I’m pretty green with the RPE concept. I have read through the Bridge reading material and have listened to discussions on RPE on YouTube. The answer to my questions probably lies somewhere in the recesses of those resources. Perhaps I am just too stupid to absorb it. I have started the Bridge and, probably pretty commonly, started my work weights a bit on the heavy side. It seems I am having to back off quite a bit from what my projected 1RM and weight based upon the percentages of that 1RM. In reading and listening about RPE, this seems to be not uncommon. My questions are related to the amount of sets and variations based on an individuals RPE. For instance, today I based my bench RPE numbers off of a 1RM of 326. This was estimated off of my 5 rep max after finishing my Madcow 5x5 program. Week 2 of the Bridge has 1ct bench for 5 reps @6 for 1 set, @7 for 1 set, and then @8 for 4 sets. Everything seemed good up until my last couple of sets. @8, my first set went well, the second set was definitely tougher, I missed 1 rep on my third, and missed 2 reps on my 4th. Being honest with myself, I know that my first set I felt as if I could have done 2, maybe 3 more reps. My second set, felt more like an RPE 9. And then, of course, I missed the next two sets. So even though I did feel as if the first set was RPE 8, because I didn’t hit it on the third and fourth, then it really is not RPE 8? What is the threshold limit for RPE? Should I be able to do 50 sets of 5 and still hit it every time in order for that to count as my true RPE? Also, this was a variation of the bench. The 1ct bench feels to me significantly more difficult than a regular bench. Even if I feel that I could absolutely crush the RPE on a regular bench rep, because I failed at the paused bench, that RPE is incorrect and I need to recalculate? It just seems the variations are harder and therefore will or should be less weight than the “normal” lifts. I have also had to completely redo my squat because of this. My deadlift seems fairly on point. I apologize if you guys are beating your heads up against the walls because I’m sure you’ve answered these questions 6 trillion times and it probably seems like a concept that should be easy to understand. Thank you for your time.
Your e1RM is probably not accurate due to a few reasons. First is that it’s based on your 5RM for TnG, which you extrapolated to a e1RM (for TnG) which you are then basing for your 5@8 1ct paused. And also your e1RM can just vary day to day due to many other factors. It was already fuzzy and probably inaccurate at the beginning, and then jus got further ‘lost in translation.’ So when approaching a variation you have not done before, it’s best to just start with the empty bar with the prescribed number of reps and go up until you hit your target RPEs. Do not base your e1RM for squat/bench/deadlift for the variations found in The Bridge. I’m not sure if you skipped Week 1, but that would have been a good place to gauge your 1ct pause bench 5@8, which gives you a baseline to increase from each following week.
If your first set felt like a true RPE8 and the following sets’ RPE increased drastically to the point of failure, I think there could be a few reasons - maybe your rest times are too short, or maybe you are not used to this level of volume at present, or maybe the you overshot your RPE. The general idea is you should be able to repeat 4-5@8 with the same weight for 5 sets without missing a rep (with 4-5 minutes rest in between sets). It’s normal for RPE to creep up, and if the last set or two are @8.5-9, I don’t think that’s too bad, but if your second set is @9, I would probably decrease the load by 3-5% for the remaining sets, to get the correct amount of volume/stress in. Keep in mind: it’s a lot better to undershoot your RPE than to overshoot - and also it’s completely okay to drop the weight bit and get adjusted to the new program/volume. You’ll still get the reps/sets in at an appropriate intensity which is the goal 
Hope that makes sense.
I’ll try to address this bit by bit
Yes, this is not uncommon
Maybe, maybe not. Like you say below, you used a TnG bench max as your paused bench max. If you’ve never trained the paused bench, it stands to reason that your max will be lower. This is probably what happened here. Note it and do better next time.
Yes, your paused bench 1RM will likely be different than your TnG bench 1RM. They should be treated like different lifts IMO. There is no threshold like you describe it. I would say that at RPE 7, you should be able to do many, many sets. Like more than 5 once you have some work capacity. I can generally repeat RPE 8 sets for 3-5 sets. RPE 9 sets will go 2-3… maybe. These are not set in stone, of course, they’re just my experience so your mileage may vary.
Generally speaking, most supplemental lifts will have less absolute load on the bar. This is fine. Now, that doesn’t mean they will be easier. They will still be hard in their own way. For example, paused squats use less load than a regular squat, but are still challenging right?
Yes. Whether it is the pause, push from a pin, deficit, etc… the variations allow you to generate fatigue at a lower weight. This helps with daily/weekly/monthly fatigue management. For example, doing heavy deadlifts multiple times a week is not likely to be productive from a fatigue management perspective. Likewise, it would be less productive to deadlift heavy once and then do a “light” deadlift day as the light day likely wouldn’t be stressful enough to cause an adaptation. A pause deadlift at a lighter weight though is going to be stressful, which allows you to generate more deadlift volume from an advantaged recovery standpoint.
Thanks for all the responses. I dropped the weight significantly and am trying to navigate my way through Week 3. I think I am certainly not used to the volume. I haven’t done this much volume in quite a while. Probably not since college or in my 20s. That’s 15 or so years ago. I also think the variations are new, as in, I have never done them before, and that is a factor. I do think that I take enough time in between sets. I chose the warm-up method described in the e-book. That is do the empty bar for reps of 5 every minute for 8-10 minutes until warm. Then incrementally adding weight doing the prescribed reps until the work weight is reached. That seems to work well for me. I think I just need to adjust to the RPE way of thinking and to the volume and I’ll be fine. I was able to add weight to my standing shoulder press this week, which was nice. I’ll just keep on keepin on. It’s a long way to the top in you wanna rock n’ roll.
I had exactly the same problem with press this week. Set 1 was a RPR 8 for sure and set 2 was maybe a RPE 8.5 but set 3 was a 9, possibly a 9.5. I dropped the weight by 5% and that set was a 8 but the next set was a 9 again. Which set do I use to estimate my e1RM ? I was thinking that I should use the final weight but I’m not sure. Also I think that my rest periods are too short but I find sitting about for 5 minutes difficult to do. I just want to keep going and time is also an issue as resting for 5 minutes between sets when you have 9 working sets works out at 45 minutes. I think I’m happy to take a slight reduction in weight to allow me to work at the correct RPE. Comments ?
I don’t have an issue with conditioning after 20 years of rugby but this is a different approach to training. I always think of a quote from a famous player who said that “there’s no point in being able to lift a horse if you can’t catch it” but my days of catching are now over.
I think in time I will, as you say get used to this type of training. Interestingly enough tonight I did make an effort to increase my rest times to between 3 and 4 minutes and I managed to complete all 4 sets of paused bench at the correct RPE with the same weight so it can be done. I might just have to accept that if I want to progress I need to in increase my rest time and get used to longer workout times. If I’m doing this I might as well do it correctly.
Yeah, I would give it a try this way. But anyway, don’t think you won’t get the results if you need/prefer to use shorter times, further more if you can tolerate it. Austin talks a bit of it here: https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/forums/training-q-a-with-dr-jordan-feigenbaum-and-dr-austin-baraki/7510-the-bridge-just-a-few-questions
I don’t notice the drop in recovery on squats and deadlifts but it’s really apparent on bench and press but if there’s an advantage in resting longer I want to take advantage of it. If the workouts are getting above 90 minutes I may have to reassess but once I get a clearer picture of how I react to different exercises/weights/reps I should be fine.