neandrewthal's (hopefully) complete bridge log

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21

Bridge (sort of) Week 5

Wednesday, 12/13/2017:

Squat with belt:
4x315 @6
4x330 @7 I honestly suck at rating 6 and 7s on squats and dishonestly want to hit big numbers for my @8
3x345 @9 Stopped before I hit 10 this time
4x335 @9
4x315 @8 Finally got something right!
E1RM: 392 (down 9)

Almost a perfect repeat of last week’s squat (including the overreaching) but at only 4 reps this time :cry: Everything felt heavy and crappy and I found myself on my toes more often than usual. I was pretty psyched out from the start because I felt like last week’s squat was a little more than an isolated incident I will just instantly bounce back from. I thought a good goal for recovering would be to hit the same weights but at 4 reps with the RPE in check and move on from there. I guess even that isn’t doable.

3 count pause bench:
4x180 @9 Had to wait a long time for a bar that doesn’t suck. Probably wasn’t warm anymore.
4x180 @8.5
4x185 @8.5 Too easy. Repeating it.
4x185 @9
4x185 @8.5 Everything seemed to come together on this one with good leg drive
E1RM: 219.5(down 4.5) Could have done better if I chose a more appropriate weight for the first top set

2 count pause sumo with belt:
4x255
4x285
4x315 @8.5 .
E1RM: 370.5 (up 370.5)

My back has been hurting the past few days. It’s been hurting when I walk and hurting when I’m lying in bed. So much for resting it. Fuck this. Let’s do some sumos. 135 felt good, loaded up 185 for next warmup. Wait do I really need to be doing sumo? does one convential deadlift at 185 Ouch, yes I do. I’m counting those first 2 as my 7 and 8 because I thought it would have been too much volume if I kept blindly feeling for 7 and 8. Plus it’s really hard to rate these. The sumo doesn’t help. The hardest part is holding it in the pause then it just pops up. My back feels better after all this than it did before.

Pretty mixed workout. The sumos are encouraging but my squat is in a state of emergency.

22

Friday, 12/15/2017:

Lower back hurts a little but is mainly ok. Upper back started hurting for no apparent reason last night and got worse overnight. Wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do pin squats but having the bar on my back didn’t seem to aggravate it much further.

Pin Squat:
4x265 @7
4x280 @7.5
4x300 @9
4x300 @9
E1RM: 349 (up 349)

Loved these! I wasn’t expecting to be able to go this heavy after how crappy I’ve been doing on pause squats and squat with belt lately. They felt so good I thought I must be cheating but I got someone to take a photo of my depth and I’m just a pube hair below parallel which I guess is a bit higher than I usually squat. I can’t believe how perfect the depth is considering I didn’t even try the power rack (which is about 4" between holes), I just used the squat rack I usually use but with the safeties one notch up from normal (6" and the thing only has 4 notches). I doubt I could get it even close to this perfect in the power rack.

Press with belt:
4x120 @6
4x125 @7
4x130 @8
4x130 @8
4x130 @8.5
4x130 @8.5
4x130 @8
E1RM: 155 (up 2.5)

Couldn’t have asked for much better. My goal was to get back to the E1RM I started at and I did it. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not really going to make progress on my press (I will of course try if RPE permits) but I’m taking the attitude that if I can just keep it up while losing weight then I’m winning. Even an E1RM of 155 is 7 lbs closer to my bodyweight than when I started. I love the sets of 4 because it’s easy to get through a lot of sets without having to rest too long.

Rows:
8x145 @6
8x155 @8 Probably didn’t rest enough
8x160 @7.5 Too easy, gonna try for a PR
8x170 @10 Nope
8x160 @8.5
8x160 @8.5
E1RM: 222 (no change)

Elliptical: 30 mins @HR 135
Had to go way faster than normal to get my HR up!

