diff --git a/bnn/nn/mixins/variational/ffg.py b/bnn/nn/mixins/variational/ffg.py
index 7627faf..cb0ca4c 100644
--- a/bnn/nn/mixins/variational/ffg.py
+++ b/bnn/nn/mixins/variational/ffg.py
@@ -99,13 +99,13 @@ def init_from_deterministic_params(self, param_dict):
     @property
     def weight_sd(self):
         weight_sd = F.softplus(self._weight_sd)
-        return weight_sd if self.max_sd is None else weight_sd.clamp(0, self.max_sd)
+        return weight_sd.clamp(1e-5, self.max_sd) 
 
     @property
     def bias_sd(self):
         if self.has_bias:
             bias_sd = F.softplus(self._bias_sd)
-            return bias_sd if self.max_sd is None else bias_sd.clamp(0, self.max_sd)
+            return bias_sd.clamp(1e-5, self.max_sd) 
         return None
 
     @property