I’m a per diem ICU nurse and I work 5 consecutive 12-hour shifts (out of state) every 4 weeks. It isn’t really feasible to lift between shifts. Unfortunately, it has been 8 days since I last lifted. How should I resume my program?
The morning that I left home to work my shifts, I weighed 168lb. My current weight is 163.5lb. What should that loss in weight be attributed to? Does muscle atrophy THAT quickly?
Although we don’t know anything about you, your training history, or your current program, we would suggest getting back to the gym and training without overthinking this. You could consider scaling back the intensity and/or volume for your first couple sessions, depending on what your prior training looked like. We would encourage the use of RPE to regulate loading.
And no, muscle does not atrophy that quickly in the absence of immobilization or critical illness, but you likely lost a combination of lean and fat mass due to an apparent calorie deficit. Again, not worth over-thinking. Just get back to training.
36yo. 5’6.5” 165lbs. 32.5” waist.
Still making progress on my SSLP. Previous S/DL were 290/350.
Lifted tonight. Dialed-down my S/DL to 275/335. The squats were very hard. RPE 9/9/10. Deadlifts felt better. RPE 9. I dialed-down my OHP from 105 to 100. Felt good. RPE 8/8/9.
Hamstrings have been noticeably sore since squatting. Thinking that I should either take an extra day of rest or repeat that squat weight once more before going back to 280. What do you think?
As mentioned before, we don’t think you should be doing LP.
What do you recommend transitioning to?
The Bridge 
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/the-bridge/
I did some browsing of your programs and I’m considering transitioning to either your Beginner program or The Bridge.
Is there any merit to choosing one over the other?
They’re really for different people. If you’re relatively new to training, < 3-5 months of training, then I’d recommend the Beginner Template. If more than that, probably The Bridge
I have been training consistently (3x/week) since mid-November. Prior to that, I lifted very sporadically.
That’s awesome. Happy to hear it. That said, I’d recommend our beginner template at this time
Really appreciating RPE and the additional volume of the Beginner Template. Thanks, Jordan.