Fresh Hex's "time to get big" Log

Fresh_Hex

New Member
Hello to all who stumble upon this log for their own reading enjoyment of yet another person using HST principles to change the way his body looks. I would like to start off by saying that I am extremely new to this workout style and have done about two weeks of research before fully jumping into this new routine. I would also like to throw a little credit out to Fausto for the endless "newbie" questions that I sent him in reference to building my routine.
I'll start off by giving off my stats, though I don't have access to a tape measure to get full measurements on my body at this time.

Stats:
Age- 22
Years lifting - 3 years
Current weight - 170 pds
Height - 6 ft

Just so people wont rape my diet plan when I post this I will say this once, I am currently deployed overseas and where I am currently at I don't have the greatest "clean" food choices so I'll have to make due with what I got.

Routine:
I'm going to be starting this routine tomorrow for 2 weeks, at which point I will be hopping on some M1T that I picked up to enhance the amount of gains I reap from this. I already know someone on here is going to bash me for this but trust me when I say I have deep knowledge of this stuff and I fully know the risks of what I am doing to myself. I have my own reasons for doing this and if you honestly must know send me a message. Lets continue shall we?

The routine is simplistic as it has a "workout A" and a "workout B" which will follow a weekly routine like this:

Monday - A
Tuesday - B
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - A
Friday - B
Saturday - light cardio
Sunday - rest

Here is the routine, again very basic and I believe I am hitting all aspects here:

Workout A
Superset w/full rest between
DB Incline Press - 5x5
Cable Seated Row 5x5
again, superset
DB shoulder Press - 5x5
Widegrip lat pulldown - 5x5
superset
BB close grip press - 5x5
High Pull - 5x5
finish it up with swiss ball crunches 3x15

Workout B

Squat - 5x5
Deadlift - 5x5
Bulgarian Split Squat -5x5
BB lunges - 5x5
finish with reverse crunches 3x15

Again this is the first routine that I have outlined and decided to run with, I really hope this is overall a good basis to add some new weight to my frame. I will also change the rep count in the weeks to come, I don't feel it necessary to list here.

Supplaments:
Muscle Juice 2544, weight gainer. I will drink 3 of these a day
Vitamen Multi-vitamin , once daily
omega-3 fishoils, 3xdaily
Hawthorn Berry, take once a day
Supreme Liver care, once a day

In two weeks I will hop on some M1T, and I am still at a debate as how I want to run this with my routine. A friend recommend a mg dosage like this for 4 weeks: 10/20/30/40. Though many I've looked at either use a 20/20/20/20 or 10/10/20/20 so they don't get any side-effects. Again this is something that I will decide when I start that. I am open to suggestions if anyone has any.

Diet:
I'm not going to lie when I say that my food choice out here is extremely poor, I'm not one of the lucky guys that gets to be around an area that has an abundance of food to eat so I make due with what I can when it is there. Keep in mind I will still get my daily three meals, decent snacks in between as well as drinking close to a gallon of water a day.

I believe I have covered the basic's within a log, if anyone has any feedback or guidance please let me know before I start this routine tomorrow

cheers,
Hex
 
Dude, as long as you aren't finding your cholesterol getting bad or blood pressure going up, then don't worry so much about "eating clean" because that phrase doesn't even mean anything anyway. Just get in the calories, plenty of protein and you'll be fine as long as you don't have like a predisposition to bad cholesterol or anything like that. I eat Double Whoppers like four or five times a week and nothing bad ever happens to me, so...

Your exercise selection is good however I would definitely lay it out differently. Looks like you are doing an upper/lower split but with those lifts that you have chosen, I would definitely go to a push/pull split or even just two fullbody routines alternated instead. 5x5 on squats and deads same day is going to kill.
 

Workout B

Squat - 5x5
Deadlift - 5x5
Bulgarian Split Squat -5x5
BB lunges - 5x5
Squats and Deads the same week can be hard. Squats and Deads in the same workout can be debilitating. I've been doing that, and even with the weeny weights I use, it begins to take its toll. You might be wise to swap either squats or deads to your A routine.
 
Alright knocked out my first "HST" workout routine today. Workout "A". I would have to say towards the very end I was suckin pretty hard!

