Biggest Guy in Class: How to Rebuild a Monolith

Training Training Logs
381

I’ve remarked on this in a few other logs, but this is the point: it SHOULD be a struggle. You’ve nailed the balance between main and supplemental work, but I like programs like BBB Beefcake, BtM and Deep Water because they give you “reach goals”. When a trainee just kinda goes on their own with a weight gain program, they’ll push the intensity when they feel comfortable, eat some more food, and gain a little bit of muscle with a little bit of fat, then go on a cut and lose a little bit of fat with a little bit of muscle and just end up in a cycle.

With the reach goals, the trainee starts out on week 1 of 6, looks at what is required at week 6, goes “Oh f**k” and starts hammering the food in order to start prepping for the workouts, which, in turn, are murderous training affairs that REQUIRE that amount of food to recover. It self-perpetuates into something pretty awesome.

Of course, Jim is a big advocate on starting light and picking the right TM, so this does fly in the face of the 5/3/1 philosophy…but it DOES fit Deep Water, so there’s that. It’s also why I think strongman is a great sport: the weights are determined ahead of time, so it’s up to YOU to make your body grow to meet the demand.

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382

Ah, I see. So basically what you’re saying is that I need to pick a training max that makes the program just slightly impossible to do, and then find a way to make it possible? If that’s the case, I think I need to up the TMs a little, or at least write out the numbers and see how it looks on paper.

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I’m not necessarily saying it’s what you need to do, but it’s what I would do. If the program ends with something that I can already do, then there’s no catalyst/stimulus for growth.

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384

Good enough for me! I’ll go crunch some numbers and report back.

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385

@T3hPwnisher well here’s what I’ve learnt.

It seems that my squat TM will be too low. At 82.5kg, I’ll only be doing 62kg for the heaviest 5x10 sets, and I’ve already tried doing that weight for sets of 10 recently and it was doable. And I know that my 5x5 FSL sets on the squat are all sub maximal right now, even while dieting - so I’ll keep the TM at 86kg where it is now.

For bench, I’ll also keep it higher, at 68 where it is now, since if I use 60, I’ll be using only 45kg for the heaviest 5x10 set (which is probably too light too.)

Deadlift, well, I might have to drop it slightly from 123 to 120, because I even found the 5x5 FSL tough. But, since you can rest-pause deadlifts to an extent, I suppose that it should still be ‘doable’, somehow.

And the press, I’ll drop it slightly from 51.5 to 50, since I only got 4 reps on the last 1+ week. The press is going to be a struggle no matter what.

So Squat 86kg, Bench 68kg, Deadlift 120kg, Press 50kg

But honestly, I think the only way to know for sure what will work is by running it for real and seeing what happens (I suspect you might agree). I suppose that if I screw it up really badly then I can always change things up.

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386

Personal preference: since this is a program for hypertrophy, I’d pull touch and go. You maintain tension in the muscles the whole time by doing that.

Another thing to consider manipulating is rest time between sets. If you’re resting 8 minutes between sets, you’re most likely not meeting intent. I like Jim’s thoughts about completing all the supplemental work in 20 minutes for BBB style programs.

But in general, I like where your head is at.

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387

Hmmm, well usually I avoid it since I like resetting after every rep (it gives me a chance to watch my body position) but I see your point. I will certainly try it out.

I actually almost forgot about that 20 minute time limit too. I’ll definitely need to keep an eye on that!

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THE PLAN

Right, let’s get down to business. Here’s how I plan to set up 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake for the next 6 weeks.

1. Training
2. Conditioning
3. Diet

1. Training

My training week will be starting on Friday, since I’m starting on 1st Jan - but the structure of the training week is still the same as outlined by Jim in his “Boring But Big: Beefcake Training” article on his blog, with a “2 on/1 off/2 on/2 off” split.

The only change I have made to the program Jim provides is replacing the 100 reps of face pulls on deadlift day with 50 reps of chin-ups, because I really want to do chin-ups at least twice a week… I don’t think that should screw anything up. I know Jim doesn’t really get hung up on assistance work anyway so I doubt he’d mind too much.

