You have the most correct understanding. BBB is hard supplemental work. You can’t pair hard supplemental work with hard main work (PR sets). Jim tends to recommend 5s progression for main work when doing hard supplemental work. 5s progression is doing purely sets of 5 for all main work sets. But you can do FEWER reps than that as well.
Remember the goal of BBB: to gain muscle. It’s NOT a program for setting PRs: that comes AFTER BBB. Once you have all that muscle built, you can express it’s new strength by doing easy supplemental work (like 5x5 FSL) and PR sets for main work.
Okay that’s good to know then. I read your article from the other day and saw what you said about fat loss phases being a good time to try different things because you don’t have the caloric intake to support muscle growth and strength gains anyways. I’m in a cut for the transformation challenge. But I was thinking I could still leverage 5/3/1 as if I’m trying to get muscle or strength gains since I’m coming back from an injury so I’m kind of like an untrained individual. Is my thinking sound there?
I wouldn’t run BBB if I was on reduced calories. Calories are needed to recover from the hard training.
I look at it like this: lots of sets needs lots of calories. Few sets requires few. When my calories are low, I like widowmakers and PR sets. Take 1 or 2 sets and just go all out on it. It’s easier to recover from compared to a BUNCH of sets that just beat you down. Super Squats may seem to be the exception, but many can argue that 1 set of 20 breathing squats is more like 20 sets of 1 squat.
Sounds good with me. Those are my favorite sets! That’s kind of what I was starting to feel since I’ve started feeling really exhausted the past couple of days as I’ve pushed myself in BBB style, but been calorically starved.
Great log! Similar situation to you, just older lol. What back injury are you recovering from if you dont mind me asking? I didmt see it earlier in the log. Im recovering from a bulged disc, also doing 5/3/1 and BBB and inspired by some of the same posters here.
Nothing as bad as a bulged disk luckily. Technically I never got it diagnosed to get specifically what happened. But I just know that after re-racking the bar after a set of 5 on squats with 250 (which was 15 pounds less then my working weight at the time) my mid and lower back seized up and I could barely move. For the days afterwards I could still barely move. In retrospect it was probably mostly due to lack of sleep and general over-exertion. However I have had a lingering issue that from what I can tell seems to be with my QL. So like I’ll get pain on a fairly regular basis in my lower right back. I’ve been building my own back extension bench because I’ve found some QL/lower back rehab exercises that require one so I’m hoping that will help me.
Ill have to find it in the depths of youtube but i did find a fairly unconventional stretch that helped me with something similar. You have a good thing going here. Keep at it. Alot of years ahead of you.
Not too surprised by the weigh in. I haven’t been drinking enough, plus the eating out yesterday. Just need to stay on track. Also need to get more conditioning. Been super obsessed with applying to new jobs so I haven’t been as good at conditioning as I should be.
5/3/1 C1W3D3
Deadlift :
115x5
140x5
170x3
215x5
240x3
270x8 (Now that felt good! Love these rep maxes!)
Front Squat + DB Pullover Superset :
Front Squat 3 sets of 10 @ 135lb.
DB Pullover 3 sets of 10 @ 30lb.
Morning Weight : 210.2lb.
1/5/23 Nutrition :
Calories - Approximately 2400. One of those days where I had to estimate.
Protein - Approximately 190g
Carbs - Approximately 200g
Fat - Approximately 85g
Not great approximations I know. Just excited for a job interview tomorrow. Even if it doesn’t go the way I’m hoping, it feels great to get my first interview in my job search.
Did Pullups a couple times throughout the day, a brief arm workout, and about 5 minutes of jump roping. Just fit what I could where I could in a busy social day.
Went to a restaurant that doesn’t have their recipes on MyFitnessPal so I eyeballed things using @QuadQueen’s advice on how to measure using your fist and stuff.
Fasted until dinner time for religious purposes today. Then had a family meal, made sure it was healthy though. Also had a protein shake a bit later.
Also I made some sweet hidden veggie butter chicken as meal prep for the week. 50 grams of protein per serving with only 510 calories. Gonna enjoy that this week!
Planned to have pretty low calories today which came in handy when my wife really wanted to have pizza with me. Pregnancy hormones are not something you want to argue with haha. But it was nice seeing that I was still able to be in a caloric deficit even with a few slices of pizza.
Fasted most of the day because it helps increase my focus. Had a final interview for a job that could triple my income today. It went well so I have a chance! Aside from that I also helped me keep my calories down. Should hopefully help solidify me back down to 206lb.
Front Squat + DB Pullover :
Front Squat 2x10 @ 135lb
DB Pullover 2x10 @ 30lb.
Morning Weight : 205.8lb.
1/12/23 Nutrition :
Calories - 1700-2000 calories (estimate)
Protein - Not gonna try to guess here. Didn’t record enough of my dinner to accurately say.
Carbs -
Fat -
Decided to experiment with cooking and not worry to much about measuring when I made dinner. I had only eaten 500 calories at that point so I figure the most I could have possibly eaten in that meal was 1500 calories because I didn’t stuff myself and the food wasn’t super calorie dense.