Confusion on how many reps when doing the SECOND set of an excercise?

[rickcr]

If you are doing 2 sets per exercise, are you supposed to only do the same number of reps (or less) as your first set or can you go further just sort of failure?

For example when starting out on the first day of the 10s cycle, the initial 10 reps on the first day was pretty easy. I know it will get much harder quickly (as I found out on the 15s), but for the second set of an exercise should I do more than the initial 10 reps, going to just short of failure, or am I supposed to stop at 10 reps even if I could do more on the second set?

I'm also forcing myself to take a short rest period before the second set (30 to 60 secs max.) Previously I was doing 5x5 strength training stuff and taking longer rest periods between sets so I figured I'd go for shorter rest intervals with HST between sets of the same exercise. Is this an ok approach?

 

[Fausto]

Hi Rickr

I had just written a fairly longish letter when I made crap by removing it instead of copying it, anyway start again!

Here goes, you need to have patience here...best choice is to start off the 15's with one set but go full body, cut out rest as much as possible, you might want to use some other techniques like loaded strectches, pulsing, but I'd rather use these when things are heavy as an extra....

Then on 10's as you are doing now, do two sets so that you get 20 reps, do not get excitedyou doing the right thing, prehaps it feels easy now because you just started them, it should get harder, important thing here is that you have judged fairly well you 10 RM, if you "guesstimated" them that could be the problem. :smile: by the way this is importnat thourghout and one of the main principles!

On the 5's you normally go to 3 sets to get 15 reps, ok...things start to get heavier and you feel at home...by the time you get to negatives, choice kicks in big time, negs only works with a good partner, so if you don't have that you can use max-stim, Myo-reps or other type techniques to try to get around fatigue, you might push the 5's till you hit a plateau (this will be towards the end).

Some people here start doing clusters, it is yet another choice...break you reps up, till youget the number you need, if you can't manage 5, hit 2 or 3, then another 2 to get there, and keep doingthis till your program is complete.

It is important at this time to split your program into A/B alternating choices for muscle groups, on each training day, this will allow you to train as heavy as you can manage.

Hope this helps, if you need to get some e-books on these techniques I can send them, PM me and we will work it out! I have asked JVroig to place these on teh boards for all to use, but I have no idea if he has done so...I'll remnind him though!

Cheers

 

[Champalex]

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.info/iB_html/uploads/Vicious_HST_E_Book.pdf

 

[Fausto]

Vicious E-book

Thanks Champalex

That is a good e-book to have if you're into all the extras, it basically adds all teh bells and whistles you might wanna use!

 

[rickcr]

Hi Rickr

Then on 10's as you are doing now, do two sets so that you get 20 reps, do not get excitedyou doing the right thing, prehaps it feels easy now because you just started them, it should get harder, important thing here is that you have judged fairly well you 10 RM, if you "guesstimated" them that could be the problem.

Thanks Fausto.

I actually calculated my 10 rep max for most of the exercises (although I'm not sure how accurate it is since I did it on a wed after finding the 15 rep maxes on monday and I was coming off of being burned out on a 5x5 program.) Some of your text broke up above, but I think you're saying 'only do your second set reps to 10' (if on the '10s cycle.) I'll do that. I do know by the start of the second week it gets much tougher (actually probably starting tomorrow - Friday of the first week of 10s - it'll get tougher.)

Yes I'd love any ebook you can send. I'll send you a private message or if you want my email is rickcr at gmail dot com. (Thanks!)

I briefly looked at the first pdf posted in this thread and it does seem to go beyond the basics a bit.

As a side note, this is what I'm finding frustrating about HST... I know it's a 'principle' and there aren't hard fast rules - but it would be nice if they main site that you end up on when you google http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html has more concrete information. Even the one sample routine shown is shown in the context of comparing it to a 'traditional routine' but it doesn't mention if that's one you should start with to follow?

Even on the section about Low volume per exercise (average volume per week) on http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_II.html it mentions nothing related to what you mentioned (if on the 10s you want to do two sets of 10 not more than 10 on the second set.) Things like this are really important to know and it would be nice if there was a centralized place to get the 'consensus' information. For example, I'm sure it would be a mistake to go to failure and strain on the failure rep on every second set, but it doesn't say that anywhere.

Thankfully this forum is very helpful. I was about to give up since the information on HST seems to difficult to find in a concise place.

 

[Fausto]

Thanks Fausto.

I actually calculated my 10 rep max for most of the exercises (although I'm not sure how accurate it is since I did it on a wed after finding the 15 rep maxes on monday and I was coming off of being burned out on a 5x5 program.) Some of your text broke up above, but I think you're saying 'only do your second set reps to 10' (if on the '10s cycle.) I'll do that. I do know by the start of the second week it gets much tougher (actually probably starting tomorrow - Friday of the first week of 10s - it'll get tougher.)

Yes I'd love any ebook you can send. I'll send you a private message or if you want my email is rickcr at gmail dot com. (Thanks!)

I briefly looked at the first pdf posted in this thread and it does seem to go beyond the basics a bit.

As a side note, this is what I'm finding frustrating about HST... I know it's a 'principle' and there aren't hard fast rules - but it would be nice if they main site that you end up on when you google http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html has more concrete information. Even the one sample routine shown is shown in the context of comparing it to a 'traditional routine' but it doesn't mention if that's one you should start with to follow?

Even on the section about Low volume per exercise (average volume per week) on http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_II.html it mentions nothing related to what you mentioned (if on the 10s you want to do two sets of 10 not more than 10 on the second set.) Things like this are really important to know and it would be nice if there was a centralized place to get the 'consensus' information. For example, I'm sure it would be a mistake to go to failure and strain on the failure rep on every second set, but it doesn't say that anywhere.

Thankfully this forum is very helpful. I was about to give up since the information on HST seems to difficult to find in a concise place.

Point taken and I hope Bryan comes across what you just wrote, but if you look in the sticky's there is actually quirte a bit of info, I'll send you some of the stuff I got and we can keep chatting.

Just a pointer, try to keep a more or less constant volume so as to get things to work well!

 

[Fausto]

As a side note, this is what I'm finding frustrating about HST... I know it's a 'principle' and there aren't hard fast rules - but it would be nice if they main site that you end up on when you google http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html has more concrete information. Even the one sample routine shown is shown in the context of comparing it to a 'traditional routine' but it doesn't mention if that's one you should start with to follow?

Have you tried the Simplify and Win Thread, not because I started it, but there are a lot of examples of very simple yet effective progams you can use! Go there and have a look see!