Hello everybody. I’m currently 17 and have been training for the past two years. Two years ago I did a linear progression program but ended up stalling at a 60kg bench, 50 kg squat, and 70kg deadlift. Keep in mind that I knew nothing about nutrition and ended up spinning my wheels expecting to make progress at 2500 cals a day, This year I hopped on powerbuilding 1 and make some great gains (68kg bench, 95kg squat, and 118kg deadlift). Even though i was quite happy I questioned my progress, and always wondered why people who hopped off of SL or SS ended up much much stronger than I am, sure enough the answer was bodyweight lol. I’m about 5’11” and 74kg (and stayed around that for the last year). I recently read “To Be a Beast” and realized how I should’ve approached nutrition to maximize the linear gains (adding about 20 pounds bodyweight and being in a large surplus for about 2 months and slowly reducing the cals after that phase). I starting to think about going back into a linear program and trying to implement what was written in the article. Is it advisable to go back onto a linear program and maybe get my weight up to 180-190? Would I still be considered a novice that is able to reap he linear gainzz considering my pathetic numbers?
That article is very out of date and from what I understand, Jordan’s recommendations on weight gain and programming have evolved. First off, they don’t recommend a linear program to anyone and would probably suggest you try the beginner template or stick with powerbuilding if it’s working for you. Second, I don’t think Jordan recommends anyone to gain more than about 0.5 pounds a week, maybe a pound. This article references a study where people trained and were on steroids and only gained 6 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks.https://www.strongerbyscience.com/the-science-of-steroids/ .
So yeah, it’s probably a good idea to gain weight, that should help. But the more critical thing is that you probably need to give your body a better stimulus. It’s clear that an LP didn’t work well for you - the volume definitely wasn’t enough and you are likely a type of person who needs a big dose to make progess. You probably need more volume, maybe run powerbuilding 1 again with additional backoff sets.
I’m just worried that I’m spinning my wheels. I mean I’m guessing that the rate of adaptation might be really high considering that I’m going to be consuming a crap load of calories. I’m really trying to give everything a go at this point, I really haven’t done a huge surplus before, and I don’t know if I may respond to it. In the case of it actually working, then BBM programming might have just been too much volume. When I see everyone’s numbers on the forum before hopping on a intermediate program I really have to question what I did “wrong” on the novice phase.
The BBM crew does NOT recommend a novice LP anymore. The important thing is to bump calories until you’re in a small or moderate surplus. Once there see how fast you can progress on your lifts while maintaining your RPEs each week. There are a ton of people who run an LP and finish below a 100kg squat. That’s not rare. Austin is super strong now and ended his squat LP at 130kg.
Your rate of weight gain will be high, but probably not your adaptation. The novice LP works because of the transition from doing nothing to doing something, not because of calorie consumption.
I’m really trying to give everything a go at this point, I really haven’t done a huge surplus before, and I don’t know if I may respond to it. In the case of it actually working, then BBM programming might have just been too much volume.
Highly unlikely the BBM program was too much volume. More likely incorrect intensity and/or insufficient volume.
When I see everyone’s numbers on the forum before hopping on a intermediate program I really have to question what I did “wrong” on the novice phase.
You expected the novice phase to be magic. It’s not. Stop comparing yourself to others on the forum.
I would suggest going to powerbuilding 2 if you powerbuilding 1 works. It is a little more volume but does have 4 lift days and 2 cardio days. If strength is your main concern and you want gains the strength template maybe better suited. Powerbuilding 1 isn’t really so much more gains as it is an off season power lifting template to give a change of pace or to cut weight if you gained too much fat on the strength blocks.
I think Powerbuilding 2 would ok for you but maybe strength 1 would be better for what you want. If you look at the template spreadsheet Leah posted it says strength 1 can be ran after powerbuilding. I am not saying you won’t see lift increases on powerbuilding 1 and some size but it isn’t really built as much for gains as strength is. The spreadsheet in the link may help you to pick the best template but I would really recommend strength 1 is you have the time. It is expected to be 2 hour training sessions.
The BBM logic is this is a marathon not a sprint for most people. Unless you are doing strength templates to prepare for a meet the goal isn’t the most weight on the bar you can get the fastest. You sound like you made good progress on the Powerbuilding template and you have to focus on how you are progressing not some arbitrary strength standard on the internet or how you are compared to others reports on a LP. You will eventually get to the same point the novice phase isn’t something you can really screw up at your age. Getting started is what is important. Reading to be a beast is a good start too and it is better than the blanket 4000 calories a day you hear from some sources. This is a slow process despite the ideas people get from the novice phase. I was listening to a BBM podcast and Austin Baraki said he only got about average results on the LP. The Dude is a beast now. The point is the LP is such a small part of your lifting career and at 17 you can’t screw it up. You can take a bit more time because you have until around 30 or maybe later to make gains with no problems. 10 years from now if you are still training it won’t matter if your DL was 151 or 350 when you stopped LP. In the next 13 years if you stick with it with good training you will be in the advanced phase trying hard to add 5 lbs regardless of if you did everything perfectly or not.