2 Year Break

T

torube1138

New Member
I am getting back to lifting after a 2 year break and need some help with with my program. I am only doing the same 4 exercises I used to use on HST: Deadlifts, overhead press, hammer curls, and calf raises. I also have my diet completely under control. Where I need help is with programming.

I used to base my rep maxes off of a calculated 1rm. So say at the end of one cycle I could do 300 pound calf raises on the leg press machine I would use a calculator to get a theoretical 1rm then use 65% of that number for 15rm. 75% for 10rm, and 85% for 5rm, plug those numbers into the calculator on the hst site and set the increase on deadlifts by 10 and everything else by 5. Someone please let me know if that is wrong or if there is a better way.

I was also never to sure what the best option would be after the 5's as the ebook gave so many options. Any help here is appreciated.

I also wasn't sure what the best amount of time to be used during an SD would be, if someone could answer that as well that would be awesome.

What I would like to spend the most time talking about is strength. I want to achieve the maximum amount of hypertrophy possible but the strength gains on hst seem rather slow. I just read in another thread that someone who has been doing this for 8 months only increased their 5rm bench from 140 to 190, much slower than many other strength specific programs. What I am wondering is, is there a way to keep hypertrophy at a maximum while also getting better strength increases?

I have seen some people suggest that daily undulating periodization fits all of the hst principles but others have argued against it. Does anyone have any solid evidence that it would work better or worse? If it could be better then how would the program be set up using the 4 exercises I listed? Where would the weights start and end?Also how would this affect the amount of time between SDs?

Thanks everyone for helping!
 
@torube1138 - welcome back to the world of HST.

1. Only 4 exercises with no bench or squats, my preference is all compounds, currently have 3 routines - A is flat bench, bent over rows, military press and squats - B is dips, landmine press, hack squats and deadlifts - C is incline bench, landmine rows, behind the neck press and front squats and calf raises in all routines.

2. I see no problem with how you work out each rep max as this is similar to how I do it, would just say that 15rm for me is 67.5% of 1rm, 10rm is 77.5% and 5rm between 87.5 and 89%.

3. I train on my own at home so just tend to keep pushing the 5s or go for triples etc, if you have a training partner then go for negatives.

4. SD should last a minimum of 9 days

5. HST is for hypertrophy not strength, an increase of over 35% isn't that bad.

6. Undulating periodisation, I will leave that for others to debate.
 
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I agree with @mickc1965, so I will just add a bit of my experiences.

4. For SDs I just go from my last Friday, skip a whole week and then start on Monday, this gives you 10 days and you start your cycle at the same weekday.

5/6. I am taking my time thinking thru DUP and HST, here's my current thoughts:
  • I'd do each of the 4 lifts you mentioned every workout session in the order you mentioned them (or move calves to right after deadlifts)
  • Still start out with the 15s to get the benefits of needing a small stimulus to incur growth after SD, continue that for 1 or two weeks
  • From there move to your DUP program for weeks 2/3 to 7 where you are using a progressive load.
  • So if you are using reps 15, 10, 5 as your Hypertrophy, Strength, Power each time you do a Hypertrophy day you are increasing the weight from the previous Hypertrophy session (the same for Strength and Power)
  • Decide the ratio of Hypertrophy/Strength/Power sessions ahead of time rather than whatever you feel like that day
  • If you really want to stick the principles of HST then you should have more hypertrophy sessions at the beginning of the cycle and more power at the end.
  • In week 8 you will want to focus on your lowest volume but highest intensity sets here. If you want to peak to 1rm max ranges you will probably take 3-5 days off (or light rehab work) and then come in and work up to a 1rm and take an SD after that. (building to these higher intensities are pretty similar to negatives)
Like I said I am still just learning about DUP, so here are some resources for DUP in case I am completely wrong.
http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6817&context=etd
 
using a hundred pounds as a 1rm for a single exercise for a classic hst you would go
week 1: mon 40x15 wed 45x15 fri 50x15
week 2: mon 55x15 wed 60x15 fri 65x15
week 3: mon 50x10 wed 55x10 fri 60x10
week 4: mon 65x10 wed 70x10 fri 75x10
week 5: mon 60x5 wed 65x5 fri 70x5
week 6: mon 75x5 wed 80x5 fri 85x5

but my *guess* in terms of how you would set up hst using dup would be

week 1: mon 40x15 wed 50x10 fri 60x5
week 2: mon 45x15 wed 55x10 fri 65x5
week 3: mon 50x15 wed 60x10 fri 70x5
week 4: mon 55x15 wed 65x10 fri 75x5
week 5: mon 60x15 wed 70x10 fri 80x5
week 6: mon 65x15 wed 75x10 fri 85x5

would that actually fit the hst principles or not? would that be undoing the sd? any other potential downsides?

this is using the standards I came up with being 65 75 and 85 percent, but another thing I am curious about is should we base these percentages (for either of these workout plans) off of a 1rm we already achieved or the 1rm we would actually be working toward during the cycle since we start so low?

another thing to think about is this example is only using one exercise, but lets say I had 3 exercises to keep things simple, rather than having my monday be 15s for all three exercises should it be varied so that monday is 15 on exercise a, 10s for exercise b, and 5s for exercise c, and rotate throughout the week wed being 10a, 5b, 15c and friday being 5a, 15b, and 10c this way each day that we workout we are doing 15s on only one exercise 10s on only one and 5s on only one that way we aren't overloading our cns by doing heavy 5s on all 3 exercises on the same day?

