BBB - Becoming Big Ben

SG 1 Week 2 Day 4

Squat: 145x7 140x5 140x5
Decline BB: 125x4 120x4 110x8
BB Row: 120x6 120x5 110x8
OHP: 60x8

Had to cut the workout short today unfortunately.

SG 1 Week 3 Day 1

T-bar Row: 110x13 110x10 110x10
Decline BB: 112.5x8 110x10 110x7
BB Curl: 50x10. Wrists and shoulders hurt, so I switched to the EZ bar: 50x8 45x10
Smith Machine Calf Raise: 150x15 160x13 160x13
Some rear delts and abs

SG 1 Week 3 Day 2

Seated DB Press: 40x6 38x9 36x8… dammit I would have gotten 8 I think on the heaviest set if I had gotten into position without struggling.
Dips: 45kg added x10, 40x8 35x9
Squat: 140x8 120x11 120x9
Frog Crunch/Leg Raise supersets

SG 1 Week 3 Day 3

Inc.DB Press: 45x8 42x9 42x8
Lat Pulldown: 80x10x3
Incline alt.db curl: 26x6 24x6 22x8
Reverse Pec Dec/Seated Calf Raise supersets

Hey QB, figured I would throw some thoughts out there. I ran both the 6 day and then transitioned into the 4 day about 4 years. I’ve since switched to 5/3/1, but I remember my layout that an older member named MODOK helped me out with, along with diet. I trained early morning fasted on BCAA, and he had me eating a ‘healthier’ version of the anabolic diet. I had some awesome results and will probably swing back into this after I meet some current powerlifting goals.

exercises I rotated:

Chest: flat DB, incline DB
back: BB row, close nuetral pulldowns
quads: hack squat machine, leg press
hams: romanian deadlift, seated leg curl
delts: side raise machine & reverse pec dec
calfs: seated & standing machine
bis: preacher bench with straight bar, seated hammer curl
tris: weighted dips, overhead tricep extension with rope

We picked just two exercises so that everything got a rotation in the 3 different rep ranges. He also swapped some exercises around so the days did not impact each other as much.

chest
back
bi
tri

ham
quad
shoulders
calves
abs

rinse & repeat

I made some great progress on it, saw more progress on the 6 day definitely. I ate very low carb with a 2 week induction and then sunday was a ‘carb load’ day. Not that the diet is relative to you, but thought you might like swapping and putting arms with chest/back. Other nice benefit was supersetting with the movements, which had me in and out of the gym in 40 mins.

Anyway, i’ll be poppin’ in your thread to see how your progress is going!

good luck man!

[quote]aspengc8 wrote:
Hey QB, figured I would throw some thoughts out there. I ran both the 6 day and then transitioned into the 4 day about 4 years. I’ve since switched to 5/3/1, but I remember my layout that an older member named MODOK helped me out with, along with diet. I trained early morning fasted on BCAA, and he had me eating a ‘healthier’ version of the anabolic diet. I had some awesome results and will probably swing back into this after I meet some current powerlifting goals.

exercises I rotated:

Chest: flat DB, incline DB
back: BB row, close nuetral pulldowns
quads: hack squat machine, leg press
hams: romanian deadlift, seated leg curl
delts: side raise machine & reverse pec dec
calfs: seated & standing machine
bis: preacher bench with straight bar, seated hammer curl
tris: weighted dips, overhead tricep extension with rope

We picked just two exercises so that everything got a rotation in the 3 different rep ranges. He also swapped some exercises around so the days did not impact each other as much.

chest
back
bi
tri

ham
quad
shoulders
calves
abs

rinse & repeat

I made some great progress on it, saw more progress on the 6 day definitely. I ate very low carb with a 2 week induction and then sunday was a ‘carb load’ day. Not that the diet is relative to you, but thought you might like swapping and putting arms with chest/back. Other nice benefit was supersetting with the movements, which had me in and out of the gym in 40 mins.

Anyway, i’ll be poppin’ in your thread to see how your progress is going!

good luck man!
[/quote]

All this advice seems in line with what I’ve learned using BBB, especially on putting arms with back and chest.

