One year of BBM programming results and questions

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey BBM I hope this finds you well! As per the title, I have spent the past year following various templates and just wanted to get a sanity check on progress. I came to BBM after nearly a decade of lifting, almost entirely through various SS style high intensity programming. Your science and data driven content has been a breath of fresh air in the fitness world and I wanted to say thanks for that first of all.

Below I have some charts of the big 3 over the past year through various templates and I wanted to get your take on these results. To me it seems fine, not great, though I am maybe unfairly discounting some other benefits such as increased conditioning, better physique, less fatigue for life, etc that I’ve received over the past year and just focusing too much on the numbers. My squat and deadlift are 10-15% off lifetime prs (though i weighed 30lbs more at that point) but my bench is at a new all-time high.

One line that stuck out to me from your many podcasts is about training consistency and having a lot of sessions just be ‘punching the clock’. This past year I haven’t missed any days in the gym, and sleep and diet have been on point, but I still find it hard to shake the feeling that I’m not working hard enough in the gym, and I guess I just wanted another set of informed eyes to check these results and tell me to keep on keeping on or suggest some programming changes.

To me it looks like PB3 might have been too much for me at this point, I was pretty beat up by week 10, and after some potential overshooting on deadlift and a small back tweak, my DL especially really regressed.

Barring any suggestions that you may have to the contrary, my plan is to start back on Low Fatigue 4 day low ISF as that seemed to be where had my most success previously.

Relevant info:

Male, 39 years old, 6’4" 225lbs, 34-35in waist, recent DEXA has me at about 12% bodyfat (bodyweight basically unchanged over 12 months)
Goals continue to be a mix of strength performance in the SBD, hypertrophy, and general health.

Labels below are probably self-explanatory but:

PB2 = powerbuilding II
PB2.2 = second run of pbII
LF = low fatigue 3 day low ISF
PB3 = powerbuilding III
1RM = tested 1RM on week 14 of PB3

Squat = low bar squat, belted
Bench = 1 count pause
Deadlift = conventional unbelted

Thanks for your time,

Adam

bbm results graphs.png
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2

Thanks for the post and the kind words, Adam.

I think the low fatigue 3- or 4- day template would be fine based on what I see here. I wouldn’t expect the PB templates to match the LF templates in terms of strength gain just by the way they’re designed, though it’s also possible PB III was a bit much during the time you were running it. One option may be to run low fatigue for a block- really chasing strength gains in the big three, then swapping to PB III for a block with non-traditional selections for your priority lifts to give you a bit of a break. That’s an option I use fairly frequently for someone interested in the Big Three, but not competing anytime soon.

-Jordan

3

Hey Jordan, thanks for the reply.

That sounds interesting, what were you thinking in terms of block selection? Does it matter?

I’m picturing something like starting with the Low Fatigue specialization block with the supplemental exercise selections being fairly specific to the big 3, and then pivot to PBIII development block?

Thanks,

Adam

4

I would never run the spec block without the preceding developmental block. Rather, I’d run both dev blocks back to back and only pivot to a spec block if you really want to push/test 1RMs in the next few weeks.

5

Sounds good, I’ll give it a shot. I appreciate the guidance.

Adam