Written by Hamza J
Based on u/benjaminbk's General Gainz adaptation, built on Cody LeFever's GZCL principle, with some minor adaptations.
Twelve weeks of General Gainz with a shape borrowed from 5/3/1: eight weeks of leader work where the rep target climbs and the weight stays put, then a four week anchor where the reps fall away and singles take their place. Four days a week, four exercises a session, and a weight you choose rather than one the app calculates.
Burrito But Big is for the intermediate lifter who wants size and likes the General Gainz way of working: find a hard set, back it up, and let the numbers tell you where you are.
It suits you if:
It is not a beginner program. It never tells you what weight to use, and a lifter who cannot yet judge a hard set of six will spend the leader phase guessing.
| Phase | Weeks | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Leader 1 | 1 to 4 | The rep target climbs from 6 to 9. The weight stays where you put it |
| Leader 2 | 5 to 8 | The same climb again, from 7 to 10, from a heavier starting weight |
| Anchor | 9 to 12 | The rep target FALLS from 6 to 3, and singles fill the space behind it |
The leader builds the volume. The anchor spends it. Week 12 is a rep max with nothing behind it at all.
| Day | T1 | T2 | T3 | T3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower A | Squat | Romanian Deadlift | Bicep Curl | Reverse Fly |
| Upper A | Bench Press | Overhead Press | Pendlay Row | Lateral Raise |
| Lower B | Deadlift | Front Squat | Hanging Leg Raise | Skullcrusher |
| Upper B | Overhead Press | Close Grip Bench Press | Pullover | Bicep Curl |
Four exercises a session, 60 to 90 minutes depending on how many extension sets you take. The arm and shoulder work sitting on the lower days is deliberate: it is where the recovery is.
Every T1 and T2 week has the same shape: one find set, then four half sets.
| Week | T1 target | T1 extension | T2 target | T2 extension |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 4 × 3 | 8 | 4 × 4 |
| 2 | 7 | 4 × 4 | 9 | 4 × 5 |
| 3 | 8 | 4 × 4 | 10 | 4 × 5 |
| 4 | 9 | 4 × 5 | 11 | 4 × 6 |
| 5 | 7 | 4 × 4 | 9 | 4 × 5 |
| 6 | 8 | 4 × 4 | 10 | 4 × 5 |
| 7 | 9 | 4 × 5 | 11 | 4 × 6 |
| 8 | 10 | 4 × 5 | 12 | 4 × 6 |
The extension is always four sets at half the find set's reps, which doubles the volume of the set you just did. That is the General Gainz rule and every row above is that arithmetic.
The weight is yours. Work up to the week's rep target, record what you used, and the app puts it back next week. When the target climbs by one and the set still moves well, keep the weight. When it stops moving, take some off. That is the whole loading model.
| Week | T1 | T2 |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | 6RM + 6 × 1 | 8RM + 4 × 4 |
| 10 | 5RM + 5 × 1 | 7RM + 2 × 3, 2 × 4 |
| 11 | 4RM + 4 × 1 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| 12 | 3RM only | 5RM only |
The T1 extension turns into singles at the find set's weight, one per rep you were targeting. The T2 comes down in both reps and sets so it stops competing.
Week 12 is the test. A rep max with nothing after it on both tiers. Whatever you hit is what the next cycle starts from.
Three sets of ten or more, taken as far as your form holds, on both T3 movements, every week of the twelve.
There is no rule here and there is not meant to be one. Your rep counts climb as you get stronger, and you add weight yourself when three sets of ten stops being work.
| Mechanism | Where |
|---|---|
| The rep target climbs | Every week of the leader phase, by one |
| The weight climbs | When you decide it should, between mesocycles or within one |
| The reps fall and the singles grow | The anchor phase |
| T3 climbs by itself | Your rep counts rise; you add weight when you choose to |
Notice what is missing: there is no percentage anywhere in this program and no automatic increment. Burrito But Big schedules the SHAPE of every session for twelve weeks and leaves the load entirely to you.
That is not a gap, it is the design. The rep target is what changes, and the whole point is finding what weight meets it today.
Everything below assumes your form is already solid. Finding your working weight, adding weight, chasing reps, all of it only works if you can perform the lift correctly. While your form is not locked in, that is your only job. Make good form the goal of every set, not the weight on the bar. Drilling the movement with an empty bar beats loading plates onto a lift you cannot control yet.
To learn, don't hesitate to search Google and YouTube (there is a lot of good free material) and record yourself from the side to compare against a proper demonstration. In general, good form means a full controlled range of motion, a braced neutral spine, no bouncing or momentum, a consistent setup every rep, and ending the set when technique breaks down rather than grinding sloppy reps.
You enter one weight per exercise: the weight you can take for week one's target.
That is it. There is no max to test and no percentage to compute.
Err low on the T1 and T2. Week 1 asks for a six rep set followed by four sets of three at the same weight, and week 4 asks for a nine rep set followed by four sets of five. A weight you can only just get six reps with will not survive to week 4 at nine.
Example, squat:
You can squat 100 kg / 225 lbs for a hard, clean 6
Week 1: work up to 100 kg for 6, then 4 x 3 at 100 kg
Week 2: 100 kg for 7 if you have it, then 4 x 4
Week 4: 100 kg for 9, then 4 x 5
Week 5: put 5 kg on it and start the climb again from 7
| Tier | Warm-up |
|---|---|
| T1 | A full ramp: empty bar, then roughly 40%, 60% and 80% of the find weight |
| T2 | Two sets, since the T1 has already warmed the pattern |
| T3 | One light set, or none |
The find set is the one set of the session that decides everything else, so arriving at it cold costs you the whole extension.
| Situation | Rest |
|---|---|
| T1 find set | 3 to 3.5 minutes |
| Between T1 extension sets | 2 to 3 minutes |
| T2 find set | 2.5 minutes |
| Between T2 extension sets | 1 to 2 minutes |
| Anchor singles | 2 to 3 minutes |
| T3 | 60 seconds |
If you miss the week's rep target, take the weight off rather than repeating it. The target is the fixed thing in this program and the weight is the variable, so a missed target means the weight was wrong.
If you cannot complete the extension sets, the find set was too greedy. Take one fewer rep on the find set and complete the extension instead: the extension is where the size comes from.
If week 5 feels harder than week 4 did, you added too much between mesocycles. The second leader restarts three reps lower for a reason, so the weight jump should be small: 2.5 kg on upper body, 5 kg on lower.
If the anchor singles are grinding, cut the weight. The anchor is meant to feel sharp, not heavy.
If you miss a session, pick it up where you left off. The twelve weeks only work in order.
12 weeks at 4 sessions a week, which is 48 workouts.
Week 12 is the test. Take the numbers you hit there as the starting weights for the next cycle, take a few easy days, and run it again.
If two cycles in a row end with the same week 12 numbers, the answer is a different program rather than a third cycle.
The original post, which is worth reading before you start:
Twelve weeks of changing rep targets across sixteen slots is exactly what a notebook loses track of. Virtus Athlete writes the right target and the right extension for every week, carries your weight forward so you never have to look it up, and keeps the whole twelve weeks in one chart so week 12's test sits next to week 1's find set.
Free on iOS and Android.
Build unlimited programs, log every set, and track your progress over time. Free on iOS & Android.
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