Tempo Squat on day 3 of the Bridge

Dear Dr @Jordan_Feigenbaum
How much important is the prescribed order of day 3 of the bridge? I mean can one start with tempo squats as the first lift and end with deadlifts? And isn’t the other way too much exhausting?

I wouldn’t do tempo squats before deadlifts in that context. If you care about your deadlift, its performance, and relevant specific training adaptations then I think it’s worth putting it first and prioritizing it.

I’m not sure that the session would be more or less exhausting with tempo squats first (or last). Additionally, I’m not sure why people get so riled up about tempo squats. They’re significantly lighter than regular squats and not terribly taxing once you get over that fact.

Thanks for your reply. I will stick to the order. In my personal experience, the main sources of confusion are the way that the movement exhausts me and also lack of humbleness. I need to be more patient with them and trust your experience and knowledge.

All good man. I think the most I’ve ever tempo squatted is like 405 x 5 or something, which is way less than my regular squat.

One other thing that I wanted to mention is I think I am not enough conditioned to do the same weight for subsequent sets at this movement. For example, something that feels less than @6 in the first set may feel like @9 at the third set. The same things are somehow true on my deadlifts: 330 is hardly an @8 for the first set, but in subsequent sets, it may be so fatiguing that I am not able to do my bench before resting for like 10 minutes. Before starting the bridge I used to rest for a long time between sets. Now I have the impression that this is not the solution unless I am actually maxing out. So I shortened the rests (3-4 minutes) and taking cardio much more serious, and I drop the weight if I am not feeling fresh. Is this a better way?

I expect you to be able to maintain @8 sets back to back in a few short weeks. It’s unlikely for people to not be able to do this once they’ve been exposed to the training a few times.