Please Critique My OTS BBB Routine

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

First off thank you to everyone that takes a look at this topic and even greater thanks to anyone who can provide advice on my set up and/or tips on the program. I did want to mention that I workout at home and unfortunately do not have access to certain things like a leg press, smith, hack squat, etc. I plan on starting ramp 1 on Wednesday and so I have time to make applicable adjustments.

Day 1:
Back- Neutral Grip Pulldowns (no way I can do 3 sets of 15 for pullups)
Chest- Low Incline DB Press
Bi- BB Curls
Calf- Standing BB Calf Raise

Day 2:
Delt- Standing BB Press
Triceps- Close Grip BP from Pins
Quads- Back Squats
Hams- Leg Curl
Ab Work

Day 3:
Chest- Flat BB BP
Back- Cable Row
Bi- Rope Hammer Curl
Calf- Standing Calf Raise

Day4:
Delts: Seated DB Press
Tri- Rope Pushdown
Ham- Conventional DL
Quad- Leg Ext
Ab Work

Day 5 = Day 1
Day 6 = Day 2

I do have a couple questions as well. 1) for those who incorporated a DL did you follow the set/report scheme? It seems that would lead to a boatload of volume, as well I have not done lot of DL sets above 5 reps. 2) I am concerned about lower back fatigue but I believe I addressed that with my exercise selection and do plan on belting up…any thoughts?

Thank you again!

2

First off, I love BBB. I’m not huge but have used it to make msot the gains I do have, so take my advice if you wish, if not, that’s cool.

For me, too much pressing would screw me up. And this is really Phil Hernon’s system, so I picked lifts he suggested

Delts: Only raises, flyes, or upright rows with dumbbells
Quads: Back Squats and Front Squats
Hams: Leg Curls and SLDL/RDL’s

Otherwise everything looks good. Also, I liked to rotate my days. So right now, you have 4 different days of workouts, basically A/B/C/D/A/B/Off.
If I were you, the next week I would do C/D/A/B/C/D/Off. So that some weeks, Days 1 and 2 get hit in two different rep ranges, and the next week Days 3 and 4 get hit in multiple rep ranges, if that makes sense

3

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
First off, I love BBB. I’m not huge but have used it to make msot the gains I do have, so take my advice if you wish, if not, that’s cool.

For me, too much pressing would screw me up. And this is really Phil Hernon’s system, so I picked lifts he suggested

Delts: Only raises, flyes, or upright rows with dumbbells
Quads: Back Squats and Front Squats
Hams: Leg Curls and SLDL/RDL’s

Otherwise everything looks good. Also, I liked to rotate my days. So right now, you have 4 different days of workouts, basically A/B/C/D/A/B/Off.
If I were you, the next week I would do C/D/A/B/C/D/Off. So that some weeks, Days 1 and 2 get hit in two different rep ranges, and the next week Days 3 and 4 get hit in multiple rep ranges, if that makes sense[/quote]

Last post didn’t seem to work so let’s try this again.

Thanks for the tips Spidey. I do enjoy OHP and DLs and would like to incorporate them somehow. Do you think it would be fine to do one low rep set of DLs where I have them currently scheduled followed by a different hamstring movement and also switch an OHP to a lateral?

4

[quote]Rx85 wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
First off, I love BBB. I’m not huge but have used it to make msot the gains I do have, so take my advice if you wish, if not, that’s cool.

For me, too much pressing would screw me up. And this is really Phil Hernon’s system, so I picked lifts he suggested

Delts: Only raises, flyes, or upright rows with dumbbells
Quads: Back Squats and Front Squats
Hams: Leg Curls and SLDL/RDL’s

Otherwise everything looks good. Also, I liked to rotate my days. So right now, you have 4 different days of workouts, basically A/B/C/D/A/B/Off.
If I were you, the next week I would do C/D/A/B/C/D/Off. So that some weeks, Days 1 and 2 get hit in two different rep ranges, and the next week Days 3 and 4 get hit in multiple rep ranges, if that makes sense[/quote]

Last post didn’t seem to work so let’s try this again.

Thanks for the tips Spidey. I do enjoy OHP and DLs and would like to incorporate them somehow. Do you think it would be fine to do one low rep set of DLs where I have them currently scheduled followed by a different hamstring movement and also switch an OHP to a lateral?
[/quote]

I think if you REALLY wanna still do one low set of DL’s, yeah, I’d do them at the end of the week (the day before your off day) and make it the last exercise (after a major Quad lift, preferrably some kind of Squat). Ed Coan use to DL after Squats and progressed just fine. However, he ALSO worked DL’s with a higher rep range, so I personally would just do DL’s if ya want, but do them for the prescirbed rep range. Reps build strenghth.

I personally would switch out both OHP’s for lateral raises and rear delt raises, but if you REALLY want a OHP in there, I would do DB. For Chest I started using Decline BB and Low-Incline DB presses, and avoided BB work for shoulders, because personally doing heavy pressing to faiure 6x a week was too much for me.

Makes sure to be eating good and sleeping well on this program, it’ll go a long way in allowing you to hit everything so frequently. Also, REALLY try not to grind out reps. Go for PR’s, but end a set at techincal failure (when you couldn’t do another rep with good form), because this program intentionally pushes you to kind of overreach, prime time to get injured. So be smart, keep a rep in the tank.

5

I am starting to agree with you regarding OHP, that would lead to a lot of pressing volume. I think I’ll do laterals one session and rear delts another; I’ll probably get enough front delt stimulation from the pressing. I also think I am going to try programming the DL in as a hamstring movement, hopefully it isn’t to taxing. As for the eating I am planning on choking it down, I’m transitioning into a gaining period and am hoping for 15lbs over the 18 weeks.

