BenReffell
New Member
(Agon: from Latin meaning combined) {thanks online Latin translation site!!!}
Thought 1 or 2 of you might be interested in what I've been doing recently, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if some of you are already doing it, it seems like a natural progression if you have added Myo-Reps to your HST. It produced great results for me on my last cycle. I'd like to think it combines the best of HST, MS & MR. Or you may just want to use it for a bit of a change.
OK it's a bit cheeky to give what I've been doing a name but at least people will know what it is we are talking about. (all the obvious names seem to have been used already, hence Agon)
Let me be CLEAR here, there are no original ideas here it's just parts of HST, Max-Stim & Myo-Reps, DC etc rolled into one, Bryan, Dan & Borge etc. have done the hard work.
I've ended up doing this more-or-less by accident as I decided to include Myo-reps when I began the 10's, mostly in an attempt to shorten the time needed for my workouts. However it seemed to evolve naturally into something a little different from anything I've seen mentioned in one training method. It's built around the HST framework, uses Myo-Reps to (hopefully) increase rates of muscle growth and then uses Max-Stim to extend the cycle by managing fatigue. There is not really a clear change from one to the other it gradually morphs from one method to the other.
Below I use 25reps to illustrate what I did as I have been doing a “Simplify & Win” type workout recently, largely to save time. But one of the main reasons I chose the reduced set of exercises as in “simplify & win” is that it allows you to follow the Myo-Rep recommendations of doing one working set of 25 Myo-reps for each muscle. I believe it will mean your muscles spend more time in the zone which will cause more growth than if you did 2 sets of 15 Myo-reps, though it'll be marginal at best I suspect (doing 2 sets of 15 is fine once the weights get heavier)
Note: If you decide to do the full “vanilla” HST program or are hitting some muscles more than once per session you should do a total of 15reps for each set during 10's and 5's for each exercise so that each muscle is still getting about the same exposure.
SD
As normal
15's
Do these as normal.
10's
At the beginning of your new cycle simply use your weights for the 10's increasing as you normally would to give you your target weights for each training day.
Now instead of doing your normal 2 sets (or however many you do) do one set using Myo-reps. That means the first 10reps are done as normal and the rest as Myo-reps (MR) to make total of 25reps (assuming 1 exercise per muscle group) for your single Myo-Rep set.
Refer to the Myo-reps threads i.e. The complete Borge Fabralli (or the Myo-Reps website using Google translate) if you need more info on how to do Myo-reps.
Your first session of “10's” might look something like this
10 +7 +6 +2 = 25reps in total
Or
10 +7 +5 +3 = 25reps in total
(Note: take a shorter rest before the final reps if they are going to be a big drop (as in the first example) in reps as compared to the previous rep so that you almost hit failure on the final rep, the 25th)
5's
Again you simply use the target weights that you would have calculate at the start of your new HST cycle for each training day of the 5's. Or you can simply take the weight from your last “10's” session, increase it by your normal amount and do 25reps, this is what actually I did. You may get a better progression from "10's" to "5's" this way e.g. your first set might look something like this 8 +6 +5 +4 +2
With Myo-Reps you would normally reduce the number of reps with the heavier weights e.g. from 25 to 15, but by applying Max-Stim principles you can keep reps to 25 per set. Your Myo-Reps will simply drop down naturally until you hit singles but instead of stopping at around 15 you continue with single reps Max-Stim style until you've done 25 in total. You are therefore switching from using fatigue to signal muscle growth (Myo-Reps) to managing fatigue with Max-Stim. Your set might look something like this
5 +4 +3 +3 +2 +2 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1
You would extend the 5's as far as you can (after your 2wks of 5's) until your set is all or almost all Max-Stim e.g.
3 +2 +2 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 (Total = 25reps)
Alternative:
You might want to use more weights than you might normally do for HST when doing them with Myo-Reps e.g. use the weights calculated for your second weeks of both the 10's & 5's but do each weight twice as with Max-Stim.
P.S. Don't forget to warm up properly by doing enough warm up sets for each exercise for both the so called “10's” & “5's” before doing your one working set using myo-reps.
