Been doing BBB for almost a year and have seen great gains. I´m getting increasingly frustrated with my squat tho, as it had fallen quite far behind my deadlift. I DL 4 x 162.5kg and I squat 7 x 97,5kg. I do the program as it is written, pairing it 531squat/ BBBdl on squat day and 531dl/squatBBB on dl day to squat more often.
I thought it was my technique, so I´ve gotten my form looked at by one of my countrys most succesful powerlifters, and other than small adjustments, he thought my form was good.
I would suggest to back off the total volume of squatting for a little while, as BBB is really effective for building mass, but not the best set/rep scheme for building strength. It can still work, but not the best one.
I highly recommend the Beyond 531 1.1 - 1.4 for pretty massive strength gains. You’ll alternate squatting twice and deadlifting once per week, with two deadlifts and one squat etc, with a variety of techniques like jokers, first set last and rep records.
If strength is what you’re after I highly recommend it.
how do you squat? Low bar, high bar, wide stance, narrow stance. Are you going ass to grass, do you pause your squat at the bottom. Whats your assistance look like?
I squat high bar, medium stance, below parallel with no pause. I dont bounce tho.
Besides deadlift I only do stifflegged dl and front squats. My own reasoning, leads me to believe that perhaps my quads are too weak, as I feel like I activate my ass much better. When deadlifting close to max, my quads are what feels tired the most. Hence the front squats. Hasnt helped tho…
A good approach would be to add on your non Squat 5/3/1 day some speed work. Maybe after your DLs you could choose to do some 10 sets of 3 explosive reps, with 50-60% of your TM and 60-90sec rest in between.
Are you using chucks or some kind of flat shoes ? Have you tried Weightlift shoes with elevated heels like adipowers (adidas) or romaleos (nike) ?
Does anyone have to point out the glaring/obvious?
There are hundreds of templates I wrote, you may want to do that, increase your ab/low back strength, learn how to jump and EAT. Big is big and big is strong.
I had issues with the squat for a long while and then did all sorts of dumb shit to try and get it moving and ended up doing my low back in. What i did that got it moving was -more low back and ab work - weighted walking/airdyne after every weights session 4x per week for 20-30 min - all sorts of jumping - a little bit more mobility work before every session - lowering my tm considerably on the squat and deadlift to accommadate for low back issues - periodised my 531 templates as per jims instruction. It took about 8 months maybe longer but I am now smashing pr’s with no low back issues and i thank jim for his advise. Be patient it will come.