BBB and Progress Updates

Training Training Logs
81

[quote]aspengc8 wrote:
Keep up the good work dude! I’ve repeated the 1st ramp & supergrowth numerous times with good results. I am getting ready to do 2nd ramp for the first time, and will probably use your alternating squat & hack squat suggestion. Can’t wait for the pain.

I will say one thing, people tend to do a couple weeks on this program and call it quits because they arent seeing immediate results. This program is extremely rewarding if you eat a ton and give it TIME!![/quote]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, man. Ramp2 is really an entirely different beast from Ramp1. Ramp1, the adjustment was a bit hard, but ultimately I felt really good during the whole thing, looked forward to every workout, etc. This Ramp is one of the less pleasant training routines I’ve ever done, and I’m usually a glutton for punishment, haha. I think it’s just the CNS demands of doing some form of squatting every day along with what is essentially a TBT routine daily. That said, I know that this ramp is what I need to get better. I haven’t decided whether after 3 weeks of SG2 I’m going to do Ramp3 or go back and do Ramp1 again up to Ramp2. With Ramp1, I never felt completely overtrained, while right now on Ramp2, I’m at the point where the gym is something I make myself do this week, hah.

82

At some point, I need to make a BBB III thread, as it seems that there are a number of people doing it right now.

Burst a blood vessel in my eye yesterday, and it got a little worse today. Hopefully that’ll clear up, but ultimately it won’t get in the way of any training whatsoever, so no biggie.

83

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
At some point, I need to make a BBB III thread, as it seems that there are a number of people doing it right now.

Burst a blood vessel in my eye yesterday, and it got a little worse today. Hopefully that’ll clear up, but ultimately it won’t get in the way of any training whatsoever, so no biggie.[/quote]

Jesus man, hope your alright.

If anyone was going to be a spokesman for BBB I vote for you. The dedication your giving this program speaks volumes.

84

[quote]Oregand wrote:

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
At some point, I need to make a BBB III thread, as it seems that there are a number of people doing it right now.

Burst a blood vessel in my eye yesterday, and it got a little worse today. Hopefully that’ll clear up, but ultimately it won’t get in the way of any training whatsoever, so no biggie.[/quote]

Jesus man, hope your alright.

If anyone was going to be a spokesman for BBB I vote for you. The dedication your giving this program speaks volumes.[/quote]

TBH, I’m a bit disappointed in my body on some level at this point. Week3, I literally can’t even bring myself to do a 13-15 rep squat, at least with the intensity that I’ve come to expect of myself. There’s just something with my CNS/psychological makeup right now that is simply too fried to make myself do it. I’m finally hitting that point at BBB where your body can’t recover fast enough. That’s why I think Ramp2 really worked well for me at least in terms of timing–3 weeks was the perfect amount of time, because I just don’t think I could do a 4th of this and think of it as a productive exercise.

Ramp1 is hard and requires adjustment, mostly for the rest periods and rep ranges. Ramp2 requires the sort of religious attitude that MODOK talks about–you really have to believe that it’s going to be a good thing in the long run, or there’s no way to finish it.

One other thing I’ll say about Ramp2 is that I think it’s important to prioritize the rest period over the rep range. It’s really hard to get 60secs rest and rerack weights and such, especially if you’re using straps on an exercise (it takes me 20secs to strap, so it’s 40 seconds of actual break between sets). Personally, I sacrifice rep range in favor of the rest periods to achieve the overtraining effect. So, for example, today I was BB rowing 230 with straps for the 13-15 endurance day. First set, I hit 13, second set 10. Normally, I would have dropped weight at that point, but what I ultimately ended up doing was just staying at the same weight for four sets to make sure that I was giving max effort for the given rest period.

This consideration impacts other exercises differently. Squats, for example, I’m MUCH less likely to hit actual failure now than I was when I started BBB because a) of the rest periods and b) of the fact that as I’ve gotten stronger, it’s become more taxing to hit failure then rerack the weight.

85

Halfway through the week.

