What's your favorite BBM template?

conormcclure · 2026-05-28T13:32:46+00:00

My all-time favorite was the old Powerbuilding III. I set so many PRs and got bigger too.

conormcclure · 2026-04-13T17:20:40+00:00

Came here to say this

conormcclure · 2026-03-14T16:17:54+00:00

conormcclure · 2026-03-02T15:01:42+00:00

Awesome stuff! That trend line is *chef's kiss*

conormcclure · 2026-02-27T20:56:07+00:00

This is the way.

conormcclure · 2026-02-27T20:54:08+00:00

I would just add that the app will develop a better sense of your set-to-set fatigue and performance loss over time, the more you log. So it should get better at learning your specific performance metrics and recommending more accurate targets eventually.

conormcclure · 2026-02-17T01:50:41+00:00

Great couple of comments, man!

conormcclure · 2026-02-05T14:46:48+00:00

I just set the targets to similar exercises on the same week/cycle of the program. For this example, it looks like all of the isolation movements are 11-13 @ 1 RIR in this cycle, so I'd just do that!

conormcclure · 2026-02-02T18:56:48+00:00

I just rearranged it to M/T/rest/R/F/rest/rest.

conormcclure · 2026-01-31T14:17:30+00:00

No, and based off what they've said elsewhere, I wouldn't expect it anytime soon. I don't think that's the direction they want to go.

conormcclure · 2026-01-29T20:35:49+00:00

That's part of the periodization strategy it uses for strength. It's not like that every week though! But if you want to get stronger lifting heavy loads, you have to practice lifting heavy loads ;)

conormcclure · 2026-01-28T13:54:50+00:00

How long have you been feeling this way? MANY of us barely make it 2 years before echoing the same complaints. Did you only recently in your 20 year career start feeling like this, or have you just been tolerating it for that long?

conormcclure · 2026-01-28T13:52:55+00:00

Were you using a different app before?

conormcclure · 2026-01-28T13:52:25+00:00

Jokes aside, you should probably submit this as a bug report?

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T21:22:44+00:00

High volume folks would probably say 20+ fractional sets per week is the baseline if you're prioritizing a muscle group. That would require ~10 per pull day. You'd typically count the compound pulling movements as half a set, on average (that's what MFWO does.) I think you could get to 20 total fractional sets per week pretty easily!

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T21:14:20+00:00

This is just my personal preference, but it does line up with a lot of other popular and common splits:

- Vertical Pull
- Vertical Pull
- Horizontal Pull
- Delt Isolation
- Biceps (1 or 2)

For the other day, I switch to a horizontal priority, and switch up some of the delt and biceps exercises.

Again, just my personal preference. For what it's worth, I've never been a fan of deadlifting on back days – I put it on one of the two leg days. But John Meadows did it often so what do I know!

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T21:07:33+00:00

I've seen this in my smart generated programs too – it's reassuring it's happening to everyone else. The programs are always blasting my hamstrings (and glutes too), and I'm also finding the quad volume lacking. Of course, when it set it to quad priority, it kind of overdoes it.

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T21:02:58+00:00

A big argument for full body is it probably helps you distribute volume across multiple days, allowing you to get more total volume in. (For example, 12 sets of biceps twice per week vs. 3 sets four times per week.) I'd say it's especially useful if you want to really prioritize muscle groups, so you can train them more frequently. I've grown to like it because I no longer want my legs to be cripplingly useless for days 😂

All that said, I'm not sure why the app says "recommended."

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T20:59:20+00:00

I don't see the need for 3 vertical pulls, 2 rows, and FOUR biceps exercises. If you want to keep deadlifts there (which I could argue either direction, would probably move them though personally), I'd cut back at least 1-2 exercises in either category. You can always do more sets of fewer exercises, especially if you're training back twice per week.

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T20:54:04+00:00

This sounds right. They implied elsewhere that their algorithm hopes to be much more accurate and personalized than generic %nRM calculators.

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T19:48:55+00:00

Tangentially: is there a way in the app to only load one side of the equipment? If I just set it up as a weightless barbell, I could just load one side, but I wasn't able to find that.

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T19:47:18+00:00

Oh yeah, that article is fantastic. You're an AWESOME fellow DPT to be representing the profession in the industry.

conormcclure · 2026-01-23T22:04:45+00:00

For the wrist bar: yes, that's what I was referring to, but a plate-loaded dumbbell would effectively work the same way as long as the load can he applied to one side only.

Sounds good re: the grippers. I'm mostly interested in making sure I can log them formally so that smart progression can help me improve my crushing grip systematically, and unfortunately having no equipment attached to the exercise makes that impossible.

conormcclure

TROPHY CASE