OTS BBB III

Training Bodybuilding
1

Okay, fellas, I know some others of you are out there, and I thought we might start another go at a BBB thread!

Just finished Ramp2 of the 6x/week and starting SG2 tomorrow.

Thinking about transitioning to the 4x/week. It will fit well with my schedule, but my only reservation is that it seems much more similar to TBT than it does to something with more of a split.

Anyway, thought I might start another thread for people to discuss:
-things learned during your ramps/sg phases
-thoughts on different variations of BBB (4x/week, 6x/week, 2x6x/week)
-commiserating during Ramp2! Terrible!

For starters on the questions end, I would love to hear what you folks doing the 4x/week have learned/tweaked while doing the program and whether you’d recommend the 4x/week program.

I’ll definitely jump into the 6x/week, as I’ve done Ramp1 and Ramp2. If I don’t change to the 4x/week, then I’ll probably do Ramp3 to see how intraweek rest adjustments affect the inducement of the overtraining effect. Honestly, I can’t imagine anything being worse than week 3 of Ramp2 anyway.

Or, of course, if no one replies, then this thread can just sink into the mire as being before it’s time :).

2

FUCK YEAH

i just finished Ramp 1, up about 7 lbs and my lifts are going well, squated 295x8 yesterday which is a big PR for me, now ill start SG 1 on monday, however in the past super growth only worked well for about two weeks so i think that’s how long i will run it for, ramp 2- bring it the fuck on

btw i do 6x a week as well

3

i keep telling myself id try this, get all my spreadsheets ready to log and everything. yet i never do :frowning:

how good are the results compared to the normal 5 day a week typical BBer split?

4

Ha, having just finished Ramp2, I will admit that Ramp2 is a pretty miserable experience after the first week. The first week, the novelty of daily leg training along with the long rest periods makes it exciting.

What sort of exercise selection are you going to run.

If it helps, here’s what I did during Ramp2 on the 6 day:

Day 1,3,5
Back Squat
BB Curl
Smith Incline
V-Bar Row

Day 2,4,6
Hack Squat
CGBP
BB Bench
BB Row

I found the overtraining effect to be far more acute on that. By the end of week three, I was dreading the gym.

As far as supplemental exercises, I added in SLDL or RDL on spinal loading days (i.e. days where I was back squatting) and a shallow leg press on non-spinal loading days. I found it helpful with the leg training to think of the daily splits as either spinal loading or non-spinal loading days for injury prevention.

Also, I added pullups to each day, with the grip alternating from the rowing motion I used during that workout. So, on BB Row days, I did a weighted neutral grip pull, and on V-Row days I used a pronated grip pull.

5

[quote]wannabebig25 wrote:
i keep telling myself id try this, get all my spreadsheets ready to log and everything. yet i never do :frowning:

how good are the results compared to the normal 5 day a week typical BBer split?[/quote]

I should say that I’m new to weightlifting, although I’ve been training with other sports for a number of years.

I started out doing a upper-lower split (at least essentially) with a 5x5 split.

As far as BBB v. a BBing split, I can’t speak to the difference from experience. However, I think BBB is as far away conceptually from a BB split as you’ll find, a main reason being that a basic principle of BBB is that you should be training a muscle group 3x/week.

I would say first and foremost that the entire philosophies of the two types of program are completely different–with a BBing split, the point is to overload a muscle group on a weekly (or perhaps biweekly) basis and to have that muscle recover fully before being taxed again. The point of BBB is to essentially use the Ramp phases to run your entire body into the ground, after which during the Supergrowth phases your body receives a stimulus response but more rest than it is used to, which allows for supercompensation. A BB split is focused upon stimulation and then full recovery, while BBB is focused upon stimulation to the point where you can’t recover, then a supercompensatory period during which your muscles have a chance to breathe.

There are a couple of conceptual points about BBB that are very important to understand:

Frequency is fixed at a minimum of 3x/week because a basic premise of the program is that muscles must be hit within 72 hours or you suffer a detraining effect, and the microperiodization of rep ranges is another foundational premise. You’ll be doing 13-15 for two days, 10-12 two days, and 8-10 two days (excepting SG1 and SG3).

As such, the primary variables that BBB manipulates are rest periods, frequency, and volume. Although it’s not explicitly stated in the book, the whole point of the three ramps is to find which aspect of training causes the overtraining effect most acutely for your own body. That’s why after doing all the Ramps, they say to settle back on a Ramp that worked for you–all the ramps employ different variables, and each person might respond better to one than another.

So, it basically works this way:
Ramp1: manipulates volume and rest periods. This one is, at least IMO, geared to be an introductory ramp.
Ramp2: manipulates frequency and interweek rest periods. You do increase volume, but the primary challenges are hitting the body parts every day and the inter-week rest period shifts, from 150 to 90 to 60.
Ramp3: manipulates frequency and intraweek rest periods. So, your rest periods change as the week progresses.

So, at the end of Ramp1 the transition to SG1 wasn’t all that weird. I knew I would be going in with longer rest periods and a lower rep range. However, after Ramp2, it’s going to be weird as hell not doing legs every day. I’ve sort of gotten used to doing so, so it’ll be interesting to see how SG goes.

6

If any of you have done the 4x/week, did you find that it was too similar to TBT? When I look at the template, the low volume on biceps and triceps is sort of disconcerting. I’m thinking that if I transition to the 4x/week, I’ll probably start with Ramp2.

