1 Week Blocks (15,12,10,8,5,etc)

Z

Zizou

New Member
Hey, guys!

I have already completed a 8 week cycle of HST and I am wondering about some things about Progressive Load and hope you more experienced trainees could give me the right answers. So I'm gonna quote some text from the HST Official Website:
Of course, you could adjust your reps every week (e.g. 15,12,10,8,5,etc), but this is more complicated and people might not understand.
Click to expand...

I've been searching in the internet but it seems that the standard way of training HST is the simpler 2 week block (15,10,5). The thing is I want to do it the "complicated" way, because I believe it's the original principle (or at least that's what I interpreted from Bryan's words); in hope of getting the most of HST.

The problem is that I don't know what rep range to use. Is it correct to assume HST has to be a 8 week cycle? If it is (probably not), I'd have to do 15,12,10,8,5 and 3? But I've read 3 rep sets are more for gaining strength rather than inducing hypertrophy. But lets assume this is the way, what about the last 2 block, the negative block? I can't really train the negative, so I'd have to repeat the last two week block (5,3) or just the last block (3,3).

I've come with a second option in rep range: 15,13,11,9,7,5. But I still have the question of the last block. Should I repeat 7 and 5 or just hit 5 two times more or just repeat the 5 one time making it a 7 week cycle?

I hope I dind't make it a long read because I really would like to get some answers.

Best regards!

PS: English is no my native language, so any grammatical correction is welcome.
 
You could do 15, 13, 11, etc. but I don't think it's very necessary. You're going to get a lot of overlap with the submaximal weights anyway and the difference in load between 15 reps and 13 reps may not be very large depending on the exercise you're doing. Plus, the 15 rep-mesocycle is more for your joints than anything else and isn't absolutely necessary. You're also not going to see a lot of strength gain in that rep range and a net increase in strength from cycle to cycle is required.

HST is more of a set of protocols. the 15-10-5-post 5s is a great starting template but the most important thing is following a program of progressive overload and deconditioning when you can't gain anymore strength/size/your joints hurt and you start feeling weaker and fatigued.

You could do something like 10, 5, 5, 3 or 12, 8, 5, 5 or 12, 8, 5, 3 in 2 week blocks. As long as the load is progressing from around 70%-80% to 100% of the prescribed rep range for that mesocycle (say you're on the 8-rep mesocycle), then you're good.

You could also do clusters, max-stim, etc, but if you want to keep things simplistic, the straight rep, cycle-to-cycle approach is something you can stick with for the time-being.
 
@TangoDown explained it all pretty well. @Zizou I imagine you are looking to take your workouts to the next level. If that's the case you may want to focus on the foundations such as diet, rest, and consistency. Further @Totentanz explains in the ebook that in some cases you do not need to always take a SD. If your are still making good progress you can extend your 5s or move to a lower rep range including negatives.
 
@TangoDown I think I will stick with the standard 15-10-5-5, then, cause I already began a cycle this week. Only that I will skip the 15 when not necessary. However, I am willing to try the other rep combinations you suggested. The only problem is that 3 rep weights put so much burden on my body.

@adpowah Yeah, I am willing to take it to the next level. Each day, I am more aware of the importance of diet. Actually I just read the e-book; it helped me comprehend HST better and made me more concious of the role the diet has in building muscles.

I actually don't like lifting the light weights in 15. It makes me look weak at the gym.

Thank you, guys. I really appreciate you've taken some of your time to answer my questions.
 
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