DB incline Press - 90 pd DBs for 5x5
Cable seated Row - 140 pds for 5x5

DB Shoulder Press - 55 pd DBs for 5x5
Wide-grip lat Pulldown - 160 pds for 5x5

Close-grip BB Press - 185pds for 5x5
High Pull - 95 pds for 5x5

finished with swiss ball crunches.

Review from todays workout:

I had a lot of energy today, very excited. I got about 7 hours of sleep the night before and I'd have to say I ate pretty well, taking in food every 2-3 hours. I easily took in over 3,000 calories and came close to the 200 g protein count. I'm sure if I had to count the carb's it was easily over 300g. I also consumed 3 liters of water today and took some liver care, and GABA right before I pass out here after typing this.
The routine itself was pretty awsome, I pretty much met muscle failure at the close-grip press's. Thank god I had a partner in there with me because my arms were jell-o at the end. I didn't feel too much in my chest, I think I'm going to bump the DB's up to 100 pds for the next run. Overall I could feel every muscle in my upper body working as I pushed and pulled the weights around. I'm rather excited for tomorrow's workout. By the way, the supersetting killed the routine, I liked it a lot!

Questions for today:
I got a question for Tots and Tunnel. You guys mentioned that my leg routine would suck ass with the Squats and deadlift in a day. If so how would I split this up? I've already done workout A for today, what could I do tomorrow and the next day? I'm a little stuck on how I can divide up squatting and deadlifting throughout the week. I don't want to skip out on doing either other them because they are an extremely important lift to do if you want growth. Also Tots, my partner asked me today how a routine like this would make his body grow, especially his arm size. He has about 13" flexed if I had to guess and wants to get them up to 16" before he goes on leave over here, which will be in 4 months. Is it possible with a routine like this?

Well gentlemen I'm about to pass out, I gotta say I haven't felt like this from working out since last deployment. I'm rather excited to see what this does to my body. Take care everyone and I'm looking forward to some answers for tomorrows routine.

take care,

Fresh
 
It's not possible for anyone to get their arms from 13 inches to 16 inches in 4 months unless they start using synthol. Seriously, most drug-free individuals take at least a couple years to get to 16 from 13.

I would just change the routine to an alternating fullbody routine or else a push/pull split starting with the next workout. It won't hurt anything to switch it up now so early on. I would also drop the supersetting unless you are pressed for time. Supersetting may seem like a good idea but it can weaken you on subsequent sets. So unless you have a time limit, I recommend against supersetting.

Here is what I would do...

Workout A
Squat
Incline Press
BB close grip press
Seated Row
High Pull
Split Squat/Lunges
Crunches

Workout B
Deadlift
Widegrip lat pulldown
BB close grip press
Shoulder Press
split squat/lunges
crunches

I would also stop doing the crunches on a swiss ball. Use a decline bench or something like that and start adding some weight when you do them. This will strengthen up your core far faster than doing bodyweight crunches or situps for 15 rep sets. I would also consider getting rid of the split squats and lunges, replace with romanian deads, something similar or even leg press or leg curls.

So are you just doing the 5s portion of the typical HST routine? Or?
 
Yes currently I am doing the 5x5 routine for my workouts. Here in about two to three weeks I will be adding M1T into my supplament list. Would I get more size out of a hypertrophy workout or should I stick to a 1 muscle group a day plan for when I'm on cycle with that stuff for 4xWeeks? I'm looking to see which will give me the most size
 
1 muscle group a day is pretty much the worst way to train while taking anabolics. I would stick with what we've been talking about here while packing in the calories. You've got four weeks worth of m1t?
 
yes I have the legit kind, and its not smart to go past 4 weeks with that stuff for how much it damages the insides. The most I've used in the past which was well over two years ago was 6 weeks and I could tell it was affecting my body more than it was making it grow. I will be starting that stuff the beginning of December. I wanted to use these last two weeks of this month to get my body used to a Hypertrophy workout routine before use it. I'm about to hit the gym now and will comment with my day for today.
 
