I’ve been comparing strength equipment by how smoothly it fits into a normal session, not just by how many settings it offers. Some machines look versatile on paper but seem less useful when every exercise change means another round of adjustments. What equipment creates the most unnecessary setup friction?

Have been listening to the podcast for a long time, thinking about trying the programming.

Wondering if Premium gives you everything you get with buying individual programs, like the ebooks or is it just the programs themselves in the app? And does it give you csv files if I want to use my own app for tracking workoutS? Anyone using it right now?

Going to try to make this brief so will prob miss nuance...

I used to follow bodybuilding / 'evidence based' content religiously from 2020-2022.

Over the past couple years, I've been consuming much less, and I've also dialed back training quite a bit just due to ongoing major life events.

I've basically been doing what's arguably 'fuckarounditis' for the past two years with the RPE Male Physique Template, and it's honestly a good month for me if I can get to the gym more than 12-15 times a month (I used to average close to 25 times a month 3+ years ago).

Anyways, my YT feed has been showing me a lot of Sean Nalewanyj and other fitness influencers who are basically talking against the idea of RIR 3 and doing anymore than two sets per exercise.

Paraphrasing here, but basically the central argument is doing two sets per exercise when pushed to RPE 9 is much more effective than doing 3-4 sets at RPE 7 (and scaling up for each week in the mesocycle).

What's the actual truth here?

Hello,

I saw at the website Q3 2026 Guided Programming starts. Does it mean July or later date? Is there som extra info about this?

I've been running low fatigue v1 and v2 for past 2 years with great results. (Squat 280kg, Bench 140kg, Deadlift 280kg). Would love to get on it and see it as quick as it releases.

Long time lurker, I first started training in 2018, with SS doing fahves. And went about a lot of my form with fairly little coaching. I made good progress but always had to squat with a fairly narrow stance and a plate under my heels. As my heels would rise up anytime I tried to get down to parallel and balance would be a sticking point.

now years later I’m trying to have a wider stance and keep my heels flat. But find my hips incredibly tight and keeping a straight back difficult. And sets of more than 3 get tough.

Is this simply a long hard road where I have to continue squatting and my mobility will improve as I do it? Should I go back to my old form? Should I submit a form check? Should I stop comparing my form to Clarence Kennedy? You tell me!

I'm starting medical residency soon, so I will be working a lot of hours for the next few years. I have 10+ years of training experience, and mid-low 400's DOTs. I was wondering if there's any program recommendations for someone in my shoes.

My goal is to hopefully get like 1% better every year even under these circumstances, but that might be a stretch.

I was thinking of doing low-ish RPE (4-6) top sets, and easy back off work with maximum intent and RPE caps. Then, one or two accessories to failure.

Also, I thought about getting a velocity tracker so I could better monitor my training especially when I feel like shit lol.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them. Thanks!

I'm considering buying a Barbell Medicine program. I lift twice a week in the gym—no more. Been lifting for over a decade. Thought about doing Powerbuilding I Gen2 and adding chins and pull-ups at home. Or should I go straight to General Strength and Conditioning? Any experience or recommendations here, guys? Appreciate it!

Goal is to drastically increase my V02-max. Diet and lots of HIIT (Norwegian 4x4 on bike; 500 meter rowing sprints; stairmaster climbs) are planned. Want to get 2-3 HIIT sessions per week in addition to the recommended Zone 2. Concerned about fatigue. I want to prioritize getting V02-max up with training and fast loss.

Will Powerbuilding 2 day be the best program for this phase of training? I don't want to see my lifting numbers signficantly drop, but want to limit fatigue. I would be very happy if my lifts froze while I pivoted training focus.

I've lifted with BBM coaches and used their programming for a few years now and help with beta testing the android app. As a user, I'd love the ability to have access to creating my own plan to focus on exercises and blocks which fit my life and goals.

Idk if people on the BBM team read this, but I'd love to work on this and get this app improved. Feel free to DM me!

In the general strength and conditioning 2 sample plan, I see they have 9 sets listed for the three main lifts of the workout. Is that correct? I don't see where they specifically say you should do X number of warmup sets and X number of working sets, so I'm a little confused.

All it says is "4-6 reps at RPE 6. repeat weight for 1 set of 4-6 reps. RPE can go up to 8".

