Alternating workouts A B A, B A B etc

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cluelessgoon

New Member
Hello All.

I want to know what the general opinion of alternating workouts is on the forum. My alternating, I mean doing workout A on Monday, B on Wednesday, A on Friday and so on.

I am now on my 3rd cycle of HST, having made good gains on the last 2 (arms up 0.5 inches, chest & legs up an inch, even calves up 0.5 inches!). My tendency during the cycle is to switch to alternating workouts as the cycle reaches the 5s (do the full 15, 10, 5, 5* progression). I tried this alternating style from the start on the last cycle.

Here is an example of what my routine might progress to in the 5s. It's a genuine struggle for me to complete it and I might bin some of the later exercises in reality. I tend to include more isolation work early on - such as cuban presses, leg curls & leg extensions, some arm work, but I just can't maintain it by the time I get to the 5's. I do it mostly for injury prevention and variety early on.

A
Deadlifts 1x5
standing calves (clustered to about 50 reps)
Pullups 2x5
Dips 2x5
Overhead press 2x5
side bends 3x5


B
Squats 1x5
seated calves (clustered to 50 reps)
Incline bench 2x5
Bent over rows 3x5
wt situps 3x5

My reasoning for training in this manner is that I tend to acquire overuse injuries VERY quickly. For example during the 1st cycle doing the same routine each workout I quickly
developed some bicipital tendonitis from pullups (even though they were well under failure). By swapping between 2 workouts I get more rest between identical movements, and still stress the same muscles but in slightly different ways. I don't really enjoy the heavy stuff and find myself feeling really beaten up during the 5s and 5*s (ironic as a former powerlifter eh?!). This is definately worsened during the 5s. When I plan out the cycles (which takes twice as long
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) I go from about 55% to 105% on all the exercises and just double up the increments.

I wonder how much people feel repeating the exact same exercises is important with regard to CNS overload, or Repeated Bout Effect. My feeling is that motivation is an important factor and you've got to want to lift 100% by the end of a cycle.

As an interesting side note, I grow best in the 10s. I precede the 10s with either 15s or 12s and when I reach the end of the 10s I've always lost fat and gained muscle somehow! During the 5s I continue to grow & get stronger, but generally also gain some fat and just feel crap by the end!

Cheers
 
cluless

I always alternate my workouts and I have lern't that simplicity works best.
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Anyway, your workouts look fine and simple enough.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I tend to include more isolation work early on - such as cuban presses, leg curls &amp; leg extensions, some arm work, but I just can't maintain it by the time I get to the 5's. I do it mostly for injury prevention and variety early on.</div>

I somewhat feel like you by the 5's or at least by the negatives, sore joints yadayadayada, but then I am almost 40 so maybe that is it!
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Try switching that around, use the isos from the 5's onwards, but sacrifice one set of whatever compound is most similar (for muscle type - eg: unedrhand close grip chins hits the biceps hard so drop one set and include your curls with it, some thing with Dips vs. Skullcruchers)

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I wonder how much people feel repeating the exact same exercises is important with regard to CNS overload, or Repeated Bout Effect.</div>

I generally don't mind having two types and progressing each to the end, but that is just me!

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">As an interesting side note, I grow best in the 10s. I precede the 10s with either 15s or 12s and when I reach the end of the 10s I've always lost fat and gained muscle somehow! During the 5s I continue to grow &amp; get stronger, but generally also gain some fat and just feel crap by the end!</div>

My feel is that the higher rep frequency works to your advantage making you loose fat and gain muscle, you may want to drop your carb intake and up the protein with the 5's might just be what youo rbod is asking you for!

Just MHO.
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Fausto,

Many thanks for posting. It's reassuring to hear that there are others like me! I just don't think I could personally do that heavy stuff in exactly the same way so frequently.

I agree about dropping carbs and upping protein a bit in the 5s and 5*s. I've actually tried another 10rep phase after the 5*s (ie 15, 10, 5, 5*, 10) to see if I get the same effect but I was too beaten up to train properly! I need the SD and the 15s, perhaps due to being 34 and nearly as old as yourself;)!!