Alright boy's and girls here is today for your reading enjoyment:

I got about 8 hours of sleep, and overall today's diet was pretty well. I accomplished the usual 3,400 cal's, around 200g of protein, and to finish it up with a whopping 300g of carb's. I drank over 4 liters of water today and felt a lot better while I was working out in the gym. Today's routine was KILLER! I just wanted to try out the dead lift & squat together, just like you guys said that **** was pretty bomb. Its been over three hours since I finished my stretching in the gym and my quads are still numb. Here's the numbers:

Deadlift - 265 pds 5x5
Squat - 225 pds 5x5
Leg Press - 400pds 5x5
BB Lunge - 135pds 5x5
Decline crunches - 3x15 (body weight)

I want to point out that during the lunges my legs were honestly very hard to control, in the fact that I really couldn't feel the muscle. The last two sets were the hardest I had to push really hard to get the bar up but I pushed it to the max! The whole routine itself was pretty good but I will be changing my routine to the one Tot advised me to on thursday. I'm really looking forward to my rest day tomorrow in which I'll eat as much as I can and hopefully get a ton of REST! Haha. I say I don't feel like I get enough rest here with all the **** I got going on daily.
I will have to say I'm really motivated for Thursday's routine, this is only my second day doing Hypertrophy and I really like it, its really different.
 
You keep calling this HST, but it isn't. The HST protocol would be calling for one or two sets of fifteen at this point. What are your plans for the rest of the cycle? What set/rep scheme will you be using two weeks from now? Also, squats, leg presses, and lunges target most of the same muscle groups. I think doing all three of these in the same workout is too much. You will probably get stronger on this routine, up to a point, but I don't think you'll gain much size.

I agree with totentanz recommendation of a full-body workout and add that you should use far fewer sets. Two or three days between workouts will probably not be enough to recover from hitting the quads with fifteen sets.
 
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You keep calling this HST, but it isn't. The HST protocol would be calling for one or two sets of fifteen at this point. What are your plans for the rest of the cycle? What set/rep scheme will you be using two weeks from now? Also, squats, leg presses, and lunges target most of the same muscle groups. I think doing all three of these in the same workout is too much. You will probably get stronger on this routine, up to a point, but I don't think you'll gain much size.

I agree with totentanz recommendation of a full-body workout and add that you should use far fewer sets. Two or three days between workouts will probably not be enough to recover from hitting the quads with fifteen sets.

After the two week period of 5x5 I will be starting my cycle of M1T, in which my this point I will have a bit more knowledge within this type of training that I am doing. The current routine that I'm runnning is one that I got from a book called "The New Rules Of Lifting" in which case the author talks a lot about Hypertrophy, and throws an outline out for a basic hypertrophy routine. I've looked across many threads within this website and I've noted the rep changes. I'm still on a debate as to which rep range would be the best to use with the M1T to trigger maximum muscle growth from a 4 week cycle. At this point I'm still extremely new to "HST" and am still learning it all. This whole log and everything I am doing is learning process to formulate the perfect routine for my use with M1T. Any advice would be great thanks.
 
After the two week period of 5x5 I will be starting my cycle of M1T, in which my this point I will have a bit more knowledge within this type of training that I am doing. The current routine that I'm runnning is one that I got from a book called "The New Rules Of Lifting" in which case the author talks a lot about Hypertrophy, and throws an outline out for a basic hypertrophy routine. I've looked across many threads within this website and I've noted the rep changes. I'm still on a debate as to which rep range would be the best to use with the M1T to trigger maximum muscle growth from a 4 week cycle. At this point I'm still extremely new to "HST" and am still learning it all. This whole log and everything I am doing is learning process to formulate the perfect routine for my use with M1T. Any advice would be great thanks.

OK Cool. In my case, I find that I really start to grow toward the end of the ten's, week four of the HST cycle. That's when I make my biggest gains in muscle size. If I were interested in M1T I would probably try to time it around that. Maybe start taking it around the end of week two and hopefully extend this growth phase all the way to the end of the cycle.

I hope you know what you're doing with the M1T however, and you have your PCT all lined up.
 
I've been preloading liver support for about two weeks now. Once I hop off of it I've got Clomid and Nolva for the first two weeks, and than teder off with Nolva combined with T-Bomb II and NO2 Black to help counter what I just came off of.
Is the whole basic concept within a HST routine centered around changing up the rep ranges from 5x5, than 3x10, than 3x15? I'm going to follow Tots routine that he recommended and maybe switch a few exercises out so I'm not blowing my quads out too much.
 
