32YO / 183cm / 85kg. Previously very active (Ex Military). Started a HST programme by the book 10 weeks ago and did 9 weeks then was on holiday so took my SD over the next 10 days. I was following a IIFYM diet aiming for 3500kcal per day with the following split. Carbs: 317 G per day. Protein: 211 G per day. Fats: 78 G per day. I found it hard to eat clean enough but hit my goals. Put on a lot of weight 79kg to 86kg over 10 weeks (granted some may be due to full stomach and water retention) and took before and afters but didnt feel like they looked alot different. Took measurements but found it hard to compare them as I cannot remeber body position, tense or not etc. Measurements were: waist 87cm hips - 94cm chest - 96cm biceps - 32cm thigh - 57cm forearm - 27cm calf - 37cm neck 36.5com shoulders 116cm I have just started a new cycle of HST and wanted to tone down a few of the more isolated exercises in favour of more compound movements. I previously had a triceip isolation, upright row, lateral raises and ring dips included. This is what my routine looks like (plus doing some hanging leg raise and pullups per sessoin) Squat x2 20.5 25.5 30.5 35.5 40.5 45.5 27.5 32.5 37.5 42.5 47.5 52.5 34.5 39.5 44.5 49.5 54.5 59.5 Chest Press x3 34.3 36.8 39.3 41.8 44.3 46.8 41.5 44 46.5 49 51.5 54 48.7 51.2 53.7 56.2 58.7 61.2 Should Press x3 7 9.5 12 14.5 17 19.5 10 12.5 15 17.5 20 22.5 13 15.5 18 20.5 23 25.5 Bicep Curl x3 8.3 10.8 13.3 15.8 18.3 20.8 11.5 14 16.5 19 21.5 24 14.7 17.2 19.7 22.2 24.7 27.2 Bent over row x2 16.75 19.25 21.75 24.25 26.75 29.25 21.25 23.75 26.25 28.75 31.25 33.75 25.75 28.25 30.75 33.25 35.75 38.25 I would be greatful of any comments to see if something is terribly wrong at any level here.
Hi - No sorry. It wouldnt let me paste well from a spreadsheet. What you have there are the exercise name and x number of reps. The figures underneath are the progressive weights in KG that they will use in each session. Example: Squat x2 20.5 25.5 30.5 35.5 40.5 45.5 27.5 32.5 37.5 42.5 47.5 52.5 34.5 39.5 44.5 49.5 54.5 59.5 This is 2 sets of squats in each session, first session is 20.5kg, next 25.5kg and so on for 18 sessions (3 sessions a week using the 15,10,5 model of HST).
Gotcha!! Don’t be afraid to push the progression and weights harder if the strength is there. Although progressive overload and frequency is key, it’s also Important that the weights are heavy enough to cause stress to the muscles and drive hypertrophy/strength Personally I would ditch the bicep curls and replace with chin ups and add tricep dips. I find Chins superior for bicep growth than bicep curls and tricep dips add overall arm size and help improve other pressing movements
I can hapily switch out the curls for pullups but struggled with the concept of bodyweight exercises in HST. I didnt really understand how I could have the progression unless I had one of those counterweighted rigs (I dont) and as I would expect that 15 chins would probably not be do-able in one go for me I would need some aid to get through to begin with (I do have a belt to add weights for th 10s and 5s). How would you tackle this? Negatives? and how exactly are they incorporated e.g. 5 chins and 10 negs and then slowly changing the balances? I can certainly look at bringing in the tricep dips too -I was curling last night knowing that the tricep makes up more of the arm mass but psycologically it still feels like biceps are more important. For the rest though the volume and weight seems in line.
For bodyweight exercises you can keep the reps constant if you have a weight belt for example I would do Session one 2-3 sets of 8 reps @bodyweight Session two 2-3 sets of 8 reps with extra weight Then keep adding weight when you can Or you can add sets So 1x8 week one week two 2x8 Week 3 3x8 This way it’s stil progressive overload as the volume is increasing I try not to get to tied down to the 15-10-5 rep scheme especially with the accessories Also I don’t work to much about negatives I think the consensus now are Myo reps are more effective (there are a few threads on here on that) What are you goals? Strength or just hypertrophy?
The Myoreps is my next question when I get all this sorted - it kind of blew my mind. Only looking for hypertrophy really.
Cheers Browner. Will post some pics when I get the chance with second round of measurements. Didnt see alot of progress after fist 10months or so but may be over expecting.
Following up on this one. I was wondering about the progression. I finsih my 15s and move to 10s, but the starting weight for the first week of 10s is less than the finishing weight for the last session of 15s. This happens again with the 5s. It takes me 2 sessions before I am hitting the same weight as the final round in the previous week. Does this not go against the concept of constant progression and overload? I cannot start on the same or heavier weight as I dont have the strength to progress through 6 incremnets if that is the case.
Yep, totally fine. It's called zigzagging, have a look in the HST FAQ and it talks about it. As long as overall progression in the cycle is happening that's fine, it doesn't have to happen every single session. And it's also a nice back off recovery for the system, so I like zigzags
