Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello,

I began “The Bridge” four weeks ago. I just finished up my High-Stress week and started wondering if I really should’ve chosen this program at the time I did. Allow me to explain, so I got access to a gym through a friend around a month ago and decided to run The Bridge. I am really enjoying it so far, but maybe I should’ve ran the Beginner Prescription instead. I have been in the gym consistently for about 14 months.
My 1RM’s are around the following
Squat: 295 lbs, true max
Bench: ~180 lbs estimate, haven’t tested it over quarantine
Deadlift: ~350 estimate
OHP: can get 115 x 5, so probably around 120 for 1

I feel like these numbers and my amount of time under the bar wouldn’t really make me an intermediate yet, but not quite a “beginner” either. For this reason, I am contemplating purchasing the full Beginner Prescription template and running some of the later phases. However, I’m not sure if it’s smart to finish up The Bridge and then drop my training volume from what I was doing. Kind of confused what to do here, can someone help me out?

Thanks!

2

BrodG,

I’d probably just do phases 2 and 3 of the Beginner Template and see how you do. Ultimately, if it’s a good fit for you, you’ll know based on your results. I don’t think you’re missing out on anything by having done The Bridge first. Alternatively, you could finish the Bridge if it’s working well for you and move onto one of our other programs after that. It really just depends how you’re responding right now to the program and what you want to do :slight_smile:

-Jordan

3

Thank you Dr. Feigenbaum,

I think I am going to finish up the Bridge 1.0 and then run it again, but eliminate the first low-stress week. After that, I plan on getting either General S/C or Strength 1.0. Which one would you recommend? All I’m focused on right now are strength gainzZz.

4

I’d probably keep the low stress weeks as they are. For strength improvements, I’d pick Strength I.