I think that one of the other most important aspects of Ramp2 is injury avoidance. The most important concern as far as exercise selection goes, IMO, is balancing spinal loading days.

So, for example, out of the six leg days, I have three that are spinal loading days (involving back squats and SLDL). The other days, I do hack squats and leg press.

I’m definitely just pushing through the overtraining at this point–my squatting numbers are off what they have been, but I’m supplementing with increased volume so as to fully achieve the desired effect. At the end of this week, I want to have put everything I could into it.

So, today, for instance, these were all at 60 secs rest, with squats near failure but leaving one in the hole usually

Squats: 285(5); 265(10,9,9); 5 normal reps then paused 255(7,8); 245(8); paused with three second descent: 225 (8,6).

That was a lot of exhausting work. All other exercises I did 6 sets. On spinal loading/squat days, my exercise selection is:

Back Squat
Smith Incline
V-Bar Row
BB Curl

SLDL
Weighted Dip
Pronated Pullup

The workout takes just under 2 hours including warmup for squats. I always do the exercises in the same order, as it helps me to track progress better.

One other note on exercise selection–I really think that there’s no substitute for BB curls for all biceps exercises. The main reason I feel this way is that BB curls involves your core in a way that Preacher and Spider Curls simply don’t. Varying grip is one way of changing things up on this. Hammer curls with DB would be an acceptable alternative, of course.

86

Are you supersetting between excercises? I will probably superset squat/calf, chest/back, bi/tri to cut back on the time a bit. Only have about 70 mins tops to train before work. Either that or I set my alarm for 4:30AM instead of 5 lol.

87

double post fail…

88

[quote]aspengc8 wrote:
Are you supersetting between excercises? I will probably superset squat/calf, chest/back, bi/tri to cut back on the time a bit. Only have about 70 mins tops to train before work. Either that or I set my alarm for 4:30AM instead of 5 lol.[/quote]

Here’s what I’ll say about supersetting:

I haven’t supersetted for either ramp. BUT, I think that from a conceptual standpoint, supersetting is fine with Ramp 1 but not with Ramp 2. Here’s why:

The BBB setup for each ramp is all about seeing what variables between rest, volume, and frequency your body best responds to in order to create an overtraining effect. For Ramp 1, the variable that are of the greatest importance is volume, with the rep ranges being an important adjustment component as well. For Ramp2, the most important are frequency and rest periods.

Supersetting wouldn’t screw with frequency, but I think that being very precise with rest periods in Ramp2 is very important. You’re going from 150 secs (long) to 90 (eh, moderate) to 60 (sucks).

Week 3 of Ramp2 looks awful and almost stupid on paper, but it’s the cornerstone of BBB, imo. It’s the single hardest week of any of the three ramps as far as volume, frequency, and rest combined are concerned.

If you have 70 minutes to train, I would suggest the following–

first, don’t supplement on volume like I have. I think that for Ramp2, there should be two priorities beyond the basic template in this order: 1) having a supplemental leg exercise for each day that targets either quads or hams; 2) including a Delt exercise on one day–for me, I do it on my hack squats day because I’m less taxed from back squats. If you stick with prescribed volume, you can do this in 70 mins, at least in weeks two and three.

second, I think that the two most important conceptual points about approaching Ramp2 are: a) stick with the plan and don’t ever skip a leg workout, even if you don’t feel like doing it (which you won’t); b) keep the rest periods very strict. This week, I’ve at times hazarded on giving myself even less.

third, make sure you’ve done a week of SG1 before Week1Ramp2. Conceptually, the one follows from the other as far as rest periods go, and this ramp is all about interweek rest manipulation and frequency (while Ramp3 is about intraweek rest manipulation and frequency).

89

So, I think that supersetting would work fine for Ramp1 but not for 2 or 3. It would work for Week1 of Ramp2 as well, since the rest periods are long anyway. But I wouldn’t do it for weeks two and especially not three on Ramp2.

90

I’m about to be moving to start an internship which lasts 12 weeks. After SG2, I’m thinking that I’m going to use these 12 weeks to trim down a bit if I can, especially along the waist.

