Squat and DL regression

Hey everyone. Ive done BBM programs twice so far. I like the programing and find that I make progress with my press and bench. The issue is My Dead lift and squat falls off. I was doing the strength 1 template and I felt like my Dead lift was going up but my squat just drops. I get to feeling like anything over 200lbs is heavy and too much. When I moved off LP I was squating 250lbs. Has anyone else had this issue or a way to keep driving gains?

Here’s two points from my own experience.

  1. It’s been my experience with the Strength templates that there’s a period in the middle of the cycle where the volume + intensity + variations are too much to recover fully from and it’s almost impossible to add weight week to week. For me, this lasted for between 3-4 weeks; then, the programming adjusted and the added stress over those weeks led to further gains near the end of the program. I do not believe that this is how the Strength templates are supposed to work but it’s how they work for me.

  2. RPE RPE RPE. Are you calling what should be a “9” an “8”? Are you making your 3@9 feel like 3@10? I cheated like this forever in order to get “more weight on the bar” but I ended up burning out because the intensity of a 9-9.5 is a LOT different from the intensity of an @8. I had to be real strict about making sure that @8 means I am POSITIVE I have two reps left in the tank. This lowered my 1@8 and 3@9 sets by 15-20lbs, but it allowed for longer term, more gradual, weight increases after a while.

Thanks for the response. I think some of the issue could be the RPE but not totally sure. When I was on LP I felt beat up and grinding every set and rep out after weeks on the program. I switched over to this style of training and love it but the first time on the bridge I think I under estimated the RPE and on the strength 1 template I have been using the percentages to get the numbers my RPE should be. Sometimes it feels light and fine but lately like I said the squats feel like im overdoing it and they are light compared to what I ended my LP with. So for example I would hit a set of 5 x 250 than 2 sets of 5 x 225 for back off sets and feel beat up but know I hit anything close to 225 I feel like im beat up and struggling. I know I can do more weight because I am not feeling like i have 250 on my back but I am still struggling to push through the set.

My experience after half a year using RPE the way BBM programs - you should not feel beat up after sets of RPE8 and even if one of them is RPE9. If you are struggling to push through and you feel beat up, you are most likely red-lining it in the RPE 9-10 zone. I can relate with the bench. My ego would no allow me use lower weight and I would have ugly sets that were RPE9-10 for several weeks. I started hating the bench and for the first time I was feeling fatigue after the bench day. Eventually my shoulder started bothering me. I took 2 weeks off the bench completely. Now I am much more humble. I lowered the weight and after just 2 weeks back I got my previous e1RM and surpassed it. All while keeping the sets in the actual prescribed RPEs.

My conclusion - trust the process, check your ego, learn RPE better.

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RPE is an objective tool for determining how many more reps you can do, not “how terrible does this feel”

With education and practice, you can very accurately rate RPE and calculate lifts off that.

It should also help with dosing the intensity and rep ranges of the exercises you do.

I’m not sure how much you can grind, but what if what feels tough and grindy to you, you could do 2 more reps? That’s RPE 8. I’m just saying. Think about it.

Also, sleep, nutrition, recovery, consistency in the gym?

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