I’m wondering how a lifter’s choice to use anabolic and androgenic steroids would affect training recommendations for them. In The Bridge, you state that the main considerations in programming are volume, tonnage, intensity, frequency, and exercise selection. These variables are manipulated based on certain assumptions about homeostasis and recovery in the lifter’s body. But those assumptions probably don’t hold for someone with temporarily supraphysiological levels of testosterone (or indeed one of a number of androgen receptor agonists). How would you amend The Bridge for such a person?
The oversimplified way to think about this is that anabolic steroids increase training sensitivity.
This means that for the same dose of training (e.g., “The Bridge”), the lifter will mount a more robust response in terms of muscle mass and strength gain compared to their un-enhanced self.
And just knowing that someone is on AAS does not necessarily help us determine which (if any) modifications to the program would be needed.
And so I imagine the RPE model still works well; between one microcycle and the next, the weight corresponding to an RPE X might just increase by larger amounts than it would normally?
It may, yes.