4th Cycle - Advice

J

Justin

New Member
Hello everyone,

I have done a few HST cycles in the past, but have not been working out at all for the past few months. During my previous cycles, I saw a few gains, such as gaining five pounds over the entire cycle, etc. but nothing major.

I was wondering if you all would be willing to make a few recommendations, and help me set up my exercises for the cycle that I am planning to start in a few days.

My main goal is to develop as much mass as possible during the six weeks of training. Strength will definitely be a plus as well ?. I will be adjusting my diet to include 4700 calories / 250 grams of protein daily.

My current stats:
Age: 22
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 145lbs
Bicep: 12”
Chest: 37”
Quad: 17”
Calves: 13”

I definitely have an ectomorphic body type, and have a very hard time gaining and maintaining mass.

On my previous HST Cycles, I was doing the following exercises / weights, for two sets 15 reps, first workout:

Squats-125
Calf Raise -180
Bench Press – 90
Lat Pull Down – 100
Shoulder Press (Military) – 60
Preacher Curls – 35
Shrugs – 55
Tricep Push Down – 110
Cruch – 15
Leg Extension – 85
Leg Curls – 50

Any advice would definitely be appreciated, regarding the exercises, weights, etc. as well as diet. As far as supplements go, I plan to take NO-Xplode, along with my protein and multi-vitamins.

One specific question I have – I have been doing flat bench presses. Should I do incline bench instead, especially since I feel like the “top” of my pecs in underdeveloped? If so, how should I adjust the weight?

Thanks for your help in advance. If anyone wishes, I will gladly post a log of this cycle as I progress through it.
 
Is HST your first experience with weight training, or have you lifted before?

Also, how many sets are you doing, what is your diet like, and why only 6 weeks of training?
 
Add bent over or cable rows perhaps. I think 4700 calories is overload and you will end up storing more fat than you want. Shoot for 300 hundred over maint. for the first 2 weeks then go up about 150 per week until you hit the 6th week then hold. See how your weight and bf% are working out then adjust from there. In six weeks you can look to gain 9-12 lbs if you are really serious, but to be honest you are going to need at least 6 months to see some good results. Check out my results in the results thread (there are 3 total). It talks about my six months with HST giving all details. I started at 143lbs 5'11" and I ended at 172lbs with very little fat gain.
 
Obviously diet has been lacking in the past or you would have gained more, so I think eating as much as possible this cycle would be a good idea.
About the routine - you should really do at least 8 weeks and include the negatives/post-5s for maximum gains.
I would drop leg curls and leg extensions, they are basically worthless exercises in my opinion, and replace them with something more productive, like SLDLs or good mornings. Adding in bentover rows would be a good idea.
Once you get to the post-5s, I would definitely swap lat pulldowns for chinups and do negatives on chinups. You could keep lat pulldowns for a light metabolic set after your workout if you want. Most other exercises you will want to simply continue with your 5 RM for the two weeks.

You could also just keep going, instead of stopping after 8 weeks, and ride it out as long as possible. You could make some very impressive mass gains that way, especially if you keep eating as many calories as you are planning.

About the bench press thing - at your size, your pecs aren't developed enough to worry about the upper pecs being underdeveloped compared to the lower pecs, in my opinion, so I wouldn't worry about it yet. You can probably move more weight with flat bench, so I would stick to that for this cycle.

Regarding the supplements, don't take NO-xplode. That stuff doesn't do you any good for building muscle and could actually be doing a bit of harm. Protein is obviously a good one. You could consider creatine as well.
 
Hi mate,

Firstly I'm not so sure that 5lbs gain in 8 weeks is 'nothing major'. Dan (DKM1987) tells me that 0.5-1lb a week is good gaining and that anything too much above that is likely to be fat gain. If you gain 5lbs every 10 weeks (accounting for sd) then that's fitting with 0.5lbs a week and you'd gain about 2 stone per year (sorry, UK measurements!).