Chins: 26 in 3 minutes PR by 2 reps!
Abs: 7 minutes, 28 rollouts, 4 x 30 second forearm plank
Chins: 21 in 3 minutes

All in all a pretty great workout, or at least the least shitty I’ve had in quite a while. I started taking beta alanine 1.5-2 weeks ago so I’m probably starting to get saturated now. Or maybe it was the extra beer and birthday cake I had last night :wink: Whatever it was, I really needed it because I was close to throwing in the towel on either the bridge or my diet. Can’t wait for the no belt squats on Sunday now. So long tempo squats.

23

Sunday, 12/17/2017:

Lower back was on fire when I woke up yesterday. Feels better than that today but not great.

Sumo Deadlift with belt
4x335 @6
4x355 @7
2x375 @8.5
E1RM: 412 (4x355 @7 yields a much higher E1RM but it is likely less accurately rated and I’m sticking to my policy of only taking E1RM from a top set)

Trying to ease my way into these. Did 5 warmup sets of 4 reps all the way up to 315, which is actually a bit of extra volume compared to what I’m used to. They were feeling good but I completely crapped out on the top set. I’m sure I should have gone a bit lower but I also may have had crappy technique and/or fatigue from not being accustomed to volume on these yet (even though I didn’t even do as much volume as I was supposed to). Back hurt after these and in between each set.

1 count pause bench:
4x175 @6
4x185 @8 Not gonna take the hint about the overshot RPE
4x190 @8 Glad I didn’ttake the hint
4x190 @8
4x190 @8
4x190 @8.5
4x190 @8
E1RM: 226 (up 10)

E1RM is not quite what it was on day one but I’m stoked about a 10 lb increase after the disaster this was last week. I’m also stoked about getting all the top sets done without reducing the weight. I was just starting to get fatigued on the fourth but then once again my technique came together on the last one, as if it took me all that practise to get the leg drive going again.

Squat no belt:
6x275 @6 supposed to 7, not gonna repeat it but I’ll take a decent jump
6x295 @8
6x315 @9
6x305 @8.5 felt super fatigued, was dreading this but killed it
E1RM: 389

I know I could do much better if I was fresh but I’m surprised I could even go this high considering it’s my third squat of the week and I deadlifted first. Super stoked that even in these circumstances my E1RM is only 3 lbs less than my most recent belted E1RM. That means the belted E1RM should be going back up quite a bit once I recover from this.

Chins: 24 in 3 minutes
Abs: 7 minutes, 5 rollouts,feels like death. A bunch of planks in a pyramid scheme from 10 to 30 seconds and back then 5 more rollouts.
Chins: 24 in 3 minutes PR for total session reps

Maybe I’m easy to impress after how shitty I’ve been doing but this felt like an awesome workout even though I fucked up the deadlifts. I’ve been trying to eat a few more carbs and less fat lately but I don’t think it could have made this much of a difference this quick though. Weighed in at 212 this morning, but that’s probably a little low. I don’t think I really lost 3 lbs in 8 days but it will average out. My BW is down enough that I can cut back a little protein and add it to carbs though. Still gonna try to hit 1.1g protein per lb.

24

Is that avatar OC?

25

I honestly don’t know who or what OC means but it is from this video starting at 1:20:

I laughed my ass of when the book spun onto the screen accompanied by that cheesy Starting Strength music.

I tried searching the Kettlebell Kings youtube channel but couldn’t find the original video. Maybe it just doesn’t have “squat” in the title or maybe it’s on the channel of the thicc gentleman with the trendy haircut who I’ve seen before but I don’t know his name.

26

Bridge Week 6

Wednesday, 12/20/2017:

Weighing in at 211.6 this morning

Squat with belt:
1x370 @8.5?
4x335 @8
4x340 @8.5
4x340 @8.5
E1RM: 400 (up 8)

I really have no idea about the RPE of the single. I think I would have to have recent experience with 3RMs to know how a 1@8 feels. I wouldn’t expect it to feel the same as the last rep of a 4@8. I’m not going to use the single too much to select the weight for the backoff sets just yet. I did adjust my target down 5 lbs based on how it felt though. I wonder if I could have got an @8 if I went for 340 first. Not as big an increase on my E1RM as I expected but moving in the right direction at least.

