The Bridge 1.0 - Regression (2nd run)

Hello doctors FeigenBarakibaum and coach Lutz!

I hope you are well.

I’ve run the Bridge 1.0 once and am now at the 6th week of my second run at it (I’ve kept my weight constant the whole time: 90 kg for 1m86, and I’ve gradually reduced waist from 40-41 inches to 38).

I started the 1st run with these E1RMs (from week 2):
Squat: 102 kg
Press: 41.5 kg
BP: 58.5 kg
DL: 136 kg

Ended it with:
Squat: 114 kg
Press: 44.75 kg
BP: 66.5 kg
DL: 149.5 kg

I think these are pretty good numbers in terms of progress and I was quite pleased.

Unfortunately since then it’s been going downhill. E1RM on week 2 (skipped week 1) of the 2nd run:
Squat: <110 kg
Press: 43 kg
BP: 64.5 kg
DL: 148 kg

E1RM on week 5 of the 2nd run:
Squat: 101 kg
Press: 43 kg
BP: 65.5 kg
DL: 143 kg

It seems that I’ve either lost a lot of strength or I’ve been carrying too much fatigue over the past 4-5 weeks, though I honestly don’t see myself dissipating fatigue and getting back to higher numbers any time soon. I’ve been quite patient with this but it’s been over a month with no progress.

I think I’m getting better at RPE gauging. I might have overshot a few on the 1st run (I really want to make progress so I can be overzealous sometimes) but I don’t think it was anything dramatic.

Any ideas as to why this is happening? Has this happened to any of your clients? What do you suggest I try to do?

Of course, I understand if you think this question might be too specific for this forum. Let me know!

Thank you for your help.

Hey!

I can maybe offer a little bit of insight now that I am finishing my second run on the Bridge as well.

My results differ from yours in the sense that my lifts have continued to progress which I chalk up to poor RPE gauging on my first run and lot of novel stress when it came to introducing all the accessory movements which caused me to feel “beat up”, but having over indulged in BBM content I know what their relative answer may be: your training needs to change.

I have heard Jordan say multiple times that the effectiveness of rerunning the bridge will taper off as the body adapts to the stress, though how many re-runs before this really took effect would depend on the individuals response to the program.

For myself, I plan on running the bridge a third time as my body seems to still be reacting to the squat and deadlift volume, but I personally prepared a bunch of alterations (Benching and Pressing both get two days per week and the pressing movement that already had two days is receiving more volume). I wouldn’t recommend everyone try this approach when BBM offers other templates, I just like experimenting with things as I learn more and more. For you it may just involve moving on to the HLM template/Hypertrophy/Strength template or some other template based on whatever your goals are.

Even though I tweaked my back 2x(bad form and overrating rpe) I had great results. That being said, I didn’t test post bridge because you’re not really supposed to, I went onto the 12 week strength template then tested.
So the question remains; did I indeed have great results?