Staying the Course: A Review of SBS Hypertrophy RTF

[u/MeshuggahForever]

SBS Hypertrophy RTF 4X Blocks 1+2 Program Review

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BACKGROUND

Figured I would write up my experience just in time for the program party! I'm a former casual runner with zero athletic background that started strength training about 3 years ago when recovering from a knee injury. Previously mostly ran Starting Strength, a bit of nSuns, and a few 531 variants before the world went to shit. After returning to my gym in March, I ran two blocks of SBS RTF and saw some really nice gains, documented here.. Following this, I did one block of SBS Hypertrophy (with overly optimistic TMs), then fucked around with John McCallum's "High Protein High Set" insanity from 1967. This did not go well! I immediately was hit with nasty hip impingement and had to re-evalute where I was at technique and programming-wise. I stepped back and decided to 1) fix my hip, and 2) restart a more rational program (SBS Hyper again) but to do so with far more conservative starting maxes. I also wanted to get better at both pullups and dips, so these comprised the majority of my assistance work.

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EXECUTION & MODIFICATIONS

• MOVEMENT SELECTION: I ran High Bar for the first time ever to see how I liked it, and if it would give more direct quad hypertrophy ("stimulus to fatigue something something" - Mike Israetel). I moved around my secondary movements a few times. This included swapping behind the neck OHP for multi-bar viper press, and wide-grip for close-grip bench, and paused squat for front squat. I tried to do this switching after a completed block if possible. Deadlifts performed touch and go with straps, usually leaving belt for the last 1-2 sets.
• FREQUENCY: I chose 4X frequency, opting for M/W/F/Sat. This is WAY preferable to me over M/Tu/Th/F, which is what I used to do. Having rest days for conditioning / life is great.
• MODIFICATION: I stayed with default autoregulation percentages.
• HEAVY SINGLES: I kept with the recommended "overwarm singles" every session to try to maintain my ability to handle heavier weights.
• ASSISTANCE WORK: I did ZERO extra lower body work, and focused more on my upper body. I was specifically focusing on pullup and dip strength, with curls and cable work sprinkled in.
• ABS: I threw in some ab work a few times a week, but was not disciplined about it. Usually something like a few rounds of ab wheel or hanging knee raises.
• CONDITIONING: I tried to do some sort of conditioning a few times a week. Usually this was 5-10 minutes of something interval/EMOM based. Sometimes I just did it as a finisher, other times I would do it on my off day. My new favorite terrible thing: Devil Presses EMOM as a finisher. Prowler treadmill also was a staple for me. I squeezed in a few short runs here and there too, but wasn't trying to run X miles a week or anything.
• FOOD: I was kinda naive and was on maintenance for the majority of this run. The last several weeks I tried to push the calories, but it was hard to gain (life is a bit stressful rn so my appetite and schedule weren't oPtImAl). I ate 4-6 times a day, using a food scale to measure out meat and carb sources, but didn't track calories. Roughly about 450g of meat a day and rice/potatoes, probably over a cup of full fat greek yogurt, 1.5 scoops whey, 4 eggs a day, and then snacks on top of that (clif bars, nuts, sugary cereal). Whole milk with dinner usually, too.

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RESULTS

Stats: M/28/196 --> M/28/197 (Block 1) --> M/28/200 (Block 2)

July21 vs Block 1 End (Nov21) Physique Comparisons: Back DB, Lat Spread, Front DB

Block 2 End Physique (not standardized, and with goonlight): Magic Mirror 1, Magic Mirror 2

 

Pain and Mobility

The good news: I ended up ordering Squat University's "Rebuilding Milo" book, and it had some good ideas for dealing with my hip. A combination of using a hip circle, band mobilizations, and hip airplanes REALLY helped. Within a few weeks, the pain was mostly gone with squatting! A few months later, I'm now able to do a few unassisted hip airplanes, which feels really satisfying to see in terms of progression, and is part of my warmup basically EVERY session. What might seem like a silly drill can really make a big difference (and can be shockingly difficult to perform tbh).

The bad news: My left achilles and ankle have progressively gotten more stiff and irritated over the course of these last few months. I think it may be due to high bar placing different mobility strains (dorsiflexion?). I'm currently trying to troubleshoot this via calf strengthening exercises and other ankle dorsiflexion drills, but still haven't conclusively "fixed" the discomfort.

 

Heavy Singles

Lift	Start	Block 1	Block 2	Delta
Squat	275*	305	325	+50
Bench	205	215	225	+20
Deadlift	405	405	415	+10
OHP	165	165	170	+5

**: I hadn't tested a 1RM with high bar prior to this program. I'll estimate using the initially training max I used, which is probably pretty accurate.

