Where to next after Bridge? Advice needed.

Other Discussions Programming Discussion
1

Hi everbody,

I need some advice how to proceed in regards with programming. I am currently on week four of The Bridge v1.0.

Short history
After being sick for most of the year and unable to participate in any kind of sports due to several accute bouts of chronic illness I decided to start strength training to regain some strength and muscle mass (had gone from 60kg to 55kg body weight). So about two months ago I started SSLP.

As I like to be rather active - as long as my health permits - with karate training twice a week, rock climbing once a week and basicaly daily bike rides I ran into trouble with my fatigue management after about six weeks on SSLP.
I just couldn’t keep up incrementing the weight on the bar from session to session while holding on to my other activities without feeling completely drained most of the week.
Per a suggestion on this forum I switched to the Bridge v1.0. The RPE System did wonders. I can keep up the strength training, increase training volume and participate in my other sports activities without overtaxing myself. Also I gained 3kg of weight and can feel the increase in general strength in my sports and other daily activities. Thanks to the BBM team for their great work and @PWard for his suggestions.

Current stats (all lifts are E1RMs)
Female, 42years old
168cm, 58kg
Squat: 25kg → 45kg
Bench: 17kg → 36kg
Press: 15kg → 21kg
DL: 45kg → 70kg

What I am looking for is a programm that would allow me to keep up all my different activities while slowly gaining strength and muscle mass. I don’t care for the actual numbers on the lifts as I am not interested in any kind of competetive lifting. I just want to get generally stronger and be physically better prepared when illness strikes again.

Any suggestions what might be suitable?

Thanks in advance.

2

Per your conditions, stats and requests. The GPP and or Hypertrophy templates may help you the best but in all honesty, they’re all great.

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3

To me I wouldn’t recommend a GPP template as it sounds like you are doing a lot of GPP stuff already with your activity level, so I’d just focus on continuing getting used to resistance training with a volume-based approach. The Bridge 2.0 or HLM are both great ways of doing that, or you could get the 12-week strength template and use the 4 or 3 day approach contained therein.

4

Congrats on overcoming your illness and your success so far! You could probably take the Bridge for a couple spins around the block if you’re enjoying it and it fits your lifestyle goals well. If your e1rms plateau for awhile after running it a few times, you can shake things up with either the 3-day Hypertrophy, HLM, the 3-day modification of the Strength Template, or the new Bridge 3.0. Pretty much any BBM programming is a good option for general strength and lean body mass gainz :slight_smile:

5

Thanks for updating us, and I’m very glad to see that our recommendations worked so well! Everyone here already pretty much already answered your question. Keep us posted with how things continue!

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6

Thanks a lot guys for your recommendations! Right now I am enjoying the Bridge a lot. So I will keep cycling it until I am bored or stop improving.

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