212 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
212 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
Last week, I completed
|
|
[The Bridge](https://www.barbellmedicine.com/the-bridge/), an 8 week
|
|
strength program by Barbell Medicine. Since this program is
|
|
significantly different than what I've done in the past, and what I've
|
|
[talked about on this blog previously](https://www.snoyman.com/blog/2017/06/naive-overview-exercise),
|
|
I wanted to share my thoughts and some results.
|
|
|
|
__Summary__ This program was more complicated to follow than others
|
|
I've tried, but given that I was looking for an intermediate instead
|
|
of novice program, that's not surprising. I improved my actual 1 rep
|
|
max numbers on all 4 major lifts. I'm planning on continuing my
|
|
training with another cycle of the program.
|
|
|
|
## History
|
|
|
|
I've been lifting for close to 2 years now, with a few years of
|
|
bodyweight training before that. In the subset of that time that I've
|
|
been seriously training, I've followed these programs:
|
|
|
|
* [Start Bodyweight](http://www.startbodyweight.com/)
|
|
* [StrongLifts 5x5](https://stronglifts.com/)
|
|
* A few months of a Push-Pull-Leg (PPL) routine I made up, which was a
|
|
mistake and gave me no progress. Pretend it didn't happen.
|
|
* [5/3/1](https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/531-how-to-build-pure-strength),
|
|
with the Boring But Big (BBB) accessories
|
|
|
|
Ignoring the silly PPL, all three of these programs helped me
|
|
significantly. They also all share something: they're simple to
|
|
follow. First you determine where to start, which is either dictated
|
|
by the program or based on current abilities. Then you follow a simple
|
|
set of rules on how to progress. This simplicity is very appealing.
|
|
|
|
Start Bodyweight got me to a decent strength level, but I was unhappy
|
|
with weakness in my back leading to regular pain while sitting at my
|
|
desk. I switch to StrongLifts when I decided I wanted to do a barbell
|
|
program with deadlifts, and (as always happens with a novice program)
|
|
eventually hit a wall.
|
|
|
|
When I switched to 5/3/1, I immediately saw my estimated 1 rep max
|
|
(1RM) numbers going up. In fact, they went up
|
|
significantly. Unfortunately, I found that my _actual_ 1RM numbers
|
|
were not budging. It seemed that 5/3/1 was giving me an increase in
|
|
muscular _endurance_, but not necessarily strength. While the program
|
|
was fun, easy to follow, and required relatively little time in the
|
|
gym, I wanted more progress.
|
|
|
|
__NOTE__ I know there are _many_ variations of 5/3/1 out there, and
|
|
likely some of them would have served me better. I'm not comparing all
|
|
potential programs in the world, just the ones I've actually pursued
|
|
myself.
|
|
|
|
## Overview of The Bridge
|
|
|
|
Over the past half year or so, I've been regularly exposed—via
|
|
YouTube videos and articles—to the team behind Barbell Medicine,
|
|
mainly Drs. Jordan Feigenbaum and Austin Baraki. When I was in the
|
|
market for a new program, I heard mention of The Bridge program, and
|
|
downloaded it.
|
|
|
|
The Bridge is delivered as a PDF. The program itself takes up about 5
|
|
pages in this 36 page document. The rest of the material is a bit dry
|
|
to get through, but immensely useful and informative. I really
|
|
appreciate the way the authors have given a background on the concepts
|
|
of stress, training volume, and intensity. If you're at all interested
|
|
in strength training, give it a read.
|
|
|
|
The program focuses on the main barbell lifts (squat, overhead press,
|
|
bench press, deadlift) with accessories (e.g., barbell row, pin squat,
|
|
paused deadlift). Unlike other programs I'd followed, this program
|
|
changes from week to week. That makes it more complicated to follow,
|
|
but not significantly. The real curve ball is the Rate of Perceived
|
|
Exertion scale, or RPE.
|
|
|
|
## RPE based training
|
|
|
|
In a program like Strong Lifts, I go into the gym on a Tuesday, and I
|
|
know that I'm going to try to squat X amount of weight for Y sets of Z
|
|
reps. Not so with The Bridge. Instead, you'll see something like:
|
|
|
|
> Squats: 5 @ 6 RPE, 5 @ 7 RPE, 5 @ 8 RPE for 3 sets
|
|
|
|
This means that, after my warmup sets, I need to start with a set of 5
|
|
squats at an exertion level of 6. The scale goes up to 10, and each
|
|
number below 10 indicates how many more reps you could have possibly
|
|
done. So RPE 6 means "I could have done 4 more reps." Therefore, "5
|
|
reps at 6 RPE" means "choose a weight that you can just barely do 9
|
|
reps for, then do 5 reps at that weight."
|
|
|
|
When I first saw this, I was dumbfounded. "How do I guess the magical
|
|
weight number?" And in fact, that _was_ the most complicated part of
|
|
this program for all 8 weeks. There are charts in the PDF that help
|
|
you compare against your 1 rep max. But overall, it was trial and
|
|
error. There were definitely sets where I lifted more than I should
|
|
have, and sets where I could have added more weight.
|
|
|
|
In contrast to a simple numeric guide like Strong Lifts or 5/3/1
|
|
delivers, an RPE based scale allows you to easily adjust training
|
|
intensity to account for both good and bad days in the gym. A few
|
|
times during this program, I had a bad night's sleep or a bit of a
|
|
cold, and lifted less weight. A few times, I was feeling great and
|
|
lifted more than I would have expected. RPE allowed this to happen. By
|
|
contrast, with both SL and 5/3/1, there were days where the weight
|
|
felt easy, and other days when it felt crushing.