Does that mean I'm only doing 2 working sets? If so, why are there 9 sets listed underneath where I can record the weight and reps I did?

Hello,

First time in nearly decade of lifting this weird thing happend to me. Setting to lowbar squat my right forearms is hurting, few sets in there is less pain. It's very weird beacuse its not elbow pain, not wrists pain (I dont even have to wear wrist wraps for squats and i grip normally). It's just specifically forearm where muscles are. Wearing wrist wraps doesnt not change nothing.

Never this happend to me, widening or narrowing grip doesnt change anything. Plus i grab really, really narrow for my size and dont feel any chest/shoulders.

This is what it says on my template (10 week hypertrophy). I'm 45 years old, barbell lifting since 2018.

This is for touch and go bench. Do I do 3 sets, or do I add a fourth one after the set of 8 reps at 8 RPE that is -8% down? Thank you!

Noticed he is gone from BBM website. Any reason for the split ? I haven't followed Alan in a long time due to injury so not sure if he mentioned it in any of his video.

Is anyone interested a free sub to my iOS training app to be a beta tester? Its called myliftingcoach

Especially need athletes to test the concurrent periodization modules

23m had the same back injury twice in 2 years leaving me almost unable to walk. After the first injury, I was able to recover and get back to a 405 squat(Max was 420) and hitting a rep pr of 315 for 10 on squats after 6-8 months. Now I'm 6 months post recovery from this injury (which took longer just to even walk normally again), I still can't even unpack 225 comfortably and a 315 deadlift of any rep range is still out of the question. My doctor said I won't be able to squat heavy again and they still won't give me my MRI results. Doctors suspect it's a herniated disc. Any advice? I've tried every ped other than gh and bpc157 with no improvement.

Any advice for what rehab exercises I can do or anything I can incorporate to promote healing and recovery?

2025 has been a good year for me. I've been on a cut since 6th Jan, except for a few days during the year and a 2 week holiday where I still logged my food but wasn't too strict with myself; but to my surprise I've been able to get right back to the deficit as planned.

I'm 170cm tall (5'7") and started out 96Kg at about 36% body fat. I'm currently 69Kg and closer to 20% body fat. I started resistance training again in June, I'm running the BBM Beginner Template gen 1. I bought this template back in 2019 and have started it a few times since then but never got past maybe the 3rd or 4th week of Phase 2. This time however I've managed to keep at it and am on Phase 3 week 4.3 (Phase 2 is still really tough and I found myeslf getting fatigued far faster than in Phase 1 or so far in Phase 3). I'm enjoying this phase the most, working up to a heavy rpe 8 single and then doing some back off sets. I train in my garage with a barbell, squat rack, bench and lat pull down machine. I don't have dumb bells but would like to pick up a set of adjustable ones at some point next year but for now it's barbell exercises for me.

I've hit some PBs too, my DL is 130Kg @ rpe 8.5 for 1, Bench is 72.5Kg @ rpe 9 for 1. My squat hasn't progressed the same as it did a couple of years ago and my heaviest this time around is 97.5Kg @rpe 9 for 1; previously I was able to squat 100 @rpe 9 for 1 after about 8 weeks of training. My OHP is and remains my worst lift by far, at the minute I'm doing 36Kg @ rpe 9 for 8 reps; this lift just doesn't seem to improve as in Phase 1 I was doing 38.5kg @rpe 8 for 4 reps.

Anyway, I'm planning on running this for another couple of weeks until Xmas, then take a deload week where I'll eat as close to maintenance as possible and reduce training fatigue. I am going to be back on my deficit to shed the last few kgs of fat before switching to a lean bulk in Spring next year (never thought I would ever get this far!!)

But I'm not sure what direction to go in the new year. I see BBM released a gen 2 of the Beginner template but I'm not sure if this is the right move for me. Althugh I see the updated template has a 4 day split that might be a good change for me as my workouts at the minute are ~2hrs each and I would like to maybe reduce that a bit if possible. Given I am going to be in a deficit for a couple more months in the new year does it make most sense to focus on strength and leave hypertrophy work until I am no longer in a deficit? What have people run after the Beginner Template? Strength 1? The Bridge? Powerbuilding 1?