Question about training volume and intensity in the bodybuilding template

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi BBM,

I’ve recently purchased the bodybuilding template as i’ve been training with the beginner, powerbuilding I and powerbuilding II template for the past year or so and i’m looking to focuse on bodybuilding and putting on as much muscle as possible in an upcoming bulk that i’m planning on starting in the next couple of months. While I have been seeing great progress in terms of strength with the powerbuilding templates, i’m not completely satisfied with the amount of muscle mass the I gained in the past year or so of bulking (I started at ~69.7 kg @ ~13% bf in december of 2021, and I weighed ~76.0 kg @ ~15.8% bf around a month ago, while i’m currently maintaining my weight).

My main questions about the template are as follows:

  1. While the training volume in this template is higher than in the powerbuilding II template for example, it doesn’t seem that much higher considering the total amount of sets i’m currently doing in the powerbuilding II program. Also, the training volume actually seems quite a bit lower than some typical bodybuilding programs that are floated around social media, such as with a PPL split or similar programs.

Are there any reasons for the seemingly lower training volume in this program?
Also, as someone who has been training at the gym on and off for around 6 years (though only got back to training consistently around a year ago) and I feel that I can handle a decent amount of volume without burning out, would there be any benefits to further increasing the volume with more isolation exercises for example? (Visually speaking, my legs, forearms and delts are what i’d consider lagging body parts, so I was thinking of adding extra volume for these body parts).
As an additional question, would you start the bodybuilding template from block I in my case, or maybe jump forward to block II or III that already contain higher volume when I do eventually start this template?

  1. I constantly see a lot of people on social media that say that for optimal muscle growth you need to be “training hard” and often should be taking sets to failure or past failure with drop sets and similar techniques (probably more so with isolation exercises). While there are quite a few sets taken to RPE 8-9 in the program, I didn’t see that there were sets taken to RPE 10. would you say that the fatigue accumilated from these sets aren’t worth it for the additional hypertrophy you might get out of sets such as these, or are these techniques worth doing when you get more advanced and want to focus on building as much muscle as possible?

  2. While my main goal during my next bulk will be to put on as much muscle as possible, I am still planning on getting back in the future to more “powerbuilding” style training programs, and don’t want to lose the progress i’ve made during the past year with my strength. Is this something that you would be worried about in my case, or should I fully commit to bodybuilding style training for the next 6-10 months if my goal is to build as much muscle as possible during this upcoming bulk specifically?

2

Hey Ben,

  1. In my view, it’s not lower volume- particularly from the muscle groups’ volume per training day aspect. I do not think most programs are appropriately programmed, so I’m not really going to address why other programs made by others have higher volume. I do not think it is likely you need more volume than the BB template given your current development. I would start from Block I in your case

  2. This question is addressed in the pdf accompanying the template. I do not think going to failure regularly is a good training strategy for most training outcomes.

  3. I would not worry about you losing a significant amount of strength while engaging in resistance training, no. I do not think you should be doing bodybuilding for 6-10 months if your goals are actually more strength-centric. I also wouldn’t plan on gaining weight quickly.

-Jordan

3

Hey Jordan,

Thanks for the detailed response.

As for the third point, since you mentioned that I shouldn’t be doing bodybuilding for 6-10 months if one of my primary goals in the long term is also strength (I would say it’s 50/50 between bodybuilding and powerlifting), would you run the 3 blocks of the bodybuilding template one after the other (a total of 18 weeks), or put each block in between other strength / powerbuilding templates?

And as a side question, I saw that the volume for arm training specifically was very high and wanted​ to make sure that I understood it correctly - During the final few weeks of block III for example, the program calls for 6 sets of one bicep / tricep exercise + 3 sets of a different bicep / tricep exercise, and repeat this twice a week, meaning I should be doing 18 sets of biceps and 18 sets of triceps per week, or was it meant that I need to spread the 6 sets for example over the two sessions that I hit arms in?

4

Hey Ben,

I’m not sure you need to do a hypertrophy-only program at all in between strength programs unless you want to. Since strength is a goal, I likely would not do the BB blocks back-to-back-to-back. Block III on the arm work is 6 sets of biceps and triceps work for 2 different exercises, 1x/wk, each. I had to update the template due to a typo.

5

Got it, thank you for the great advice as always!