|
|
|
|
Ultimately, my conclusion to all of this was: RPE is harder than a
|
|
number based scale, but gives great results. Just accept the fact that
|
|
you're going to screw up regularly.
|
|
|
|
## Difficulty level
|
|
|
|
The program is broken up into weeks of different stress level, either
|
|
low, moderate, or high. The weeks also tend to focus on either high
|
|
volume or high intensity. For example, both weeks 4 and 7 are
|
|
considered high stress weeks, but compare the first day's squat
|
|
programming:
|
|
|
|
* Week 4: 5 @ RPE 6, 5 @ 7, 5 @ 8 x 4 sets
|
|
* Week 7: 1 @ RPE 8, 3 @ 8 x 4 sets
|
|
|
|
Week 4's day 1 ends up having 30 total reps of squat, whereas week 7
|
|
has 13. However, because of how the RPE scale works, you'll end up
|
|
lifting much heavier weight on week 7. For example, "5 @ RPE 8" means
|
|
a weight you could have done 7 reps at. "3 @ RPE 8" means you could
|
|
have done 5. You can lift more weight for 5 reps than you can for 7,
|
|
and therefore week 7 ends up with a lower volume at higher intensity.
|
|
|
|
Personally, I really liked the later weeks in the program. None of the
|
|
other pgorams I'd tried ever got to low volume high intensity. But
|
|
having read the PDF and its motivations, I understand why we need both
|
|
the volume and intensity weeks, and appreciate the way the program is
|
|
designed. In fact, having completed the program, I think I understand
|
|
the design of the program much better than before.
|
|
|
|
## Cardio
|
|
|
|
Unlike previous programs I've done, this program included cardio. I
|
|
considered this a good kick in the pants to start running and the
|
|
eliptical again. If you're like me: find a good audio book to listen
|
|
to, otherwise it will be 30 minutes of hell :)
|
|
|
|
(Not entirely accidentally, I also signed up for an Audible account
|
|
around the same time I started this program.)
|
|
|
|
## Time in gym
|
|
|
|
The earlier weeks in this program have high volume, with lots of
|
|
sets. I spend a _long_ time in the gym some weeks: 3 days of lifting
|
|
for about 2 hours each, and 1-2 days doing about 45 minutes of
|
|
cardio. You can reduce that by having shorter rest periods or
|
|
supersetting your warmups for the next lift with your previous working
|
|
sets, or you can answer emails and Slack messages. (Fortunately no one
|
|
can smell your sweat over email.)
|
|
|
|
## Results
|
|
|
|
Way back in May of last year, my gym had a "powerlifting competition."
|
|
I put that in quotes since there were four of us, I was the only one
|
|
in my weight class (everyone else weighed 20kg more than me), and some
|
|
of the other competitors half repped their squats. (I'm going to pray
|
|
that I actually squatted to depth, since there were no videos and I
|
|
don't trust the judges.) Between that time and starting this program
|
|
at the end of October, I increased my estimated 1RM numbers
|
|
significantly, but to my recollection barely, if at all, bested my
|
|
powerlifting meet numbers with actual weight.
|
|
|
|
There are some minor confounding factors in these increases due to my
|
|
addition of chalk to assist with my deadlift, and getting more
|
|
comfortable with my lifting belt (the competition was the first time I
|
|
ever used a lifting belt). Nonetheless, I think a good portion of
|
|
these increases can be attributed to my time on The Bridge:
|
|
|
|
* Squat: 20% increase
|
|
* Overhead press: 16% increase\*
|
|
* Bench press: 11% increase
|
|
* Deadlift: 19% increase
|
|
|
|
\* If you're wondering: no, the powerlifting competition did not
|
|
include an overhead press. I'm including a number from around the same
|
|
time.
|
|
|
|
Definitely keep in mind that I _do_ believe my time on 5/3/1 in the
|
|
interim helped at the very least with my muscular endurance, and most
|
|
likely primed me to be able to hit the volume weeks of The Bridge
|
|
better than I would have been able to in May. I would not expect to
|
|
make those kinds of increases in just 8 weeks.
|
|
|
|
## Conclusion
|
|
|
|
This was my first time taking a foray into an intermediate program,
|
|
intended for lifters who are no longer making linear progressions with
|
|
novice programs like Strong Lifts. I can finally understand why Mark
|
|
Rippetoe says
|
|
[you want to be a novice](https://startingstrength.com/article/programming/who_wants_to_be_a_novice_you_do):
|
|
simple programs with great results are much more fun.
|
|
|
|
If you've got the time to spend in the gym on higher volume routines,
|
|
have the patience to figure out the RPE system, want to learn more
|
|
about strength programming, and are looking for a well designed
|
|
intermediate program, I recommend checking out The Bridge.
|
|
|
|
For myself: when it comes to health and fitness, I consider this at
|
|
least half an experiment with sample size of 1, and therefore I like
|
|
to try out many different things. I'm going to keep my eyes out for a
|
|
new routine to try (and if you have recommendations, let me know). But
|
|
given the great progress this program helped me achieve, I'm going to
|
|
continue with at least one more cycle of it before moving on to
|
|
something new.
|
|
|
|
If you want me to share more experience reports like this in the
|
|
future, let me know. I can also include the nutrition side of things
|
|
if people are interested, which has been possibly more volatile for me
|
|
over the past year than the training itself.
|