Have a look:

Friday - Squat
Squat 5’s PRO
Squat 5x10 @ FSL
Dips x 50 reps, superset with chins x 50 reps

Saturday - Press
Press 5’s PRO
Press 5x10 @ FSL, superset with BB rows 5x10
Ab work x 50: 3 sets decline situps
Single leg work x 25/leg: 2x12/leg alternating BB lunges

Sunday - OFF

Monday - Deadlift
Deadlift 5’s PRO
Deadlift 5x10 @ FSL
Assistance: Dips x 50 reps, superset with chins x 50 reps

Tuesday - Bench press
Bench press 5’s PRO
Superset: Bench press 5x10 @ FSL, superset with BB rows 5x10
Ab work x 50: 3 sets decline situps
Single leg work x 25/leg: 2x12/leg alternating BB lunges
Arm work: 4x12 BB curl, superset with 4x12 lying tricep extension

Wednesday - OFF

Thursday - OFF

2. Conditioning

Initial plan is to do conditioning on off days - easy run for 15 minutes or so on Sunday and Thursday, short sprint work on Wednesday. When swimming starts up again, I’ll replace the Sunday easy run and the sprints with my swim sessions. Short sprint/shuttle training (<50m) on Wednesday will be fun - it’s only short distance so I should be able to get away with it, especially since the rests will be longer. I’ll need to ease back on conditioning for BtM though - no sprints. I’ll probably only do swimming twice a week for that.

3. Diet

Meal plan template for Beefcake:

Breakfast: 4 eggs, 2 slices toast
Lunch: Animal + plate of pasta/rice/bread
Lunch no. 2: Animal + plate of pasta/rice/bread
Dinner: Animal + plate of pasta/rice/bread
(w/ Fruit and veg throughout; day will include 3 protein shakes)

Of note is the fact that I will be going slightly easier on the carbohydrates this time round, because I absolutely pigged on those out the first bulk I did when I started this log. I’ll adapt this template to BtM when I run that by making sure I include 1.5lbs ground beef per day (probably not going to do it for Beefcake because 12 weeks of that might get me in trouble at home… don’t want to push it too much.) Also I will be avoiding force-feeding because if I do that I will definitely end up looking like a fatso again, but I am at the same time fully aware that I’ll have to eat big to get big. Peri-workout nutrition will probably consist of some fruit juice and a protein shake pre-workout, and then one of the day’s meals and a shake post-workout.

N.B: Wednesday will be a lower carb/calorie “control” day, as explained by Coach Thib.

Other notes:

  • Program will last 6 weeks in total.
  • Training max will be increased 2.5kg on upper body lifts and 5kg on lower body lifts after 3 weeks of training.
  • After this, we’ll deload for one week (using the 40%/50%/60% weights for the 5’s PRO, and using that 40% weight for 3x10 FSL supplemental).
  • We will then move on to 5/3/1 Building the Monolith, done exactly as written by Jim Wendler (although I doubt I will be allowed to eat 12 eggs a day, so we’ll have to work around that.) I’ll use the TM from the end of Beefcake.

In other news, I can’t train today. Shouldn’t be a problem, since I basically have my TMs sorted. But I need to make sure that everything is organised before I start my new program because I can’t afford to miss any sessions once I start my new program.

I think that covers everything?

As always, any feedback is most welcome!

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389

If this is the intent, I’d do the chins in ADDITION to the face pulls: not in place of. You’re going to be doing a lot of pressing in this program, and face pulls will have a theraputic effect on your shoulders. Alternatively, I’d get a resistance band and do the 100 reps on a conditioning day if it’s not possible to get them done on a lifting day.

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390

Ah ok, I hadn’t considered that. I only have a resistance band (I train at home) so it will have to be band work, but I’ll be sure to get them done either on a lifting day or on a conditioning day.

