The Bridge

[BBB]

I also am not sure where it is marketed as inter/advanced, as it's literally designed to be ran right after SSLP. I would run the first week as planned coming off SSLP.

Right on the first page:


Having said that, page 2 states:

The Bridge®
(8-Week Barbell Medicine Novice to Intermediate Strength Program)

So I retract my statement. Having said that, I recommend you guys edit the first page and I've also found many typos in the text. Want me to email them to you?

They're meant for different populations.

Got it... love the Int/Adv program by the way...

I think that the general thinking around here is that intermediate programing should be a close extension of novice programming, which is something I disagree with entirely. I think "simple" intermediate programs tend to work poorly overall.

I disagree. You just have to gauge how hard the sets feel. It takes no extra time, minimal extra effort, and you do it anyway whether you have a pre-planned linear scale to rate your effort levels on anyway.

Disagree. To be clear, I don't disagree with your logic about programming, I disagree when it comes to people's understanding, intelligence, self-evaluation, learning curves and so on. Especially given that this is a transitional program.

Someone just came from a prescriptive program to something with much more variation and a concept of RPE's which has a learning curve. The program is 8-weeks and they have to figure out RPE's in all these lifts they haven't done? They have to learn to listen to their body and understand WTF it means, etc. It's just too much (without guidance/coaching) and IMO can be simplified.

[Chebass88]

Don't think I've heard of any lifter who didn't have a period of stupid programming. Think it's mandatory by nature or something.

I think periods of stupid programming are some of the best ways to learn. The key is making small changes that can be observed and effective (or not effective), and being able to recognize what went wrong and correct it in the next cycle.

[perman]

I also am not sure where it is marketed as inter/advanced, as it's literally designed to be ran right after SSLP. I would run the first week as planned coming off SSLP.

It does look fairly similar to your generalized program though. The main differences between the Bridge and your general intermediate seem to be your assistance exercises for squats/deadlifts (which are higher stress versions in The Bridge), starting with singles @8 for your main competition movements, and benching 2 times a week instead of 3 times a week.

Does that mean that making tiny alterations to the Bridge would lead to something you think could work for people other than early intermediates?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Right on the first page:

That's a good catch. I actually hadn't seen that in depth and should've looked more closely before signing off on it. Trying to do more things I'm good at vs. being sucked into something.

So I retract my statement. Having said that, I recommend you guys edit the first page and I've also found many typos in the text. Want me to email them to you?

Sure, that'd be great!

Someone just came from a prescriptive program to something with much more variation and a concept of RPE's which has a learning curve. The program is 8-weeks and they have to figure out RPE's in all these lifts they haven't done? They have to learn to listen to their body and understand WTF it means, etc. It's just too much (without guidance/coaching) and IMO can be simplified.

I think we just fundamentally disagree here. I think there is a group of people who want it all spelled out, simple, and very neat- sure, but those people are going to run poor programs created by people who will lie to the lifter.

You MUST learn to gauge how hard a given effort was under the bar. It cannot be done another way, which means there are no simpler, yet still effective, methods IMO.

It does look fairly similar to your generalized program though. The main differences between the Bridge and your general intermediate seem to be your assistance exercises for squats/deadlifts (which are higher stress versions in The Bridge), starting with singles @8 for your main competition movements, and benching 2 times a week instead of 3 times a week.

Does that mean that making tiny alterations to the Bridge would lead to something you think could work for people other than early intermediates?

The variations, reps, sets, and overall stress are different here. I do think many people who would consider themselves later intermediates would benefit from The Bridge with modifications as needed (though certainly not necessary 100% of the time)

[MBasic]

It is different to know and do. I see people fucking up training all the time. They always want to add that extra 5lbs or 1 rep even if they should not. This does not mean that autoregulation is bad, some people are just not enough advanced or smart when it comes to training.

That's not the question. You could fuckup other simple non RPE programs by ego lifting, or just being stupid. That's just not being disciplined The idea that someone after 3-9 months of LP can't discern whether or not you have a 1 Or 2 reps in the tank is ... "Dumbing down" the lifter.

[Igor]

What is it specifically that you don't understand? I know it can be difficult to use for a week or two, but it's not terribly complex. Within the eBook, I wrote a pretty fair amount directly about RPE for more background info.

I am so confused here... So RPE is not useless after all?

[iamsmuts]

That's not the question. You could fuckup other simple non RPE programs by ego lifting, or just being stupid. That's just not being disciplined The idea that someone after 3-9 months of LP can't discern whether or not you have a 1 Or 2 reps in the tank is ... "Dumbing down" the lifter.

Ya. Note that if the lifter is at the end of the LP, they've failed a few times. They have an sense of when failure is imminent. I've had weird technique related failures on the squat. But those are a different animal. . . . Failing and having to strip and reload the bar teach a pretty good lesson. I can't recall the last time I failed a rep on bench that I was confident that I could lift. . . . I can generally tell pretty clearly if I can get another rep or two at this point on press, bench, and squat. Deadlifts are a little weird though. Sometimes the bar will just magically rise. But still. I've got a fairly good sense of then the next rep would probably require going full on turtle back. . . . I'm not certain that I can say very well if I could get 2 more or 3 more at times though. I guess it doesn't have to be that precise.

[George Christiansen]

That's not the question. You could fuckup other simple non RPE programs by ego lifting, or just being stupid. That's just not being disciplined The idea that someone after 3-9 months of LP can't discern whether or not you have a 1 Or 2 reps in the tank is ... "Dumbing down" the lifter.

This.

Dummies are gonna dumb.

[Euby]

For me, assigning a rating on a lift I just did is easy enough based on that scale. It's picking the target weight for a lift that is more difficult, especially when you might do several different set, each with a different rep count and RPE target.

However, in re-reading Jordan's general strength template blog, the warmup scheme suggested there would seem to make finding that weight more achievable, but it seems to include a LOT of potential warmups, which would decrease (potentially) the top weight that I could have done on the workset if I had warmed up more efficiently with less reps. But, as I understood it along with the comments in this thread, those extra warmups at higher weights can still be beneficial so it doesn't matter so much since it's the volume load that contributes to the stress and overall fatigue of the program, rather than simply trying to warmup quickly and disrupt homeostasis with a few sets of a top load as with LP. Interesting.

At the end of the day, even though this seems very unusual to me, I have to trust that guys like Jordan and Austin have been in this game for a long time, and obviously know a thing or two, even if it's different from many other coaches who also know a thing or two. I know that at 45 I've struggled to make progress following my own LP and transition into early intermediate. I'm either feeling beat down all the time (and unable to progress), or under-trained and feeling like I'm not working hard enough (which also means I'm not making progress).

I'm ready to try something different. Learning a thing or two myself also sounds like fun.

[Sean Herbison]

We're only moments away from devolving into name calling and cat pics.

Sorry, I've been slacking.