7

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
Ha, having just finished Ramp2, I will admit that Ramp2 is a pretty miserable experience after the first week. The first week, the novelty of daily leg training along with the long rest periods makes it exciting.

What sort of exercise selection are you going to run.

If it helps, here’s what I did during Ramp2 on the 6 day:

Day 1,3,5
Back Squat
BB Curl
Smith Incline
V-Bar Row

Day 2,4,6
Hack Squat
CGBP
BB Bench
BB Row

I found the overtraining effect to be far more acute on that. By the end of week three, I was dreading the gym.

As far as supplemental exercises, I added in SLDL or RDL on spinal loading days (i.e. days where I was back squatting) and a shallow leg press on non-spinal loading days. I found it helpful with the leg training to think of the daily splits as either spinal loading or non-spinal loading days for injury prevention.

Also, I added pullups to each day, with the grip alternating from the rowing motion I used during that workout. So, on BB Row days, I did a weighted neutral grip pull, and on V-Row days I used a pronated grip pull. [/quote]
Honestly i made it through this ramp pretty much without getting extrmely sore once (my work capacity must be a lot higher now) i remember when i first did ramp 1 after the first two workouts i literally had trouble getting up and going to school the next day haha.

So im hoping doing ramp 2 will get me somewhere close to that.

as far as excersize selection im not sure yet

but im thinking for chest: Flat Barbell 1,3,5 , Incline Barbell 2,4,6

Legs is complicated, am i getting this right you did a quad movement and a hamstring movement everyday? that sounds pretty crazy

Back is going to be focussed on width movements since this ramp i just finished was almost all thickness movements

8

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
I found it helpful with the leg training to think of the daily splits as either spinal loading or non-spinal loading days for injury prevention. [/quote]

I found this to be really important with the six-day split. I even went so far to organize back-intensive upper-body lifts, as well (e.g., BB rows and overhead presses).

9

I’ve done 6 weeks (Ramp 1 + SG1) of the 4 day template, loved it and had massive gains. I’m thinking of trying out the 6 day template, but I’m in doubt about it since the delts get hit directly and indirectly 6 days in a row. How does that work out for you guys? Are the you able to recover from all the pressing? Any overuse injuries? Gains are great form what I read, but I can’t help to feel that the 6 day doesn’t consider injury prevention at all when it comes to shoulders.

10

[quote]cyberwar wrote:
I’ve done 6 weeks (Ramp 1 + SG1) of the 4 day template, loved it and had massive gains. I’m thinking of trying out the 6 day template, but I’m in doubt about it since the delts get hit directly and indirectly 6 days in a row. How does that work out for you guys? Are the you able to recover from all the pressing? Any overuse injuries? Gains are great form what I read, but I can’t help to feel that the 6 day doesn’t consider injury prevention at all when it comes to shoulders.[/quote]

C_C wrote a lot about this in the original BBB thread. Personally, I had a real adjustment period during my Ramp1 phase for the first week or so where my shoulder joints were not that happy with me. What it came down to was making sure my form was spot-on and being very careful with exercise selection. Know your body–some people have more trouble with certain exercises than others (a good example is dipping). Besides shoulders, the same could be said for elbows (e.g. skull crushers would probably not be a good idea on the 6x/week program as a tri exercise). For me, the reason my shoulders were hurting was that I was having to sub in machine incline presses for barbell ones because of an injury–those machine presses were killing my shoulders.

I think another thing is to make sure you give your shoulders a break on chest day by just having common sense about maintaining a sense of balance–e.g., if you’re going to do an incline press, make sure it’s a shallow one since you’re probably going to be vertically pressing the next day.

11

For those on the 4 workouts per week schedule, how are you scheduling them?

I thought it might be best to split workouts 3 & 4 with a day of rest. Such as…

Workout 1 - Monday
Workout 2 - Tuesday
Rest Day - Wednesday
Workout 3 - Thursday
Rest Day - Friday
Workout 4 - Saturday
Rest Day - Sunday

Just curious how others are scheduling their 4 day per week workouts.

12

Has anyone every done the critical mass “gain 4lb of muscle in 10 days” in the back of the BBB book?

If so:

  1. Did you die?
  2. If you died, how did you just answer question 1?

It seems like a crazy high volume version of BBB whilst eating everything in sight for a week an a half.

13

[quote]wannabebig25 wrote:
i keep telling myself id try this, get all my spreadsheets ready to log and everything. yet i never do :frowning:

how good are the results compared to the normal 5 day a week typical BBer split?[/quote]

In a pure bodybuilding sense (not concerned with performance… like sports or something) This might be one of the best bodybuilding programs out there imo. Especially if your trying to build that big foundation. This is it.

It also comes down to how your body responds to training. Some people do better on frequency (which this program would be) and some more traditional volume split. Just try it, nothing to lose. Your going to make gains no matter what imo (well if your eating enough, this program will run you down if your not taking enough cals for sure.)

14

Amireadingthisrite?

The 4 days per week model has you starting off hitting each bodypart with 9 or less sets, PER WEEK? It ramps up to a whopping 15 sets per week. That seems pretty low volume compared to a traditional BB split.

Is there more than one exercise per bodypart per workout? That seems like it would make more sense.