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391

I agree yeah, face-pulls are amazing and very easy to recover from, you can do lots of them!

Ouch, 50 dips and 50 chins, then the day after it will be pressing day? Might be hard to be fresh then…

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392

I’ve found that when you’re doing TNG deadlifts, your body is normally in the best position to lift the weight after the eccentric as the plates touch the floor.

I should do more deadstop. I have been noticing recently that the first rep of a set feels heavy but the rest of the set isn’t nearly as bad, likely because my body is in a better position to lift the weight AFTER the first rep. Might be worth it to record yourself doing TNG and play it in slow motion to see your most advantageous starting position is.

Edit: this would be mostly to avoid taking too long between reps. I’m of the opinion (at this point anyway) that if you’re standing up, breathing for 10-30 seconds or fiddly fucking around down there, the set it over. Lift the weight and do it correctly, and quick. If you gotta breathe, do it at the top.

@T3hPwnisher yep! Didn’t even think about that

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393

Along with that, there is a stretch reflex at play.

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394

Yeah, I replaced chins with Pendlay Rows, because I was worried about chins being too taxing for next day lift. The original program says dips/chins though. I would at least monitor this during the program and see if you think it’s detracting from your next day lifts.

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395

I’ll keep an eye on that. On my old program I’ve been doing dips the day before bench day and I don’t think it messed up recovery too much - but, I was doing less of them, so we’ll have to see.

This is definitely me, lol.

@boilerman @T3hPwnisher I suppose I can always do the main sets as dead stops and experiment with touch-and-go for the supplemental.

Interesting, I find rows to be more taxing than chins haha. Anyway I will give it a go and keep an eye on how I’m feeling. I can always cut back the chinning volume if necessary.

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396

I was fiddling in my mind but in fact I was just being a pussy. You can do this for sure, the first weeks might hurt though ahah

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397

With rows I can control the weight and go lighter. I find with chin-ups since it’s your body weight it’s hard to control intensity

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398

Also have decided that I’m going to do the ab work last I think. Probably doesn’t make a difference but thought I’d note it lol.

Edit: also forgot my pullovers. Will do them last in the session, or just before abs.

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Ya man that’s a great idea, probably the best way to set it up. Heavy stuff gets dead stop and you can work on speed with supplemental.

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400

Been a bit quiet here the last few days. I’ve been pretty busy, despite the holiday season - for some reason, days during these holidays have either been slow and lazy with nothing to do except lounge around, or ridiculously full-on.

Anyway, I have officially started BBB Beefcake! I’ve completed two sessions so far. Here are the reports, followed by some brief thoughts and questions I had.

First workout: Friday’s squat session.

01/01/2021

Squat

Warmup: 20kgx10, 40x5
Set 1: 58x5 (5 @65%)
Set 2: 64.5x5 (5 @75%)
Set 3: 73x5 (5 @85%)
BBB: 58x10, 10, 10, 10, 10 (5x10 @65%) (total BBB time about 13 minutes)

Assistance:
Superset: 50 reps Chins 10, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5 (9 sets) with 50 reps Dips 12, 9, 9, 8, 8, 4 (last set not to failure) (6 sets) (yeah the constant 5s on chins were a product of a lot of strategic rest time increasing lol)
2 sets pullovers

Notes:

  • This was a really cool workout. People often talk about how a program “speaks” to them, and although it’s early days yet, Beefcake may well become one of those for me. This is how training for building a base of muscle mass should be: hit your body hard and heavy on a few key movements, and then recover and grow.
  • I really enjoyed the 50 reps of chins. It’s more than I usually do and I feel like it’s going to force good results. Let’s hope so anyway!
  • However - need to be more mindful on the dips, focusing more on the muscles than on just banging out the reps. They weren’t too bad but I think I can do better in that respect.
  • Areas of soreness after this day were glutes (very sore) and quads (a bit sore). I’m not sure whether this means that I’m using too much glute in my squat, but I would much rather my quads grow than my glutes…