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]aspengc8 wrote:
Hey QB, figured I would throw some thoughts out there. I ran both the 6 day and then transitioned into the 4 day about 4 years. I’ve since switched to 5/3/1, but I remember my layout that an older member named MODOK helped me out with, along with diet. I trained early morning fasted on BCAA, and he had me eating a ‘healthier’ version of the anabolic diet. I had some awesome results and will probably swing back into this after I meet some current powerlifting goals.

exercises I rotated:

Chest: flat DB, incline DB
back: BB row, close nuetral pulldowns
quads: hack squat machine, leg press
hams: romanian deadlift, seated leg curl
delts: side raise machine & reverse pec dec
calfs: seated & standing machine
bis: preacher bench with straight bar, seated hammer curl
tris: weighted dips, overhead tricep extension with rope

We picked just two exercises so that everything got a rotation in the 3 different rep ranges. He also swapped some exercises around so the days did not impact each other as much.

chest
back
bi
tri

ham
quad
shoulders
calves
abs

rinse & repeat

I made some great progress on it, saw more progress on the 6 day definitely. I ate very low carb with a 2 week induction and then sunday was a ‘carb load’ day. Not that the diet is relative to you, but thought you might like swapping and putting arms with chest/back. Other nice benefit was supersetting with the movements, which had me in and out of the gym in 40 mins.

Anyway, i’ll be poppin’ in your thread to see how your progress is going!

good luck man!
[/quote]

All this advice seems in line with what I’ve learned using BBB, especially on putting arms with back and chest.
[/quote]

it really is a great routine. It doesn’t look like much on paper, but the fact that your taking these sets to mechanical failure really beats you up. Its a lot of hard work.

Shifting arms to go along with chest/back seems to make sense, although I think the routine is fine as is too…

So you did one exercise for quads and one for hams every time “thighs” came up? Did you do 3 sets each, or 2 sets of compound + one set isolation? And no overhead pressing at all, I need overhead pressing at least once a week.

How did you set up ramp 2?

Here’s my take on your variant:

Chest: decline BB, incline BB
back: BB row, straight bar pulldowns
quads: squat, leg press
hams: romanian deadlift, lying leg curl
delts: side raises, military press (I do face pulls and reverse pec dec all the time, regardless of my routine)
calfs: seated & standing machine
bis: BB curl, pinwheel curl
tris: weighted dips, dumbbell overhead tricep ext

chest
back
bi
tri

ham
quad
shoulders
calves
abs

To be honest though, it doesn’t seem like I can get away with more than 4 days a week on this program, unless I choose low NMA exercises. The cumulative low back fatigue and joint pain sneaks up on me.

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:
To be honest though, it doesn’t seem like I can get away with more than 4 days a week on this program, unless I choose low NMA exercises. The cumulative low back fatigue and joint pain sneaks up on me.[/quote]

I’m doing the 6x week right now, and have no problem with low back fatigue, other then the fact all of my body is always a little sore. I’ve removed DL variations, and and BB Rows. I’m diligent with my ab work, because I feel when I don’t train my abs hard my low back compensates. I also Squat High Bar, or use a Front Squats as my leg movements, trying to minimize forward lean.

What lifts seem to give you issues?

Something else that I’ve personally done and I think MODOK recommended on some lifts, is I upped the rep range a bracket for smaller exercises, like curls, extensions, laterals, leg curls, etc. Kept joints feeling much better, especially on SuperGrowth where I think it’s silly to ever be trying to hit a 5 rep PR on Extensions or Curls lol

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:
To be honest though, it doesn’t seem like I can get away with more than 4 days a week on this program, unless I choose low NMA exercises. The cumulative low back fatigue and joint pain sneaks up on me.[/quote]

I’m doing the 6x week right now, and have no problem with low back fatigue, other then the fact all of my body is always a little sore. I’ve removed DL variations, and and BB Rows. I’m diligent with my ab work, because I feel when I don’t train my abs hard my low back compensates. I also Squat High Bar, or use a Front Squats as my leg movements, trying to minimize forward lean.