3 count pause bench:
4x185 @7.5
4x190 @8
4x200 @9 Very hard, could have been 9.5. Wait, that means it could have been 10 too

3x205 @9.5
3x195 @9
E1RM: 232(up 14.5! or at least 9.5)

I wrote out my my target weights last night calculated for 3 reps. Well I forgot it was supposed to be 3 so I started doing 4 reps and it felt good that I kept going with my 3 rep target weights until I finally realised after the first top set. I was going to drop it to 195 for the next set of 4 but after I realised my mistake I just had to try to go even higher for 3 though I probably should have kept it the same.

2 count pause sumo with belt:
4x295 @7
4x310 @8
4x325 @8.5
4x325 @9 .
E1RM: 382.5 (up 12)

These felt great today even though my back hurt after each set. I’m just ignoring it and not worrying about it since resting doesn’t help and what am I gonna do? Not train? I’ve finally done the legit prescribed amount of volume for a deadlift exercise beyond week 1. I thought a true 7,8,9 would be enough for this one (not cheating and starting at 255 like last time when I was still figuring out the RPE) but the top set felt so good I just had to do another. I didn’t know anything about sumo form the first time I did them. I just starting doing them on a whim one day. Well I had a mini epiphany when I was watching Jonnie Candito deadlift. I set up another half inch back from the bar so I can get my knees a bit further over the bar and my butt down lower and it felt stronger that way.

Well, all in all another awesome workout even though my squat with belt didn’t recover as much as my other squats last week suggested it should.

27

It means original content, I thought you made the picture.

I pretty much spat my cereal all over the screen when I saw it.

28

Friday, 12/22/2017:

Pin Squat:
3x285 @7
3x300 @8
3x315 @9
3x315 @9
3x315 @9
E1RM: 358 (up 9)

I though the first top set was an easy @9. Maybe it wasn’t if I was able to do 3 across with the same weight but whatever.

Press with belt:
1x140 @8.5?
4x132.5 @9.5
4x127.5 @9.5 Just realised that I forgot to wear my belt for all these, you dope!
4x125 @8 That’s much better
4x127.5 @8.5
E1RM: 150 (down 5)

That sucked. I just felt depleted, weak and kind of hungry even though there’s no way I could have actually been hungry. Gonna try to get 50 extra carbs today and tomorrow.

Rows:
6x155 @6
6x165 @7
6x175 @9
6x170 @8
6x170 @10
6x165 @8
E1RM: 215 (down 7)

Had to do the HIIT today cause my first bout of HIIT is scheduled for the 25th, and my gym closes early on the 24th so I probably wouldn’t be able to do it then either. I’ll go for a Christmas walk to get in the LISS if I have to.

Rower: 30 sec fast 90 sec slow x 6
I’m not sure about this. I had to do 30 seconds to feel like I’m getting enough work in for the sprints and it only got my HR up to 150. Then I had to dog it pretty bad until the next sprint because my legs were fatigued. I’m not sure what else I should use. My gym doesn’t have any assault bikes but it has the ones where you just pedal. If anyone is reading this far, are those any good for HIIT? Or elliptical?

Chins: 20 in 3 minutes
Abs: 7 minutes, 5x5 rollouts, 30 second forearm planks in between + 20 second plank.
Chins: 25 in 3 minutes

Mixed workout. Nothing felt good but the squats. But nothing else really matters that much either, besides the press. So 50/50. Gonna get some extra carbs and try not to let this become another downturn.

29

Sunday, 12/24/2017:

Sumo Deadlift with belt
1x365 @8.5
4x345 @8
4x345 @8.5
4x345 @8
E1RM: 410 (down 2)

Felt fatigued and not strong at all. 365 was supposed to be my last warmup but I had to call it as the top single. There goes my goal of 365 for the sets of 4.

