One thing that has me a little concerned about ABBH -I don’t see any Hamstring work. Is this intentional? Hams are probably my biggest trouble spot for mass, so this concerns me. Is the thought that the hams will be recruited sufficiently through the other thigh work?
I’m currently hitting hams 2x per 8 days (day 1: Good Mornings and Leg Curls and day 5: Romanian DL and Single Leg curls) for a total of 5-7 sets (+warmup) each time and it seems to be working pretty well. Any comments?
Not a bad way to hit the hammies, but with ABBH, you’re hitting them twice a week. First with front squats doing 5x10 and then again with deadlifts doing 10x3. That’s a lot more volume than you are currently using, even if it doesn’t seem you are hitting them directly.
And you can move a lot more weight with deadlifts than you can with good mornings and leg curls, so you are going to hit them enough.
I would say stick with the plan on ABBH for the duration of the program. If you feel you need more hamstring work, try CW’s 100 reps program to hit them while on ABBH, or you can do it once you finish ABBH.
Deadlifts and full squats are two of the best hamstring exercises known to man. Try the ABBH as prescribed and I’ll bet you’ll be happy with your hamstring development.
Dollarbill44, ABBH was my first occasion to try Front Squats. In comparison to Squats, I was able to go down much deeper. The deeper you go down the more you target hamstring. Moreover deadlift is a king exercise for hamstring. You have to consider that ABBH has 2 parts, therefore we have:
Front squats: 5X10 load up 5X10 load up 5X10 10X3 same load add 1 rep: 10X4 same load add 1 rep: 10X5
Deadlifts: 10X3,10X4,10X5,5X10,5X10,5X10
As you see there is a progression in intensity: you start both the phases “easy” you finish them with those 10X5 and 5X10 sets SCREAMING ! Moreover, as Nate Dogg stated, the volume is high.
Have a good time!
Luca