Dialing up HST for a cut

You don't do negatives on a cut, you just extend the fives. Don't go to failure, just continue using your 5 RM for two weeks or however long you need to continue to finish your cut.
 
Totentanz said:
You don't do negatives on a cut, you just extend the fives. Don't go to failure, just continue using your 5 RM for two weeks or however long you need to continue to finish your cut.
Click to expand...

Understood.
Thinking about jumping into a 3 day split once I'm done with this cycle. Read somewhere it's always good to switch up the routine to sort of " confuse " the body. Looking to make some gains perhaps add some mass in arms/back/chest. I know this is HST forum but with your expertise on all of these subjects was wondering what you think of this 3 day split I want to implement.

Monday = Chest/Triceps:
Flat Bench Press
Incline Bench Press
Fly's
Tricep Pushdown
Dips
Overhead Tricep ( not sure of the technical terminology here ).

Wednesday= Back/Biceps
Lat Pull down
Rows
will think of a 3rd
Bicep Curl
Hammer
Concentration

Friday= Legs/Shoulders ( Legs are solid already )
Frontal raises
Lateral
Shoulder Press
Leg press
extensions
calve raises.

6'3 218 pounds right now hoping for bigger arms wider back and tone the chest a bit, can see the muscle in the chest but isn't well rounded yet.

Thanks again if you have the time to reply.
 
Sguzbk7624 said:
Understood.
Thinking about jumping into a 3 day split once I'm done with this cycle. Read somewhere it's always good to switch up the routine to sort of " confuse " the body. Looking to make some gains perhaps add some mass in arms/back/chest. I know this is HST forum but with your expertise on all of these subjects was wondering what you think of this 3 day split I want to implement.

Monday = Chest/Triceps:
Flat Bench Press
Incline Bench Press
Fly's
Tricep Pushdown
Dips
Overhead Tricep ( not sure of the technical terminology here ).

Wednesday= Back/Biceps
Lat Pull down
Rows
will think of a 3rd
Bicep Curl
Hammer
Concentration

Friday= Legs/Shoulders ( Legs are solid already )
Frontal raises
Lateral
Shoulder Press
Leg press
extensions
calve raises.

6'3 218 pounds right now hoping for bigger arms wider back and tone the chest a bit, can see the muscle in the chest but isn't well rounded yet.

Thanks again if you have the time to reply.
Click to expand...

@Sguzbk7624

I believe Totentanz has already commented on a 3 day split (see post below) - you say you want to add mass to arms, back and chest but you are only going to train them once a week!!! I would advise that you stick with the exercises that Totentanz listed in the post below (add in direct arm work if you must) rather than go back to training each body part once per week.


BTW muscles cannot get confused, if you want to change the routine to relieve boredom that is a different matter..

Totentanz said:
Depends on what you mean by 3 day split. If you are hitting the whole body at least 2 x a week then that would be fine. Obviously HST as outlined in this thread would probably be better, and lifting more frequently will increase the amount of calories burned. With this layout, you'll be keeping protein synthesis raised for a longer period in all muscle groups than you would on a typical split. That means that more of the weight you lose will be fat, rather than losing more lean mass.

For your routine, if your goal is to cut and maintain muscle, you need to simplify it a bit to focus on multi joint exercises that will provide as much overlap as possible. So drop the curls and pushdowns, arms get plenty of stimulus from back and chest exercises when on a cut. Add in some kind of rowing movement or rack pulls to get better back coverage. You need something for ham strings as well. You don't need to do calves on a cut either, they aren't going to grow anyway and they get enough stimulus from quad exercises, cardio and daily walking to maintain.

Flat Bench
Rack pull or some kind of row (bentover or cable)
Lat Pulldown
Military Press
Leg Press or Squat
SLDL

That should be plenty to maintain. Don't worry, arms and calves won't shrink aside from what's normal from less glycogen storage, etc. If you do this routine three or four times a week, then do cardio only 2-3 times a week. You'll need to manage leg volume for lifts around cardio. If cardio is compromising your leg exercises, then you would want to cut back cardio first. Cardio won't maintain quad/ham mass as well as doing leg press and sldl will.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Appreciate the response Mickc. I believe that post was detailing the HST on a cut which I did and almost done with. At this point hoping to maintain weight and turn any fat left into muscle or perhaps gain something like 5-10 pounds of muscle which is why I wanted to switch it up a bit.

