678 reviews for Bullmastiff
Bullmastiff is 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.
Read more about the program below for an overview and progression guidelines.
David H.
Man, 243 weeks complete
2 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
More than expected muscle gains
Enjoyed the rep ranges. Not a bunch of volume more strictly focused on raw strength building. You get tired by giving all your effort instead of doing 1000 reps of volume then being tired by exhaustion
G W.
Woman, 257 weeks complete
2 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
Great programme for anyone who has grown out of their "newbie phase" and ready for a challenge.
carter B.
Man, 195 weeks complete
7 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
Bench press went from 205 to 275 within a few weeks. Not even joking
Jesse Yoza
Man, 4017 weeks complete
8 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
I switched to this from 531 best decision I ever made a very intelligent program for long time lifters.
W_Szon
Man, 2515 weeks complete
2 years of prior experience
As expected strength gains
Less than expected muscle gains
The program starts off great. The volume is manageable, the gains were noticeable. However the last few weeks the workload was a bit too little. The sessions felt too easy. But that is perhaps due to me not pushing enough or I needed a different type of stimulus rather than 1rep maxing
Niklas Rydberg Pekkari
Man, 394 weeks complete
2 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
Great progression scheme for main lifts and variations. Absolute top tier. No need to mess with it. Accessories is a different story. So long as the exercise in question targets the intended muscle (group) and the volume does not interfere with the mains or variations, replacing them according to personal preference should be fine. I swapped cable crunch for anti-rotational work, Wednesday's db curls for behind-the-hip cable curls, and added narrow grip pull ups on Mondays to complete the back work of the day while using them as a developing exercise for Friday's pull ups; my replacement for Bromley's original lat pulldowns. For funsies I follow these with dead hangs. Note that these changes are not necessarily improvements of the programme as such -- they just make the accessory work more fun for me personally.
Bongani Khoza
Man, 397 weeks complete
3 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
More than expected muscle gains
Strength is increasing faster than expected. I'm impressed. Feeling good. My overall appearance is slowly changing. Haven't taken any measurements but I can see the slight changes in physique. Body fat is coming down as my strength goes up, which is a little weird.
Elizabeth S.
Woman9 weeks complete
4 years of prior experience
As expected strength gains
Less than expected muscle gains
Volume is significant and my personal recovery was poor so overall intensity diminished as I progressed through the programming.
Jesse S.
Man, 335 weeks complete
8 years of prior experience
Less than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
The only negative thing to say about this program is as a new lifter or coming back from a large lay off the quick adaptation makes it so you're doing sets of 20+ for a lot of it which I hated, but pushing through and each time I repeat the program the 1rm calculations get more dialed in as the adaptation rate slows down
Hermand J.
Man, 239 weeks complete
7 years of prior experience
As expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
Not for the faint or harte