To Bridge or not to Bridge?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Background
5’8" 29yo 175lb (on the long road to recovery from Stage 3 GainzZzopenia)
Eating ~3000 kcal. Striving for TBAB macros, but sometimes I eat too much fat.
Terminated LP mid-December at 165lb BW

Current Training
I designed myself a 4-day split based on PPST3e pg152:

Monday - Intensity Bench, Volume Press
Tuesday - Intensity DL, Volume Squat
Thursday - Intensity Press, Volume Bench
Saturday - Intensity Squat, Volume pull (usually power cleans)

I mix in some chins, rows, and curls as time permits. All rest periods are timed to be less than 5 minutes. No pain or nagging injuries at the moment. I video myself from time to time and don’t have any technical concerns at the moment. All soreness is manageable except after volume squats (which is why I have to wait until Saturday for intensity squats instead of Friday as suggested in PPST3e).

I have progressed my intensity slots from 5s to 3s to 1s to keep from grinding out too many ugly reps. Volume slots are almost exclusively “fahves”, with the occasional 8s to mix things up on upper body lifts. Volume slot intensity has crept up from ~70% to ~80% due to similar absolute load increases on volume and intensity slots week-to-week. I have also gradually added additional volume in the form of more sets in the volume slots and back-off sets in intensity slots, so my lifts look like this at the moment:

Squat - 40 reps per week above 70%, 365 1RM
Bench - 45 reps per week above 70%, 250 1RM
Press - 45 reps per week above 70%, 172 1RM
Deadlift - 10 reps per week above 70% (plus 15 power cleans), 415 1RM

All 1RMs were set last week in the course of a normal training schedule. I think there is still a bit of progress left in my current program, but I am getting pretty burned out on this specific split.

What Next?
Am I still a good candidate for The Bridge? I see that it would be an increase in my squat and deadlift volume, but a back off on bench and press. I like the idea of the GPP blocks, as I am starting to get winded a little more easily than I would like.
OR
Should I just shut up and be happy that my program is working and try to wring more progress out of my current setup? If so, how would I best incorporate some GPP into what I’m doing now?

2

Do the bridge- see how it works. The difference in frequency and exercise selection will likely make up for the decrease in volume (which is not by that much really).

3

Will do. Thanks!

4

One follow-up question:

I have a competitive swimming background and my gym has a nice pool. Could swimming be used for LISS and HIIT in the GPP sessions?

5

I think swimming is one of the worst conditioning options there are, unless you compete in swimming.

6

Okay I’ll stick to the rower for now. I do plan to compete in the pool again someday, though.

I searched and found this explanation of your position on swimming from a post back in December:

it has a high potential to compromise strength and hypertrophy improvements . . . and doesn’t do a lot for non-swimming specific conditioning development.

I can attest to the second part, having been exhausted by mere minutes of any non-aquatic activity even at the peak of my swimming conditioning. I’m wondering if you can elaborate on the first part, though. What makes swimming and strength training such a poor mix? I know Austin also has a swimming background. Has he ever tried to blend the two?

7

Because you’re horizontal and not working against gravity at 100%, it’s not a great option. People’s swimming economy is usually low too, which makes it pretty fatiguing.