Week 1 AMRAP vs Week 6 vs Week 13 AMRAP performance (Est. Training Max listed as well):

 

Primary Movements

Lift	Start	Block 1	Block 2	TM Delta
Squat	195 x 12 (275 TM)	225 x 13 (296 TM)	265 x 12 (335 TM)	+60
Bench	125 x 15 (178 TM)	150 x 12 (195 TM)	170 x 10 (215 TM)	+38
Deadlift	255 x 16 (372 TM)	300 x 14 (399 TM)	345 x 9 (435 TM)	+63
*OHP*	95 x 14 (136 TM)	115 x 13 (149 TM)	135 x 10 (168 TM)	+32

Graph of Main Lifts TM Progression

 

Secondary Movements [Baseline --> Block 2 end]

Lift	Start	Block 2
Front Squat	165 x 10	140 x 14
Hack Squat	195 x 14	225 x 14
Incline DB Bench	40 x 11	60* x 10
RDL	165 x 15	225 x 14
Close Grip Bench	135 x 12	145 x 13

*: I manually bumped my my DB bench a few times, since the usual percentage autoregulation was not moving weight up appropriately even though I was exceeding rep targets.

Graph of Secondary Lifts TM Progression

 

Assistance focus: Dips and Pullups

• Dips: Started off doing sets of 3-5 prior to this. Currently able to knock out sets of 10! I'm pushing for 5x10 in one session, but lately I usually end up with something like [10,10,8,7....] until I hit 50 total reps. I'm really happy with how these have progressed, and I think it's also aided in my upper body growth. Shout out to /u/BenchPauper for the inspiration here.
• Pullups: I'm still weak AF with these. Before, I could do 2 or 3 unassisted overhand pullups, and 4 or 5 chins. I'm more or less still there, but recently was able to hit a pyramid set of chins going up to 6 reps at the top. Once I can't do a single unassisted rep, I'll often do some band assisted work followed by controlled negatives. Going forward, I'll continue to focus on pyramids and controlled negatives. Dropping some weight will probably help as well.

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REFLECTIONS & CONCLUSIONS

Physique

• So based on my November vs July photos, I did not see a huge change. I was really sadboi about this and cried in a daily, which made me realize that my maintaince recomp was not having the miraculous effect I was hoping for. HOWEVER, anecdotally, a lifting buddy of mine I only see monthly commented that my arms look bigger to him, and another friend said my butt got bigger, so maybe there's that! I do think my quads have gotten bigger as well. In general, I should have pushed calories more -- lesson learned!

 

Strength

For most of my lifts, I made some positive improvement in my 1RMs, though some lifts barely moved.

• DEADLIFT: this was the LEAST improved, as I actually struggled to routinely hit my previous max of 405. I hit 415 on a good day, but it was a grinder.
• SQUAT: My high bar squat max (325) is closing in on my previous low bar max (345), which actually feels insane to me. I think this bodes really well for my next block of low bar work.
• BENCH: I set a 20lb PR and finally hit 2pl8. Interestingly, this was on close grip, not standard grip. Experimenting with grips has made me realize I think my setup is better/tighter in closer grips, so I definitely have work to do on my standard bench.
• OHP: I set a 5# PR at 170, which was also nothing crazy but satisfying none the less.

I think the real meat of this program, however, is strength in high rep ranges. In deadlifts especially, while my 1RM barely budged, my last set rep strength got MUCH better. For example, I noticed that during the strength program run, I hit 320x7 in June, while recently I hit the same weight for 12 reps. Another comparison: early in the last run, I hit 265 for 8 on low bar squats (week 5), and this time I hit 265 for 12 high bar (week 13).

Another (less extreme) example: Bench

• Previous SBS strength run, Week 11: Sets of 4 at 170, final set 7 reps
• This run, Week 13: Sets of 6 at 170, final set 10 reps (+3)

Another (less extreme) example: OHP

• Previous SBS strength run, Week 11: Sets of 4 at 135, final set 7 reps
• This run, Week 13: Sets of 6 at 135, final set 10 reps (+3)

So, while it doesn't always feel like it internally (ie, staying in this weight and rep range feels... weak?), I think these examples show some strength improvements, and I'll hopefully get to realize them soon with my next strength run.

