I just finished reading Base Strength and Peak Strength by Bromley, absolutely enlightening on why I struggled so much with 5/3/1 and Defrancos WSFSB. I was always so focused on pushing the numbers and never built enough of a base or a ramp with light/easy reps. I was failing reps on my second or third cycle of 5/3/1 and just getting nowhere. My BBB runs were absolute grinders lol. I think it was from doing CrossFit for so long, I wanted every workout to be a ball breaker/PR to feel like I had accomplished something in it. I had already started to understand it was okay to not PR every workout from Geoff’s programs, but this really enforced the RPE and sub maximal work to me.
I’ve switched over to the idea of base building and hopeful I finally break out of the beginner into more intermediate numbers. If anyone hasn’t read Bromleys books, highly recommend. He quotes Pavel a lot in both, breaking down his programming as part of the educational.