Here’s the thing, I have two options:

OptionA: Continue activity level I’m currently doing and cut calories. Currently, I’m exercising a pretty crazy amount–20 mins fasted cardio, 2 hours of lifting, then 20mins of incline walking per day. Naturally, I’m eating like a house.

OptionB: Significantly cut both activity level and calories. I’m thinking that if I go this route, I’ll BBB it up on Ramp2 of the 4x/week routine, with extended fasted cardio on off days.

The reason I’m heavily leaning towards Option B is that I think there’s less of an injury risk with the decreased level of activity. Ultimately, a 500 calorie deficit is a 500 calorie deficit.

Still considering though. And on the other hand, I could continue bulking.

So many options.

91

If I was in your shoes I would go by how I feel.

If your feeling chubby and in need of a small trim then use these 12 weekly to wisely lose some blubber, though if you still sporting a full 6 - pack Im a little skeptical :stuck_out_tongue:

As for option A vs option B, I would always trust my gut. Therefore if you feel option B would be a safer bet then option B sounds better.

92

Well, I do still have visible abs, but I definitely feel blockier than I formerly did.

Another consideration w/r/t the 4 days/week is that I really want to concentrate my effort on my job this summer. Also, I’d like to hold near 200 for a bit and solidify my gains, get stronger, etc.

93

Was reading the recent AD thread and realised that its basically the diet your following.

As of tomorrow im going to swtich into the full AD with a few mods i.e. instead of two fuill carb days Ill have a carb meal once a week(since my bf is quite high), ill add more carbs as I get leaner.

How are you finding the carb ups? Any tips for a newbie AD’er?

94

[quote]Oregand wrote:
Was reading the recent AD thread and realised that its basically the diet your following.

As of tomorrow im going to swtich into the full AD with a few mods i.e. instead of two fuill carb days Ill have a carb meal once a week(since my bf is quite high), ill add more carbs as I get leaner.

How are you finding the carb ups? Any tips for a newbie AD’er?[/quote]

AD diet? Whats that stand for, have a feeling it’s something obvious and my brain isn’t working…

95

[quote]phlegms wrote:

[quote]Oregand wrote:
Was reading the recent AD thread and realised that its basically the diet your following.

As of tomorrow im going to swtich into the full AD with a few mods i.e. instead of two fuill carb days Ill have a carb meal once a week(since my bf is quite high), ill add more carbs as I get leaner.

How are you finding the carb ups? Any tips for a newbie AD’er?[/quote]

AD diet? Whats that stand for, have a feeling it’s something obvious and my brain isn’t working… [/quote]

Anabolic diet dude, it was the first high fat, low( <30 gram) carb diet around.

96

[quote]Oregand wrote:

[quote]phlegms wrote:

[quote]Oregand wrote:
Was reading the recent AD thread and realised that its basically the diet your following.

As of tomorrow im going to swtich into the full AD with a few mods i.e. instead of two fuill carb days Ill have a carb meal once a week(since my bf is quite high), ill add more carbs as I get leaner.

How are you finding the carb ups? Any tips for a newbie AD’er?[/quote]

AD diet? Whats that stand for, have a feeling it’s something obvious and my brain isn’t working… [/quote]

Anabolic diet dude, it was the first high fat, low( <30 gram) carb diet around.
[/quote]

Ah I see, something to read up on more while I’m “studying”!

97

Ha, another day of literally making myself go to the gym. Once I get under the bar, though, I’m in the zone. Just one more day of Ramp2.

Squat strength stayed the same as last week. I’m not all that disappointed, as I sort of expected it on some level. Just waiting for Supergrowth training phase.

A lot of thoughts on BBB, but I don’t have time to type them at the moment.

But here are just a few:

-Be smart about the 60 second rest period and racking weights. For example, today when squatting 300, I knew I’d need to drop weight, so I put on 2 plates, three tens, a five, and a 2.5. That way, I wouldn’t have to take off a 35 and put on other weights. Saved tons of time. Be smart, and don’t worry about feeling like you need the thrill of adding more weight.