What lifts seem to give you issues?[/quote]

Well if you never bend over, you won’t have problems with low back fatigue. lol

I do deadlifts, barbell rows, t-bar rows, squats… I’m not having issues with a particular movement, but the cumulative fatigue does set in after a while. There’s 2 options on BBB: stick with 6 days a week and start doing easier lifts, or keep the same lifts and train 4 days, allowing better recovery. For me the choice is easy.

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:
Shifting arms to go along with chest/back seems to make sense, although I think the routine is fine as is too…

So you did one exercise for quads and one for hams every time “thighs” came up? Did you do 3 sets each, or 2 sets of compound + one set isolation? And no overhead pressing at all, I need overhead pressing at least once a week.

How did you set up ramp 2?[/quote]

The exercises I listed are the only ones I used for all the ramps. Quads and hams got treated like seperate bodyparts, each receiving the same amount of work. Thats the reason I chose hack machine and leg press so i can foot position to focus more on quad, where traditional back squat is more glute for me. I skipped OHP and just focused on the side raise machine and reverse pec dec, my front delt seemed to get enough stimulation from flat & incline DB bench. If I was super tight on time, I would do the ‘delt-triad’ giant set for the prescribed set amount.

[quote]aspengc8 wrote:

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:
Shifting arms to go along with chest/back seems to make sense, although I think the routine is fine as is too…

So you did one exercise for quads and one for hams every time “thighs” came up? Did you do 3 sets each, or 2 sets of compound + one set isolation? And no overhead pressing at all, I need overhead pressing at least once a week.

How did you set up ramp 2?[/quote]

The exercises I listed are the only ones I used for all the ramps. Quads and hams got treated like seperate bodyparts, each receiving the same amount of work. Thats the reason I chose hack machine and leg press so i can foot position to focus more on quad, where traditional back squat is more glute for me. I skipped OHP and just focused on the side raise machine and reverse pec dec, my front delt seemed to get enough stimulation from flat & incline DB bench. If I was super tight on time, I would do the ‘delt-triad’ giant set for the prescribed set amount.[/quote]

So you ran the same ramp and super growth over and over? Ramp 2 in the book has legs every day.

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:
To be honest though, it doesn’t seem like I can get away with more than 4 days a week on this program, unless I choose low NMA exercises. The cumulative low back fatigue and joint pain sneaks up on me.[/quote]

I’m doing the 6x week right now, and have no problem with low back fatigue, other then the fact all of my body is always a little sore. I’ve removed DL variations, and and BB Rows. I’m diligent with my ab work, because I feel when I don’t train my abs hard my low back compensates. I also Squat High Bar, or use a Front Squats as my leg movements, trying to minimize forward lean.

What lifts seem to give you issues?[/quote]

Well if you never bend over, you won’t have problems with low back fatigue. lol

I do deadlifts, barbell rows, t-bar rows, squats… I’m not having issues with a particular movement, but the cumulative fatigue does set in after a while. There’s 2 options on BBB: stick with 6 days a week and start doing easier lifts, or keep the same lifts and train 4 days, allowing better recovery. For me the choice is easy.
[/quote]

No I totally understand. I never have had as much success training less frequently but more ‘intensely’, as I burn out quickly that way. I think I have a ‘stimulate, not annihilate’ mentality. Interesting to see us using the same programs just with different mentalities.

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:
To be honest though, it doesn’t seem like I can get away with more than 4 days a week on this program, unless I choose low NMA exercises. The cumulative low back fatigue and joint pain sneaks up on me.[/quote]

I’m doing the 6x week right now, and have no problem with low back fatigue, other then the fact all of my body is always a little sore. I’ve removed DL variations, and and BB Rows. I’m diligent with my ab work, because I feel when I don’t train my abs hard my low back compensates. I also Squat High Bar, or use a Front Squats as my leg movements, trying to minimize forward lean.

What lifts seem to give you issues?[/quote]

Well if you never bend over, you won’t have problems with low back fatigue. lol

I do deadlifts, barbell rows, t-bar rows, squats… I’m not having issues with a particular movement, but the cumulative fatigue does set in after a while. There’s 2 options on BBB: stick with 6 days a week and start doing easier lifts, or keep the same lifts and train 4 days, allowing better recovery. For me the choice is easy.
[/quote]

No I totally understand. I never have had as much success training less frequently but more ‘intensely’, as I burn out quickly that way. I think I have a ‘stimulate, not annihilate’ mentality. Interesting to see us using the same programs just with different mentalities. [/quote]

I should definitely train my abs more, you’re right about that. Probably glutes too.

