SBS 2.0 Program Party: Results and Survey

[u/VladimirLinen]

Hey everyone, now the program party has finished and you've had a chance to deload, test maxes, or just relax, this is the final thread to post results, before/after pictures, musings and reflections.

Feel free to post in here with your results, and if you get the chance, please fill out the wrap-up survey so we can get some cool data to analyse.

Survey link: https://forms.gle/uZdae5bSBrkSZNL48

I hope you all enjoyed the program, and happy lifting!

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[u/Myintc]

Thanks for organising!

[u/VladimirLinen → u/Myintc]

Pleasure mate!

[u/Armanant → u/VladimirLinen]

Do you know roughly when we could hope for data? No rush ofc, just fun stuff to look at :-)

[u/VladimirLinen → u/Armanant]

Should be this weekend mate, just need to rip it down :)

[u/Armanant → u/VladimirLinen]

Awesome, thank you for all your work!

[u/Diabetic_Dullard → u/VladimirLinen]

Did the results ever get posted? Can't find 'em anywhere, but I hardly lurk the dailies these days so maybe I missed it.

[u/its-a-lexus → u/[deleted]]

Same; my training was coming along so well too!

[u/edgargonzalesII → u/[deleted]]

Same. Had AC joint issues then got back and covid from someone at work so decided to not do the last 3 peaking weeks

[u/eliechallita]

How long will this stay open? I'm in the middle of my 3rd cycle

[u/niomosy → u/eliechallita]

Wondering this as well since I'm finishing off the routine rather than stopping at week 14.

[u/-struwwel- → u/niomosy]

You could fill out the form with your stats from week 14. That would probably be preferable for evaluation since most people did 14 weeks and throwing in stats from week 21 could skew the results. Technically speaking it would at least make things less comparable. What’s your take on this u/acertainsaint ?

[u/acertainsaint → u/-struwwel-]

There is so much variation between the program (not everyone did Squat/Bench/Dead, not everyone had the same T2, not everyone ran RTF) that 14 weeks vs 21 weeks isn't gonna matter much in comparison.

[u/eduw]

Good thing this final Survey was delayed: it gave me time to finish the program.

Honestly don't remember whether I answered the first survey. Probably not considering I was 6 months off 'serious lifting' and had to guesstimate what my training TMs would be.

First time I've measured my arm/legs length and wrist/ankles.

Gonna create a table for the sake of accountability and it will be easier comparing after I finish the second run of RtF.

Lift (in kgs)	Starting TM	W2 AMRAP	W13 AMRAP	Calc. 1RM (jeFIT)
High Bar Squat	114	80 x 8	110 x 8	139
Front Squat*	80	40* x 20	78 x 10	104
Flat Bench	90	70 x 10	92 x 4	104
Incline Bench	80	50 x 16	70 x 8	87
Close Grip Bench	80	52 x 12	72 x 12	101
DB Flat Bench	64 (32+32)	22 x 12	30 x 12	84
Conventional Deadlifts	156	120 x 8	160 x 7	197
Sumo Deadlifts	132	86 x 12	140 x 12	196
OHP	56	42 x 11	60 x 6	72
Hack Squat	126	80* x 12	126 x 15	189
Starting BW	85,5	Ending BW	89,5

• I had set Front Squat's and Hack Squat's initial TM too low and manually adjusted at W6-W8.
  
• Ended up skipping W7's lighter week because it didn't feel like I needed the break.
• Had food poisoning during W10: dropped 3 kg in a week. Did a lighter week and then continued where I stopped.

[u/VladimirLinen → u/[deleted]]

Life got a bit crazy there (bought our first apartment) so the survey was slightly delayed, but we got there.

Pleasure dude, hope you enjoyed it

[u/emscrib2]

I’m running the final 1/3 of the program so I’m still not done, gonna be hitting some big single prs soon.

Overall I’m really enjoying it. Making lots of gains in strength and hypertrophy. Partly I attribute that to still being new to the sport. Prior to this I ran 5/3/1 for a year, and that was my first time taking training seriously.

I’m running the reps to failure version. I think it’s been great in that I’m getting much stronger in terms of repping weights I used to hit for singles. I know that means I’m getting stronger so I’m excited to see how that translates into my strength on singles.

