Another newbie

D

Doc_Holliday

New Member
Hello all,
I had heard of HST on other boards and figured I'd give it a shot since I was looking for a change.  Also have drawn inspiration from friends who are athletes who seem to follow similar principles to HST in their programs.
Been training for about 4 years, mostly simple bulk routines (most recent split: mon - chest, tue - back, thu - shoulder, fri - tri/bi), although i ran a few westside strength programs about a year and a half ago.  My leg training has been sparse since last February due to a severe ankle sprain, but im about ready to jump back into it although I will be closely monitoring how my ankle responds - one drawback is squats are still out of the question, but I think I'll be able to do leg presses.
I've read most materials on this site and I plan to run 2x15, 2x10, 3x5 which seems to be standard.  I plan on using the following exercises to begin w/:
Bench, Dips, BB Row, Leg Press, SLDL, Military, Seated Shrugs, Reverse Grip Pulldowns, BB Curls, Skulls, and Calve Raises
I also plan on switching in pull-ups for pulldowns for the 10s and 5s, and plan on adding deadlifts during the 5s.  I also may drop the arm/calf exercises during the 5s which seems to be a common approach from the samples I've read.
Just have a few questions I had regarding the program:
Do you alternate the order of your exercises, given your strength during the second half of the workout will no doubt be down?  Would obviously keep the arm stuff at the end, but what about moving leg press, bench, pull-ups around?
Should I alternate exercises (i.e. bench monday, incline wednesday)?
I'm coming off an 11-day layoff, and will have my diet in order supplementing with only creatine mono (as well as PWO protein isolate).  I plan on doing cardio/abs on tues/thurs and taking the weekends off for the most part.  I'll be starting the cycle in a couple of hours time.
Any suggestions/concerns/questions/etc would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.
 
i would not alternate exercises stick with the same ones all the way through..you could drop some in the 5s like arm isos as the heavy compounds will work the arms anyway.
the problem with doing to much alternating is it makes it to difficult to work out your maxes and routine..
you also lose moter muscle memory and some strengh
 
Personally I much prefer alternating exercises, it means you get more variety and I actually find it makes incrementing easier as the increments are larger, for example dumbbells tend to go up by 2.5kg which is a total increment of 5kg - usually too much to increment with each session unless you're alternating.

I haven't found that I've lost strength at all...anyone have any studies showing any major disadvantage strength wise or any other wise with alternating?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (faz @ Nov. 21 2005,2:08)]you also lose moter muscle memory and some strengh
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you wouldn't lose motor muscle memory when alternating exercises day to day... this would more or less happen cycle to cycle

Doc, when it comes to changing the order of exercises day to day - that's up to you, but I really don't hear of guys doing that. Keep most of your heavy compound work in the beginning of the workout. Try doing the SLDL's before the Leg Press, and space out exercises that use the same muscles like bench and dips.

Lastly, you can't make gains without the correct diet. What are your stats (bf%, weight, height, any other measurements?) How many calories do you plan on bringing per day. The latter is the most important thing to training, because in order to grow you need to eat.

-Colby
 
Have never really been into measurements, currently 6'0 and 185 lbs. Bf% was 15 last I checked, probably 16 now (using some electro-shock tool at radio shack). The site where i use to keep track of my diet/calories shut down - i ran a sample through ediets.com and their calculations seem a little off. Here's a typical day for me tho:

Meal 1: 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 2 slices of whole wheat toast, glass of skim milk, cup of coffee (w/ 2% milk)

Meal 2: chicken sandwhich, whole wheat bread, lettuce/tomato, light miracle whip

Workout

PWO: Protein isolate, dex/malto (use to vary these amounts based on workout intensity, will review the articles on this on the site)

Meal 3: Tuna on toast, 1 can, whole wheat, light M.W, glass of milk

Meal 4: Chicken Breast, rice or potato, green beans, glass of milk

Meal 5: 2% Cottage cheese (250ml), handful of almonds or scoop of P.B.

That's a typical day in the life, my calculator had it at about 2500 which seemed a bit low.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]That's a typical day in the life, my calculator had it at about 2500 which seemed a bit low.
Click to expand...

I'd say that is a bit low as well. I'd start at 3300kcal/day and see how you do with that. If you need to, just add more. Good luck, HST is amazing!
 
Chiefhog has it right - if you're not into bulking or cutting, then that's a good number of kcals to muscle on while burning fat. If you're really into it, make sure you get lots of good fats (EFA's) and keep your carbs at low GI levels while getting enough protein - especially around your WO which you're already doing.

A good diet that has caloric balance combined with hypertrophy-specific training is a recipe for body-building success!

-Colby
 
Well day one was tougher than expected. Had to do dips/bench back-to-back because of how hard it is to get a bench on monday nights. I'm considering dropping dips for the 15s, or doing only 1 set. DOMS today are fine, little bit in the legs but that is to be expected coming off a layoff from intense leg training.

One more question to run by you guys - i can knock out about 11 BW pull-ups for two sets, and plan on using pullups during 10s and 5s. But for bodweight exercises I guess i will have to add weight. But I won't be able to do 10 with a 25lb plate, which is what it would be on my last workout for 10s. Should I hold off on pull-ups until the 5s?
 
About pull-ups - if you don't have a chin/dip assist machine at your gym - I am assuming there isn't one with regards to your question - then try adding 10 lbs or so. If you can't do a freebody weight pull-up at a certain load, then apply a similar load doing lat pulldowns.

-Colby
 
I suggest your find your 5RM for pullups, then work back to find your weights for the 5s.

Stick with pulldowns for the 10s. I was in a similar position to you when I started HST a year ago. I couldn't do pullups at all - 5 perhaps.

Now I move 120kgs on my 5RM (BW plus resistance). Just stick with doing what you can for pullups and using pulldowns for the higher rep ranges. Your strength will build.
 
doc instead of doing bench and dips together next time you go on a busy day ..get the bench done when it is available then straight after do a pulling exercise then do dips ..i try and do push pull all the way through my workout..but it is annoying when you cant get on the equipment you need
crazy.gif
 
Also, I found that in the second week of 15s, one set of each was all I needed. I was doing 14 exercises then but have cut that down a bit for 10s. Now I'm doing 2 sets of 11 exercises and just one set for a couple of others. Takes about the same time too. Just under an hour.

Sometimes I have to re-order exercises because of gym congestion. It's a pain, so I always try to find a quiet time to train if possible. If you have to do 2 chest exercises in a row don't worry too much about getting all the reps in two sets for the second exercise. You could always do a third set of a few reps to make up your total. Better not to cane your CNS too much. I am making my best gains ever now that I have stopped training to failure on every set.
 
Thanks for the replies fellas,

I really noticed a difference splitting up the work for each muscle group better - 2nd day was easier.

One more quick question: How crucial is the 48-hour time window? I worked out monday night about 7, then wednesday afternoon at 1ish. Is this a problem? I still had some soreness but I figured it was due to the layoff and new high rep scheme.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Doc_Holliday @ Nov. 23 2005,3:34)]One more quick question: How crucial is the 48-hour time window?  I worked out monday night about 7, then wednesday afternoon at 1ish.  Is this a problem?  I still had some soreness but I figured it was due to the layoff and new high rep scheme.
Click to expand...
It's not that crucial.. as long as you work out every other day then you shouldn't have a problem
 
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