Additionally, there is a potential that training progress is slower the in the absence of discrete loads being planned for. Some folks just like planning their training linearly, i.e. if I squatted 405 x 5 this week, I’m aiming for 410 x 5 next week. We see the appeal in that, certainly, but would make the argument that the use of RPE and linear progression (adding weight each session or each week, for instance) are not mutually exclusive.
The idea- EVEN WITH RPE- is to be adding weight to the bar regularly and if a person can do that weekly without overshooting the planned training stress (and thus, likely missing reps or having to eliminate volume by cutting sets) then that’s a great plan. Having a backup plan in RPE however, allows the lifter to know what to do if they cannot, for whatever reason, make that 2.5-5lb jump they planned for.
Little snipped from the Bridge where im kind of basing my question from.
After training for approximately a year under BBM templates & programming I feel like I have a decent understanding of RPE although for my strength training purposes, I was wondering if there is anything wrong with just adding 5lbs to the bar every week.
During my recent run of the strength template(week 5) late because I transitioned from the group programming, I started my squat at 365, bench at 255 and deadlift at 405 and ended with a 420 squat, 295 bench and 450 deadlift. Before testing I added 5 lbs to every lift every week, is there anything wrong with that? Admittedly I felt that some weeks that I could’ve increased the 1@8 weight by 10lbs instead of 5lbs but stuck with 5lbs in hindsight.