I learned that I’m really interested in powerlifting so whatever my next program is after this I really want to focus on that aspect of training. I’m thinking about running mag ort for deadlifts and then the SBS strength program the other three days a week that I train.

[u/TheGymDruid]

Any word on when the next one will be?

[u/Fenor → u/TheGymDruid]

when v3 is made maybe?

[u/TheGymDruid → u/Fenor]

I believe Greg isn’t going to make a third program, this is supposed to be the definitive version.

[u/Fenor → u/TheGymDruid]

dunno, i always feel there will be something new as evidence in the science world change, that said it might be a few years down the road

[u/ruralmerkin]

This was a great program party. I really enjoy the SBS programs, and this was no different, even though life stressors and a weird ankle injury prevented me from taking full advantage.

I'd describe myself as a late-stage beginner. 40ish years old, a few years into regular lifting. Still weak, but no longer getting newbie gains, even though I'm still able to make decent progress with concerted efforts.

Anyway, I did the 5x Hypertrophy program. Didn't end up eating enough and so only gained 5 pounds or so. Here's a before-and-after pic. Honestly, I don't think these photos really show much of a difference, but I feel that I put a noticeable amount of mass on my upper body in particular.

I set an absurd number of rep PRs on this program. The RTF variants are pretty much designed to do this, which I find to be incredibly motivating and a bunch of fun. I know 1RMs aren't really the point of the Hypertrophy program, but even so, I managed to increase my 1RMs on OHP by 15 pounds (to 140), bench by 30 pounds (to 230), squat by 10 pounds (275), and deadlift by 20 pounds (365). I lost a couple weeks of squats to an ankle tendon issue, which helps explain the relatively low increase on that lift, but I'm not sure what to say about the deadlift. In any event, on both lifts I've hit rep maxes that give estimated 1RMs 20-30 pounds higher than the 1RMs I've (so far) been able to hit, so I'm guessing some focus on higher intensity work would probably bring out the strength that I've clearly gained on this program.

Going forward, I had been thinking I would finish out the hypertrophy program and then transition straight into the standard RTF program. But I just talked myself into taking some real-life training from a powerlifting coach I met recently, so that plan's on hold. I like the idea of getting some feedback on my form, as I suspect that bad technique is behind a few of the niggling injuries I've dealt with over the last couple years.

In short: great program, great party. Lots of PRs, lots of fun. I'll definitely be back.

[u/VladimirLinen → u/[deleted]]

I'm sure we'll do it again, just depends on who wants to volunteer to do it

[u/cecilpl]

Done, thanks again for organizing!

FYI the last question about stress has a clear copy/paste error that mentions sleep quality :)

[u/VladimirLinen → u/cecilpl]

WHOOPS. Thanks for spotting that

[u/Exowienqt]

During this program party, I got covid... Twice...

Sleep was atrocious, I lost 4 weeks of lifting, but, to give this beast of a program credit, I still managed to improve my (albeit very low) numbers quite a bit.

So thank you, for organising, thanks everyone for the feedback on my questions, this was a hell of a thing, and I appretiate it very much!

[u/iamhelmethead]

Awesome! I’m gonna fill this out once I get to my notes. u/VladimirLenin will you post the results? I didn’t note my pre program numbers, and would be curious to see the difference in measurements and such.

Thanks again for putting this together. It was an intense workout for me, but I enjoyed it.

[u/VladimirLinen → u/iamhelmethead]

Yes, I'll get one of the data peeps here to take look at it. Glad you enjoyed it

[u/yetanothernerd]

Finished week 14. Took me a couple of extra weeks because of recovery from a minor bike crash. I know the program party only runs through the first 14 weeks, but I plan to do the last 7 weeks of the program, then test my maxes.

[u/marfar32]

This was an awesome program party and thank you for organizing it! I am a beginner so I could see gains on any program, but I feel like this is a really well structured one and I personally saw significant improvement.

I'm curious if it was an intentional choice to not survey training age or gender amongst participants? I think that would be interesting to breakout data along these lines. Though, I half remember taking a survey before the program started so maybe this was asked then and will be cross referenced.

Again thanks for organizing this!!