I gotta say though, I think you’re ignoring the guidelines for BBB by going for lower NMA movements. You just don’t get the same systemic effect from for example a cable row as you get from a barbell row, and it doesn’t lend itself to major strength gains.

Ramp 2 Week 1 Day 1

150s rest periods

T-Bar Row: 115x13 110x13 105x12
Incline Bench: 80x15 82.5x11 80x9
Lying Leg Curl: 60x11 55x12
Leg Press: 400x20 400x10 340x13 (Hellooooo lactic acid)
Pinwheel Curl: 30’s x 14 30x12 28x10, superset with hanging leg raises

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]Quick Ben wrote:
To be honest though, it doesn’t seem like I can get away with more than 4 days a week on this program, unless I choose low NMA exercises. The cumulative low back fatigue and joint pain sneaks up on me.[/quote]

I’m doing the 6x week right now, and have no problem with low back fatigue, other then the fact all of my body is always a little sore. I’ve removed DL variations, and and BB Rows. I’m diligent with my ab work, because I feel when I don’t train my abs hard my low back compensates. I also Squat High Bar, or use a Front Squats as my leg movements, trying to minimize forward lean.

What lifts seem to give you issues?[/quote]

Well if you never bend over, you won’t have problems with low back fatigue. lol

I do deadlifts, barbell rows, t-bar rows, squats… I’m not having issues with a particular movement, but the cumulative fatigue does set in after a while. There’s 2 options on BBB: stick with 6 days a week and start doing easier lifts, or keep the same lifts and train 4 days, allowing better recovery. For me the choice is easy.
[/quote]

No I totally understand. I never have had as much success training less frequently but more ‘intensely’, as I burn out quickly that way. I think I have a ‘stimulate, not annihilate’ mentality. Interesting to see us using the same programs just with different mentalities. [/quote]

I should definitely train my abs more, you’re right about that. Probably glutes too.

I gotta say though, I think you’re ignoring the guidelines for BBB by going for lower NMA movements. You just don’t get the same systemic effect from for example a cable row as you get from a barbell row, and it doesn’t lend itself to major strength gains. [/quote]

I get that, and I don’t think I go below a ‘level 4’ on the NMA scale (which is where cable exercises fall). Plus my other back lift is a 7 (Chins), so I think it evens out. At least on the 6x a week, I feel you have to ‘give’ somewhere, and for me it was with Rows. I still do DL’s, just not conventional or sumo, I opt for SL or RDL’s.

Then again I don’t care much for traditional BB Rows anyways, and DB Rows kind of throw of the rest-periods for BBB. Like I said, I get your approach, and you are stronger than me, so you may be doing it ‘right’. I just wasn’t able to handle regular DL’s and BB Rows on the 6x split.

Btw, if i remember right, you did the 6x a week ramp, and then the 4x a week SG. How did you like that? Did you feel the gains were even better from teh extra recovery from dropping to 4x a week? I was thinking about doing it myself.

Strength is mental, man. Get a spotter and release the Kraken. I do agree that floor deadlifts are tough to fit into the 6-way, consider doing them on hyperadaption phases only. It took me a long time to get the hang of barbell rows, but make no mistake about their effectiveness. Rows and deadlifts are what build great backs, I’ve seen lots of guys who do pulldowns with the whole stack or chin with plates around their waist who have NO lats. People give up on the basics too soon and never get the proper execution imho. Kroc rows are great if you can get the technique right and have access to heavy dumbbells. If yours top out at 100lbs, don’t even bother :slight_smile:

I dropped the 6 days a week because I’m working full time and in addition writing a thesis, and frankly I just can’t recover from it any more. I’m getting stronger on the 4-way, so I see no reason to change what I’m doing right now. After 18 weeks on BBB I will evaluate where I’m at, and maybe go back to my regular style training… OR DC…