1 count pause bench:
1x205 @8.5
4x195 @9.5 Stubbornly trying for my goal weight. IDK why. Dummy.
4x185 @8
4x185 @8
4x185 @8
E1RM: 220 (down 6)

Same as deadlifts, felt weak. Took 10 lbs off the single I planned.

Squat no belt:
6x275 @6
6x285 @7.5 Not increasing this with 4 sets to go
6x285 @8
6x285 @8.5
6x285 @8.5
6x285 @8.5
E1RM: 361 (down 29 YOWZERS!)

Pretty much same deal. Started off 10 lbs less than I planned for @6. Once 10lbs more than that was on the bar it was clear that no more was going up for 4 more sets.

Chins: 24 in 3 minutes, first time I ever actually did sets of 3 all the way til the end.
22 in 3 minutes

No time for anything is else. Gym is closed and I’m the last one working out. I’ll do the abs and LISS tonight or tomorrow. Well, that was a pretty shitty end to a week that started off good. Even with eating 300-350 carbs per day, it’s clear I didn’t recover well from my first 2 workouts. This week wasn’t particularly high volume so it must be the intensity that’s doing it. I was going to try to stick to my diet but now I need a massive Christmas refeed or there will be no point even attempting week 7.

30

Slept in like crazy today. I think I’ve been chincing a bit on my sleep lately. I feel absolutely wiped out, not super sore but like my CNS is fried from doing 5 heavy singles for every lift on a TM intensirty day.

Monday, 12/25/2017:

Abs: 7 minutes. A bunch of planks + bird dog

LISS: Shoveling snow +21 minute fast walk

This was kind of a fail. I couldn’t get my heart rate past 120. Trying to walk faster than that on the snow where I have no steady footing and dragging my boots was way too much for my poor legs.

Been cramming food like crazy. If I can’t recover from this then it would be ridiculous to attempt a true high stress week.

31

Bridge(ahahahah)Week 7

Wednesday, 12/27/2017:

Weighing in at 212.6 this morning

Squat with belt:
1x375 @9
1x345 @10
E1RM: negative 100 (down 500)

First rep on my backoff sets was sloppy and ending up looking a little too much like my avatar. That has happened many times before but this time pain shot through my back instantly and I knew my squat session was done. That hasn’t happened before. It hurt just to hold the 45 lb plates as I put them away. I managed to do a few assisted bodyweight squats, pulling up on the racked bar with my arms. This sucks. I hope I can squat at least 45 by tomorrow.

3 count pause bench:
3x175 @7
3x185 @9 poor positioning, hit the the hooks from underneath on second rep
3x195 @9
3x195 @9.5
3x185 @9
E1RM: 219(down 13)

I couldn’t be bothered to set up the rack and bench for pin bench in my predicament. I didn’t really want to anyway. Plus who cares? I am either done on the bridge or I will end up repeating week 7 when I am able. I was able to arch my back even though it would have felt better to bench with my feet up but I had a hell of hard time getting/staying in the right position. I couldn’t get my shoulders tight with the semi-bulldog grip I’ve been using since last week so I reverted to my wrist wraps and still couldn’t keep my shoulders pinned tight.

Leg press:
1 plate(on each side) x10
2 plates x10
3 plates x10
4 plates x8
5 plates x5

Went deep and wide with these and pretended I was squatting

Chinups +10lb:
4 sets of 6

Well, this was the worst workout ever. The kind of thing that tests whether I am in this for the long run. I knew this kind of thing would come in my training career but I didn’t expect it so soon. I thought I was restarting my diet today but I guess not. I’ll feel like I’ll never finish losing the 10% of bodyweight I am trying to lose and if I do it will come with much more than 10% losses on my lifts. I really hope I can squat 45 lbs tomorrow so I can start working my way back up every day until it gets heavy enough that my legs can’t handle every day.

