Hello and Merry Christmas to the Barbell Medicine family,
Thank you for the amazing templates I’ve had great results from them on all my lifts. I did the Bridge 1.0 twice while running the 7 week hypertrophy template in between. Then, I jumped on the 12 Week Strength Template. Skipped the last week as i was not competing and now I am running the 7 week Hypertrophy template 2.0.
I was wondering if it would be appropriate (for me) to start the Bridge 3.0 after finishing the 7 week Hypertrophy. By appropriate I mean, is the volume enough for me to see improvements on my lifts or not since I’ve already been exposed to the 12 Week Strength template?
I was thinking that, since the volume is higher on the main lifts compared to the Hypertrophy template then I should see some improvements.
Tell me what you think, and thank you for all the information and high quality content.
Unfortunately it’s impossible to predict how you’ll respond to one template over another. Unless you have a bunch of accumulated training data on yourself, the only way to find out is to run the thing and see what happens. With that said, I do not think that “exposing” yourself to a particular training style (like 12WS, for example) will “ruin” your ability to respond to a different training style later on, so you may find that you respond just fine (or maybe even better) to a different approach.
It’s possible you’ll miss some of the overload variations of the 12 week strength. That said, I’m running the Bridge 2.0 OG after having run the 3-day hypertrophy, and before that the 12wkst, and I’m getting stronger (despite a ~500 calorie deficit). That said, the mods I’m making to the Bridge 2.0 have it looking a lot more like the 12wkst 3-day.
I train in a garage gym. For my regular training, I prefer a 3-day program, with 1-2 additional volume days for bench press variations. This allows me to schedule 2 squat sessions (1 comp + 1 variation) (MW), 3 deadlift sessions (1 comp + 2 variations) (MF) and 4 bench sessions (2 comp + 2 variations) (MWF). These training days are non-negotiable. Then I’ll add additional volume as training time permits. Sometimes a session of myo-reps on leg press if I can get to the nearby black iron gym, and as I mentioned above, nearly every week 1-2 extra days for bench press variations - chains, bands, Sling Shot, etc. This may not be optimal programming for everyone, but it’s working well for me right now.