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Thread: Bfs

  1. #1
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    Default Bfs

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    Our high school uses Bigger Faster Stronger for programming for the football team. Seems other schools in our area are doing it so they jumped on board. Can anyone expain the rationale for all of the rotation of reps/sets?

    i get the idea of variation to stimulate continued adaptation, I got confused when trying this approach. I have a 13 year old who will be starting liftting soon and my thoughts are going against the flow and using SS. The novice effect being what it is, can anyone see a need for such a level of complication in programming??

  2. #2
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    I don't know much about BFS, but I do know if you do SS properly, you'll develop strength and size. BFS appears to be based around the same type of exercises SS is, so that is a plus for BFS. The "extra" exercises are not really neccessary when you're in the "novice phase".

  3. #3
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    i think it's just so that there are more ways to break records, which can help with motivation for the athletes. jim wendler uses this same rep scheme with his 5/3/1...you can see all the people on various forums who love doing this weekly rep rotation & are having success with it.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Baker View Post
    i think it's just so that there are more ways to break records, which can help with motivation for the athletes. jim wendler uses this same rep scheme with his 5/3/1...you can see all the people on various forums who love doing this weekly rep rotation & are having success with it.
    The problem I see with 5/3/1, from my reading of his e-book, is that you only progress the weight once every four weeks (or maybe it's five weeks as week four is a deload week). Great maybe for a late stage intermediate, but not for novices, unless other issues hamper recovery or something.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tim Lofton View Post
    The problem I see with 5/3/1, from my reading of his e-book, is that you only progress the weight once every four weeks (or maybe it's five weeks as week four is a deload week). Great maybe for a late stage intermediate, but not for novices, unless other issues hamper recovery or something.
    Their are lots of things you can do with the 5/3/1 template to modify it to your personal rate of recovery and adaptation. Lots of talk about "don't change" 5/3/1, and as a one size fits all program it is pretty great. It can be fine tuned though, with very few changes, to better fit an individual's needs.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by ZKP View Post
    Their are lots of things you can do with the 5/3/1 template to modify it to your personal rate of recovery and adaptation. Lots of talk about "don't change" 5/3/1, and as a one size fits all program it is pretty great. It can be fine tuned though, with very few changes, to better fit an individual's needs.
    Point taken. I haven't looked at it, or other programs much, to get creative in restructuring for a novice-style progression. I was just taking it as it's written. I would think for a HS training program, the simpler the better, as long as it's clear, teachable, and linear progression allowable.

  7. #7
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    Mr.Wendler has a new e-book out to address things like this. 5/3/1 for football and something about an angry coach....should be good. Check the Elitefts web site. He says himself in an interview that something like 5/3/1 would have just held him back in high school because he was already programing individually.....interesting.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tim Lofton View Post
    The problem I see with 5/3/1, from my reading of his e-book, is that you only progress the weight once every four weeks (or maybe it's five weeks as week four is a deload week). Great maybe for a late stage intermediate, but not for novices, unless other issues hamper recovery or something.
    i believe many football teams have been using BFS for years with much success, so something about it must be working (i'm sure most doing it started as 'novices'). you are actually trying to break a record every day of every week, whether it's weight or reps (you can rep out in the last set).

    here's a good explanation of BFS---> http://coachfred.tripod.com/bfs.html

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Baker View Post
    i believe many football teams have been using BFS for years with much success, so something about it must be working (i'm sure most doing it started as 'novices'). you are actually trying to break a record every day of every week, whether it's weight or reps (you can rep out in the last set).

    here's a good explanation of BFS---> http://coachfred.tripod.com/bfs.html

    It seems like a decent program for those that are tougher to motivate. I think you'd be holding somebody back that is more intrinsically driven.

  10. #10
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    It's a decent program. I'm sure it's changed over the past 20 years, but I used it in high school. It is a pretty fool safe program, based off you max's in each of the lifts. The only thing is it moves slow, but it keeps guys motivated as you to continually improve. I always liked it because it used the big lifts. We used bench, squat, clean, dead, and military press, usually alternating clean and dead. It worked, I still used it until a couple years ago when I started using Rips routine. We actually had a week of 5x10 that sucked. To use it the best, we usually had to back-off our max's kind of like Wendler suggests, but you catch up to what your max would be pretty quick. I feel it's a good program and it forces kids to do the work instead of telling them to to 3x5 of a maximum weight each workout. Kids usually, as a whole, don't want to work that hard each time in the weightroom.

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