When I run the powerlifting II template I tend to have some awesome results until intensity seems to catch up to me (I don’t think it’s volume as I can run hypertrophy II very comfortably, but maybe I’m wrong?). I struggle with my left bicep and both shoulders flaring up on squats and bench. I don’t believe it is necessarily my technique on these, as I don’t have this issue all the time, and I generally can get very tight and feel it in my upper back as I’m supposed to during “good” weeks when everything flows smoothly. The problem is that when I start to feel beat up, It’s as if I lose the ability to get that tightness in my upper back. It seems to just get too fatigued to get as tight as I need it to. On my squats, I start to load the weight onto my arms, and on my bench, I begin to collapse at the bottom.
Another important note is that I work at FedEx and I have to load my arms (my weak point) pretty heavily 3 days a week, so I am sure that adds to it as well. However, I ran hypertrophy II when I was working there 5 days a week and never had any flare-ups.
Two thoughts I’ve had:
Lowering intensity across the board on the variation work as a start (-1 RPE level on Each set)
Keeping the top sets the same on the variation work and only backing off more on the variation’s back-off sets (These back-offs possibly dropping back ~1-2 RPE levels) Any thoughts?
PB3 is a bit different from PB2 but it is a lower intensity template. If you don’t want to spend the money on it you can lower the RPE from 8 to 7. The concept in the 3 version is to hit a set number of reps after your first set. So instead of say 3X5 you try to hit 15 reps but stop each set at RPE 7. So you could adapt PB2 to this or you could try the PB3. PB3 also has more exercise choices and it doesn’t use myo-reps.
As an example from a random week in PB3 I just opened up. On this day it was 1@RPE 7 then 3@RPE 7 then 7 more reps at RPE 7. So mine was 1 at 340, 2X3 for 320 and 2X2 at 320.
So you could modify PB2 for this but I think PB3 would be a better template and you don’t need to run the 3 week taper and peak if you don’t want to do a rep max test. PB3 is a little lower intensity. I like the myo-reps in PB2 but I think in your case the 3 template is probably the better choice. You have exercise selection and you never go past RPE 7 except on your isolation work and maybe 1 variation. You aren’t pressured into X sets but rather stay at RPE 7 and take as many sets as needed to get to X reps.
I took a look at week 2 for PB2 as an example for squat you could modify it to 5 reps @ RPE 7 then 15 reps at RPE 7 instead of 5@8 then 3X5 at 70%. You stop on sets when you reach RPE 7 so that might be 3 sets of 5 or if you feel on your second set that RPE is at 4 reps 2X5 1X4 1X1. Take as many sets as you need to hit the number of reps. You could even do 5X3 but that probably isn’t going to be RPE 7 on your sets. The caveat here is the front set is less intensity but the rest might be a little higher than the 70% called for in PB2.
I have no experience with it and can’t comment but there is also a low intensity template available.