So as the title suggests I am planning to run the 7 week endurance template (with a calorie deficit) followed by the 12 week strength template (with a calorie surplus) repeatedly until it stops working with the end goal of being strong and lean. (Or to put it another way: being as competitive as possible at a given weight class…)
I’ve gotten pretty good at diet compliance and planning. But my programming has always been weak so I thought I should get some expert advice.
Is this a silly idea? Do you guys have any advice on making this plan work or any alternatives (either specific ideas or directions on where to go to find out)?
For example: should I be looking to lose more weight on the loss phase then what I gain on the strength phase?
A little about me:
Age: 23
Sex: Male
Height: 176cm
Weight: 82.1kg
Waist: 90cm
My maintenance calories are about 2400 assuming I’m training. I have an office job so I’m sitting at a computer pretty much all day every weekday.
I’ve ‘done’ the SSLP but left to my own devices, I screwed it up. Afterwards I kinda fucked about for a bit and went nowhere. So after a year+ of shitty training my current numbers are:
“the end goal of being strong and lean. (Or to put it another way: being as competitive as possible at a given weight class…)”
which weight class? what do you mean by “strong”? what do you mean by “lean”?
There’s nothing wrong with picking a weight class and trying to be as strong as you can in it. So I’d do that first.
If you’re new to this style of training generally, run the bridge first, either version, and get used to the volume and density demands, and gauging your sense of RPE.
Then I would decide if you’re training for a meet in the next few months or not.
If there’s a meet, run the strength program. If not, then the GPP endurance is fine, but most of us have found that the Hypertrophy templates are better suited for PL off season. The GPP endurance template is really for improving your performance on conditioning tests while also retaining the skills to perform well for PL, less so for physique or maximizing PL performance.
Don’t shame yourself over what your numbers are or aren’t; they will improve with diligent practice managed well over the long term.
Last, if you can afford BBM group programming or coaching, you should do so.
Perhaps I confused things with my weight class comment, I was more trying to convey that I want to get as strong as possible whilst getting to a leaner body fat percentage. Or to say it another way: put as much muscle in a bodyweight as possible (which would naturally mean, lower body fat)
My goal bodyweight would be 85-90kg but at that weight I’d like to, again, lean. And I don’t have a time constraint on that.
When I say lean, I suppose I mean I want to lose these love handles and aim for 15-20% body fat. Now I don’t think trying to measure body fat percentage is particularly useful, so I was going to track waist size to make sure that it declined over time alongside weekly body photos. Strength would be tracked using the templates logs.
No meet planned in the short or long term.
When you say the Hypertrophy templates are better suited, do you mean for fat loss/recomposition as well?
My thinking behind choosing these two programs was: I can use the endurance template to lose fat and maintain strength, then use the strength to gain strength, muscle, and fat. Then overtime if I do it right I should see a net loss in fat, and a net gain in muscle and strength?
My first questions were rhetorical. pick a body weight and go for it is the point.
Yes, the hypertrophy templates are better suited to general jacktitude than is the endurance template. You should let your dietary compliance help your body composition goals and orient your training toward improving your performance in the competition lifts.
After TDLP (my version of SSLP) I was tapped out on strength gains particularly upper body (I didn’t run it out). I moved to The Bridge and hit my highest singles across the board. That was at the same weight, maybe slightly lighter than after I finished TDLP. I was unhappy with my fat mass, so now I am on Hypertrophy v2. It is the calories that makes the difference.
The following are a few posts that I made that address this and how I am taking on fat loss.