32

Back has been pretty annoying during normal life. The absolute worst is trying to get out of bed to go to the bathroom/have a snack in the middle of the night. Anytime I sit or lay down I have to get up very slowly. Decided not to push it by trying to lift yesterday but I probably could have. Instead I went for 3 walks throughout the day. I set up my computer so I have to stand to use it. Sometimes my back gets too tired and I have to lie down but if I am watching videos are something I have to get up every 5 or 10 minutes to start a new one, which is good because my back will seize up if I sit too long.

Friday, 12/29/2017:

Squat no belt:
10x135 Back ok
10x185 Back ok
5x225 Back hurt a little, backing off
10x185
10x185

My goal was to squat at least 45 today so I’m pretty happy with this. I guess once again, this isn’t a true rehab injury where I lift hardly any weight and add 10 lbs every day. I won’t bother going tomorrow. At this rate I should be able to handle the intensity of my planned bridge no belt squat session on Sunday but I will probably have to drop a set or 3 or I might cripple my legs jumping right back in.

Press with belt:
1x140 @9
3x135 @9.5
3x135 @10
3x132.5 @10 Should have been easier but I really messed up the first rep somehow
3x130 @10 No excuse for this one
E1RM: 148.5 (down 1.5)

Rows are not happening. Was going to try a conventional deadlift at 135 but aborted before getting it off the ground because I could tell it was gonna hurt. Sumo at 135 felt ok but not great.

LISS: Eliptical, 30 mins @HR 135

Chins: 20 in 3 minutes. Felt like death, almost gave up after the first few but kept going without pushing too hard
Chins: 27 in 3 minutes. Well what do you know? A new PR. These are always better the second time if the first set sucks.

Abs: 6 minutes, McGill big 3, at home later in the evening

I think I’m just gonna finish off the bridge, doing whatever I can. If it takes me til next week to be able to squat and deadlift heavy I will probably need a low stress week to ease back into it and then a medium stress week before I can handle a true high stress one. Not gonna add another 3 weeks to the bridge when it has already taken my 9 weeks to get through 7.

33

Sunday, 12/31/2017:

Still hard af to get out of bed but my back is slowly getting better in terms of the time it takes me to be able to stand up straight after sitting for 10 or 15 minutes. Wasn’t feeling deadlifts today though. Even sumos at 135.

1 count pause bench:
1x210 @8.5
3x200 @8.5 Thought I was gonna overshoot but this was a pleasant surprise
3x205 @9
3x200 @9
3x200 @9.5
E1RM: 230.5 (up 10.5)

My gym was freezing cold today (it’s been -30C outside) so I had to double my warmups. I should have done some general cardio but the gym was super busy and I didn’t want to leave my bench. Things felt really crappy and unsteady like usual, but unlike usual I started getting my shit together by my first work set. I should do extra warmups more often. It took me throughout all the warmups and top single to find the amount of bulldogging my grip that keeps my wrists steady but doesn’t pull my shoulders out.

Squat no belt:
6x265 @<6
6x275 @7
6x285 @7 was gonna stop there but the RPE was too easy so I’m going for another
8x295 @8.5 took a longer than normal break before this one (5 or 6 minutes) and it felt good so I did an extra 2 reps
E1RM: 393 (up 32, nice!)

My back hurt a bit after but it was a different pain than I have been experiencing. Feels better now.

HIIT: Elliptical 30s on 90s off x6
Still not ideal for HIIT. I can’t really max out in 20 seconds so I bumped it to 30 again. I bounced around to different machines but the stupid things all just slip when the resistance is set high so I had to keep it more moderate.

No time for chinups. Gym is closed early for New Year’s eve. I’ll do abs later tonight and tomorrow but I’m not going to gym tomorrow just for chins.

