wendler boring but big?
canadianlbs
Posts: 5,199 Member
has anyone done this variation of the wendler protocol? from what i gather, you do your day's lift, and then for accessory you drop way down to 40 or 50% of your training weight and do another 5x10 of the same lift. plus one other accessory.
i'm feeling tempted by it, partly from mental laziness and partly for other reasons, such as form imprinting. but i'm wondering if people found that it helped or hindered their actual training-weight progress.
and yeah, i know women-no-bulk-up etc but i admit i don't really want to end up shaped like ed coen.
i'm feeling tempted by it, partly from mental laziness and partly for other reasons, such as form imprinting. but i'm wondering if people found that it helped or hindered their actual training-weight progress.
and yeah, i know women-no-bulk-up etc but i admit i don't really want to end up shaped like ed coen.
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I haven't followed that exact program, but I designed my own program similar to it. Basically: I was doing 1RM lifts, then dropping down to 2-3 sets of 5 reps, then smashing out 1 set of AMRAP. I would then add on some accessories for grins and giggles.
What I saw: my 1RM lifts went up, my 2-3 sets of 5 reps got easier and increased as well, my body leaned out, but I didn't bulk up like she-hulk.0 -
thanks. were you dropping weight between the 1rm and the other two types of sets? just curious. i can't see doing 2-3 sets of whatever my genuine 1 rep max weight would be, by definition.
i'm probably just window shopping and semi-wasting people's time, but i brood a lot about what accessories to add in around the basic 5/3/1. or, y'know. i could just do 5/3/1, do the accessories already suggested, and give it more than 2.5 cycles before i start asking myself how i'm settling into it and switching things up.
thanks for the input.0 -
how many days/week are you training and what are your goals?0
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it's a little mixed up because i do trainer time once a week and that's a two-lift workout as i don't want to wait a whole month in between form checks from him. i do 2-sometimes-3 sessions on my own in between times. the 3 would be mostly because i keep going back just to try and get my squat fixed.
goals are kind of a mix depending on the lift, but for squat <--- especially and deadlift i think i want consistent form more than anything else atm. my body basically forgets very quickly what it was doing the last time around, so only getting one crack at them per week doesn't really feel like it's taking me there. that's the main reason why the idea of accessory sets at 50% weight is so appealing to me.
bench and press are more stable and it's just a matter of wanting to keep chugging upward with weight. i'm not really fussy about absolute numbers, but i kind of measure those two by my consistency with the weight increases.
i don't really have goals; i just have motives.
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I do it, but on deadlift day I do other things, as it seems like way too many deadlifts. It is good for cementing the form in my brain, and I like something utterly mindless (and still have to check my phone 4,000 times to see what comes next). For presses, I've been doing z-presses (seated on the floor with legs in a V so you can't use your legs to push at all) with dumbbells. It does seem to be helping with my main lifts.
That said, I only do one lift per day. Doing BBB with 2 lifts per session would take me hours. I'm always aiming to keep my time under an hour.0 -
P.S. It may be boring (as noted above, I like boring in the gym), but the "big" part isn't happening to me.0
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scrittrice wrote: »That said, I only do one lift per day. Doing BBB with 2 lifts per session would take me hours. I'm always aiming to keep my time under an hour.
this is a point, and yeah. i wouldn't want to ride up that hill from mr t's place after 75 deadlifts at any weight. i'm thinking of bastardizing and just doing the extra stuff in my solo workouts. that would restrict it to only two lifts getting extra attention per week. i guess i could either alternate those the way i already do based on what's coming up in t-space that week . . . or i could simply cycle back and forth between deadlifts and squats since those are the ones i have flaky form on. or just confine it to 'squat every time' until that firms up, in a stronglift-ish style.
i did mess with this idea in my most recent workout. did basic bench, and then i did 3x10 deadlifts and squats with 50% as accessories. i was actually in and out pretty fast, but i was also just on a mission in general. normally i'm happy to go in and 'waste' a few hours.
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Today was DL day, and after writing that I did 5x10 deadlifts (and biked home veeeeery slowly). It was fine, actually. There's also a variation of BBB that calls for doing the 5x10 squats on deadliest day and vice versa (and press and bench). That way you'd do two different lifts each time.2
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From Jim Wendler's website:
"For people new to the Boring But Big (BBB) program, I highly, highly recommend starting very light on the lower body assistance work. Even if the weight seems very light and the sets easy, you will be insanely sore from squatting and deadlifting for 5 sets of 10 reps. There is no point in making yourself so sore that you cannot train the next day. Or even two days after that. So if you are new to the BBB, start with a light weight (around 30%) of your Training Max. Or another way of saying it; start with the lightest weight on the bar that won’t embarrass you. Something that still keeps your ego from being completely and totally broken."
The page I linked is all about Boring But Big. I am starting it next week (it's deload week), but I did do BBB squats the other day, and I was sore for the next 2 days, even though I was just squatting 55lbs. He also has other recommended accessory work on there, and other tips that are worth reading.
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melodiclyrics wrote: »"For people new to the Boring But Big (BBB) program, I highly, highly recommend starting very light on the lower body assistance work.
true enough. i actually read that website, but as usual it seems to be aimed at guys who are actually looking for bulk. hence the questions.
i went ahead and started on this with my new week. actually forgot i was 'supposed' to do 5 sets, and so i just did what i do for all my accessory work, aka 3. idk if it's the two missing sets, or the fact that i did keep myself down to 50%, or maybe me pounding the water and bcaa's to try and pre-arm myself . . . but the doms wasn't really the problem i'd thought it would be. i think for my own purposes i probably will stay at the 50% since my goal is more about form and facility than it is about size or strength.
the other 'modification' i made was to stagger the deadlift workouts, so i did my 3x15 very light on one day, and then went back the next day for the real work set. that worked spectacularly well, for whatever that's worth
for ohp i did them both on the same day and it didn't seem like it doms'd me up much. it did take the edge off my work sets i guess - i did the light workout first to unstick my joints, and then only juuuuust made my threshold on the work set. bench and squat are both off the heavy list for my solo workouts, so guess i'll see how my friday sets go.
doing the long sets also feels like it's letting me micro-critique my own form, and whoever said it was pretty darned cardio was speaking the truth. so for going forward i'm now thinking i might try using at least one of these long-but-light sets in my warmup process since my blood seems to take its own sweet time to get moving for me.
thanks for the input, everyone. and @melodylyrics, i'll be interested to see how it goes for you too.0 -
I think I'll be doing this variation of Wendler, my main aim for lifting is just getting stronger. It appeals because it's simple. But I think I'm going to do the squats on deadlifts day and vice versa and the same with the presses.0
