Boring But Big (5/3/1 BBB)

What is Boring But Big?

Boring But Big is Jim Wendler’s best-known 5/3/1 assistance template, and for most lifters it is the first thing they bolt on once the base program starts to feel too light. The main work is untouched - the same four-week wave calculated off your Training Max - and then you follow it with five sets of ten on a single lift at 50–60% of that same Training Max.

The name is the whole pitch. There is nothing clever in it: same lift, same weight, five sets of ten, week after week, until you are visibly bigger. The base 5/3/1 guide covers the Training Max and the four-week wave in depth; this page is about the 5×10 layered on top of it.

The 5×10

After your 5/3/1 sets you strip the bar to 50–60% of your Training Max and do five sets of ten. Since the Training Max is already about 90% of a true single, that is roughly 45–54% of your actual max - no individual rep should ever feel heavy. The difficulty is entirely cumulative and it usually arrives somewhere in set three.

Keep rest between the BBB sets short, in the 60–90 second range. Long rests turn a hypertrophy and work-capacity stimulus into fifty easy reps spread over forty minutes. The sets are meant to be unbroken: if you are pausing mid-set to finish ten, the percentage is too high for you right now.

The three-month progression

The classic BBB block runs three cycles and steps the 5×10 percentage up each time: 50% of Training Max in the first month, 60% in the second, 70% in the third. Your Training Max is still climbing by 5 lb upper and 10 lb lower every cycle, so the bar weight on the 5×10 rises twice over - once from the percentage, once from the higher TM underneath it.

Month three at 70% is genuinely hard, and Wendler has been clear that most lifters have no business living there. If 5×10 at 70% starts eating your main work, back down to 60% and stay there indefinitely. The 5/3/1 sets are what drive strength; the moment the assistance compromises them, the template has stopped doing its job.

Same lift or opposite lift

There are two standard pairings. In the same-lift version you squat 5/3/1 and then squat 5×10, press and then press 5×10, and so on down the four days. It is the most specific option and it builds the most skill on the lift, at the cost of being far and away the more punishing of the two.

In the opposite-lift version you pair movements across: 5/3/1 press followed by 5×10 bench, 5/3/1 bench followed by 5×10 press, 5/3/1 deadlift followed by 5×10 squat, 5/3/1 squat followed by 5×10 deadlift. It spreads fatigue between antagonists and is usually the kinder choice, though fifty squats after heavy deadlifts is its own particular experience.

Whichever you pick, keep the rest of your assistance minimal - chins, dips, rows, ab work, somewhere in the 50–100 total-rep range per category. The 5×10 already is the volume.

What it costs you

BBB has a reputation for demanding food, and the reputation is earned. Fifty extra reps on your biggest lifts four days a week is a real caloric and recovery bill, and lifters who run it in an aggressive deficit generally watch the main work slide backwards within a cycle or two.

Sleep and Training Max discipline are the other two levers. If the AMRAP reps on your 5/3/1 top sets are shrinking week over week, the fix is almost never to push harder - it is a lower BBB percentage, a lower Training Max, or more food.

Who it’s for

BBB suits the intermediate lifter already running 5/3/1 who wants size alongside strength and has the recovery capacity and appetite to pay for it. It is a particularly good fit for anyone who arrived from a low-volume novice program and is visibly under-muscled for the numbers they lift.

It is a poor choice while dieting hard, during meet prep where the volume competes with peaking work, and for anyone brand new to 5/3/1 who has not yet run a few plain cycles and learned where their Training Max belongs. If you have never run base 5/3/1, start there and add BBB afterwards.

Strengths & trade-offs

Strengths: brutally simple, adds real muscle, and leaves the proven 5/3/1 strength engine completely intact. The submaximal loading means technique holds up across all fifty reps instead of degrading, and the three-cycle block has a clear start and finish rather than running forever.

Trade-offs: it is monotonous by design, the food and sleep demand is high, and it is easy to set the percentage too aggressively and quietly sabotage the main work you came for. Sessions also run long once you stack warm-ups, 5/3/1 sets, 5×10 and assistance into one day.

How to run it

Set your Training Maxes as you would for base 5/3/1 - 85–90% of a genuine current single - and round down. Pick a pairing before you start, same-lift or opposite-lift, and leave it alone for the whole block. Start the 5×10 at 50%; almost nobody regrets starting at 50%.

Run three cycles, bumping the Training Max by 5 lb upper and 10 lb lower each time, and step the BBB percentage up only if the previous cycle went cleanly. Keep the extra assistance light, eat accordingly, and when the block ends switch to a lower-volume template such as First Set Last for a cycle before coming back to it.

The spreadsheet

Browse the full program below, or open it in Google Sheets to make your own copy and plug in your numbers.

Spreadsheet via LiftVault. If the preview doesn’t load, use “Open in Google Sheets”.

Equipment

This is a barbell program - you don’t need much, but a few pieces make it run smoothly.

Lifting Belt

Gives your core something to brace against, adding stability and lower-back support on heavy squats and deadlifts.

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Wrist Wraps

Keep the wrist stacked under the bar on heavy bench and overhead pressing, so the joint doesn’t bend back under load.

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Knee Sleeves

Add warmth and a little support to the knees, plus a small rebound out of the bottom of the squat.

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Lifting Straps

Secure your grip so heavy pulling and deadlift volume isn’t cut short by your hands giving out first.

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Learn the lifts

New to any of the movements in this program? Our lift guides break down technique, cues and the common mistakes to avoid.