34

Bridge(ish) Week 8

Wednesday, 01/03/2018:

Weighing in at 212.0 (back to the diet starting today so this will probably drop a pound or 2 within a couple days). Time to try to go heavy on the squat without breaking my back. I’m not really following the bridge for number of sets this week but changing it as I see fit. I don’t need a low stress week for squats because I hardly did jack shit last week. I need a super low stress week for deadlifts to ease back into them. As for upper body. I will go hard and take it easy only on the final day of the bridge to get ready to see what I can do on Comp bench on day one of GPP/Hypertrophy next week. I should do better with the comp bench on day one because the fact that on some weeks my 3 count bench was stronger than my 1 count means I wasn’t very recovered and fresh for benching on the last workout of the week.

Squat with belt:
1x365 @9 Harder than last week’s 375
3x335 @8 Didn’t break my back so that’s good
3x335 @8.5
3x335 @9
E1RM: 389.5 (up 489.5)

Definitely not recovered from Sunday’s squat session because I felt sore and weak, so I’m not too worried about the low numbers here. I’m very volume sensitive with squats after I miss (or partially miss as I did) just one or two sessions. For that reason, instead of deloading I think I need to go pretty hard for at least 2 squat sessions this week to start rebuilding my ability to recover then I’ll treat the last session as a deload to try to freshen up for the new program on Wednesday.

3 count pause bench:
3x185 @7.5
3x195 @8
3x205 @9.5 Threw the last rep up a little too far forward. I don’t know if it’s because the RPE was too high of if it’s the reason the RPE was too high.
3x210 @10
3x200 @9
E1RM: 228(up 9)

I goofed hard on the second top set. I meant to subtract 5 lbs but it turns out I added 5. I was very glad when I realised because I thought I was fatiguing ridiculously fast. I’m also glad that 200 felt like a good 9 even after overshooting.

Sumo deadlift with belt:
3x275
3x295
3x315 .

The back still doesn’t feel great when it comes to deadlifts. I wasn’t feeling the 2 count pause so I just did some light sumos. I didn’t bother with RPE but everything felt heavier than these weights should have.

Chinups:
3x8 +10lbs

35

Friday, 01/05/2018:

Pin Squat:
4x275 @7
4x285 @8
4x295 @9
4x290 @9
E1RM: 349 (down 15)

My back sucked this morning when I got up and pin squats didn’t feel great but I’m glad I pushed through them because it felt much better after.

Press with belt:
1x140 @8 First single on anything that’s actually @8 Feels good man
3x135 @8.5
3x137.5 @9
3x137.5 @9
4.5x135 @10
E1RM: 154.5(up 6)

Yeah, I was only supposed to do one set of 3@9 but whatevah, I do what I want! I don’t think pressing volume that low is good for me on my diet and I’m not worried about how I perform on the bench on Sunday because I’m taking that one easy to be fresh for Comp Bench next Wednesday. I got silly on the last one and thought maybe I could get 5 reps with 135 which would be an all time PR (got 5x132.5 on TM and 132x5 on my original LP years ago). I came so close to getting it up but I tried until it came crashing down on the pins. Well if I came that close on the last set than I must have been able to if I tried on the first set. And all paused reps to boot, while my old PRs were TnG.

Rows:
6x155 @6
6x165 @7
6x175 @8
6x175 @8
E1RM: 221.5 (up 6.5)

Wow, nothing fucked up to report. That’s boring.

Elliptical: 30 mins @HR 135

Chins: 24 in 3 minutes
: 26 in 3 minutes Thought I was heading for an easy PR of 28 after getting 24 on the first set while taking it easy but nope

Not doing abs at the gym anymore. I just do them every night at home that is not before a lifting day.

36

Sunday, 01/07/2018:

Last day of The Bridge, weighing in at a measly 209 lbs! I dropped even more water/food weight than I thought I would this week, considering that I’m still getting over 300 grams of crabs every day.

Sumo Deadlift with belt
1x405 @9
3x380 @9
E1RM: 426.5 (up 16.5)

Taking the recommendation of a puny amount of volume seriously, but I wanted to make it count. Fairly pleased with the result. My back hurt quite a bit after but is better now.

