RPE and the Press

So I’m on my second week of the bridge. Prior to this my estimated press max was between 215-220. I’ve only ever pressed 212 in the gym after my working sets prior to this program. Goal is to hit 225 for now. I started last week and hit 180 for my set of 5@8. I now realize being more honest with myself that it was more like a 9. Anyway, this week I was supposed to do 5@6 5@7 5@8x4. I did 165x5@6 175x5@7(might’ve been 7.5 or even 8 but I rated it as 7) then 185x5@8 for my first set @8. Now once I finished the set at 185 I realized this was definitely an @9. So, I dropped back down to 175 for the last three sets of 5@8 and was able to keep RPE between 8-8.5 successfully. The press is hard for me to judge when I should go up because it’s difficult for me to tell between having more than one rep left in the tank with the movement. I am also terribly afraid of regressing on the press so I don’t think I’m totally honest with myself about it. 185@9 and 175@8 put my estimated 1RM at 220.

All this being said, I know next week is another moderate stress week with the same 5@8x4 for the press. I also know that RPE is to be used to judge what weights to use but I still do like to have a general idea of a planned weight to use that day in my head, and then I’ll use my sets @6 or @7 to calibrate whether or not I should do more or less than my planned weight for the day. The way I see it, in order to progress slightly from this week I have two options:

  1. Try 185 again for my first set @ 8 and hopefully it rates @8. Then try to keep sets between 180-185 for @8.

  2. (Leaning more this way to be conservative) try for 160@6 170@7 and 180@8x4 and hope 180 is a true 8 now and try to hit it across for 4 sets keeping RPE the same give or take .5. 180 for 5 @8 puts my e1rm at 222 which is progress.

These notions are pure speculation obviously, I just want to get my head around it to settle my mind going into next week. I’d hate to have to drop weight in my Press this early into the program.

Its not the end of the world if your planned RPE 8 set ends up at a 8.5 and you need to strip a kilo or two off the bar. It doesn’t have to be perfect. The only way to ‘get your head around it’ is to keep practicing the skill.
The first time I ran the Hypertrophy template I really had my doubts if this style of training was for me, but after few months, it all comes together.
Thinking a long game rather than micro analyzing the shit out of every set certainty helped with that.

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Makes sense. I’m just wondering if this happens do I still plan on adding weight the next week?

How long are you resting between sets before The Bridge? How long are you resting on The Bridge?

The shortened rest period and increased volume on The Bridge will make you sacrifice the intensity at the very beginning. If you don’t see yourself well-conditioned, make sure not to skip GPP days. The Bridge brings you a new kind of stress which you will hopefully adapt to within the 8 weeks and manage to make some PRs towards the end. (I suspect it would be anything crazy if you’ve previously “milked out” your LP.) However, strength progress is not guaranteed on this program. As the detailed response from Austin has given you at length at another thread points out, the program is helping you transition off from LP to more productive intermediate training.

Back to your specific question: if the @8 set becomes @8.5 this week, should you plan to add weight next week? The two options you’ve listed are both fine. I would probably pick #2 for myself because I’d like to opt for undershooting to avoid extra fatigue, but that’s just me. As you correctly planned yourself, use @6 and @7 sets to calibrate your @8 weight, and trust whatever the weight for @8 brings you the stress needed to become stronger and bigger, you’ll be totally fine.

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Awesome answer man thanks. Yes I understand Austin made it clear to me the point of the program. I get it and I know the benefits of this program far exceed just a few lbs in the bar. But I mean who doesn’t also want to end a program stronger than when they began it :). And I’m confident that this will happen albeit not super crazy pr’s. But I’d be happy if on the bridge while my work capacity increased my estimated 1rms went from press 220 to 230, bench 320 to 335, squat 385 to 405, deadlift 500 to 520-535. Prior to this i didn’t run SS LP. I still trained full body but with a little more upper body assistance work and higher reps for Press and bench. I still progressed workout to workout but I only squatted twice a week and deadlifted once for very low volumes (3-5 rm’s on squat and 1x5 deadlift per week). For that reason alone I know the bridge will benefit my squat and dead and I’ll definitely see some gains in that department.

I thibk youre right im gonna try to go for option 2 and adjust during training as planned. Prior to the bridge I waited 4 minutes between sets. I read on here you can keep RPE close to the same if you wait 5 minutes between sets at the given working RPE. So I’ve been waiting 5 minutes between sets for those but 2-4 between @7’s and 2 between @6 and @7. Warmups I don’t count I just go when I’m ready.

Totally dude. Yes I go about it like so: I have a planned @6 @7 and @8 based on whatever last week’s sets felt like, BUT also taking into account I want a slight progression as the ultimate goal. So usually aim to add 2.5-5lbs to my sets per week. But then if I go in and the sets @6 and @7 felt too heavy, I’d dial back my working sets based off of that. BUT in my mind I have to force myself to at least TRY to progress each week or at least plan to. Because I’m new to judging RPE what I don’t want to happen is to just use the same weights week in and week out.

I only used the e1rm chart the first time to find the initial RPE’s. Ever since then I just base it off trying to progress a tad from last week’s sets. And then I plug it in to make sure my e1rm is indeed going up.