Written by Hamza J
Based on Cody LeFever's General Gainz Body Building post, with some minor adaptations.
The General Gainz framework pointed at size instead of strength. It deletes the heavy tier entirely, splits the week by body part, and spends everything it saved on volume: eight exercises a day, run as supersets, at 139 sets a week. It is what the author ran himself during a year in which he put on 21 lbs at roughly 3% more bodyfat.
GGBB is for the intermediate to advanced lifter whose goal is size and who has the recovery to spend.
It suits you if:
It does not suit someone chasing a squat, bench and deadlift total. Nothing here goes heavier than a six rep max, and that is not an oversight.
| General Gainz | GGBB | |
|---|---|---|
| Split | Upper/lower by main lift | Body part |
| T1 (heavy) | One a day, 3 to 6 reps | None at all |
| T2 | One a day | Three a day |
| T3 | Two a day | Five a day |
| Structure | Straight sets | T2/T3 supersets |
| Weekly sets | ~50 | 139 |
Deleting T1 is the whole idea. The heavy tier is where strength comes from and where most of the fatigue comes from too. GGBB spends that recovery on three more T2s and three more T3s instead.
| Day | Body Part |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Legs and Abs |
| Day 2 | Shoulders |
| Day 3 | Back |
| Day 4 | Arms |
Each day is eight exercises arranged as four supersets: a T2 paired with a T3, four times. You rest about ten seconds between the T2 and its T3, then take the full rest before the next pair.
That pairing is why the sessions fit in ninety minutes at all. Doing them as straight sets adds half an hour.
| Exercise | Tier | Sets × Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Safety Squat Bar Squat | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Ab Wheel | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Romanian Deadlift | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Cable Crunch | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Leg Press | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Seated Leg Curl | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Standing Calf Raise | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Cable Twist | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Exercise | Tier | Sets × Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Behind The Neck Press | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Reverse Fly | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Incline Bench Press | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Lateral Raise (cable) | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Chest Dip | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Front Raise | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Push Up | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Lateral Raise (dumbbell) | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
Two lateral raise variations in one session is not a mistake. Side delts are the point of this day.
| Exercise | Tier | Sets × Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Clean | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Pull Up | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Bent Over Row | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Lat Pulldown | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Seated Row | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Press | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| One Arm Row | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Shrug | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Exercise | Tier | Sets × Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Bicep Curl (EZ bar) | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Triceps Pushdown | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Triceps Extension (dumbbell) | T2 | 6RM + 4 × 3 |
| Bicep Curl (cable) | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Bicep Curl (band) | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Triceps Extension (band) | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Hammer Curl | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
| Skullcrusher | T3 | 4 × 15-20 |
Three biceps and three triceps movements plus a T2 for each. This is the day the program exists for.
10 reps on the find set -> 4 × 5 after it
6 reps on the find set -> 4 × 3 after it
The weight moves when you reach 10 reps on the find set with every extension set completed. Add 5 kg / 10 lbs and drop back to a 6 rep target.
One set of 15 to 20, then three more at the same weight, each taken as far as your form holds.
The weight moves when you actually PERFORM 20 or more on every set. Not when you are prescribed twenty, when you do twenty. Add 2.5 kg / 5 lbs.
Falling short on the third and fourth set is expected and is not a failure. That is what the volume is for.
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.
General Gainz names a weight by the rep max it represents rather than by a percentage, so you enter weights directly.
For a T2, enter the weight you can take for 6 clean reps. Not your best six, a six you are sure of.
For a T3, enter the weight you can take for 15 clean reps.
If you have to guess, guess low on both. Every T2 in this program has four extension sets behind the find set, and a weight that only just gives you six reps gives you nothing afterwards.
| Tier | Warm-up |
|---|---|
| The first T2 of the session | 2 light sets |
| Later T2s | 1 light set, since the pattern is warm |
| T3 | None, the first set is at 15 to 20 reps |
Days with a barbell T2 in a new pattern, the clean on back day above all, need a real ramp. Everything else in this program is at a rep count that warms itself.
| Situation | Rest |
|---|---|
| Between a T2 and its paired T3 | 10 seconds |
| After the T3, before the next pair | 2 minutes |
| Between T2 extension sets | 1 to 2 minutes |
The ten seconds is the point of the superset. The T2 and the T3 in a pair do not compete with each other, so pairing them buys density rather than costing performance.
139 sets a week is a lot and the author says so himself. Start conservatively and add volume over time:
The T3 tier is the cheapest thing to remove and the first thing to go. Do not cut the T2 extension sets to save time, because they are what makes the T2 worth doing.
If the third and fourth T3 sets are collapsing to single figures, the weight is too heavy for the tier. Cut it 10%.
If you cannot finish the T2 extension sets, take one fewer rep on the find set and complete the extension instead.
If you are still sore from the last session, cut the last T3 pair rather than skipping the day.
If your arms stop growing, that is not this program's failure mode. It has six direct arm exercises. Look at food and sleep.
There is no block length and no scheduled deload. GGBB runs until it stops working.
Take a light week when several exercises stall at once: same sessions, two thirds of the weight, nothing near failure. Most people run a size phase like this for eight to sixteen weeks before moving back to something with a heavy tier in it.
The original post, which you should read before running it:
Thirty two exercises across four days, each with its own find and extend cycle or its own max rep target, is more than a notebook holds. Virtus Athlete writes the right number of extension sets for what you actually did, tracks whether today is a hold or a push, and moves each T3 the moment you genuinely perform twenty on every set.
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