Boring But Strong Challenge Observations

Training Jim Wendler 5/3/1 Coaching
1

Hi everyone, I am currently on my 5th week of the Boring But Strong challenge and I would like to share what I have found to be helpful and what you can expect when taking this challenge on in particular.

-A little about my training: I transitioned from the 3/5/1 + FSL template training 4 days a week and using the 3rd working set as the AMRAP, not the Heavy Single as AMRAP. With that said I felt well prepared for the volume of this challenge.

-You need to go back and re-read Jim’s post again so everything sinks in

-The first week I switched everything to 5s PRO except on the Bench Press as I planned 6 weeks prior to hit a rather large rep PR, since then everything has been 5s PRO. I do not recommend making exceptions as I did but I am not going to lie about how I went about it.

-Make sure to drop all assistance except the upper back, shoulder girdle, ab work Jim has recommended, the 15-18 work sets is enough.

-If you warm up with chins/pull-ups before you lift, like I do, continue to do this but make sure to drop the volume if you think it will affect you. Before I start my warm-up sets I do 3 sets of 5(normal is 5x12) chins with my vertical jumps. My first week I did 0 chins as a warm and everything felt off.

-Jumps: Do them. My hip flexors feel 100% better when I do jumps before I go to work and before I start working out.

-Your hands are going to get beat so don’t ignore them to the point of them splitting or tearing.

-If you sweat a lot already plus your gym/garage is hot as hell bring a towel and make sure you wear a good shirt to squat in. Something with a slick material drenched in sweet 6 or 7 BBS sets in is going to be one more thing that doesn’t need to be added to this challenge.

-The 1st week was the only week I had a hard time beating the timer 20 minute timer, every week since has been 16 minutes or under without feeling rushed either. I do my 5s PRO work sets, take a 4-5 minute break, get a drink, set the timer and lift.

-I haven’t had an extreme soreness except in my wrists after a Press day. Make sure you continue to hold the bar and not just shelf it in your hands, you’ll pay the next day, especially if you’re next day is Squats.

-Keep up with the light conditioning, it has helped me tremendously.

-Make sure you are not cheesing your reps, you need to hit your normal depth and if you don’t bounce your DLs then don’t start. I bounced a DL around set 6, the bar pathed way out in front of me, gave me a crazy back pump, and then I had 4 very grueling sets with a weak low back. When you stray from your normal habits unexpected(read: bad) things can happen.

-I seriously recommend everyone do this template for their OHP as the challenge or as your volume work. The BBS template seems to be the perfect amount of volume for me and bar speed has increased noticeably at the lock out.

-The last thing that comes to mind is you are going to discover quickly which cues in each lift you need to be more mindful of.

That is it for now, if I can think of anything more expect additions and please add anything you have noticed to help others including myself. So far I’m having a ton of fun especially with the much shorter gym duration and taking a break from my program.

2

Cool review. I’ll definately do this at some point and come back to read this when I do.

3

Thanks for the write up. I appreciate it.

And I appreciate you trusting me enough to doing things as written and realizing there just might be a reason for them.
Push hard! Move forward.

4

Very cool

There are so many benefits to doing jumps, they are truly a must for strength training.

5

Hey man I was just wondering how were your results of the full challenge?

6

I am in week 2 of the 3rd cycle (80%) and can definitely attest to the need to ramp up the calories. Loving the program. Thanks Jim!

7

[quote]SweenMachine18 wrote:
Hey man I was just wondering how were your results of the full challenge?[/quote]

It’s not over yet my friend, I’m currently on week 12 of 13.

Some brief stuff since it’s not worth writing a full recap when the challenge still hasn’t been completed.

-It’s gotten me in great shape without really doing any type of challenging cardio or sprints

-Lost something like 7 pounds really quick so I went from eating something like 3500 calories to 4500 to gain it back and maintain.

-Haven’t hit a ton of soreness. Some quad and hammy here and there.

-So far I’ve missed 1 5/3/1 lift that I totally should not have missed. A 3s week 3rd set OHP, I took less than a 30 second break after my 2nd set knowing I had to rush through my work out. So if you rest/eat/deload/follow the plan you shouldn’t really expect to run into any problems concerning missing lifts. To clarify again this was a 5/3/1 lift and not a BBS lift.

-I feel pretty strong right now and if I had to bet my Squat, Bench, and OHP are up but not sure about my Deadlift. My standard DL training involves a lot of heavy SLDL and high rep RDL volume which I dropped for the challenge. The plan is to deload, do a light week(probably I’m not doing Jack Shit), and then test.

-The only way you’re going to get through 10x5 @ 85% is if you take care of yourself when you’re doing 10x5 @ 80%. Most people who have run 5/3/1 for at least a year should be able to sleep through weeks 1 thru 7 but if you don’t work hard during weeks 8 thru 10 chances are weeks 11 thru 13 will eat you alive. This means sleep as much as you can, naps, high calories, easy cardio, good form, stretch/mobility/massage, and you will get through this improved and awesome.

8

Thanks for the update dude. I’m on week 6 and love it. Actually gained some size too along with strength. You’re right about being a 5/3/1 veteran helping through the first few weeks, I’m pumped to finish it out strong.

