This seems obvious, but I’ve just never thought about it this way until I started the bridge this week. I have all my estimated 1RMs from the last few months of doing NLP. When doing the Bridge I can plan out my work sets using the RPE chart (i.e. 5 reps at RPE 6 = 70% of your 1RM or whatever). I know that’s not exactly how they recommend doing the program. My point is, if you followed the program exactly as written like that what would cause your E1RM to ever go up? Aren’t you dependent on a certain weight feeling lighter than it did in the past? So one week you may do 300 pounds and rate it as RPE 8, and the next week you lift the same 300 pounds but it only feels like RPE 7, so your E1RM has gone up and you know you have gotten stronger. My question may seem confusing, but I’m just trying to overcome years of SS thinking that if you lift the same weights over time they will never feel lighter and you won’t get stronger.
I think you’re on the right track. After your novice LP your gains won’t come from training to training anymore.
Indeed, if you lift 300 lbs @8 one week and the next week it feels like @7 you’re stronger. Don’t be disappointed when the next week 300 lbs feels like a 7.5. If over time 300 lbs for that lift trends to an ever lower RPE then an 8, you’ve got stronger. Or when you hit a double @8 with 300 lbs instead of a single. You got stronger.
First off, I wouldn’t use your e1rm’s from SS. Many people coming from SS to the Bridge are shocked at how light they have to go on the Bridge in comparison. Don’t underestimate the extra volume. It will be much harder than it looks on paper. Instead, follow the instructions Jordan has posted for warming up to find the right RPE the first week.
Another thing, why would someone plan to do the same weight week after week on the Bridge??? That is not the point. The point is to progress at the rate your body progresses, not at some arbitrary and inaccurate number. You may make a 10lb gain from one week to the next. You may also not make a gain from one week to the next. It’s really up to your body. BBM programs are much more difficult in practice than they look on paper. Don’t underestimate the bridge on first glance. It is also not uncommon for someone’s e1rm’s to stagnate midway through a program when fatigue is built up to it’s highest, only to have them blow up really fast at the end of the program after either a peak or low stress week when the fatigue is dropped. Everyone’s body reacts differently. This is not a top down programming model. You take it one set at a time. Don’t overthink it. Just give the program a shot and see how you do. Mike T has trained many world record holders in this manner. How many world record holders has Rip trained? You don’t have to go all out every day to make progress.
Thanks for the responses. I wasn’t asking about anything specific to my training. I was just thinking about the theory of this type of programming. Specifically the fact that since the rating is subjective there is some confirmation bias to be overcome. For example, if I’m supposed to do a set of 5@ RPE 7, and based on percentages of my 1RM that works out to 300 pounds, I’m going to have a tendency to rate that set as a 7 even though it may be a 6 or an 8.
I’m glad to read this as my sustainable weights for multiple sets were lower than my ending SS weights. I have confounding factors like post-SS weight loss plus outside life stresses though, so I don’t have a good A-B comparison.
I’m still wrapping my head around this. After two passes through the Bridge, I look at the previous time that I did that particular movement as a starting point, and attempt to add weight from that. Some days I’m higher, some days I’m lower for the same RPE. Overall, there is a slight increase in weights, but not as much as I was hoping. Perhaps with the above-mentioned life stresses, maintaining or slight improvement is not really that bad.
One aspect of SS that I liked (in hindsight) was that it forced me to attempt weights that I thought I couldn’t do, but I really could. I learned what my true limits were, not self-imposed limits. I find that I need a very critical/independent view of my own limits with the BBM templates, which I don’t think I would have had without going through SS first. Granted, I started strength training at 41 years old after a mostly sedentary life.
I’m starting the hypertrophy template next in hopes that some extra volume will help make that next jump when moving into something like the 12 week strength program after. I’m also working to reduce the other life stresses and get better sleep, which I feel may be more significant than any programming choices I may make. What do you think?
Today’s workout was a perfect example of what I’m talking about - both the good and bad aspects of this type of programming. I felt a little sick, like I was coming down with a sinus infection, and all my warmups felt heavy. I was assuming I would do relatively less of my 1RM. The plan was a set of 4@7. I knew last week I did 165 for my set of 4@7. Sure enough, I did my set of 4 today at 165 and confirmed it felt like RPE 7. Then I realized that I had misloaded the bar and actually did 175. The end result was I ended up going 10 pounds heavier on all the remaining sets and felt fine. So the negative is that if I had loaded the bar correctly I probably would have just done the plan and not pushed the weights. The positive is that I was able to adjust based on today’s performance.
As I think about this, I’m mostly talking about the lower RPE’s. To me an 8 or 9 is easy to judge. The 6s and 7s are where the subjectivity really comes in.
@Corey You can plan increases on this program. I usually go into my workouts with an increase in mind, but if my warmups and first set dictate otherwise I change the plan, sometimes that’s less than planned and sometimes that’s more weight than planned. You’ll get better at this as you go. But you most definitely should be trying to increase and not just doing the same weight week in and week out. Also, keep a long term view. Watch your e1rm’s trend over a long time frame. Don’t place too much emphasis on the noise of one single workout or one single week. Sometimes bad days/weeks/months happen. But if you look at the long term, you still see that your 1rm’s are trending up over time. This is what matters. Beating yourself up over having a couple weeks where you don’t perform as highly as you’d like serves no purpose. Your body is going to progress at the rate your body is going to progress, there is no reason to think that this is not good enough. Remember, you are training, not testing. If/when you do test your real 1rm’s, then you can worry about how you perform in that one single workout. Aside form that, just keep doing the work, keep increasing your work capacity, keep adding volume, and in the end it will all work out just fine.
Or maybe if you had done the 165x4 , it would have felt way too easy for a 7 and you would have added 10lbs. 
You don’t know that.
So you began, more or less,noceboing yourself and went on to actually perform better. Whats not to like?
I’d take this is a valuable lesson about lifting, RPE, and expectations. One meaningful take away can be that assuming your first set should be less might not be the best plan. The RPE 6 and 7 are more subjective, so let’s say you are a little under the weather, things feel heavy but you tell yourself that this is normal since you’re a little sick, and you do 170x4 for your 7. If that was fine, you’re ready to move up without any really alteration due to the sinus infection. If you do the 170x4, it might be a little over RPE 7, but the likelihood of it being wildly off is VERY slim. So if you do that and honestly think, well that was almost an 8 today. Then you can alter the course at that point-repeat 170x4 for another 8 or add 2.5 for an 8. And you’ve had a very solid training session, with appropriate loads and intensity.