Do you remember what sort of strength/size gains you had with the program Spidey? Did you finish all 18 weeks?

6

[quote]Rx85 wrote:
I am starting to agree with you regarding OHP, that would lead to a lot of pressing volume. I think I’ll do laterals one session and rear delts another; I’ll probably get enough front delt stimulation from the pressing. I also think I am going to try programming the DL in as a hamstring movement, hopefully it isn’t to taxing. As for the eating I am planning on choking it down, I’m transitioning into a gaining period and am hoping for 15lbs over the 18 weeks.

Do you remember what sort of strength/size gains you had with the program Spidey? Did you finish all 18 weeks?[/quote]

I tried the full program when I FIRST started lifting, but ended up hurting my shoulder pretty bad and not getting much out of it (that was a year or so again).

Size: I used it last winter, to basically go from 177 (had just cut) to about 195~ while staying pretty damn lean. So it did it’s job there.

Strength: I remember near the end, I was able to Oly Back Squat (high bar, below parallel) 290x15, and eventually was hitting 245 for reps on Decline Bench (which is ok because I’m an extremely shittiy presser, and this actually helped it). For me, my legs are a strong point, so hitting them frequently helped them the most. I also did my reps pistong style, not lockout at top, constant tension, as that’s what Phil Hernon prefers.

The first time I ran through it, I did the full program, and honestly didn’t like the 2nd and 3rd Ramps. So I eventually just kept repeating the first Ramp, which is still one of my favorite programs.

7

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]Rx85 wrote:
I am starting to agree with you regarding OHP, that would lead to a lot of pressing volume. I think I’ll do laterals one session and rear delts another; I’ll probably get enough front delt stimulation from the pressing. I also think I am going to try programming the DL in as a hamstring movement, hopefully it isn’t to taxing. As for the eating I am planning on choking it down, I’m transitioning into a gaining period and am hoping for 15lbs over the 18 weeks.

Do you remember what sort of strength/size gains you had with the program Spidey? Did you finish all 18 weeks?[/quote]

I tried the full program when I FIRST started lifting, but ended up hurting my shoulder pretty bad and not getting much out of it (that was a year or so again).

Size: I used it last winter, to basically go from 177 (had just cut) to about 195~ while staying pretty damn lean. So it did it’s job there.

Strength: I remember near the end, I was able to Oly Back Squat (high bar, below parallel) 290x15, and eventually was hitting 245 for reps on Decline Bench (which is ok because I’m an extremely shittiy presser, and this actually helped it). For me, my legs are a strong point, so hitting them frequently helped them the most. I also did my reps pistong style, not lockout at top, constant tension, as that’s what Phil Hernon prefers.

The first time I ran through it, I did the full program, and honestly didn’t like the 2nd and 3rd Ramps. So I eventually just kept repeating the first Ramp, which is still one of my favorite programs. [/quote]

What sort of training did you do prior to the program? I’m looking forward to it because I have not done a really high volume routine before and I have also done most of my compound work in lower rep ranges and so hopefully this will be a welcome change. I’m actually surprised more people aren’t chiming in as it seemed BBB was a pretty popular program awhile back. Hopefully I can add some quality mass up into late fall with this program as next summer I plan on being lean for the first time in my life! How is your cut going?

8

[quote]Rx85 wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]Rx85 wrote:
I am starting to agree with you regarding OHP, that would lead to a lot of pressing volume. I think I’ll do laterals one session and rear delts another; I’ll probably get enough front delt stimulation from the pressing. I also think I am going to try programming the DL in as a hamstring movement, hopefully it isn’t to taxing. As for the eating I am planning on choking it down, I’m transitioning into a gaining period and am hoping for 15lbs over the 18 weeks.

Do you remember what sort of strength/size gains you had with the program Spidey? Did you finish all 18 weeks?[/quote]

I tried the full program when I FIRST started lifting, but ended up hurting my shoulder pretty bad and not getting much out of it (that was a year or so again).

Size: I used it last winter, to basically go from 177 (had just cut) to about 195~ while staying pretty damn lean. So it did it’s job there.

Strength: I remember near the end, I was able to Oly Back Squat (high bar, below parallel) 290x15, and eventually was hitting 245 for reps on Decline Bench (which is ok because I’m an extremely shittiy presser, and this actually helped it). For me, my legs are a strong point, so hitting them frequently helped them the most. I also did my reps pistong style, not lockout at top, constant tension, as that’s what Phil Hernon prefers.

The first time I ran through it, I did the full program, and honestly didn’t like the 2nd and 3rd Ramps. So I eventually just kept repeating the first Ramp, which is still one of my favorite programs. [/quote]

What sort of training did you do prior to the program? I’m looking forward to it because I have not done a really high volume routine before and I have also done most of my compound work in lower rep ranges and so hopefully this will be a welcome change. I’m actually surprised more people aren’t chiming in as it seemed BBB was a pretty popular program awhile back. Hopefully I can add some quality mass up into late fall with this program as next summer I plan on being lean for the first time in my life! How is your cut going?[/quote]

Just upper/lower splits, kind stuff like that before BBB, nothing too crazy. Yeah, most of those who really liked the program and used don’t post here frequently or at all anymore. I think it’s great for adding some solid mass, and you can get pretty strong in the higher rep ranges as well.

You can put on some solid mass with this program, and if you’re eating intelligently you’ll probably lean out a bit as well, as the the program is intense. I’m not cutting currently, just trying to gain a little more mass for the next few months, before trying to do a legit contest diet.