I'm not saying you can't do more but just putting it in perspective.

Something like 18x bodyweight (in lbs) is often advised for bulking, for hardgainers you may need a bit more but 4700 seems far too excessive as does the protein intake, most of the stuff I have read indicates that there is little benefit in going above 1g per lbs and some research indicates less may be more beneficial.

I would also throw out some of the exercises and concentrate on the big compounds movements too.

Cheers

Rob
 
Thanks for all of the advice.

Does everyone concur that I should modify my planned diet to 2610 calories and 145 grams of protein for starters?

Also, I work out alone, and can rarely get a spot....any advice on negatives?

Should I continue at 2 sets of each exercise?

Any advice on how much weight to increase for each exercise?
 
Also, I can no longer find a site with a calculator that I was using. It told you how many calories and how much protein a certain food had in it, such as egg whites, etc.

Any ideas?
 
www.fitday.com is a good one for planning your diet etc.

I would concentrate on how many reps you do per bodypart rather than sets and try and keep these the same (i.e. this will mean more sets at heavier weights).

A lot of people do 1 set at 15s, 2 sets at 10s and 3 sets at 15 so you might find that simpler.

In terms of calories, any idea how much you were eating before when you gained?

cheers

rob
 
Justin

Eating more is a good idea, make sure though that it is absolutely clean, beware of eating 4000 odd calories and letting yourself into the "bulge" world.

Check out teh link of John Berardi's E-book, use teh calculations he shows you, they are good, and his advice is also tops!

One other thing, stick to compounds mostly, don't waste time with small exercises, they are just that a waste of time.
 
2610 is maint. for you. If you are an ecto that means your thyroid is working overtime. The more you eat the more it works at speeding up your metabolism to compensate. I would start at 3000 on off days and shoot for about 3600 on on days (the extra 600 calories should be your pre and after workout shakes).

I use 2lb increments for the iso movements and about 5lbs for the compounds, but just use your judgement. Just try not to go below 60% of your rep maximum (so is your 15rm is 100 dont go under 60 on your first workout session)

I do 2 sets of 15's, if I can't get a second set in week 2 then I just do as many I can. I then do 2 sets of 10 for 2 weeks. then 3 sets of 5 for 2 weeks (every other workout I will do 2 sets and then one drop set (lower the weight and do it for 10-20 reps to get a burn in the muscle). If you can't do negs, like I can't, then do your 5rm for 2 weeks (add weight if you feel you can after a week). You can always do negatives for chin-ups of course. Then I SD for 9 days.

Hope this helps.
 
Squats
Calf Raise
Bench Press
Lat Pull Down
Shoulder Press (Military)
deadlifts or bent over rows
abs
i would stick with this and concentrate on increasing the load as the guys have said dont worry about isos... :D
 
Justin

If you are alone, you will not be able to do -ves for compounds, in which case you must stick to the 5's for an extra two weeks, what you can do here is whilst you slow down progression some, you may see how far you can raise the weight (load) maybe 3 or even 2 RM for 5 reps?

With isolations, many invite the possibility of using the free hand to accomplish the concentric part and then the negative rep is possible. Get my drift?
thumbs-up.gif


Hope this helps.
 
I do not like your routine
Much internal Rotator Work , Bench , chin , front press
No external rotators

No unliteral leg exercise

Vastus medialis is not emphasised ...

no rear delts


go to the general taining forum and look at my post ( how to construct super effectiv workouts or something like this..)

These Workout cncet has one maior goal -> to keep you health and to avoid structural and postural deficies!

After some hst cycles I have expirienced that this system can realy create imbalances because of the fast rate you gain muscle.....
 
You can also do neg's on the standing press when you workout alone.

Do push presses to lock-out the weight and then you'll be able to lower the bar.

My presses are pathetic. I maxed with only 160x5 3 weeks ago, but on neg's I did 210x5 last night.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top