Euby's Log - Take me to the Bridge

[Euby]

9/12/17

Bridge Week 5 - Workout 1
BW: 201.4 (I need to eat more! No excuses)
Tonnage: 14,680 lbs
Workout duration: 1:32

Squat:
275x4@6
290x4@7
300x4@8
300x4@8
300x4@8.5?
Tough but managed to do sets across. Took 5 minutes rest on these. This reminded me of the days of doing SSLP. The first set of 5 is always the hardest...not sure why. It's more of a getting into the lift thing. The 2nd set is much easier, and then the 3rd set is tough again because of fatigue.

Bench with 3-count pause
175x4@6.5
190x4@7.5
205x4@8.5
210x4@9
210x4@9
First time doing these with a 3 count pause so was tricky finding the right weights. Not sure why the Bridge authors would suddenly have you stop doing CGB and switch to a lift like this, except simply for the fact of exposure to a new variation and learning how to judge it. I like CGB, so this was kind of a let down. But hey, no big deal.

Deadlift (w/2-count pause 1" from bottom)
185x4@6
225x4@7
255x4@8
275x4@9
275x4@9
Low back was very fatigued before even starting these, probably because I didn't take 2 days rest after my last heavy deadlift session. But with the extra rest days last week I didn't want to do that again, so paid the price. Low back was screaming after this. Not acute pain, but just extreme fatigue. I honestly have no idea if the RPE's on these are good or not. I felt like I was overly focussed on keeping the low back tight and not having a big form failure that would cause an injury. It was that kind of tired. The effort involved to do that was @9, so there you have it.

Not a bad day considering. I'm going to have to be creative to get back to my regular schedule of M-W-F. Probably take a couple of weeks to line things back up.

[Alex Kershaw]

The paused bench in that doc shows weight reductions as sets progress in order to maintain rpe.

Looks like he does this for RPE 9 sets but keeps the same weight for RPE 8. Good luck to anyone trying to figure that one out!

[Euby]

Looks like he does this for RPE 9 sets but keeps the same weight for RPE 8. Good luck to anyone trying to figure that one out!

Not sure what you mean, but he gives an example where RPE climbs from 8 to 8.5 and then 9, which is common as fatigue sets in. So ending the lift after RPE climbs from 8 to 9 is a way to implement auto-regulation to prevent excessive fatigue. Is that what you are referring to?

[Alex Kershaw]

Not sure what you mean, but he gives an example where RPE climbs from 8 to 8.5 and then 9, which is common as fatigue sets in. So ending the lift after RPE climbs from 8 to 9 is a way to implement auto-regulation to prevent excessive fatigue. Is that what you are referring to?

Nah. When you do sets across @ 8, you keep the weight the same as he's said recently. If you do sets across @ 9, I think you do the opposite - what you were doing originally, where you lower the weight each set. This is what he does in the example.

[Bergstedt]

Looks like he does this for RPE 9 sets but keeps the same weight for RPE 8. Good luck to anyone trying to figure that one out!

I believe this follows from the idea that sets done @9-10 are so challenging that you cannot recover enough during inter-set rest to maintain the same RPE for a given weight when doing sets across. @8 and lower, though, are seen as "easy" enough to allow the trainee to recover enough to at least perform more than one set across while still maintaining the same RPE.

From my own experience this also seems to hold true. When doing a set @9 I almost always find that the next set, regardless of rest (within reasonable limits...), will be at least @9.5, and often even @10.

Regarding people figuring it out, Jordan has stated this on several occasions, so it is not really necessary to figure it out yourself if you have read at least parts of his material.

[Euby]

Nah. When you do sets across @ 8, you keep the weight the same as he's said recently. If you do sets across @ 9, I think you do the opposite - what you were doing originally, where you lower the weight each set. This is what he does in the example.

Right, but in the example you referenced he ended the sets across early because RPE climbed to 9, which is not uncommon on some training days. That was my point.

[Euby]

9/14/17

Bridge Week 5 - Workout 2

2-count Squat
255x4@7
265X4@8
275X4@9
275x4@9
Yeah, was supposed to do pin squats today if IWDTFP, but I didn't want to rest the bar on my spotter arms, and I hate pin squats in general, so I just stuck with these and added a little more weight.

Press
115x4@6
125x4@7
135x4@8
135x4@8
135x4@8
135x4@8
These felt great today, and surprise, surprise! I kept the same weight across, and they all felt about the same with almost 5 minutes of rest. Learn something new all the time.

Pendlay Rows
150x8@6
165x8@7
180x8@8
180x8@8
180x8@8
180x8@8
These are strange. One set feels like I'm jerking too much to get the weight up, and then the next set feels smooth and strong.

All-in-all today was a good day. Was in a hotel the last 2 nights, and away from my home office/kitchen so food intake was a bit off.

[Aaron Montgomery]

Interesting that you hate pin squats so much, and love paused squats. I'm the opposite. Paused squats fatigue my lower back like crazy, and really hurt my inguinal hernia repair sites. Tempo squats are stupid hard, but I'm sticking with em for now.

[Euby]

Interesting that you hate pin squats so much, and love paused squats. I'm the opposite. Paused squats fatigue my lower back like crazy, and really hurt my inguinal hernia repair sites. Tempo squats are stupid hard, but I'm sticking with em for now.

Yeah, I just wonder if it matters either way honestly as they are both a light day squat variant. I like that the paused squat is at least more like a regular squat then sitting the bar down on pins but trying to maintain tension on it.

[Euby]

9/15/17

GPP

30 minute walk on hilly terrain (14:45 min/mile pace)
7 min Chin AMRAP (41 reps PR)
7 min Ab