I know it's once a week but I was thinking of doing 3 sets for each exercise and always adding on more weight for mass along with eating well.
Friend of mine does a routine where he essentially hits the whole body but doesn't do just 1 workout per body but instead 2-3 and lots of super sets not sure what kind of routine that is but he says it's working for him.

I know I can do HST to bulk as well but might switch it up, perhaps anyone else has a suggestion?

Thanks fellas.
 
Sguzbk7624 said:
Appreciate the response Mickc. I believe that post was detailing the HST on a cut which I did and almost done with. At this point hoping to maintain weight and turn any fat left into muscle or perhaps gain something like 5-10 pounds of muscle which is why I wanted to switch it up a bit.

I know it's once a week but I was thinking of doing 3 sets for each exercise and always adding on more weight for mass along with eating well.
Friend of mine does a routine where he essentially hits the whole body but doesn't do just 1 workout per body but instead 2-3 and lots of super sets not sure what kind of routine that is but he says it's working for him.
Click to expand...

I would still rather see you do a full body routine 3 days a week even if you do three sets of one exercise for chest, triceps, back, biceps, shoulders and legs - just remember when you train a particular muscle it grows for a day maybe two maximum, so if you train a muscle once a week it is only growing once a week for 2 days whereas if you train it three times a week then it is pretty much in a state of continuous growth, frequency is key to growth!!!
 
There is never any reason to switch it up unless you have an injury, have some specific lift you need to train for or unless you want to reduce progress. When you do an exercise consistently, the nervous system learns this movement and so most of the training impacts your muscles rather than the neural component. Change out lifts and suddenly your nervous system has to learn or relearn a lift and so the actual impact on your muscles is reduced until your neural coordination on the lift balances out. Switching it up is one of the worst things you can do to improve muscle growth.
 
I've been on a cut for 8 weeks, lost almost 12 pounds, fat % down to maybe 14%. I think I was able to maintain most of my muscles by lifting heavy, 6 rep max. Did the same compound exercises 3 times a week as when on the previous HST cycle. HIIT Cardio only in the last 2-3 weeks 2x a week (I walk a lot). I've used to lift but I took some time off, so officially, I've been lifting since September 2014 and have gone through 2 cycles of HST.

Wanted to start a new HST cycle doing the full body 3 days a week again. As I'm coming out of a cut, I've been increasing my calories for losing 1 lb a week to .5 lb week for this week. Then planning on increasing it again to full maintenance the following week, and then a slight surplus going forth while doing the next HST cycle. I want to have lean gains. Does the slight surplus sound ok to everyone or should I go on an all out bulk?

My other question is, should I do an SD? I was thinking of not doing an SD, and start with 10s. Should I start with 15s? Since I've been hitting heavy during the cut for the past 8 weeks, I was thinking my body could use a deload of a sort. Thanks for reading.
 
Yes to SD. I would personally do the 15's as they are a great way to prevent injury. However, they can be skipped or limited to 1 week. I am not a fan of big bulks and big cuts. I prefer to add weight slowly. However, many people have a lot of success with big bulks so I think it is a matter of individual choice.
 
Any reason not to hit my 5 rm every workout on a cut? I'm kind of freaking out that I could be losing strength and not knowing it. I've already shortened my cycly so that it is only 1.5 weeks. But since RBE isn't an issue during a cut, I wonder why I'm bothering with the lower weights of the 5's at all.
 
OK I misunderstood. I see no benefit to lowering the weights in that case as long as your tendons and joints can tolerate it.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

so if I wanna cut on HST will ich stick to my 10 and 5 RM MAX? So do 2 weeks of 10RM and than stay with the 5s?

Or will i still progress to my 10/5 RM max using something like 70, 75, 80 95....% of my 10/5 Max?
 
Assuming you are going to be taking a 9 day SD prior to starting HST as discussed in another thread I would stick with the 75-100% set up for both rep blocks then continue at your 5 rep max until your holiday.

Are you not going to do the RFL now?
 
Yes, I am on RFL right now. I was just curious in genereal, since the ebook does not seem to provide detailed information, wether one should use max. RM EVERY workout or ramp up to max over 2 weeks+ during a cut.
 
I would ramp up each rep block assuming SD had been done and then extend the 5s at max load and lowering the load say to 80 or 85% only when fatigue sets in / joint issues and then ramp back up to max loads again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top