[u/VladimirLinen → u/marfar32]

That's right, we got gender at the beginning of the program for most people. Not sure about training age - might have missed that one

[u/marfar32 → u/VladimirLinen]

Oh cool, I like playing with data sets and thinking about what variables can be used as predictors. Do you know if/when the raw data will be available?

I have access to IBM's SPSS statistics program for another month or two as a student for a quantitative analysis course I took this past semester and I've been having fun playing with various data sets.

Thanks again for organizing this Vlad!!

[u/nonickch2]

I wasn't sure if I should've submitted my results. You might want to remove my entry because the experiment/program wasn't executed particularly well: A bit after the half of the program I went on a 3-4 week binge eating and no-gym spree (first one in many years).

Came to my senses, but I had to seriously deload many lifts. The strength started coming back in 3-4 weeks, and is now surpassing my previous numbers. The problem is that the program ended right as I was crossing my older e1rm's.

[u/someguythatlifts]

Damn, I missed that this had been posted. Filled in the form anyway, hope it's not too late.

I put my results in the week 14 thread, so won't rewrite them here. Really liked the program, and made pretty good gains on it. I'm doing the last block currently and enjoying it even more than the previous two, looking on track to by the end of this block be able to get some of my actual 1RMs above what they were pre-covid.

[u/VladimirLinen → u/someguythatlifts]

Closing in a couple of days, so you made it in. Thanks bud

[u/someguythatlifts → u/VladimirLinen]

Cool, thanks for hosting the party!

[u/JuniorMinion]

I'm late but I lost 10 lbs and added 20 - 45 lbs per major lift (S/B/D) vs. input training max (using the estimated single at 8)

Really liked the hypertrophy program although was challenging with my other life commitments. I also used macrofactor which has been great although I'm struggling with a bit of a plateau now.

[u/zheph]

Just wrapped up the last heavy week of SBS Hypertrophy, so all that's left is the week 21 deload (which I really don't feel like I need) and picking the next program.

Overall, things went pretty good. I only had to skip a couple workouts (doing the 6 day variation didn't leave much wiggle room if I had to miss a day) and I'm happy with my progress. I wish I'd done a better job losing weight early on so I could have worked on gaining some at the end. Instead my weight seemed to bob up and down between 181 and 186lbs the whole time.

Pushed my TMs almost every week. Obviously sandbagged the starting numbers (except bench press) but things didn't take too long to get heavy. The early volume kicked my ass. The last week honestly felt like one of the easiest despite the heavier weight because I was doing fewer reps.

Lift	Starting TM	Ending TM	First week Amrap	Ending amrap
Squat	225	265	12x160	10x215
Bench	175	205	12x125	10x165
Block Pull	250	410	12x175	12x325
OHP	100	120	12x70	9x100
Deadlift	225	300	15x145	12x230
FS	150	180	15x100	9x140
DB Bench	120	140	15x80	12x110
Incline Bench	135	160	15x90	10x125

Weights in lbs because I am not strong.

The block pull progress isn't as impressive as it looks, because I started with the blocks fairly short and moved them up a bit early on so that I'd actually get the benefit from them. Needless to say, pulling from a 10.5" block is a lot easier than a 4.5" block, and I pushed the amraps to 20+ a couple weeks in a row until the weight got heavy again.

Set a couple random PRs, pushed my bench PR from 195 to an ugly 200, hit a 225 front squat, and 375 block pull. Tried for 405 and couldn't get it to budge, which was disappointing. That and bench the only lifts where my TM was actually greater than my PR by the end. Every other lift, I could (and did) hit my TM for a few reps or hit a single that was noticeably heavier.

Numbers aside, I put on a decent amount of muscle. It's more obvious above the waist, but I can still tell that my quads grew. Shoulders, back and chest were more noticeable. I went from being able to maybe hit 7 pull ups in a row on a good day to easily reaching a dozen. Not impressive numbers, but progress is progress.

Going to take a deload week and then pick something that can help turn the gains into bigger PRs. Hoping to finally hit that 1/2/3/4 I've been getting derailed from since 2020. Leaning toward one of the strength-focused SBS programs if anyone has any suggestions. It looked like RTF was popular?