Dear BBM team, I really appreciate your consideration of my question. I am at a crossroads and am hoping for a little perspective on the different possible paths. I have been using the S&C l template for the past 4 months, I have cycled through it a few times changing exercises a bit. I enjoy the template, but would like to transition into a bit more Hypertrophy programming. Multiple times in the past when transitioning from higher load, low rep to lower load, higher rep I would just basically go right into the new program with no real transition period. Unfortunately I would then typically end up with significant soreness for multiple weeks. I am now 45 years old and would prefer to learn from past mistakes and not hobble around for the next three weeks. Would you have any recommendations on how I could bridge or even adapt the SC template? A few thoughts I have had: 1. Do a shorter version of the SC but in reverse as it starts with more 5-6 rep ranges, so like week 6, 5, 4, 3. 2. Recycle the SC template but add more accessory work after the lifts 3. Recycle the SC template but up the number of reps on the back off sets (especially after say week 2).
Thank you so much for all the resources you provide to educate the public on health and fitness.
CL,
Thanks for the kind words and glad you had good results on the General S/C template. Have you ever checked out one of our hypertrophy or bodybuilding templates? Just curious, as I think those would be more advisable and ready to go than modifying the GSC I template.
-Jordan
Yes, I actually own Hypertrophy I and Powerbuilding I. I think really I am just more concerned about transitioning from one template to the next. Like some kind of bridge for a few weeks to gradually transition.
I don’t see a good case for a transition period outside of the low stress week starting off the new template. I would just do that and predict you’d be fine with your recent training history 
Sorry for one last question, one of the things I like about the SC template is the first couple sets of high intensity, low rep. Maybe it is purely ego speaking but it has been nice to see those amounts going up. However, overall I would like to work on hypertrophy a bit more. So I was hoping to kind of meld the two together. Hypertrophy 1 starts right off with sets of 8. Is there an effective in-between? Or would doing a set or two of low rep high weight followed by higher rep lower weight in one session be counter productive? My primary goal is lean mass acquisition from a healthy aging perspective.
I think a set of 4-6 @ RPE 9 is unlikely to make a big difference in strength outcomes compared to 6 to 8 reps @ 8-9. That said, if you’ve been doing exclusively sets of 4-6 (or less) for your priority lifts as of late, I’d recommend trying the template with sets of 8 at first. After you do it for a few weeks, reevaluate and go from there.