Beginning HST Questions

S

stevec

New Member
Intro: My name is Steve and I'm 25 years old, and I'm a workoutaholic.

Seriously though, I'm in very good shape for a guy my age and size and I've gotten good results from my working out thus far, in spite of my exercising since I started about 10 years ago being haphazard with no real program.

The last few years though I've definitely hit a plateau where I'm fairly confident I won't see any real gains without a real program. Since I'm big on science, I'm in love with the idea of HST and would like to try it.

Unfortunately there's a huge amount of info and it gets a little confusing, especially since I like to have everything spelled out to me. So here we go.

I've taken the last two weeks off doing anything in an attempt at Strategic Deconditioning. I'd like to start HST lifting next week. My first question concerns maxes.

Should I have determined my 15, 10, and 5 rep maxes before I did SD? Or can I do them before I start the program? I know my 10 rep maxes for most things. I could probably guesstimate where my 15 and 5 rep maxes are at. Would that reduce the efficacy, or defeat it entirely? Is there any way I could calculate it from my 10 rep maxes?

So then if I understand correctly I spend two weeks doing 15 reps increasing weight each day. Correct?

Here is my next question. I'd ideally only like to use HST on certain muscle groups. My abs are pretty cut due to my being small and having low body fat. The actual muscles are large enough to where I'm concerned if they got any larger I'd start getting Muscle Gut. My pecs are, quite honestly, already bordering on man-boobs and don't really need any increase in size (though if I can increase strength and/or muscular endurance without much increase in size I'd be all for it). I want to increase size predominantly in my biceps and legs. I'd also like to increase size of my shoulders and back, but those are secondary.

Is this doable? Would it be possible to do some kind of strength and/or endurance training (SST maybe?) for muscle groups in which I'm not trying to induce hypertrophy while at the same time using HST for other muscles? As much info on how I could do this as possible (if it's possible) would be appreciated.

Last question: what are good leg exercises for HST? I know squats are one. Those predominantly work my quads though right? Anything I can do for my hamstrings? Historically I've done entirely upper-body workouts so I've got chicken legs. Heh.

Thank you guys so much for any help. Heck, thank you if you even read all of my long-winded post.

-Steve
 
For hamstrings, I prefer good mornings, but SLDLs are good too. For legs, I like to do squats, conventional or over/under deadlifts and good mornings... though I don't always do GMs during HST cycles.

You should find your maxes before you SD. However, if you know your 10 RMs, then you can estimate or use a calculator. It will be close enough to work. You can always just adjust during the cycle or make note of how much you are able to do for your 5 RM once you get into the post5s and use that number to construct your next cycle.
Search on google and you should find a rep max calculator. In fact, I think BB.com has an HST calculator somewhere.

If you want to focus on certain bodyparts, then just add more volume or more lifts for those areas. So since you think your pecs are fine, only do two sets of incline bench, or maybe just one set of dips even. I'd hit legs real hard if I were you, since you said you have chicken legs. I wouldn't mix training programs though. Just keep the volume lower for your chest or whatever other body parts you don't want to train as hard.
 
Is it okay to do a 5lbs increase for an exercise on my 15s and a 10lbs increase on my 10s and 5s for the same exercise?

What about if it leads to me doing a lower weight at the start of my 10s than at the end of my 15s?

How frequently should I change the exercises in my routine? I remember that I saw something about that somewhere around here but can't find it now.
 
That is all fine. You can also use the same weight for two workouts if that makes incrementation easier.

It's not necessary to change the exercises in your routine. However, if you want to, I would suggest changing them at most every third cycle. Remember that when you change exercises, you will have to work through the neural adaptations and everything at first, so really an exercise that you are already proficient at will probably be more effective. Still, change every now and then is a good thing.
 
I'm assuming that it makes more sense if I'm wanting more hypertrophy to do my larger increments on my 10s and 5s than on my 15s, right?

Thank you for all the help, by the way. I greatly appreciate it. I'm really stoked about trying out HST.
 
Also, I know I'm allowed to do cardio on my in-between days, but would training Brazilian jiu-jitsu and/or judo be too much?
 
Larger increments, within reason, are better. But generally, you only want to use larger increments for larger muscle groups. So legs, I would use 10-20 lb increments. With isolations for the arms I may use only 5 lb increments, maybe even 2.5 lbs if my max is real low. Don't sweat it too much though, as long as you are progressing the load, you should be fine.
 
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