With adding in the isolation work during the 5s and 5*s say I wanted to do some extra shoulder work, I'd dump a set of OHP and swap them for say lateral raises lying on a bench (bigger stretch). Equally I could add in some Inc curls instead of pull ups. It sounds feasible especially as those areas would already be warmed up and the biggest overhead for me during the 5s is the warmup sets.

Cheers
 
Clueless...

I used to do lateral raises supersetted with bent over raises as extra work for shoulders! Yes you are right, do them on a bench about 45 degrees or so, feels a lot harder that's for sure.

I can also agree, OHP at 70 Kg for 5*'s is getting real heavy and my joints are starting to say it is time to SD.

I think this time I am going to SD for 14 days at least!

Cheers
 
Sounds like you deserve a break! Enjoy it while it lasts.

With the isolation work, do you keep that down to 5 reps too, or let it come up a bit?
 
Clueless

Iso work I like to do high reps, many times I do drops sets, for example I'll take 15Kg or so to do 5 a side on db incline curls, then drop that and pick up 8 Kg and rep out for 20 a side!

But I am just crazy
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what you do is really up to you, some guys take the heavier weight and do 3 sets of 5 to get to 15, these are all techniques to &quot;wake up&quot; the muscle in question.

Besides that I like to superset antagonists (curls vs. Skullcrushers).

Cheers, oh about the break, I am going to hold on as much as I can, I think not much longer than 1 more week or so!
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if you are alternating instead of the mini cycles being 2wks you could make them 4wks giving you a longer cycle altogether..but you might need to sd for longer
 
I dont see anything wrong with varying your workout from A to B...I personally like it.

for several reason if the gym is crowded and you cant hit incline bench just hit dips and then do the other next workout.

Plus it adds variety...just keep up with your poundages and make sure you are increasing your lifts and keep frequency up !
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Thanks for the feedback guys.

Faz - I wondered about extending the phases out but I opted not to as one of the advantages of alternating is that you can work a bit harder I feel. I am really looking not to overtrain on HST and the built in SD and gradual cycling up really suits me.

I also wondered if the growth effect is heightened from having larger increments. E.g. if I was NOT alternating I'd do squats at say 125,130,135,140,145,150 for 5, but WITH the alternates you do ---,130,---,140,---,150 which is a larger shock each time.

The complexity of workout setup and rejigging is the major downside for me with this system. It's nice to get greater variety though. We are pretty lucky in having a well equiped gym at work - power rack, DBs, balls, smith machine, cables even. It's quiet most of the time and very gentlemanly !
 
Personally, I think you should always use at least 10 lb increments anyway when you are dealing with large muscle groups. With squats, I would endeavor to use 20 lb increments if you can. Even with alternating, you may have to repeat poundages for that, but it seems to work much better for me when it comes to hypertrophy.
 
I agree - shooting for a 20lb increment (I tend to work in kilos) on the big exercises is right I feel, but it's only because I would have used 5kg on a regular non-alternating routine, so I double up. I also like zig zaging. People still enter that HIT mode though where they feel giving 100% all the time is best. I enjoy only reaching that every 2 weeks apart from the end!

One downside of alternating is that you don't buildup the familiarity with a exercise that you would normally. This has been troublesome for me starting newcomers off on HST as their maxes are very hard to establish anyway and repeating the movements regularly is vital to learning them. I've steered them away from alternating at least for the first cycle. It's amazing how hard some people can make a deadlift look, never mind cleans!
 
Clueless, if you feel that by alternating your workouts you still hit the same muscle every 48 hours, I guess there is no problem.... the problem is if you work a completely different set of muscles... then one of the HST principles (frequency) would be &quot;violated&quot;, perhaps it is not a big deal but.....
 
I agree - shooting for a 20lb increment (I tend to work in kilos) on the big exercises is right I feel, but it's only because I would have used 5kg on a regular non-alternating routine, so I double up. I also like zig zaging. People still enter that HIT mode though where they feel giving 100% all the time is best. I enjoy only reaching that every 2 weeks apart from the end!

One downside of alternating is that you don't buildup the familiarity with a exercise that you would normally. This has been troublesome for me starting newcomers off on HST as their maxes are very hard to establish anyway and repeating the movements regularly is vital to learning them. I've steered them away from alternating at least for the first cycle. It's amazing how hard some people can make a deadlift look, never mind cleans!
 
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