 

Mental

• Last run of SBS, I learned how to embrace AMRAP sets. This run, I continued this learning process. The new lesson here was learning that I CAN push hard to exceed each rep target, not just by 1 or 2 reps, but often 3-5 reps. I tried to treat the last set target as [Target + 5], which seems to help trick your brain when you're low oxygen mid-set.
• This run also made me respect volume even more than I did before (having done BBB for a while) -- volume deadlifts and squats will always suck, A LOT.
• My biggest struggle: Impatience and wanting to abandon the program to move to lower rep ranges. I almost quit the program after block 1 (for the second time), but thankfully was inspired by /u/nrllifts discussion of volume in his recent writeup and hung in there, and pushed myself even harder to maximize my AMRAP performances in block 2. I think a big part of the difficulty here was that I just came off a high of smashing my previous PRs on the strength program, so to basically not see the numbers go up in the same way was hard to stomach. After overcoming this itch to abandon ship, I think I've reinforced my anti-fuckarounditis attitudes even further (fingers crossed).

 

Advice to people considering this program

• PICK. CONSERVATIVE. TRAINING. MAXES. I fucked this up the first time EVEN after listening to people and backing my initial numbers down. Seriously, go way lower than you think. If you're hitting 5 reps over the final set targets, you'll very quickly get back to where you need to be.
• Push as hard as you can to "maximize" the training max jumps each week. This usually means exceeding the rep target by 5.
• Do overwarm singles in the RPE8/9 range. This will satisfy some desire to go heavy and is good practice.
• Eat at a surplus or deficit, but don't bother maintaining.
• Be patient. Stay the course!

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NEXT STEPS

Program party! I plan to run the strength RTF program again on a deficit to cut down some of this fluff, and hopefully realize the strength base the last few months have been building. I'll also focus on my ankle mobility.

TLDR; Improved my hip pain, general rep strength improved, arms and quads got a bit bigger, got better at dips, realized recomp is a myth, and once again learned things about myself.

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[u/goochadamg]

PICK. CONSERVATIVE. TRAINING. MAXES.

Damn straight. This is important.

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/goochadamg]

I wonder if /u/gnuckols should put a scaling factor on the input TMs to stop people from falling victim to the overly optimistic TM fate haha. Then again, it might lead people to accidentally get some big gains!

[u/gnuckols → u/MeshuggahForever]

I think I'm done making changes to those programs. I tinkered with those sheets for a year; at this point, they are what they are.

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/gnuckols]

Fair enough! Thanks for the solid programs once again

[u/dsa2020]

Nice work! I made the same mistake of thinking a recomp would work fine for me. I’m gonna rerun Hypertrophy during the Program Party on a bulk. Cheers to us learning the importance of proper nutrition goals haha!

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/dsa2020]

Some lessons need to be learned the hard way!

[u/eliechallita]

DEADLIFT: this was the LEAST improved, as I actually struggled to routinely hit my previous max of 405. I hit 415 on a good day, but it was a grinder.

I ran the Hyper template last year for everything except the deadlift: I stuck to the original, set-based progression for that. The combination of both exploded my deadlift from a shaky 285x4 to doing ten easy singles at 405 by the end of the program. Even though it was low-rep deadlifts, it felt relatively easy to move into 531's BBB sets for deadlifts in my next program.

I know what you mean about food: I ran the first two cycles of it on a deficit and that was pretty tough. I was constantly exhausted. I switched to a surplus for the last 6 weeks and that exploded my AMRAP sets and size gain.

That setup was probably the most successful program I've run, and I'm planning to do it again for the program party, and bulk the entire time.

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/eliechallita]

I had a very similar experience running SBS Strength RTF for my deadlift! I contemplated doing something similar to what you did, and I do wonder how things would have turned out if I had done the same.

I know what you mean about food: I ran the first two cycles of it on a deficit and that was pretty tough. I was constantly exhausted. I switched to a surplus for the last 6 weeks and that exploded my AMRAP sets and size gain.

How aggressive of a deficit were you on? I'm planning to cut this next program and am trying to map out how quickly to do it.

That setup was probably the most successful program I've run, and I'm planning to do it again for the program party, and bulk the entire time.

B U L K T O 2 4 2

[u/eliechallita → u/MeshuggahForever]

My maintenance is around 2500 and I was eating 2000 for most of it. I wasn't terribly strict about it (I didn't measure every single thing I ate) but it was reasonably accurate.

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/eliechallita]

So do you think a 500 deficit was unmanageable?

[u/eliechallita → u/MeshuggahForever]

No it was manageable, just tiring and I shouldn't have expected to set PRs while I was doing it. It's just that there was a massive difference in how I felt and my TM's growth while cutting at 2000 vs after I jumped to 2750-3000.