No. The rep ranges are 15 reps per set for weeks 1&2, 10 for weeks 3&4, and 5 for weeks 5&6. Since most HST routines are either full-body three times per week, or a 2-day split twice a week, any more than one maybe two sets per exercise is too much.
 
Don't do 15s while on M1T. Optimally, you want to increase volume rather than load while on, and do it probably during the 10s and 5s, then when coming off drop the volume but increase the load. 5x5 technically is an HST program since it does follow the principles of progressive load, frequency, mechanical load and as long as you decondition properly (which is sort of part of 5x5...) then you are fine. But I would definitely drop down to the 10s, extend the 10s and 5s to 3 weeks each, that way when you come off and are recovering, you can increase the load beyond what you were using, since during that time you will be recovering your natural test levels and so cutting the load is definitely going to be something you want to avoid at that point. Since you are not going to be increasing the load you are using beyond what you plan out in advance, you should instead increase the volume higher than what you would be able while natural, then drop the volume when you come off. I would do 3 x 10 and 5x5 while on, then drop down to 2 or 3 sets of 5 during the last two weeks of the 5s after you've come off.

Post your RMs and I can help you layout the routine if you like.
 
After further review of articles and talking among a few members todays workout consisted of this:

Squat - 2x15 (135pds)
DeadLift - 2x15 (155pds)
DB Incline Press - 2x15 (55pd DBs)
Dips - 1x15 (BW)
Bent Over Row - 2x15 (95pds)
BB Shrugs - 2x15 (135 pds)
Military Press - 2x15 (95 pds)

I used the principles of Progressive load by starting out with lower weights than what my actual 15 rep max is. Again I based this routine off of a few samples and what a couple people mentioned to me. Is this a bit better aimed towards the principles of HST?
I know I havent typed in a full routine just yet but guys I'm beat! I feel like I'm a newbie in the gym with this type of routine lol. It kicked my ass. Any comments would be great.

goodnight!
 
Squat - 2x15 (135pds)
DeadLift - 2x15 (155pds)
DB Incline Press - 2x15 (55pd DBs)
Dips - 1x15 (BW)
Bent Over Row - 2x15 (95pds)
BB Shrugs - 2x15 (135 pds)
Military Press - 2x15 (95 pds)
Oh, yeah, I like it -- all my favorites. Though, unless you are chemically assisted, that looks more like enough for two routines.
What -- no chins?

HST principles have to do with such things as progressive mechanical load, frequent training, and occasional strategic deconditioning. You can apply HST principles to pretty much any exercise, but some -- like those on your list -- give more bang for the buck than others.
 
For some reason I decided to run with lat pulldowns instead of chinup's for some reason. As for applying the HST principles I'm looking to sharpen up my routine by the 1st of December, and at that time I will hop on the chemically assisted curve.

Tots, as requested..

15 RM:
Squat - 185 pds
Bench - 205 pds
Deadlift - 185 pds
Bent Over BB Row - 135 pds
DB Press - 80 pd DBs
BB shrug - 185 pds
Cable Row - 185 pds
Pull up - BW (still waiting on a chain belt to add on a plate to my own BW)

The first routine I did on monday I dropped the weight quite a bit, so I could do a progressive build up to the 15 RM's listed above. I'm pretty comfortable with doing a Monday-Weds-Thursday routine with it. What would you recommend?

Later on today I'm going to run with this:
Squat - 2x15 reps (145 pds)
Deadlift - 2x15 reps (165 pds)
DB Press - 2x15 reps (65 pd DB)
Dips - 1x15 reps (BW)
Pull ups - 2x15 reps (BW)
Standing military Press - 1x15 (105 pds)
Bent Over Row - 2x15 (105pds)
 
I think you'll find that you will gain strength in squats and deads pretty quickly once you get the form down. It is unusual to have such a high bench compared to your squat and dead unless you are new to them or have not mastered the form yet. (Though to be fair, I do know one guy at the gym who benches in the 400s and struggles to deadlift 315...) I would recommend using the 15s to get used to the routine then once you get to the second week of 10s, hop on the m1t. It's likely you'll be able to handle squatting and deadlifting in the same session since you aren't lifting much yet in either lift. However, next cycle you will definitely want to separate them out.

Do you have Excel or a similar program capable of opening up excel spreadsheets?
 
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