I do have every intention of buying the book before anyone suggests that.
I read the write up on the site about the program, and i took a look at the sample program at the end of it. And all looks good and i was able to understand it fairly well.
But then i saw a couple different things that confused me on the 5x10 sets you do after the main lifts.
Say its squat day, you do your 5/3/1 sets… Do you then do 5 sets of 10 with squats at 50%?
Ive seen people suggest that is how its done, but on the sample program (that i was going to just copy and use) it has you doing deadlifts for your 5x10.
BBB you can do the supplement work( the 5x10 at %50) after the main lifts using the same lift (ie. squats at 5/3/1 and 5x10@%50) or using the opposite lift (i.e. doing your main lifts of squats and then the supplemental work with deadlifts). Either way is acceptable by Jim’s own admission. When you do get the book it’s explained in the Boring But Big section so don’t hesitate to read it inside and out when you get it. I haven’t been able to put it down since it came in just because I’m trying to program my stuff well in advance with all the different programs he’s got in there. Good luck to you.
Most people do this wrong but its best to do the same lift or one very similar. So if you do 531 Squat then your BBB should also be squat. After this you can do some other lower body stuff too but probably no barbell lifts. People bring up frequency a lot but I think it works to hit the lifts once a week and the muscle 2+ times. Just because you only squat on squat day doesn’t mean you are not doing something to improve them on your other days.
Note, I do occasionally do some primary lifts twice a week but its outside of the main/supplemental work. For example on Deadlift day I warmup with a few sets of squats, then do 531 DL followed by BBB DL. Then I do misc stuff, then at the very end I do a set of 15-20 rep squats to finish the workout. So on that day I squat but it takes 0% out of my DL workout which is the primary goal for that day. Jim has said this before too, doing the main work with the same lift gives more focus to the workout.
Thanks all for the input, I have always preferred hitting muscle groups at least twice in one week, so i think im going to stick to the workout Jim put up on the site as an example and just go with it.
Anxious for this weekend of work to be over so i can start hitting it come Monday!!
out of curiosity, what is the reason for not doing amrap on the last set of the 5/3/1 lifts like you do in the original program?
It takes away from the real work which is the BBB sets. There is a big difference between doing your “primary” lift for the day and doing an extra 5x10 just to get more volume vs doing a hard 5x10 as your main work for the day.
Jim now always recommends doing the same lift for supplemental. Don’t worry about hitting the muscles twice a week. If you’re doing BBB, all the lower body muscles are getting thrashed twice a week anyway. The squat and deadlift work mostly the same muscles.
Well, i have a hard time going against the advice of the person who actually came up with the program so same lift it will be.
Cant say how much im looking forward to doing 5/3/1 squats and following it up with another 50 of them LOL. But i love a good workout so ill do it.
Started BBB today, did bench and used the FSL weight for my 5x10 sets. Sets 4 and 5 started feeling a little on the heavy side but nothing that made me think that i wouldnt be able to get them all easy. I know its a progressive program and that it starts out light. I am good with that but should the 5x10 sets seem on the easy side for the first week? Just want to make sure i dont have my TM set too low.
Do not worry about having the TM too low. It’s better to have it too low than too high. It’ll catch up, plus that gives you room to progress. The first week of BBB shouldn’t be very hard at all.
Nice, thanks for the info, i really want to give this an honest shot and want to do it the way it should be done. We will see how tomorrow goes, squat day!