Thank you for posting this. I am going to give this a shot. I didn’t want to remove Oly but decided I had to - until I read this. This will work great at trying some principles until I feel ready to commit to the “Best Damn Workout…” in it’s entirety.
CT could you share the lifts you’re using for the 5/3/1 and also assitance exercises?
Btw that template is pretty much the gold standard and recuring theme of most of your programs (a heavy barbell move “ramped up” [CNS activation], back off work to accrue volume, some finishers for conditionig) and my favorite style of training
Thx
Yes it’s funny how that works. After all this experimentation and changing some views it leads to pretty much what I always done BUT with a slightly different application. I believe that I had the right recipe BUT didn’t know how much of each ingredient to put it! And since I’m a recovering stimulus addict I had the tendency to do too much.
I initially used the Starting Strength program. Beginner’s gains and all, but I added quite a bit of both strength and muscle pretty quickly (along w/ some fat b/c I was eating for gains). Then I switched to some of the related Intermediate level programs. They turned out to be too much high-intensity volume for me.
A few weeks ago I was contemplating what to try next and ran into the Best Natty program. I love it. My strength seems to be increasing quickly, although I’m sure some of that is because I haven’t done some of these lifts for a long while. However, my Bench and Press have actually gone up a little since starting it (I’m only in the 3rd week). Squats or DL’s I can’t say right now as they aren’t part of the program. As far as muscle mass, subjectively I think that’s also seen some gains.
I’m going to go against the grain here and say that I don’t really buy that you can (effectively) train for strength w/o size gains and vice-versa over the long-haul. Sure, you can become more technically proficient at the lifts and there is some nervous system improvement that can come with training the competitive lifts heavy, but by and large for most people who are not truly advanced lifters, whatever will add muscle the fastest will also add strength the fastest, and at about the same rate.
The key for me to gain strength and mass quickly seems to be some sort of metabolic stress w/ relatively heavy weights and w/o going overboard on volume. Best Natty seems perfect for that.
I agree, you should look to increase the amount of weight you are moving but not at the expense of proper tension when training for size.
Here’s what I mean…
If your bench press goes from 225 x 6 while really feeling a good squeeze and pump in the chest to 265 x 6 with the same feeling in the chest then yeah, you will build a lot of muscle.
But if you go from 225 x 6 with a great feeling in the chest to 265 x 6 feeling it a lot in the joints and shoulders and less in the chest then even if your lift is stronger your chest will likely not grow much if at all.
I personally value both strength and size so I have one lift trained for strength (which use different principles than the ones in “the best damn program”) and then 2-3 muscle-building exercises for the muscle(s) involved in that lift.
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@Christian_Thibaudeau I know you have no control as to when your new article is released but let’s see it already 