What do you do after the 3 month challenge? Is doing 70% for the BBB sets sustainable and still recover on long term basis. Especially for an older lifter (mid 30s).
At very least 5x10 70% for deadlifts seems pretty brutal. Just wondering what other people have done after completing the 3 month challenge.
3-month BBB is a muscle building challenge. Why not dial back to traditional 531 or start a strength challenge? A deload would probably be advisable right now.
I’d go for a strength challenge version of the program as well. There’s also a Beyond 5/3/1 strength challenge that lasts for 20 weeks.
Typically you wont see the results of a hypertrophy based program while doing it - best to go back to a strength based template and dial back the volume after a deload. Keep eating as if you were doing the BBB challenge and reap the coming rewards on your size. Try the 28 weeks of training right now after the challenge. This will keep you busy for while. I’ve done the BBB challenge twice; I followed the first one up with the bodyweight template, and the second with the triumvirate. This was very helpful to my joints after the 5x10 @70% onslaught in the subsequent weeks. I’m currently doing the 28 weeks of training (on week 7) and plan to follow it up in the wintertime with the BBB challenge to pack on some size; I’ll probably follow this up with something from the new book or the bodyweight accessory template.
There’s also a Beyond 5/3/110 strength challenge that lasts for 20 weeks.
Looking at the ‘Strength challenge’ in Beyond 5/3/1 and its 12 weeks (page 258). Is that what you meant?
What are any of your guys thoughts on running BBB for 6 months - and on month 4 resetting to 5x10 at 50% of your new training max ad building up again?
The article I linked is the first 5 weeks of the total challenge that lasts for 20 weeks. You can find the rest of the articles by just changing the 1.1 in the url to 1.2 and so on.
Sounds boring as fuck. Try changing your assistance template after 6 weeks, not 6 months. Now, if you’re talking the BBB challenge (3 months), I would give it a rest and move onto a new assistance template. But I’m 38 years old and I know what that volume and intensity does to my joints. I’m hesitant to ever give the BBB challenge a go again (done it twice).
I love the 28 weeks of training template as it’s written in the Beyond book. 6 weeks of rep maxes +FSL AMRAP rest pause upper body, straight set lower body, 6 weeks up up/down ladder for rep maxes + rep maxes on all down sets, 6 weeks of rep maxes + TM for max reps, then 6 weeks of rep maxes + joker sets. When you go through this template, you have a much better understanding of the rest of 5/3/1. And guess what, it’s not boring!
When I hit 205 for 18+5+2 on bench in the 5s week, then hit 215 for 15+6+3 in the 3s week on bench, the motivation for each workout to hit within 1 rep totals on every week/workout become real and the progress isn’t just measured in the PR set, but in subsequent sets of the template. try it out if you haven’t!
This is what I did after doing Thibaudeau Athlete Routine. (I am on Week 3). No complaints.