I posted this question on the starting strength fb group and it was suggested I should ask it here.
Some background info: I finished LP on squats back in late october-early november with a 365x5x3 squat( probably rpe 9.5-10). I took a deload since this was so hard and started doing “the bridge” programming for squats while continuing LP for my other lifts. My squat went from 325 to 350x5x3@8 rather quickly, but at that point life got crazy and I took a break from lifting during the holidays. I got back in the rack a couple weeks into January and did Linear Progression for a week. to get back to decent levels. The next week I started “the bridge” for all lifts. Now after 3 “squat with belt” sessions. I’ve not made any progress on squats.
The sessions went like this:
Week 1:
305x5x1@7
325x5x1@8
275x5x1@6
I’m 6ft2in and 325lb so before starting the program I took my calories from 5000 to 4500 to accommodate weight loss and better conditioning during the program.
It’s frustrating because I’ve basically been spinning my wheels since november and I want to squat 405x5x3 so bad. I was 40 lbs away from doing so with the 365x5x3 but now I’m twice as far away. Help!
So I am not sure about the weight and RPE selections are as you have listed. First are you running the Bridge or Bridge 2.0? I assume 2.0, however then week 1 would have had one more set at RPE 8 there.
Other than that it looks like you are struggling to find the RPE. It should be a single @8, then 3 sets of 5 @8. How are you planning out your working sets and how are you assessing your RPE here?
I’m running 1.0. And the pdf explaining and laying out the program doesn’t show any singles for the first 4 weeks. Just 5@6,7,8 then 5@6,7,8x3 and then 5@6,7,8x3 again for the first 3 weeks. I plan my work sets by adding 5-10lb increments to my previous weeks numbers at the same rpe. I assess rpe by asking how many more reps I could have done via the flow chart also in the pdf.
I tried to make 10lb jumps on working sets when I went from 325-350lb in November. And it worked so I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work again unless its the extra overall training volume (presses and pulls) and/or the caloric decrease.
what do you mean by the first sentence in your response?
Ok, so if you are running 1.0 you are doing sets of 5. What are the singles listed here and why are you doing them and then hitting RPE 9 and 10? That’s what I don’t understand.
Their not singles. I wrote ###x5x1
meaning I did the prescribed amount of weight for five reps for one set. And the rpe 9 and 10 are why I’m writing this post. They should be rpe 8 for 3 sets across but when I actually do them they feel like 9 and 10. Hence the no progress problem.
One of the things that it sounds like is happening, but correct me if I am wrong-you finished and LP, then moved to the Bridge, and you are still expecting to add weight linearly to your squat each week. Is that how you are looking at this? That’s not always a reasonable expectation. But looking at this, see below-
Week 2:
285x5x1@6
315x5x1@7
335x5x2@9
325x2x1@10
*this indicates that you should have gone from 315 to 325, at the most I would have jumped to 330 (that’s about 5%). Given that you are overshooting the RP regularly I’d have you err on the side of a small jump to get to the RPE 8 for now. Also if 325x5 was really RPE 10, like you could not do one more rep, I’d also guess that 315 might have been higher than RPE7
Week 3:
290x5x1@6
320x5x1@7 I would have jumped to 305 here
330x5x1@8.5 Then I would have planned for 320 here
330x5x1@9
320x5x1@8.5
It just looked like you are starting too heavy. You need to back down slightly, adjust to the overall program volume and then you should see progress. Don’t be so driven by 405x5 that you grind yourself into the ground right now trying to get there.
Thanks. So do you think I try to let 1rpe point equate to 15 more lbs on the bar for a while? as in I should assume that if 305 is rpe 7 then 320 is a good starting place to try to get rpe 8?
I thought intermediate programming should always facilitate a weekly gain in strength, but you said I shouldn’t expect this on the bridge. Why?
as a sidenote: my paused squats(2s) have been progressing just fine. I’ve increased weight and hit the prescribed rpe almost perfectly each workout. Why would I have this difference in progress on similar lifts?
You need to start using both the RPE calculator and the RPE scale to evaluate your RPE and weight selections. Did you have a chance to read the book with the Bridge? In general, I would not plan on a jump larger than 5%, that’s why I suggested those numbers. In addition, you are definitely overshooting the RPE, so you simply MUST lower the weight selections. If you don’t have 2 more reps in the tank after a set, it is not RPE 8, and you need to pay attention to that.
I would expect you to make regular progress too, but it looks like you started the Bridge too heavy, not accounting for the RPE and the volume. This means that until you get things back in order, you might not be adding weight.
Again I think you just started the squat too high.