The Bridge 1.0 and RPE.

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1

Hey guys,

Just wrapped up week 2 on The Bridge. Loving it, but concerned with gauging RPE. One week 1 with Deadlifts i worked upto 135kg 5@8, this felt smooth and a definite 8. Yesterday Deadlift day i tried to aim for 135kg again for my RPE 8. These felt alot harder but there were an extra 2 sets of 5@8. Am i to be conservative with RPE and back off if its creeping up to 8.5 or maybe even 9? Also, my low back was fried after these so i had to use the belt for the Tempo Squats. Is it ok to use the belt on Pause and Tempos? I have good days and bad days with my low back and the belt makes it feel safer.

2

So there’s no rule for dealing with creeping RPE, you’ll have to use some judgement on your part. Personally, I don’t care if the last set ends up being a 9. If I hit a 9 and still have more sets to go, I’ll take ~5% off the bar, or if the 2nd set is noticeably much more difficult than the first, I may drop some weight. I suspect you’ll have less issues with creeping RPE as your conditioning and work capacity improves as well.

All accessories are intended to be done beltless. But yes, you can use a belt if it makes you more comfortable to pause and tempo squat. I don’t think the belt is actually doing anything for your back other than placebo though, and may be increasing the weight on the bar (which means you have more stress than the program intended).

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3

Thanks man. So basically yesterday my Deadlifts went
60kg 5x2 warm up
80kg 1x5
100kg 1x5
120kg 5@6 (belt, felt good)
130kg 5@7 (felt good)
135kg 5@8x3 (first set good, set 2 ok, set 3 last 2 reps getting much slower.)

like you say as the conditioning and work capacity improves this may make the volume easier. All im used to is 1x5 on SSNLP.

4

Yeah that seems pretty reasonable, I think you’ll be just fine as you get used to it! I experienced the same thing going from SSLP to the Bridge, but it all worked out.

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5

Did you consider the RPE creep sets as a calculation of your E1RM? How did you measure progress during your first run through of the Bridge?

6

Nah, I just used my first working @8 set to determine my e1rm, it’s the most accurate predictor of my 1RM that day. My e1rms trended upwards throughout the program (not necessarily linearly).

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