Questions about the BB template

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi BBM,

Just want to ask a few questions about the BB Template:

  1. Why is there only one exercise as a vertical push (on day 2) and one exercise as a vertical pull (on day 4)?

My long-term goal is to have a strong weighted chin-up, I care about this more than a strong DL or Squat due to my sport goals. Also, my chest is a decent size but shoulders and arms suck, and I need a stronger OHP too. So I was thinking it would make more sense to do more of these movements? If so, how? But if not, why? I also think I should swap out the chest isolation due to the reasons mentioned but I’m happy to hear your thoughts on this too.

  1. Why is the frequency 1x/week for each muscle? Of course, I know there is overlap e.g a back exercise on the day 2 push day, but why just 1 push day 1 pull day? Similarly, why is all the squat movements in one day and hinge/posterior movements on another, instead of mixing it together?

Someone said something about it ‘being less than 15 sets and so not worth doing 2x frequencies’ on another post but wasn’t sure what is meant by that.
I’m sure it’s a great routine, I just want to learn more about programming.

Many thanks.

2

Egghead,

  1. There’s quite a bit of overlap with respect to training muscle groups in the template, but I don’t see a reason to specialize a particular movement pattern for hypertrophy purposes. I also don’t think the BB template is a great template for sporting application outside of physique sports. I would probably just run the template as is the first time through and see how you do.

  2. Frequency doesn’t really seem to matter for hypertrophy until the volume is higher than what’s in the BB template for some muscle groups, though again there’s lots of overlap.

There’s quite a bit of information on programming in the eBooks accompanying our templates and you can look forward to additional texts, courses, and educational materials on programming. We also have a number of podcasts on programming available for free that you may find interesting.

-Jordan