-To add to a former post about extra BBB priorities, I think they are three in this order: a) Definitely add one leg exercise per leg day to your first thigh exercise; b) on back days, do both a vertical and a horizontal pull; c) if you’re going to add to BBB, be very sparse about adding exercises instead of volume. If you really want to add in leg extensions, fuck that and do three more sets of squats while you’re already squatting.

-Seriously, if you’re going to add in an exercise, be damn sure you have a good reason to do so. I really think that an additional leg exercise and incorporating a different directional pull are the only justifications for adding exercises to the BBB template. One of the best things about BBB is that it makes you really think about exercise selection–when you only have one exercise for biceps and one for triceps for a day, it really makes you think about how many exercises are a total waste of time compared to others.

-On Ramp2, just get under the bar. The hardest part of the workout for me, in all honesty, at this point is just making myself get under the bar for that first set. After that, with 60 second rest periods there’s no time to think–you’re just in the zone with you and the iron.

-I’m amazed at how sweaty I get from BBB squatting. Always my first exercise, and I’m always soaked by the end of it.

98

Thanks for the great deal of information.

I suppose I didnt want to drop deads as I like conventional floor deads BUT I think you make two very good points.

A)Being this weak BBB style floor deads would be a disaster

B)You would get much more bang for your buck with squats over deads i.e. Much greater range of movement.

Ill be drawing up a template soon so ill post it and you can see what you think about it :slight_smile:

On the diet, 2500 is for leaning out. I might drop it a lower over the next few months.

When I start BBB Ill be starting at around 3400 and adjusting from there, im going almost total AD save the “carb loads” as I dont think ill need a full two days of it.

One meal - 3 meals per weekend would be plenty in my opinion, ill make 2- weekly adjustments depending on what happens.

Man, just reading your posts Im counting the days till this ramp is over for you. I can actually feel the dread of crawling under the bar and im not even on the f**king plan yet :stuck_out_tongue:

99

It’s not really any dread once I’m under the bar. Once I get under the bar, I’m like Ray Lewis at the Super Bowl :P. It’s about a 10 minute walk from my apt to the gym, and that’s when I would say that my mind is definitely doing things like saying, “Dude, you’re already overtrained; the Ramp has achieved its purpose–why not just start SuperGrowth today??” I have to tell that voice to just shut up.

As far as squat v. deads, it’s not the range of movement that’s key; instead, it’s the amount of stress each exercise places on your back integrity. Going to at least near failure on squats without compromising your back and straining something is something you can learn to consistently do. It’s much more difficult on high rep deads, as form tends to break down and deadlift places a lot more strain on the back than squats (that’s why whether deads are a leg or back exercise is a matter of debate while it’s not a debate with squatting).

IMO, squatting is the purest BBB exercise, in that it’s the maximal amount of strain you can put on your body while still working safely within the template. As I’ve said before, rest periods and rep ranges are key to BBB, and I just don’t think either of those components work well with deadlift.

Note that MODOK never did conventional deads with BBB–at one time, he did trap bar deadlifts. Deadlift might be doable for a more experienced lifter, but it seems like a bad idea on our end.

100

Ramp2 is OVER.

So, if I do end up doing a cut, I’m thinking that it’ll probably look something like this:

Training–4x BBB, probably starting at Ramp2

Training days: 2500 cals–same as non-training day, but I’ll have an additional three cans of tuna and two scoops of whey around workout time.

Non-training days: 2000 cals

Meal 1: Roughly 1000 cals, mostly protein–can of mackerel, can of tuna, 5 egg whites, spinach+onion, 4 scoops whey

Meal 2: 500 cals–half can of salmon, pound of broccoli

Meal 3: 500 cals–half can of salmon, pound of broccoli

Very high protein, high fat, almost no carb. If I decide that those numbers are too low, then I’ll probably up 500 cals/day, with the 500 cals consisting of almonds and whole eggs.