9

Just finished week 11. 2 more to go!!! Front squats were the most brutal. DL not too bad but lower back got a little tired. I am a smaller guy, turn forty in a few weeks and this has been a fun, effective and challenging program that has produced some nice results so far. Reflection 1: take the sets one at a time mentally. Reflection 2: reps 1-3 move very quickly, rep 4 a little slower and rep 5 is usually a tough one on every set; thus, dialing in on reps 4&5 is a must . Reflection 3: eat Reflection 4: what’s next after this challenge?

week 11:
Bench
5x170
5x195
5x220
10x5x220
100 face pulls

Front Squat
5x170
5x195
5x220
10x5x220
75 hanging leg raises

Press
5x110
5x125
5x145
10x5x145
100 rear laterals

Deadlift
5x270
5x315
5x355
10x5x355
100 Ab rollouts

10

Finishing up the Boring But Strong Challenge this week and would like to test maxes to celebrate improvements. Any suggestions on how to proceed? Deload week and then test or just a few days rest and test when feeling good?

11

Great write-up man, Thanks. Concise and informative, it was the final push I needed to get started on this challenge.

Kicked it off on Sunday, did DL and Press so far. I enjoy it for the simple and focused nature of the sessions, but breezed through them so far, as some of you have mentioned. Getting the 10x5 in just under 15 minutes. Looking forward to getting my ass kicked.

Two questions for you, if you don’t mind:

  1. How did you approach deload weeks as far as the BBS work goes. The article states no volume work obviously, but what did you do on them? I was thinking of doing 5x5 @ 70%
  2. I’m following this thing to a T. I’ve been using 5/3/1 for a good 5 years now pretty consistently (life-enforced breaks aside) and I trust Jim wholeheartedly. I’m just not used to not doing any pull-ups/rows, so I gotta ask. Did you feel any kind of drop-off in back strength?

Only differences I don’t have a box so I do broad jumps and no med balls so I do plyo push-ups, trying to clap behind the back. Also no Airdyne, but I work a physical job and get around walking most of the time so I figured I’m covered.

Thanks again man, all the best

12

Hi Jim and everyone else.

I have a question about BBS Challenge. I started my eight week today and could not get 10x5 on a bench press.
So I now wonder if I could take longer pauses between the sets? Let`s say first 5 sets between 1-1.30min and
last 5 maybe between 2-3min so that I would be able to do 10x5?

13

[quote]metal70 wrote:
Hi Jim and everyone else.

I have a question about BBS Challenge. I started my eight week today and could not get 10x5 on a bench press.
So I now wonder if I could take longer pauses between the sets? Let`s say first 5 sets between 1-1.30min and
last 5 maybe between 2-3min so that I would be able to do 10x5?[/quote]

Please don’t worry about rest periods. Goal isn’t to become a fitness hipster.

14

Thanks a lot man! That was exactly what I needed to hear.

15

[quote]NobbyTheLion wrote:
Great write-up man, Thanks. Concise and informative, it was the final push I needed to get started on this challenge.

Kicked it off on Sunday, did DL and Press so far. I enjoy it for the simple and focused nature of the sessions, but breezed through them so far, as some of you have mentioned. Getting the 10x5 in just under 15 minutes. Looking forward to getting my ass kicked.

Two questions for you, if you don’t mind:

  1. How did you approach deload weeks as far as the BBS work goes. The article states no volume work obviously, but what did you do on them? I was thinking of doing 5x5 @ 70%
  2. I’m following this thing to a T. I’ve been using 5/3/1 for a good 5 years now pretty consistently (life-enforced breaks aside) and I trust Jim wholeheartedly. I’m just not used to not doing any pull-ups/rows, so I gotta ask. Did you feel any kind of drop-off in back strength?

Only differences I don’t have a box so I do broad jumps and no med balls so I do plyo push-ups, trying to clap behind the back. Also no Airdyne, but I work a physical job and get around walking most of the time so I figured I’m covered.

Thanks again man, all the best[/quote]

I’m sorry I didn’t see this earlier:

  1. Deloaded as I usually do with the light sets(40%, 50%, 60%) and did some light pec, hamstring, lat, and arm work over the course of the week.

From what I gather the people who tend to lose a step coming back on a deload week are the ones that are either way overtrained or don’t do any type of stretching, cardio, and/or mobility on their week off. Try not to over think a deload week.

  1. No I didn’t lose any pulling/rowing strength at all but as stated I never stopped doing chins all together. I would do 3x5 before starting my barbell work since they help me warm up, taking a wild guess 3x5 was enough to maintain my strength. It is something this program has taught me that you don’t need to train anywhere close to maximally to maintain or make strength gains.

Any jumps are fine, I do vertical or broad, depends where I am when I’m doing them. As far as cardio goes just make sure you’re doing something, walking for 20-30 minutes and jumping rope for 5-15 minutes was my choice. If you think your job is enough then sure but I know even just 1 or 2 short sessions per week I notice a slight overall improvements in quality of life/gym time.

16

Cheers man, thank you for taking the time to reply

17

I am currently also doing the challenge, I really like it!

I was wondering, what kinds of strength gains did you manage to do? Did you check your 1RMs afterwards?

18

At least for me this program worked well. My squat max was before the program 160kg.
Now I did lift 150kgx5, so it worked, but to be honest, this program was from straight from hell!

19

nice to hear that it worked well for you!

I am only in the 3rd week atm, but I’m enjoying it. It’s already quite tough, I can only imagine how the next weeks will be :smiley: But it wouldn’t be a challenge if it was easy

20

where can i read about this challange?