1 count pause bench:
1x215 @9
4x210 @9.5
E1RM: 238.5 (up 8)

My training partner/spotter for the day said I had two in the tank on the first one. I still wrote the RPE9 that I felt it was but I decided to test the waters again and see what I could get on the next one. In retrospect RPE9 on 215 makes no sense given my performance on the 210, even if it was actually RPE10. Spotter said it was RPE7.5, which surprised me because I didn’t think he even knew what RPE is but it felt like a 9.5 to me. I’m sure it wasn’t 7.5, but maybe my judging is a bit out of wack too. He said even the last one flew off my chest. Well, I’ll still write 9.5 because even that is a good pause bench PR (first one since starting the bridge) and I don’t want to give myself a crazy PR that I can’t improve upon :wink:

Squat no belt:
6x275 @6
6x285 @7
6x295 @8.5
E1RM: 369 (down 24)

Wow, these felt crappy. If I judged RPE based on how many high quality reps I had left in the tank then the last one would be about RPE14. Only one top set because this is my only real deload day in what was supposed to be a low stress week.

HIIT: Bike, 5 min warmup, 20s fast 100s slow x8
This isn’t ideal either. At one point I had the intensity too high and I had to tap out after 15 seconds just because of my legs while my heart wasn’t nearly stressed enough.

Chins: 25 in 3 minutes
Chins: 25 in 3 minutes

And that’s it! I didn’t do it right but I did it! I had fun with the bridge at some times and not much fun at other times. Not the program’s fault but my stupid back and my diet holding me back. My squat isn’t quite what it used to be ever since the one week I skipped my assistance squats and overshot the RPEs trying to jump back into the competition squat the next week. I have no idea where the deadlift stands because my conventional DL is simply nonexistent and I never had a period where I trained the sumo consistently enough to smooth out the bumps. The silver lining is that finally just in the last week my presses are better than ever (at least the pause versions) I wasn’t expecting that. I’ll put that one down to taking a whole week refeed at Christmas and keeping my carbs above 300 every day after.

Now it’s on to the GPP/Hypertrophy. Hopefully the lower intensity and higher volume will allow me to adapt better while cutting. I almost quit my diet and became a permabulker the third time I hurt my back on the bridge but now I’m just as motivated as ever. I’m not as lean as I thought I would be after losing 11 lbs so I need to keep going. My waist and (fat) thigh measurements have only gone down a little and I don’t think I’ve lost much muscle so I think I must have had more fat hanging out on my ass than I thought. Maybe I was more than 25% bf and I am just down to 25% now. I dunno. I’m not going to cut much longer though because I’m hungry to make some gains. I will just lose whatever I can during the 7 week hypertrophy program (maybe with a refeed week in the middle if I need it) then onto another round of the bridge to let the gains begin!

37

GPP/Hypertrophy week 1
BW: 208.8

Wednesday, 01/10/2018:

Comp Squat:
6x295 @6
6x305 @7
6x315 @8
6x315 @8.5
E1RM: 399 (up 10.5)

Still feel sore from Sunday. That wasn’t supposed to happen. These felt really hard, but I’m trying to keep in mind my bench lesson from Sunday about pushing myself. Well, maybe I don’t need to push myself as hard on the squats since that didn’t get me very far on the bridge. Or maybe @8 is supposed to be this hard. I was pretty out of breath after every set in this cardio rep range. I think next week I will just try to hit these numbers again for 3 clean @8s across this time.

Comp Bench:
6x175 @7
6x180 @8 Expecting my technique to improve enough to keep the next one @8
6x185 @9 Nope
6x175 @8
E1RM: 228.5(down 10)

Trying to remember how well I did on Sunday when I really tried, but these felt super hard. I thought maybe my PR was just from trying harder but now I think I really was in better shape 3 days ago.

