Hey guys,
I’m on week five of the bridge after finishing an LP on 1/22/18. The first two weeks were an improvement - I felt refreshed and was getting stronger. Now, for the last three weeks I’ve been getting wiped out by the end of the session and I’ve even seen a steady decrease in numbers - not so much in the squat but for sure in the press and deadlift. Nothing has changed in the way of diet, sleep, or anything related to recovery. My question is: are there some people who respond negatively past a certain point of volume or intensity? I’m not trying to find excuses I just want to figure out exactly what’s going on here.
Without actually details on your progress, it’s tough to know what is going on, but a common problem is over-shooting the RPE. If you are always aiming to add weight, which is good, but not accounting for the RPE, you can overshoot, grind out too many reps, and impede your recovery. Sometimes a week repeating a weight for a lift is a very helpful thing in the long run. Also while feeling refreshed is great, and I love that, it’s not a clear look at your training or recovery, meaning we can be highly taxed in one session yet still recover. Some of this has to do with your overall training capacity as well, so you might find you need to adapt to the volume a bit more.
Thanks Leah. I think you may be right in that I overshot some of the RPE’s for the first few weeks. This is the first time really in my life that I’ve ever used this sort of gauging method with lifting and so I’m finding it’s taking some practice and honesty. Interesting thought about capacity too, never really considered that aspect. I think that I’ll continue on, finish up this Bridge block, and see where I end up. Then either run it again, or something similar, or maybe even look into some more personalized coaching. What do you think?
I do agree that learning RPE takes honesty and practice, for sure. As a teacher, I think that’s one of the really cool things about it-it’s a tool to help someone think more about what they are doing, why, what it means, and what they should do next. I know there is a place for just doing what’s written down and NOT thinking much, but I am convinced that investment in our training and a deeper understanding of it pays huge dividends in the end. That was my random RPE thought for the day. 
And I see improvements in work capacity all the time. I think it’s one thing we often don’t give enough consideration to in strength training. Finishing and the running the Bridge again will likely be a great plan, and as you finish, don’t be hesitant to dial back the weight on some of those lifts a bit.
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RPE poetry right there Leah.
I’ll finish out and see where it gets me. Thanks again for your help.
Heh, I liked the acknowledgement of the RPE “sermon” and the message.
I thought I had seen some @Jordan_Feigenbaum advice once that I have since been unable to locate upon several perusals which was essentially:
If a trainee were to do more than one successive run of the bridge, it is likely beneficial to trim off one of the initial or terminal low stress weeks.
Could you confirm either my memory, or the wisdom of this option?
Thanks
Glad it’s helpful! And @Serack your memory is correct! You can drop on of those low stress weeks so you don’t have them back to back when repeating. Thanks for bringing that up!
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