Linear Progression and when to switch to the Bridge or Powerbuilding 1

Hey All,

BIO: I’m a 26 year old working a desk job (5’11", 44" waist, 234 lbs). My goals are 1) to get down to a healty waist line and 2) and build strength for powerlifting.

My Woes: Before corona I was signed up for my first powerlifting meet in April and using a free powerlifting linear progression spreadsheet to plan my workouts (nsuns advanced program). It was super nice because I could start as a novice, put in my 1RM to get started and then it would program each week based the previous weeks performance. I feel like I was responding well to the programming and noticed steady incremental gains.

As gyms started opening up again I thought it would be a great opportunity to check where my 1RM was to reset and continue my programming. In that first session I got super psyched and put 50 lbs (315 to 365) on my squat from when my gym closed down. I plugged this into my programming spreadsheet.

Fast forward to this week, I go to do my squat session feeling good and ready to keep some of those gains. I work up to 265 and my form is breaking down and I’m almost to failure. I’m totally out of gas.

My question is should I switch to different programming, or keep what I have and take some weight off the programming? I have been really sore and stiff this last week since going back, which in my experience will go away as my body adjusts from sedintary to active again. I’d appreciate any advice! Thanks in advance.

I think everyone will tell you that having lost some strength due to a layoff is not a good reason to change your programming (beyond starting off at lower volume and intensity and working back up).

I think you can stick with the program, however I think you should have sandbagged your max (the opposite of what you did) and you should sandbag the plus sets for the first couple weeks. So take some weight off and just meet the min on your plus sets (to manage stress from the plus sets and so that the program doesn’t tell you to add weight).

I’d advise you to switch to a program that has some autoregulation aspect to it.

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Awesome! Thanks for the responses.