Critique my 6x split

[shakm]

I've quietly been following this forum for a while. Since switching over to HST i've seen growth like never before. I have not been following the 15/10/5 guide though - i'm just increasing the weights and doing as many reps as i can without ever going close to failure, doing fullbody 3x week.

For my next (4th) cycle i'm thinking of this (all excercises have just 1 working set, because i've found it's suits me better as far as growth and cns fatigue are concerned):

Mon,Wed,Fri:
- Chin ups
- Dips
- Barbell Military (standing) Shoulder Press
- One-legged barbel calve raise

Tue,Thu,Sat:
- Barbell Deadlift
- Barbell Incline Bench Press
- Barbell Up Right Row
- Barbell Press Sit-ups

Notes:
1.I used to do squats, but my quads where beginning to grow out of proportion to the rest of my body - so i don't use them until i do some catching up
2.I use low volume (1 working set only) mainly because i don't gain weight easily and i have overtrained using more
3.I'm basically splitting my 3x week routine (8 exercises per day) to a 6x week routine (4 exercises per day), because i'm thinking i'll be able to perform them better, get better nutrients partitioning effect and is plainly more fun and easier!

Thoughts?
Anybody convert a 3x to a 6x with good results?

 

[grunt11]

I used a similar 6x split to great effect in one of my early cycles. The only problem I had was when the weights got very heavy I couldn’t maintain the full body workout every day and still keep adding weight so toward the end I switched to a upper/lower split.

However, I thought that it was very effective until I got to the point that I started needing more volume to keep growing at which point I couldn’t maintain a ED full body schedule and switched over to an upper/lower/upper/lower/upper split. Only two lowers because my legs are also bigger than the rest of me.

I say try it. if you find you can’t maintain it then just rearrange the exercises into a more conventional split routine.

 

[shakm]

I thought that it was very effective until I got to the point that I started needing more volume to keep growing

So you are saying:
1) you did the same low volume as i do (i.e. 1 set per exercise) and you eventually plateaued, at which point you broke that plateau with more volume?
2) it would cause me less fatigue if i put e.g. both chest exercises on the same day, than splitting them in 2 consecutive days?
Thanks for answering!

 

[grunt11]

\

1) you did the same low volume as i do (i.e. 1 set per exercise) and you eventually plateaued, at which point you broke that plateau with more volume?

Yes I started with low volume 1 set/body part with high 6x/week frequency in my early cycles. It worked really well. However, toward the end of each cycle I wasn’t recovering enough hitting each body part every day to keep adding weight so then I would switch so I was doing an every other day split. After about 6 months I found that even doing the every other day split didn’t give me enough volume each workout so I could both grow and recover so now I’ve switched to a 3 way push/pull/legs split 2x/week for a total of 6 days.

I suggest you start out with the plan you have for 6x and stick with it as long as you can. If you find that toward the end of your cycle when the weights get heavy that you can’t recover from hitting each body part every day that you switch to every other day. That will give you a full day between body parts to recover. You may combine two exercises/body part on the same day or still just stick with one exercise and alternate between them. Just remember the main reason for a split routine is to allow more recovery time. If you don’t need the extra recovery time then your missing out on growth opportunity by waiting.

It’s really all a balancing act and it will change with as you become more fit which means you’ll need to work the muscles harder to grow which in turn mean more recovery time.

 

[iwealth]

I've quietly been following this forum for a while. Since switching over to HST i've seen growth like never before. I have not been following the 15/10/5 guide though - i'm just increasing the weights and doing as many reps as i can without ever going close to failure, doing fullbody 3x week.

Hey shakm,

Care to share your stats (height, weight, age, etc)?

I saw you claim that you don't gain weight easily but also that you've experienced growth like never before since switching to HST. How long were your 1st 3 cycles, what sort of exercise selection were you using, and when did you stop the cycle?

I gather your rep pattern would end up being something like 20 19, 18, 17, as you increased weight. Did you even just do one set as the reps decreased to 8, 7, 6..etc?

I'm doing something similar myself, full body 5x every 14 days, adding weight every workout, but I planned on keeping the reps at 20 per exercise and doing rest-pause style to complete the 20 reps as the weights get heavier.

Would like to hear more about your experiences and results.

Thanks!

 

[shakm]

Hey shakm,

Care to share your stats (height, weight, age, etc)?

I saw you claim that you don't gain weight easily but also that you've experienced growth like never before since switching to HST. How long were your 1st 3 cycles, what sort of exercise selection were you using, and when did you stop the cycle?

I'm 28 years old, 181cm height, ~72kg (~158lb), currently at about 13% fat i guess (i'm usually going from ~11% to ~17% through cycles). I've been lifting for some years, but more seriously the last 3. Always was a hardgainer. My diet changes as required - i usually follow the leangains fasting method, but when gaining muscle i often resort to all-day binges in order to gain any weight.

My cycles aren't very long - usually 4 weeks bulking by progressively adding weight from 50% to 100% of my 5RM, then 2-4 weeks cutting by lowering volume and maintaining intensity at 100%. Then 2 weeks of SD.

Exercise selection has always been all-compound barbell-only lifts with a few isolations, mainly squats, deadlifts, bench presses, dips, chinups, bent over rows.

I gather your rep pattern would end up being something like 20 19, 18, 17, as you increased weight. Did you even just do one set as the reps decreased to 8, 7, 6..etc?

I'm doing something similar myself, full body 5x every 14 days, adding weight every workout, but I planned on keeping the reps at 20 per exercise and doing rest-pause style to complete the 20 reps as the weights get heavier.

Would like to hear more about your experiences and results.

Thanks!

Yes, always kept doing a single working set (as i got closer to my 5RM i did 1 warm-up set with only ~1/3 of the working set weight). I seem to easily overtrain when doing more sets (tried doing 1 set @ ~15reps, 2 sets @ ~10reps and 3 sets @ ~5reps, only to figure out i was gaining only during the ~15s and some during ~10s) and when going close to failure (now i stop whenever i can't lift the weight fast enough).

Generally i've seen more growth when eating massive amounts of food without caring for bodyfat increases or specific diets (i don't count calories, but always have a ball-park estimation - and always focus on protein and carbs) and whenever adding a new exercise.

Most gains came from squats, bent over rows / chinups, dips and military shoulder press. Haven't seen much growth yet from deadlifts (my fault maybe, not enought weight), flat bench press (substituted with dips and incline bench and saw immediate results - thank you fausto!) and isolations (except for the first time i used them - standing curls and scullcrushers).

As for cutting, i've seen better results with low volume (2x week), high intensity (100% of 5RM) weight training and empty-stomach steady-pace cardio (bike, swimming, ~60' long). Diet that worked best for me was leangains - diets that worked worst were PSMF and anabolic diet (i guess i need my carbs).

 

[shakm]

Hey shakm,

Care to share your stats (height, weight, age, etc)?

I saw you claim that you don't gain weight easily but also that you've experienced growth like never before since switching to HST. How long were your 1st 3 cycles, what sort of exercise selection were you using, and when did you stop the cycle?

I'm 28 years old, 181cm height, ~72kg (~158lb), currently at about 13% fat i guess (i'm usually going from ~11% to ~17% through cycles). I've been lifting for some years, but more seriously the last 3. Always was a hardgainer. My diet changes as required - i usually follow the leangains fasting method, but when gaining muscle i often resort to all-day binges in order to gain any weight.

My cycles aren't very long - usually 4 weeks bulking by progressively adding weight from 50% to 100% of my 5RM, then 2-4 weeks cutting by lowering volume and maintaining intensity at 100%. Then 2 weeks of SD.

Exercise selection has always been all-compound barbell-only lifts with a few isolations, mainly squats, deadlifts, bench presses, dips, chinups, bent over rows.

I gather your rep pattern would end up being something like 20 19, 18, 17, as you increased weight. Did you even just do one set as the reps decreased to 8, 7, 6..etc?

I'm doing something similar myself, full body 5x every 14 days, adding weight every workout, but I planned on keeping the reps at 20 per exercise and doing rest-pause style to complete the 20 reps as the weights get heavier.

Would like to hear more about your experiences and results.

Thanks!

Yes, always kept doing a single working set (as i got closer to my 5RM i did 1 warm-up set with only ~1/3 of the working set weight). I seem to easily overtrain when doing more sets (tried doing 1 set @ ~15reps, 2 sets @ ~10reps and 3 sets @ ~5reps, only to figure out i was gaining only during the ~15s and some during ~10s) and when going close to failure (now i stop whenever i can't lift the weight fast enough).

Generally i've seen more growth when eating massive amounts of food without caring for bodyfat increases or specific diets (i don't count calories, but always have a ball-park estimation - and always focus on protein and carbs) and whenever adding a new exercise.

Most gains came from squats, bent over rows / chinups, dips and military shoulder press. Haven't seen much growth yet from deadlifts (my fault maybe, not enought weight), flat bench press (substituted with dips and incline bench and saw immediate results - thank you fausto!) and isolations (except for the first time i used them - standing curls and scullcrushers).

As for cutting, i've seen better results with low volume (2x week), high intensity (100% of 5RM) weight training and empty-stomach steady-pace cardio (bike, swimming, ~60' long). Diet that worked best for me was leangains - diets that worked worst were PSMF and anabolic diet (i guess i need my carbs).

 

[shakm]

I'm 28 years old, 181cm height, ~72kg (~158lb), currently at about 13% fat i guess (i'm usually going from ~11% to ~17% through cycles). I've been lifting for some years, but more seriously the last 3. Always was a hardgainer. My diet changes as required - i usually follow the leangains fasting method, but when gaining muscle i often resort to all-day binges in order to gain any weight.

My cycles aren't very long - usually 4 weeks bulking by progressively adding weight from 50% to 100% of my 5RM, then 2-4 weeks cutting by lowering volume and maintaining intensity at 100%. Then 2 weeks of SD.

Exercise selection has always been all-compound barbell-only lifts with a few isolations, mainly squats, deadlifts, bench presses, dips, chinups, bent over rows.

Yes, always kept doing a single working set (as i got closer to my 5RM i did 1 warm-up set with only ~1/3 of the working set weight). I seem to easily overtrain and see lessresults when doing more sets (tried doing 1 set @ ~15reps, 2 sets @ ~10reps and 3 sets @ ~5reps, only to figure out i was gaining only during the ~15s and some during ~10s) and when going close to failure (now i stop whenever i can't lift the weight fast enough).

Generally i've seen more growth when eating massive amounts of food without caring for bodyfat increases or specific diets (i don't count calories, but always have a ball-park estimation - and always focus on protein and carbs) and whenever adding a new exercise.

Most gains came from squats, bent over rows / chinups, dips and military shoulder press. Haven't seen much growth yet from deadlifts (my fault maybe, not enought weight), flat bench press (substituted with dips and incline bench and saw immediate results - thank you fausto!) and isolations (except for the first time i used them - standing curls and scullcrushers).

As for cutting, i've seen better results with low volume (2x week), high intensity (100% of 5RM) weight training and empty-stomach steady-pace cardio (bike, swimming, ~60' long). Diet that worked best for me was leangains - diets that worked worst were PSMF and anabolic diet (i guess i need my carbs).

 

[shakm]

Care to share your stats (height, weight, age, etc)?

I'm 28 years old, 72kg weight (158lb), 181cm height, bf% fluctuates between ~11% and 17% (measured with military-method, i.e. single tape measurement)

How long were your 1st 3 cycles, what sort of exercise selection were you using, and when did you stop the cycle?

My cycles are kinda small:
- About 3-4 weeks of bulking (increasing weights progressively from 50% to 100% of my 5RM)
- Followed by about 2-4 weeks of cutting (half the volume and 100% of 5RM)
- Followed by 2 weeks of SD

Exercises: Almost exclusively compound & Barbell exercises. I had my best results with squats, chinups / bent over rows, dips, standing shoulder presses. On the contrary, i saw almost no results with flat bench presses and isolations.

Did you even just do one set as the reps decreased to 8, 7, 6..etc?

I always did a single working set, no matter how low the reps (so yes, even when doing 5 reps).

Would like to hear more about your experiences and results

Well what has worked for me so far the best, is
- When bulking: 3x week lifting weights (about 6-8 compound exercises, single working set), no cardio, no specific diet - simply binging and trying to avoid fats as much as i can
- When cutting: 2-3x week lifting (about 4 compound exercises, single working set), empty-stomach steady-pace cardio for about 60 minutes (bike or swimming), leangains diet with a multivitamin and 3-6gr omega 3 each day

Generally i seem to be doing really well on carb-based diets, fasting protocols, low total volume training

 

[Fat_Ed]

+1 for Leangains.

 

[iwealth]

Exercises: Almost exclusively compound & Barbell exercises. I had my best results with squats, chinups / bent over rows, dips, standing shoulder presses. On the contrary, i saw almost no results with flat bench presses and isolations.

But you've seen results with incline bench? I see you've included that in your cycle this time around.

I always did a single working set, no matter how low the reps (so yes, even when doing 5 reps).

Interesting, that is a very low volume approach. I've often wondered if my inability to put on weight had something to do with overtraining. I'm small framed, particularly in the upper body. Bony shoulders, that sort of thing.

Well what has worked for me so far the best, is
- When bulking: 3x week lifting weights (about 6-8 compound exercises, single working set), no cardio, no specific diet - simply binging and trying to avoid fats as much as i can
- When cutting: 2-3x week lifting (about 4 compound exercises, single working set), empty-stomach steady-pace cardio for about 60 minutes (bike or swimming), leangains diet with a multivitamin and 3-6gr omega 3 each day

Leangains diet from what I recall is intermittent fasting? Eating for 8 hours/day but not necessarily cutting your calories dramatically.

Generally i seem to be doing really well on carb-based diets, fasting protocols, low total volume training

Are you following the short bulk/cut cycles because you find that your muscle gains are minimal and also accompanied by too much fat gain? Ironically some of my best bulking/strength gains came during a 5-week Ultimate Diet 2.0 cycle. I'd hypothesized that nutrient partitioning may have been part of my problem and UD 2.0 seemed to specifically address that.

I leaned out while gaining some strength and muscle over 5 weeks. The workout/diet though was quite insane and not exactly conducive to living any sort of normal life. Unless you are a real masochist I suppose.

 

[grunt11]

But you've seen results with incline bench? I see you've included that in your cycle this time around.

I’ve never been able to get my chest to grow until I started combining heavy Flat Bench with medium myo-rep Incline Bench and heavy Dips. Now for the first time in my life I have some noticeable chest development.

 

[shakm]

But you've seen results with incline bench? I see you've included that in your cycle this time around

I want to say yes, but it was the first time i used them in my last cycle, so i'll have to wait at least one more cycle to be absolutely certain. I thinks dips play the major part in my chest development and am quite certain flat bench did almost nothing for me.

I've often wondered if my inability to put on weight had something to do with overtraining. I'm small framed, particularly in the upper body. Bony shoulders, that sort of thing.

Had the same issues - i have that 'amare stoudemire' shoulder type. I've always seen better results with the single set during the 20s-15s and i seemed to stop growing completely during 3 sets of 5s. With the single set during 5s it's much better now and i also don't worry about overtraining no more.

Leangains diet from what I recall is intermittent fasting? Eating for 8 hours/day but not necessarily cutting your calories dramatically

Yes, 8h per day. Calories are something i change according to my goals. During cutting it's working really well for me, especially whilst adding cardio at the very end of the 16h fast period.

During bulking it makes it difficult for me to gain any weight - so i have to resort to binging if i chose to use leangains (the lower overall volume of training has helped much too in gaining more weight).

Are you following the short bulk/cut cycles because you find that your muscle gains are minimal and also accompanied by too much fat gain? Ironically some of my best bulking/strength gains came during a 5-week Ultimate Diet 2.0 cycle. I'd hypothesized that nutrient partitioning may have been part of my problem and UD 2.0 seemed to specifically address that.

I leaned out while gaining some strength and muscle over 5 weeks. The workout/diet though was quite insane and not exactly conducive to living any sort of normal life. Unless you are a real masochist I suppose.

Actually i'm following the short bulk cycle because i want to be able to increase the weights more "dramaticaly". There are also some very key exercises for me (e.g. dips, chins) at which i can't go for much longer without resorting to repeating weights or doing very small increases.

Too much fat gain was my fault actually. Not counting calories and wanting to be certain i gaining as much muscle as possible. I chose not to care about adding fat during bulking and i don't regret my choice

I tried UD2 for some weeks for cutting. I saw some results, but - as you said - it was too brutal for so little results. Yet again i seem to need my carbs more regularly i guess.



@iwealth So since we seem to have somewhat similar bodytypes, what has worked best for you?

@grunt11 I really forgot to thank you for your advice - i'll definitely keep it in mind

 

[iwealth]

I wish I could say something has worked for me. I neglected my body with absolutely no physical activity for the first 29 years of my life.

Over the past 20 months I've tried:

- standard bodypart 1x/week splits
- stronglifts 5x5
- keeping constant reps while progressively increasing weights and using rest-pause to finish the rep # when necessary
- doing as many reps as possible followed up with rest-pause sets until I could only do a certain number of reps in those mini-sets while progressively increasing weights
- m-time reps
- HCT-12 (briefly, injury)
- UD 2.0 (5 weeks, intentionally brief)
- 5/3/1

I've put on little size with modest increases in strength over the past 20 months. I did preface it all with a 20 lb cut from 167 to 147 lbs. 20 months later I'm at 150-152.

People will say this is bouncing around way too much, and I agree. Wanted to find a workout I enjoyed and could stick with, so even if I liked something, I still tried something else. Some just flat out crushed me. 5x5 and HCT-12 just lead to pain and injury so I'll never revisit those. And I gave them all at least a couple months (besides HCT-12 and UD2).

I seem to have settled on full-body workouts with progressively increasing weights. I was happiest doing this and seemed to have the best strength gains and body composition improvements. Seems like you have as well, only difference being you limit your volume which is intriguing to me.

As much as I'd like to blame diet as the simple fix, maybe overtraining is the culprit or at least equally as damaging. I've never given low-volume a shot.

In a nutshell, I think you are on to something. And clearly it has worked for you. Good luck and thanks for the responses!

 

[_tim]

I thinks dips play the major part in my chest development and am quite certain flat bench did almost nothing for me.

I've always seen better results with the single set during the 20s-15s and i seemed to stop growing completely during 3 sets of 5s. With the single set during 5s it's much better now and i also don't worry about overtraining no more.

During bulking it makes it difficult for me to gain any weight - so i have to resort to binging if i chose to use leangains (the lower overall volume of training has helped much too in gaining more weight).

Actually i'm following the short bulk cycle because i want to be able to increase the weights more "dramaticaly". There are also some very key exercises for me (e.g. dips, chins) at which i can't go for much longer without resorting to repeating weights or doing very small increases.

I read through the posts here and couldn't resist throwing my hat in the ring. I chose the quote segments on purpose - those are what I want to focus on.

First - if you saw no mass gains from flat bench, I'd hazard a guess that form played a fairly major issue. There's a HUGE reason why flat bench is a staple in the powerlifting world; it engages the upper body in ways that other push movements don't. So - please don't take what I'm saying as criticism, but take another swing at flat bench and focus on form. Change grip width, change rep speed, ensure abject control over the bar (no chest bounce) and I absolutely promise you that you will see results from flat bench.

Second - you stop growing in a 3x5 orientation because it has more to do with strength than hypertrophy. You shouldn't grow with lesser rep sets, except over the long term. Thing is - hypertrophy and strength are symbiotic in nature; if you want explosive growth, you must have a sound foundation in strength. If there's one thing that I find to be a flaw in your program, it's that the strength element is not really present. It must be to be able to truly induce hypertrophy over a prolonged period of time.

Third - do some looking at the concept of a slow bulk. Essentially, it's eating slightly above maintenance during training phases. I'll let you do a deeper dive there if you like, and the only reason I mention it is that I think it may work better for you than outright bulking and subsequent fasting if weight is an issue.

Again - I'm not trying to come across as a jerk here, so I apologize if any element reads as such. There are THOUSANDS of ways to induce training results. My suggestions merely come from a place to perhaps give you another kernel of thought to add to your approach for better results over the long term. Seeing growth quickly isn't terribly likely unless you either use chemicals to assist or have an insane genetic makeup. Be patient with your training, and growth will happen. Good luck!

 

[shakm]

if you saw no mass gains from flat bench, I'd hazard a guess that form played a fairly major issue

I try to follow rippetoe's form on my exercises. So far squats, dips, bent over rows, deadlifts all have worked for me. Flat bench not so much. I'm not saying i won't ever use it again, but since dips+incline bench seems to be doing it, i'll keep them for the time being.

you stop growing in a 3x5 orientation because it has more to do with strength than hypertrophy

Could be. But since 1 set gave me noticable results and 3 sets almost overtrained me, i have to stick with the 1 set.

If there's one thing that I find to be a flaw in your program, it's that the strength element is not really present

Could you clarify this?

do some looking at the concept of a slow bulk. Essentially, it's eating slightly above maintenance during training phases. I'll let you do a deeper dive there if you like, and the only reason I mention it is that I think it may work better for you than outright bulking and subsequent fasting if weight is an issue

ok, you got me here. I admit that i'm a bit lazy in counting calories. I know it'd be better to slow bulk.

I'm not trying to come across as a jerk here, so I apologize if any element reads as such.

No offense taken. I always accept criticism if it aims to help me.

Seeing growth quickly isn't terribly likely unless you either use chemicals to assist or have an insane genetic makeup. Be patient with your training, and growth will happen. Good luck!

Thank you. I don't really have huge expectations, but i justify successful growth by it being at least visible (no matter how small).

 

[shakm]

I seem to have settled on full-body workouts with progressively increasing weights. I was happiest doing this and seemed to have the best strength gains and body composition improvements. Seems like you have as well, only difference being you limit your volume which is intriguing to me.

As much as I'd like to blame diet as the simple fix, maybe overtraining is the culprit or at least equally as damaging. I've never given low-volume a shot.

In a nutshell, I think you are on to something. And clearly it has worked for you. Good luck and thanks for the responses!

Thanks, good luck to you too

I just want to clarify something: I'm not saying that doing 1 set was all it takes for me to see a huge difference in gaining muscle. There are other things i have changed and unfortunately i can't be certain of their impact. For instance:
- Huge amount of calories
- More fat intake (although i try to focus on carbs and protein) and simple sugars
- Increasing omega 3's to 6gr (it used to be 2-3gr)
- Using exercises i hadn't used for a while, e.g. dips (i'm actually starting to observe a pattern that using an exercise that i didn't use in the last 1-2 cycles might be giving me superior growth)

 

[_tim]

First off - I have to compliment you in terms of how you're approaching this. You're following very appropriate channels to get answers and gain knowledge, which is so much more than what most folks do.

OK - firstly. If 3 sets of 5 reps overtrained you, the loads were vastly too high. Try finding what would be a 5-rep max, and then begin training with 80% of that load. I'll piggyback here on my strength comment since you wanted a tad bit of clarification. As I said in my first post, there are probably millions of different approaches that can be used to achieve physical results. If you follow the HST methodology of 15-10-5 rep ranges, you implicitly get muscle based stress to both incur hypertrophy and also to incur strength gain. Growth typically happens with moderate-rep sets. Emphasis on typically - that's not an "always". Thing is - as I said, hypertrophy and strength go hand in had to a point; typically for more hypertrophy, you need more strength. So - while I completely get the full-body gig, for the best results you should incorporate strength-based training too (that being lower-rep, higher load sets).

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Lol]

Hey shakm, it's great that you are approaching your training in the spirit of discovery!

Actually i'm following the short bulk cycle because i want to be able to increase the weights more "dramaticaly". There are also some very key exercises for me (e.g. dips, chins) at which i can't go for much longer without resorting to repeating weights or doing very small increases.

I feel that in your quest to 'increase weights more dramatically' each session, you may be compromising your training in another way: it is totally acceptable and usually a good idea to stick around at the heavy end of your cycle until you aren't making any progress and your body feels the need for some well earned SD or a back-off week/active-rest week, whatever. If your joints are aching or you have some niggling pains then it's probably time for a reset but otherwise I think you should keep lifting heavy stuff for longer! Add in a metabolic set for each major movement after you have completed all your heavy sets and you will grow—if you consume enough cals (include plenty of protein, fats and carbs).

Short cycles will be less productive over the long-term unless you start each cycle with heavy enough loads; if you are dropping back to loads in the region of your 15RM (or lighter) every four weeks then you will be spending most of your training sessions lifting relatively light loads. Lifting heavy stuff frequently will produce a strong PS response, especially once the loads are in the region of your 5RMs or heavier. It can take your muscle tissue quite a few sessions before RBE prevents any further adaptive response to such heavy loading. RBE takes effect more quickly at lighter loads which is why you are increasing loads frequently during an HST cycle up until you reach your 5RM loads. Once you get there, it's usually a good idea to stick with those loads for at least a few weeks, maybe even increase the loads further and drop to triples. This will also help you to build a good strength base to launch each new cycle from.

If you check the following tables, you can see how your main compound lifts stack up for someone of your bodyweight.

http://exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.html

You should be able to get to the high-end of the Intermediate category or the Advanced category with some concerted effort over a couple of years.

 

[shakm]

I think i'm going to try extending my 5's instead of moving straight to cutting when i reach them. I tried rippetoes starting strength before moving on to hst and it seemed to take about 1-2 weeks for me to stall at the 5's (all the while adding a little extra weight each workout, in the region of 0,5-1,25kg)

Add in a metabolic set for each major movement after you have completed all your heavy sets and you will grow—if you consume enough cals (include plenty of protein, fats and carbs)

Would that be e.g. a drop set? I've tried them in one of my past cycles and they didn't seem to boost my gains very much (it also made it harder to consume enough calories). Since i seem to rank as a novice (thanks for that link by the way! bookmarked) could it be that i don't need it "yet" ?

Short cycles will be less productive over the long-term unless you start each cycle with heavy enough loads;

I seem to gain a bit more from bodyweight exercises (which i have to start at a high weight - namely my bodyweight). I guess you re right. But does this mean that i should have longer cycles or does it mean that i should start heavier, whatever the cycle length may be?

If you check the following tables, you can see how your main compound lifts stack up for someone of your bodyweight.
http://exrx.net/Testing/WeightLiftin...Standards.html

This was a bit of a revelation for me: I always thought i was a low-intermediate, but it seems i'm very much a novice. Does this maybe mean that low volume only works for me for the time being? And if so, what should my next move be if i see growth slowing down? Will a single metabolic set do the trick?

Thanks for helping me out guys