First of all I’d like to express my appreciation for you giving your time to answer these questions and for this website, which I only just discovered a couple of weeks ago.
Up to now I’ve been doing SSLP, for way longer than I should have, as I’ve recently realised. For the last few months I’ve been milking every bit of the LP, grinding through every workout, squatting at maximum loads, resetting etc. because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do.
So after discovering BBM and reading through a lot of the stuff here, I’ve purchased the 3 day hypertrophy template v2.3 and am excited to do something different. I’m planning on starting it on 1st Jan (just because that sits better with me than starting on 19th Dec) and am using the next few workouts to try to get the feel for RPE and learning some of the new lifts.
I have a couple of questions though if you don’t mind. Firstly, could you clarify week 5 day 3, specifically is it correct that exercise 2 and 3 are both incline bench?
Secondly, having done nothing but SS so far, I’m not entirely certain what to do for the ab work and upper back. Would alternated planks/ab wheel and lat pull down/pull-ups work?
Thirdly, recently I introduced a couple of HIIT sessions per week to improve conditioning, so am I right in saying that I can continue with that right from week 1 (along with the LISS) rather than dropping it and waiting until week 3 to reintroduce it?
Fourthly, I’m having a bit of difficulty with the idea that it’s not necessary to near kill myself every workout in order to progress. The last couple of months my workouts have been hellishly difficult, and I’d been telling myself to just get used to it because Texas method is going to be even worse (this was before I discovered The Bridge). So looking through this template and seeing that it is mostly around RPE 8 (though I understand this isn’t a strength program) and not 9.5/10, which is what my squats have been feeling recently, is something I’m having difficulty coming to terms with. I suppose I’m just looking for some reassurance on this.
For someone who has been a SS disciple for quite a while now, it’s a little daunting trying something so different, but it’s exciting too. Thanks in advance and apologies for the long post.