Bullmastiff

Alex Bromley's popular intermediate program from his book, BASE STRENGTH: Program Design Blueprint.

Bullmastiff uses all 4 big movements and follows them up with a developmental variation for the opposite movement and then general bodybuilding work. The program has a base phase (9 weeks) and peak phase (9 weeks) based on a 3-week wave progression.

Overview of the weekly split

Day 1
Main lift: Squat
Variation: Deadlift variation
Accessories: Back, ham/quads, abs

Day 2
Main lift: Bench Press
Variation: Overhead Press variation
Accessories: Triceps, biceps, rear delts, rotator cuffs

Day 3
Main lift: Deadlift
Variation: Squat variation
Accessories: Back, ham/quads, abs

Day 4
Main lift: Overhead Press
Variation: Bench Press variation
Accessories: Triceps, biceps, rear delts, rotator cuffs

Mechanics of the Program

Low frequency

• One main lift per day

• Allows a lot of recovery

• Requires high volume and effort

High Volume and High Effort

• Main lift features sub-max volume followed by an AMRAP set

• Variation and accessory "volumize" with high rep work

Medium Amount of Exercise Variability

• Less variation than Conjugate, more than Texas Method

Autoregulated

• Performance on AMRAP determines weight jump next week

3 week wave structure

• Weight increases over 3 weeks

• Sets increase over 3 weeks

• Weight and volume resets every 4th week

Progression Structure

Bullmastiff operates off of a 3 week wave structure, meaning stress increases each session over a 3 week period before dropping back and building back up. The last set of the main exercise is performed for an AMRAP and that number is used to estimate a weight jump for the following week. This is a method of auto-regulation made famous by Doug Young.

To determine your weight jumps each week for the main lift, add 1% of your 1 rep max for every extra rep you did on last week's AMRAP. For example, If you are working through sets of 6 and performed 10 on the AMRAP, that is 4 extra reps so your weight jump would be 4% of your 1 rep max. If I’m operating off of a 1 rep max of 400lbs, that’s 16lbs (we can safely round down to 15) added to last week's working weight. You'll need to calculate this manually, but it's not hard. This is called autoregulation.