Although I myself am now finishing off with The Bridge, I’d like to pass on what I’ve learnt through BM/SS about NLP to friends and clients looking for efficient progress as a beginner to Strength Training.
Barbell Medicine has a somewhat different approach to the NLP then Starting Strength and from memory, I believe I’ve heard it mentioned in a Podcast that Jordan prefers to place Deadlifts first on the theoretical midweek session (I.e. Wed) and perhaps perform Pause Squats as opposed to Light Squats last during the session - although I COULD be wrong here/misremembering.
If that is correct, what is the appropriate pulling volume for Power Cleans or if inappropriate, Rows from the floor during the weekly split? Do we Clean Monday/Friday or only once a week and then perform chin-ups/assisted chin-ups on another day?
So I think that forcing us to use the SSLP template would result in us making a bunch of compromises to our optimal novice training program and I would basically just refuse to do that because it’s not necessary. I think that if you’re using SSLP and looking for a good place to do your pulls, which may be suffering due to the decreased stress being applied to that movement pattern over the course of LP- then I’d do them fresh on day 2 with a few extra sets (2 or so) of 5 reps at 90% of your top set of 5. I’d then press or bench and squat afterwards.
During my modified SSLP I contined to do deadlifts every second day and never included power cleans. My deadlift kept going up every time. The other modification made was I did not squat on deadlift day. Workout A was deadlift 1x5, press 3x5, pull ups 3 sets. Workout B was squat 3x5, bench press 3x5, rows 3x8.
If I knew now what I now of Jordan’s and Austin’s thoughts, I would still do the same, but add 2 back offs sets to deadlifts as Jordan just mentioned. Futher, I would have backed off on bench and press and done 5x5 earlier. But as they both say, the LP is a program for a period of time and then one has to move on. I did my modified SSLP for just over 2 months. I am now on The Bridge. I am not wedded to the SSLP and it is as much as I tell others, if they ask.