Pendlay Row Myoreps:
135x14,5,5,4

That was a good way to work up a sweat quickly. I kind of cheated on the 5 breaths because I compulsively took a quick breath after each set so I didn’t count it. Then I would find myself exhaling my fifth (counted) breath and go oops, I need another breath to start the next set with. Not sure if I’m supposed to add more weight. I think I’ll try to get 16 reps, another set of 5, or just repeat the same without cheating on the breaths first.

So that’s day one. Felt pretty crappy and tired overall. Plus I lost too much weight in the last week, about 4 lbs, more than I could have lost in food weight and/or water weight. That’s it. Time to try 350 carbs for the next week. I already premixed my PWO shake and I can’t reduce the protein to make room for a bit of extra protein from grains, so a bag of Skittles it is.

38

First of all I immediately recognized your avatar. Fucking hilarious man… careful with those squats though unless you want an SI sprain!

Trying to catch up on your logs here and it looks like I’m getting on at the right time. I too am running the 7 week GPP model (not hypertrophy focused though, the endurance one) in a caloric deficit.

Feels weird not crushing piles piles of hard reps like on the Bridge but it’s a nice change of pace. And it should help keep recovery in line with this deficit.

Ive lost 80lbs before using a mix of strength training and GPP work. Then gained a bunch when dialing calories up (still trained though). So this is something I’m pretty intimately familiar with.

Anyways good luck under the bar bud. I’ve got lots of experience on the diet side of things (nothing like Feigenbaum, just my own anecdotal experience and things I’ve learned from others) so if you have any questions or need a hand feel free to reach out.

39

Yeah I’ve been there. Tweaked my back 3 times in 2017. But the folks at BBM really helped with their advice on how to handle back tweaks.

Most people have the opposite problem… they become too upright out of the hole and fail the rep due to a loss of hip drive.

Upload a form check when you can and I’ll gladly provide some feedback.

40

Friday, 01/012/2018:

Comp Press:
6x105 @6
6x115 @7
6x125 @9
6x120 @8.5
E1RM: 154.5 (no change)

105 was part of my warmup but felt like @8 so I called it @6 (since I only rested like 45 seconds first) I had a bad feeling about warming up with 6s up to within 10 lbs of my target @6 weight but I thought might as well go for it since I’m fresh (and cold) for presses today. Greedily tried to go for my @8 target weight but I don’t really care about overshooting too much because 1: it’s presses and 2: in this program there are no comp upper body lifts left this week to interfere with.

3-0-3 Tempo Squat:
8x215 @6
8x225 @7
8x235 @8
8x235 @8 Crying uncle on the third top set. Maybe next week.
E1RM: 317.5(no change)

Yep, that’s right. Tempo squats. While awaiting nuance on what to do about supplemental deadlifts for a crippled sumo cheater I had to take matters into my own hands. My hands told me that that they would rather get in extra squat volume with light weights that also add to the conditioning/gpp of the program. And also that if I take it easy on my back and only do sumo pulling once a week consistently (as opposed to twice a week inconsistently on the bridge) I can probably make some linear newbie gains on it without requiring any more complicated programming for a while. Well holee shit! I didn’t realise quite how uniquely fatiguing these are on the lower back even when not done after deadlifts. Now I think it wasn’t just the deadlifts that were killing me on the bridge but these were finishing me off. I’m never doing these after deadlifts again unless I decide to keep doing them on this program and my back gets used to them. My back was so fatigued by the end I could hardly walk. Not painful, I didn’t pull of pop anything. Just crippling fatigue.

TnG Bench Myoreps:
135x15,5,5,4

That was fun and my arms felt like they’d been hit with something they’ve never seen before afterwards.

Elliptical: 32 mins @HR 130-145
Started already at 145 thanks to the bench and only time could lower it since moving the damn thing any slower is very inefficient and thus harder. Spaced out and went down to 130 a few times, which pleases me because my fitness is increasing and also spaced out when I was supposed to be done.

Chins: 24 in 3 minutes
Chins: 28 in 3 minutes
New PR. Another 2 or 3 weeks and I’ll be at 30.