Thought 1 or 2 of you might be interested in what I've been doing recently, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if some of you are already doing it, it seems like a natural progression if you have added Myo-Reps to your HST. It produced great results for me on my last cycle. I'd like to think it combines the best of HST, MS & MR. Or you may just want to use it for a bit of a change.
OK it's a bit cheeky to give what I've been doing a name but at least people will know what it is we are talking about. (all the obvious names seem to have been used already, hence Agon)
Let me be CLEAR here, there are no original ideas here it's just parts of HST, Max-Stim & Myo-Reps, DC etc rolled into one, Bryan, Dan & Borge etc. have done the hard work.
I've ended up doing this more-or-less by accident as I decided to include Myo-reps when I began the 10's, mostly in an attempt to shorten the time needed for my workouts. However it seemed to evolve naturally into something a little different from anything I've seen mentioned in one training method. It's built around the HST framework, uses Myo-Reps to (hopefully) increase rates of muscle growth and then uses Max-Stim to extend the cycle by managing fatigue. There is not really a clear change from one to the other it gradually morphs from one method to the other.
Below I use 25reps to illustrate what I did as I have been doing a “Simplify & Win” type workout recently, largely to save time. But one of the main reasons I chose the reduced set of exercises as in “simplify & win” is that it allows you to follow the Myo-Rep recommendations of doing one working set of 25 Myo-reps for each muscle. I believe it will mean your muscles spend more time in the zone which will cause more growth than if you did 2 sets of 15 Myo-reps, though it'll be marginal at best I suspect (doing 2 sets of 15 is fine once the weights get heavier)
Note: If you decide to do the full “vanilla” HST program or are hitting some muscles more than once per session you should do a total of 15reps for each set during 10's and 5's for each exercise so that each muscle is still getting about the same exposure.
SD
As normal
15's
Do these as normal.
10's
At the beginning of your new cycle simply use your weights for the 10's increasing as you normally would to give you your target weights for each training day.
Now instead of doing your normal 2 sets (or however many you do) do one set using Myo-reps. That means the first 10reps are done as normal and the rest as Myo-reps (MR) to make total of 25reps (assuming 1 exercise per muscle group) for your single Myo-Rep set.
Refer to the Myo-reps threads i.e. The complete Borge Fabralli (or the Myo-Reps website using Google translate) if you need more info on how to do Myo-reps.
Your first session of “10's” might look something like this
10 +7 +6 +2 = 25reps in total
Or
10 +7 +5 +3 = 25reps in total
(Note: take a shorter rest before the final reps if they are going to be a big drop (as in the first example) in reps as compared to the previous rep so that you almost hit failure on the final rep, the 25th)
5's
Again you simply use the target weights that you would have calculate at the start of your new HST cycle for each training day of the 5's. Or you can simply take the weight from your last “10's” session, increase it by your normal amount and do 25reps, this is what actually I did. You may get a better progression from "10's" to "5's" this way e.g. your first set might look something like this 8 +6 +5 +4 +2
With Myo-Reps you would normally reduce the number of reps with the heavier weights e.g. from 25 to 15, but by applying Max-Stim principles you can keep reps to 25 per set. Your Myo-Reps will simply drop down naturally until you hit singles but instead of stopping at around 15 you continue with single reps Max-Stim style until you've done 25 in total. You are therefore switching from using fatigue to signal muscle growth (Myo-Reps) to managing fatigue with Max-Stim. Your set might look something like this
5 +4 +3 +3 +2 +2 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1
You would extend the 5's as far as you can (after your 2wks of 5's) until your set is all or almost all Max-Stim e.g.
3 +2 +2 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 (Total = 25reps)
Alternative:
You might want to use more weights than you might normally do for HST when doing them with Myo-Reps e.g. use the weights calculated for your second weeks of both the 10's & 5's but do each weight twice as with Max-Stim.
P.S. Don't forget to warm up properly by doing enough warm up sets for each exercise for both the so called “10's” & “5's” before doing your one working set using myo-reps.
and as you can see, they can work in conjunction together.