Also using the dup template above what if I added in a 4th day per week (not really per actual calendar week as I always do every other day for lifting regardless of how that fits on a calendar) and on this 4th day I did a heavy overload day, stuff like ultra heavy negatives and static holds close to lockout or sticking points, would that screw up the program in any way?

aaaand one more thing haha instead of doing it as 2 sets of 15 and 2 sets of 10 could I just keep the rep totals the same and do however many reps I can in the first set and just make up the rest in the second? example being the first day above its 40 pounds for 2 sets of 15 reps well maybe if I tried I can get 19 reps the first set so can I do 40x19 followed by 40x11? would this be better, worse, or no big difference?

thanks again everybody for your input I really appreciate it!
 
If you do DUP, you are obliterating the benefit of SD (other than joint friendly aspects of it) and not doing HST.

Not to say your program is bad per se, but it won't be HST.
 
I do 6 exercises per day using DUP covering my total body. I use SD. I change exercises using an A/B system. I only use 8 or 12 reps, 8 for A and 12 for B. I increase the load each week. I employ every principle of HST. I am an HSTer.
 
Well then @Old and Grey do you feel you have better strength gains because of it? Do you think the hypertrophy is lacking compared to the standard format? Any other pros or cons you have noticed? Aaaaand could you maybe post a sample cycle or portion of it so I could get a better understanding of what you do? Thanks a lot for commenting its awesome to have some input from someone who has actually done this!
 
PM me your email and I will send you a copy of my program.

Hypertrophy is definitely better, but I am pretty advanced and using multiple myo sets/reps on every exercise. Not a program for beginners. The more advanced you are, the more stimulus you need.

Seeing some strength gains but at my stage there is only so much that can be had without massive assistance. In addition, super strength is not my goal. I would be rather be balanced.
 
Well that just answered it for me, I will try some tinkering with the percentages I base things off of and maybe a few other little tricks to try to get some extra strength gains after the 5s and just try to be satisfied with what strength I end up with from following the standard program. Thanks!
 
Old and Grey said:
I do 6 exercises per day using DUP covering my total body. I use SD. I change exercises using an A/B system. I only use 8 or 12 reps, 8 for A and 12 for B. I increase the load each week. I employ every principle of HST. I am an HSTer.
Click to expand...

If you're exposing your muscles to the "5s" from start to finish per cycle, then you're basically just doing "heavy HST" with some metabolic work thrown in (the 15s and 10s that you do, or in your case 12s).

You won't get the potential muscle gains from the 15s and 10s load-ranges if you're doing 5s at the same time.


To elaborate further by way of example, let's say you're in week 2 of the 15s and you do a workout of 5s, then according to Bryan, the 15s and 10s are no longer going to give you hypertrophy because the muscles and connective tissue will have adapted to the 5s load exposure and the 15s and 10s are no longer able to produce the microdamage required to stimulate muscle growth (adaptation).
 
I actually prefer a micro-periodization setup including 15's 10's & 5's (or 12's 8's & 4's) in the same week. I think the metabolic work of the 15's and 10's is invaluable. You can produce some pretty good growth just by adjusting your volume over the course of a few weeks. I know most riding the HST train don't believe volume matters all that much for growth, but my experience is that it does...at least for me.
 
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I think volume matters more as your progress and become more advanced. I've added 40kgs to my bench in less than a year doing on average about 8-12 reps per session, 2-3 times a week. The specific increase of course isn't necessary typical, but the volume to achieve it can be minimal. I've also moved up two shirt sizes due to upper back and chest gains in that time. I literally have had to buy a new wardrobe.

I think the metabolic work is extremely important for bulking. When cutting, I think it's not a lot of use unless you're trying to push yourself into ketosis quickly. I suppose it's a good addition to a 'slow bulk' to attempt optimal partitioning - certainly can't hurt.

Having said that, if you're 5s and the metabolic ranges at the same time (same weeks etc.), those 15s and 10s aren't going to elicit the microdamage for a growth response. It's the 5s doing that. You've basically leapfrogged whatever you may have gotten from the 15s and 10s. I'm not saying that's good or bad, just that the progression of 5s is what will drive your hypertrophy response, not the 15s and 10s.
 
I do not do 15's, 10,s or 5's. I only do 12's and 8's. 5's at my age are an invitation to injury. If I were younger I certainly would be doing them though. I think "effective" volume is very important as you advance. I do not believe that "total" volume is productive and, in fact, is counter productive to bulking. I have found that the best way for an advanced lifter to grow is to do as much effective volume as possible but keeping total volume as low as you can so as not to waste calories on reps that do nothing for hypertrophy. There are many ways to accomplish this. My chosen method is myo sets/reps with minimal rest time. Beginners should stick to vanilla HST routines.
 
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