RESULTS (e1RM):
Squat:
352 → 370 (+18)
Bench:
241 → 250 (+9)
Deadlift:
396 → 429 (+33)
Press:
154 → 160 (+6)
Estimated PL Total:
989 → 1,049 (+60)
Overall, I am VERY pleased with my progress on this program. It was a lot of fun and I made some pretty good progress. It was a little frustrating during the first half of the program, because with all of the volume work @ 8, it didn’t feel like I was making much progress. However, once I got into the singles @ 8, I really started to see the payoff. Obviously, over half of the 60 lbs increase in my total is from the deadlift, a lift that I was admittedly “stuck” on when I started this program. I had a breakthrough in my form and setup that really helped, so that’s probably a lot of that big 33 lbs gain, but I still think that doing more volume and more deadlift specific assistance work helped my form finally click, as well as made me stronger. I was very frustrated with my bench press for the duration of the program, but as I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this training log, my bench specific volume was about the same in this program as it was in previous programs I’ve run, so I don’t think it’s necessarily the program’s fault. If I was coming off of a novice program, like the SSNLP, I definitely think this program would be great for bench.
I was planning on competing in a meet in April that was taking place in my city, but unfortunately it has been cancelled. This spring is going to be a hectic time for myself and my wife, so I don’t want to commit to traveling 4+ hours to another city to compete in a meet all day. I was trying to tailor my programming for the next 5 months around that meet, but with that off the horizon, I’m going to reevaluate my plan going forward. I’m deciding between running all of or part of the bridge again, with some tweaks in regards to increases in total volume and more bench specific work, or taking advantage of my caloric surplus for the time being and running the GPP/Hypertrophy program to add some muscle mass. I’m leaning GPP/Hypertrophy, as long as I see there’s enough of a strength element that I don’t lose the gainzzz I’ve made. I’ll probably start a new log for that and the rest of my post-Bridge training.