Hello BBM,
Sorry for the long post. Wondering why I didn’t (fully!) respond to the BB I block 1 template.
Background:
- Male 42 yo, no supplements, good protein intake (guesstimating ~1.5-2 g/kg bodyweight)
- Exercise for health; no particular objectives otherwise. Building a general strength and conditioning base at the moment.
- Prefer strength over hypertrophy
- Lots of swimming and basketball up until university; on/off since then
- Discovered weight training ~5 years ago with stronglifts 5x5 when realised I was skinny fat; ran it 2-3 times with good response plus a few injuries
- Switched to Alan Thrall and BBM (thank goodness)
- Beginner’s template ~9 months → GS&C one round → BB I block 1 (7 weeks, repeated w6, current programme)
- Generally have had a good response:
- great improvement in conditioning (running up to ~8 miles; 10-15 rounds of HIIT on air bike, rower, swim or run sprints, skierg, etc).
- ~3% or so week on week strength gains with BT and GS&C
- lost 8kg weight and 15cm WC; bulked back and currently at maintenance at 73kg and 88cm WC
- huge amounts of life stress for the past 3 years
BB1 block 1 (starting week 6.3):
- no change in measurements (up or down) in arms, legs, chest, calves at end of week 6
- improvement in strength, managing higher weights
- better tolerance, lower RPEs, few/no DOMS
- at maintenance throughout, no change in weight or WC
- had to skip one GPP on most weeks
- on two weeks compressed sessions or ran them back-to-back (same day); also occasionally shifted order of exercises or supersetted (packed gym)
- continued to run ~2 HIIT sessions per week plus 3-4 LISS sessions
- First time running a bodybuilding programme, not a fan but learnt quite a bit and welcomed the psychological break
Any thoughts on the lack of hypertrophy?
Not particularly fussed, more for learning purposes and understanding what I may respond to better for future programme selection:
- I’m considering repeating week 6 a couple of times and then moving on (no real reason, maybe to let any possible fitness adaptations have a tad more time)
- I bought Bridge V3 some time ago so was thinking of giving this a try; otherwise maybe PB I, Strength I or Endurance
- In future, possibly run further BBI blocks in between other templates for psychological breaks (regardless of hypertrophic response, I still got stuff out of it); could consider Hypertrophy I to test whether that’s better for me.
Anyway, thanks for reading all the way. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Keep up the great work!