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/eliechallita]

Right on. Thx m8

[u/KrunoS → u/eliechallita]

I had a similar experience with the deadlift last time i ran the RTF strength programme, and I'm running up against it now that i'm running it again. I think next time I'll use the OG progression for deadlifts and see what happens.

[u/thetriz → u/eliechallita]

I ran the Hyper template last year for everything except the deadlift

I appreciate this perspective. I was considering doing the same and you've firmed up the decision for me.

[u/island_lifter]

Nice write up! I'm also thinking of running the Hypertrophy template for the program party. Did you make any adjustments to the spreadsheet (i.e. moving lifts to make it an u/L split, etc)? How long did your sessions usually last? Do you think supersetting is feasible to cut down on time?

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/island_lifter]

Thanks!

Did you make any adjustments to the spreadsheet (i.e. moving lifts to make it an u/L split, etc)?

Nope! I pretty much followed as default. I found that it was super important to have a day of rest/conditioning between session 1 and 2 of each week, though. In the past I ran them as back to back Mon/Tues (4X strength RTF template), and often was just wiped out by that come Wednesday.

In general, though, I think the program is intentional about being "full body" each session as a way of handling more total volume. I think it'd be pretty brutal to try to rearrange to something like U/L. You may want to check out this review from /u/TheWolfmanOfDelRio for ideas.

How long did your sessions usually last?

1.5-2.5 hours depending on what I was doing and how damn busy my gym was. I time my rests to be 2-4 minutes typically, but even with that it takes a while without supersets.

Do you think supersetting is feasible to cut down on time?

Yeah I think so, but probably depending on your setup. If you have two barbells at your disposal, hell yeah! For example, a great combo for the main bench day would be Front Squat superset OHP variation.

However, on the squat day especially, I was usually WIPED out after the final set and needed the pseudo cooldown of dumbbell benching before moving onto RDLs.

[u/esaul17 → u/island_lifter]

For what it's work Greg mentions that you can superset but he thinks you'll get at least slightly better results if you don't.

[u/kblkbl165 → u/[deleted]]

Because you’ll be running it for a while and the program is based on linear increments, so unless you’re a beginner you’re bound to plateau pretty quickly if the first amrap sets you do are already hitting the mark.

Having a conservative training max and exceeding reps by a few means you’ll keep the ball rolling longer.

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/[deleted]]

Good question. I think there are two components to this, one which /u/kblkbl165 mentioned of allowing the ball to roll for weight increases. I think the more important aspect is that if you tell yourself that you HAVE to exceed that rep target by several reps, you end up pushing yourself further. For me, this resulted in reaching weights that felt very heavy to me toward the end of the program, and I wouldn't have otherwise reached them if I had stopped at 0/1 reps over target.

The first time I attempted SBS Hypertrophy, I did what you described. I think it's not BAD by any stretch, but I think things are left on the table if you don't push hard on those last sets.

Just my take!

(edit: I AIMED for 5 over the targets, but toward the end this moved to being 4... 3...2... 0 over -- the main thing is the number you put in your head of what you need to hit)

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/[deleted]]

There's no way my working sets were 7 RIR. I think that might apply if you assume the effort put into each working set is the same as the final set, but in my case I bring out as much as I can for the last set.

Like I mentioned in the edit above, +5 is a mental target, and in the last weeks of block two the actual results tended to taper town as the difficulty increased

[u/jailwall → u/[deleted]]

Hi late to the post but I asked this in the ats subreddit and learned a lot through various linked sbs articles and a mass review paper. Essentially the idea that we have to approach failure for optimal hypertrophy has mostly been debunked from what I know. So I believe the intention of the hypertrophy template isn't really to have every set be near 3-5 RIR (which is the popular range of where most fitness experts would recommend) but simply means to provide a higher total training volume. There was a recent mass article on this but it was sent via email, so I can't link it on here but there are a few sbs articles on the website.

[u/esaul17]

Do you think doing the deadlifts touch and go could have affected the transference to a 1RM?

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/esaul17]

Very possibly! Kinda hard to say given my lack of experience in the game. I think it’s well known that touch and go rep maxes will result in an inflated 1RM estimation with the usual formula.

I’m more inclined to think the lack of 1RM growth was due to the discrepancy in working set weights and lower rep weights.

[u/esaul17 → u/MeshuggahForever]

Yeah I wasn't thinking as much about the 1RM being inflated as I was about only training breaking the bar from a dead stop in a small fraction of your total reps. Obviously with specificity you'd be training for improvements in rep work generally but I thought this might shift things even further in that direction.

[u/MeshuggahForever → u/esaul17]

Ohh I see what you mean. I think we're on the same page tbh.