some reps in the last sets?

I’m liking the program BTW, I just finished SSLP and I enjoy doing variations of the basic lifts.

Thanks for your help!

2

You don’t adjust the RPEs - you adjust the load to hit the target RPE.

3

Ok, I think this is what I was trying to say. Last week my Bench Press, 1ct paused 5 @ 8 was 80KG for a single set, but I don’t think I’m gonna be able to do that same weight if I have to do 4 sets (like is programmed in the Friday second week). How do you advice I should proceed?

  1. I go with 80KG even if I may miss reps in the last sets.
  2. I do the first 8RPM set with 80 and remove weight for the following sets (adjust from the top and then remove weight).
  3. I do the first 8RPM set with less and if I feel its not really 8RPM I add weight for the following sets (adjust from the bottom adding weights).

Also I tried estimating my loads using the RPE table, I get something like this:

Close grip bench 4 @ 7 = 75KG
Close grip bench 4 @ 8 = 78KG
Close grip bench 4 @ 9 = 79KG

But I don’t think it makes sense that the difference between “was it fairly easy like a warm-up weight” and “Could have done 2 more reps” is only 4KG. So probably I’m doing it wrong and estimating using the table is not the solution.

I don’t have experience using RPE so I guess I’m still trying to get a grasp of it. If there is any good post out there about the topic you think I should read or if you think this questions are to basic and belong to another sub-forum please feel free to move it.

Thanks,

4

You might be able to do it. :-). If you did 80 for a true 8, that means you could have done 2 more reps in that set. With that info, I am sure you can do 1 more set at that weight, likely more. So as you warm up, decide if you’re being pretty true to this RPE for the day, and then plan to repeat that weight. If you do the 2nd set @8 and it’s clearly too heavy that day to do another set, THEN adjust the weight down a tad. And then know that as you work capacity increases, repeating the weights across at 8 will get easier,

And with your CG bench, I would not worry about that at all. The table is a help and suggestion, not a rule. And it’s pretty likely that you’d move from feeling like a warm up to WHAT!! with the close grip bench specifically.

3 Likes
5

That’s a great answer Leah you are an awesome part of the BBM crew

6

Hi Leah, thanks for your answer! I will follow your advice, I guess I need to do it for a while to get a little bit more experience on estimating RPE’s :slight_smile: