Curious: what's the level of adoption of HST in the resistance training community?

N

nislyj

New Member
I am admittedly very new to the whole resistance training community and even newer to the idea of HST. I discovered it about two weeks ago while googling muscle hypertrophy and was instantly fascinated by the idea of a program developed around science instead of folklore.

I started reading everything I could find about it including several articles on bodybuilding.com, tnation, and various other websites and forum posts. After finding references to HST on these seemingly mainstream fitness websites, I started to assume that HST was a fairly widely known concept in the fitness community, but every time I mention it to someone who's been doing this longer than I have, I have gotten nothing but blank stares. I also noticed that the large majority of articles and forum posts dated back at least several years; almost as if interest peaked at some point.

So that all got me wondering about where and how HST fits into the whole fitness community as a whole. Is it a fairly widely known concept in use by many trainers and bodybuilders, or is it more of a niche corner with a small, but dedicated following?

I for one, am very glad that I found it, and I just finished my first week of my first cycle this morning.
 
Real science is boring to most people. Plus, everyone tends to follow the advice of muscle mags and pros who are using advantageous drug methods generally.

As such, HST remains a niche for science-geeks and hardcore bodybuilder/needs. Really though, HST is just a scientific set of principles which any successful training program will tend to utilize the same principles.

I think what makes HST unique is the Strategic deconditioning method, followed by cycled load progression at high frequency. It's the best method, but other programs that use progressive load will also have some success, so HST hasn't ever caught on as " the thing" or the latest training fad.
 
I can only really speak from won experience but I seem to be the only person at my gym following HST. Its a very big gym so obviously dont see everyone who trains but it seems the most popular protocol is a body-part split routine. Ive only ever spoken to one person there who did full-body several times per week. He didnt, however, log his workouts. Ive seen a few who work the same body part more than once a week but still not using HST principles. Ive been "body-building" for roughly fifteen years and have never seen or Heard of it until I googled hypertrophy and stumbled upon this site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top