Alternating Exercises

W

WillYouRemember

New Member
Hello everyone. I have a question about alternating exercises.
I have seem some peoples HST workouts were they alternate exercise each workout. Example: If I decide to have two chest workouts: Decline and Incline. Then it would be like the following. Day 1-Decline Day 2-Incline Day 3-Decline Day 4-Incline Day 5-Decline Day 6-Incline

My question is how do I reach my max weight if I am only working out 3 official times for each exercise. Normally it would take 6 workouts to reach my max. So do I increase my increments each in order to reach my max or should I lower my max in order to reach a max. Because lets say a persons 10 rep max on Incline is 160, if they were just doing Incline, they would reach the max in the suggested number of workouts. However; if you alternate workouts then you will be at 130, unless I increase the increments, but on the other side I might not be able to handle a 10lb or 15lb increase.

Please help
 
Hello WillYouRemember  :)

First, don't panic  :)  Everything's going to be ok.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]My question is how do I reach my max weight if I am only working out 3 official times for each exercise.
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If an exercise gets only three workouts, then starting from your max, just decrement it three times. For ex:
After yout test your maxes, you found that your 10RM incline benchpress is 150 pounds. If you will only do 3 workouts with incline, then starting from 150 on your final workout day, decrement it to 140 for your second day, and 130 for your first day. This is of course if you want to use 10pound increments. You may use 5lbs, 5%, 10%, or whatever you like.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]However; if you alternate workouts then you will be at 130, unless I increase the increments, but on the other side I might not be able to handle a 10lb or 15lb increase.
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Don't worry, as long as you tested your rep maxes right, then no matter how you increment them, you can handle them. If you are sure (because you tested them, not just guessed) that your 10RM is 150, then even if your increments are at 10 or 20 (meaning you workout at 130-140-150 or 110-130-150), you can handle the load without worries.  :)

Hope that helped you. Good luck!  :)
- JV
 
That's a good question. In this alternating routine would you be performing at your max two workouts in a row? For instance, Max with Decline Bench on workout 5, and max with Incline on workout 6?

This appears to be varying off of the principles of HST, no?

Joe
 
Joe G, I don't think it's a big deal as far as HST is concerned. Why, the fourth minicycle (post 5s) has your working at maximum 6 workouts in a row, provided you can't do negatives.
This topic though, brings me to this question...
Is it better to alternate or to incorporate both exercises with less daily per exercise volume? Allow me to provide an example...
Alternating between:
Regular curls and Preacher curls
Is it better to do 3 sets of reg. curls 3 times over the 2 week period, along with 3 sets of preacher curls 3 times, over the same 2 week period (alternating) ?
OR
Is it better to do:
2 sets of reg curls + 1 set of preachers on one workout
2 sets of preachers + 1 set of reg curls on the next
and so on, alternating like that.
I'm thinking the latter is better, as it provides better frequency for both the biceps and brachialis (even though, both are activated in either type of curl) and the weekly volume is kept absolutely the same.
Thoughts?
 
Yep, I agree with Rovi. Alternating exercises isn't going against HST principles, and there certainly is no conflict with HST if you do your max on incline one day then max on regular bench the other day (assuming those two exercises are the ones you want to alternate).

You don't have to perform all exercises for a bodypart on one day. You can vary them from workout to workout as you planned. No big deal.

It is the total number of sets for a body part per week that you do that is more important than the detail of alternating them or not. If you are aiming for 9-12 sets for the chest on one week, then go ahead and do that, whether you use alternating exercises or not.

Hope that helps :)
-JV
 
From what I've read on this site what makes HST unique in comparison to other training routines is the fact that you do not work out to your maximium on every workout. HST protocol advises training at a submaximal level leading increasing in increments up to the last day of a specific rep block. The essence of the philosophy in comparison to HIT is that training to failure will eventually lead to an over burdening of the CNS. What HST advocates is that submaximal weights will produce enough stimulus to make size gains.

If you are going to train your max with one exercise on one day and again with a different exercies the next then what is the difference between HST training and HIT training that was developed 30 years ago?

Joe G
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]If you are going to train your max with one exercise on one day and again with a different exercies the next then what is the difference between HST training and HIT training that was developed 30 years ago?
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Very good question, and one that I'm sure a lot of other people would like to be answered.

It's not really very complicated. In HST, we don't train with our max on every workout. That's why we end up using submaximal weights, and we use submaximal weights majority of the time (during the 15's, 10's, and early 5's -> the weight we use here isn't really our maximum weight or 1RM). That's the main difference you are pointing out, and that is an astute observation. But more important is the fact that there is a progression of load, so our muscles continually adapt to greater and greater mechanical load.

Normally, submaxmial loads won't get you anywhere. That is why we SD, so we decondition the muscle so even something like our 15 or 20RM can stimulate hypertrophy. After we decondition the muscle, we don't want to train with our max immediately, because then our muscles would immediately adapt to our max loads, and our workout cycle would end up being only 2-4 weeks short (4 if you include negs). So instead, we start with the minimum effective load, and gradually build up to our max, so our muscles adapt gradually only to the submaximal loads at first, so as we keep on incrementing, the muscles keep on adapting and growing. So we end up with a cycle that's much longer (8 weeks, some even extend it longer). But eventually, we do train using our max loads , for as long as 2 weeks straight in fact. And not just our max, even more than our max (when we go for negs, which are about 120% of our 1RM).

I hope that helps to clarify some things. :)
- JV
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]In HST, we don't train with our max on every workout.
Click to expand...

Exactly

And just because you are using negative weights does not mean that they are maximum weights. They are heavier than your positive max, but not heavier than your negative max. From the information I have gathered you are only supposed to go to failure at the last day of each block.

Thanks for the replies,

Joe G
 
Typically you will not go to failure even on the last day of each rep block. Very few people, except for maybe those who are cutting, will not have grown stronger by that point.
 
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