Extreme Newbie, need help!

L

LeathaFace

New Member
Hi, ive just discovered about HST recently.. ive read through the whole site but im still completly clueless how the HST program works.. i have a few newbie questions to ask..

Firstly How do i start this program? where do i start first? how long should it go for? I'm not to sure about how the 'cycles' work or the incresment of weight..

also another question.. Where does SD come into the program? when should it be preformed.?

and my final last question.. how does the HST Calculator work?
 
Those questions are some of the first adressed after clicking on the HST tab on the top right of your screen.
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Almost all those questions are answered here.
http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html

Here are instructions for the HST calculator.
http://www.hypertrophy-specific.info/cgi-bin....;t=4730

Another thing you may want to look into is the HST FAQs. Had I known about them before I started reading up and asking about HST, I would have saved myself and fellow board members a lot of time and effort.
http://www.hypertrophy-specific.info/cgi-bin....;t=4624

I'm about to complete my first cycle of HST, and imo, this program is second to none when it comes to hypertrophy. The members of this board are also amazingly imformative and helpful, so I'll *try* to replicate the treatment they provide to almost all new, inquisitve HST'ers including myself.
 
Okay so basicly i start off with the 1x15rep cycle for 2 weeks? then after that 2x10rep cycle for 2 weeks? then 3x5rep? and neg? is that just max 2 reps with a spot?
and am i doing the max weight i can lift for each set?
 
Hi i have another question to ask..

so say im on the first day of my workout for the 15x rep cycle and say for bench press the max i can only lift for 15 perfect reps is 30kg and im doing 5kg incresments.. so does that mean for day 1 i only bench press 5kg 15 times?
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:S
 
You can repeat the same weight. Something more like 15kg, 20kg, 20kg, 25kg, 25kg, 30kg would be better than starting at only 20% of your 15RM.
 
A general rule of thumb that I've seen throughout the boards is that your larger lifts (ie. Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press) should be incremented by 10-20lbs and your "smaller" lifts (ie. Military Press, Barbell Curls, Weighted Dips, etc.) should be incremented by 5-10 lbs. These increments depend on your max. My squat is only at 145lbs for my 5RM (yes, I used to be a bench-aholic), so I also increment it by 10 lbs. People who squat about 300 and above usually choose the heavier end of the 10-20lb increment range. I guess increments would be A LOT easier if they were in pounds rather than kilos because they are so much smaller. So if your 5RM on your bench is 30kg (or 66 lbs, if I'm not mistaken) I would suggest incrementing it by 5lbs each workout (I know, I know, that doesn't come out too well when converted to kg's
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) To make numbers look nice, I'll round 66 to 70; it would look like this: 45,50,55,60,65,70lbs.

I'm not an expert on HST, so these are merely the observations and opinions I've made from reading these boards.
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Good point by ACMana. I was thinking that you'd said you were limited to 5kg increments, but you didn't say that. So if you can do smaller 1.25 or 2.5 kg at a time, do that. That and repeating weights sometimes should help you have more reasonable starting weights.
 
Okay.. well im going to find out my maxes starting from tommorow.. and hopefully start my program next week..  can you guys help me out with the exercises i should be doing.. i basicly copied the one from the HST tab.. ive got down..
=====
Squats

incline bench press
Dips

wide grip chins
seated row

shoulder press
lateral raises
rear delt
shrugs

DB Curls
Tri push down

abs
======

Is that alright or is there too much? how should i modify it?

is that enough exercises for back and chest?

and also im a skinny guy.. im looking to pack as much lean muscle as i can on not too fussed about abit of fat either.. what type of foods should i be eating? as i think i lack gains because of my lack of diet
 
The mixture is fine, include deadlifts and laternate with squats.

Change the wide grip chins to reverse close grip as you can lift more and probably even load with weights later.

Here's and example:

Workout A
Squats
incline bench press
Reverse close grip chins
shoulder press
abs

Workout B
Deadlifts with shrug at end of each rep
Dips
seated row
lateral raises + rear delt (superset)
abs

Save these guys for 5's, include them only then (1 to 2 sets)
Incline DB Curls/Tri push down superset (A)
Incline DB Curls/Skullcrushers superset (B)

go 15's x 1 set/10's 2 sets/5's 3 sets.

Eat as if it was your job, as clean as you can, avoid pies, excess animal fats, go for clean protein. Look up the nutrition forum for tips.

Eat 500 - 1000 calories above basal metabolic requirement.
 
Sweet Thanks a lot mate.. ill be hitting the gym today to find out my maxes.. hopefully i get some good results at the end of this
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<div>
(Fausto @ Sep. 03 2006,09:12)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Eat as if it was your job, as clean as you can, avoid pies, excess animal fats, go for clean protein. Look up the nutrition forum for tips.</div>
That's a really good way to look at it, eat as if it were your job.

&quot;avoid Pies&quot; - now that's just cruel...
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">eat as if it were your job</div>

Re-quoted from a comment of TOTENTANZ
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I didn't realise i was so weak
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i did my test 2 see my maxes for RM15

this is how it came out;
RM15

Squats - 60kg
Deadlifts - 60kg
Incline BB - 35kg
Reverse grip chins (with supported weight.. still to weak 25kg help)
Shoulder press - 31kg
Seated row - 42kg
Lateral raises - 12.5kg dumb bells
real delts - 12.5kg dumb bells
Shrugs - 50kg (using smith machine, find them the best for me)

So how would i work out incresments for 15s now?
i feel so weak? :'(
 
What's the minimum decrease you can do for the various exercises? For the 15s I'd personally do:

Squats - 35, 40, 45, 50,55, 60
Deadlifts - same
Incline BB - 22.5, 25, 27.5, 30, 32.5, 35
Assisted Chins - 1 plate each time (or half increments if you can)
Shoulder press - 17.5, 20, 22.5, 25, 27.5, 30 (how'd you get 31?)
Seated row - 1 plate each time (or half)
Lateral raises - 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12.5
Real Delts - same
Shrugs - 37.5, 40, 42.5, 45, 47.5, 50

I'm a purist when it comes to progressive load, I don't believe in repeating weights, remember the first few days are supposed to be easy and 15s are more for readying your joints and tendons for the 10s and 5s than they are about building. Some say never go below 70% of your RM, in which case repeat weights, no biggie either way. So for deads/squats you might go 45, 50, 50, 55, 55, 60 or whatever.
 
<div>
(Fausto @ Sep. 04 2006,08:58)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Peak's on to something here...spoon feeding</div>
Hey, I work at a corporate gym, spoon feeding is what I do for a living!
 
I would scrap lateral raises and rear delts at this stage and focus on the big lifts to get your strength up. Once you have done a few cycles of presses you could introduce bent-over laterals if you really want to do them. Try to do standing presses if you can as you can continue to increment the weight during post 5s by doing push presses to get the weight up (where you use your legs to aid lifting).

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"> hopefully i get some good results at the end of this</div>
If you eat properly and train properly you will not fail to get good results (unless your test levels are through the floor, which I doubt
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).

Just as a bit of an incentive: About 11 months ago I could only manage 10 squats with 185lb. This cycle I am doing 10 reps with 275lbs plus I am going much deeper now (A to G). A year whistles by when you train regularly so keep it up and you will reap your reward.
 
<div>
(Lol @ Sep. 04 2006,20:21)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Just as a bit of an incentive: About 11 months ago I could only manage 10 squats with 185lb. This cycle I am doing 10 reps with 275lbs plus I am going much deeper now (A to G). A year whistles by when you train regularly so keep it up and you will reap your reward.</div>
Those are great gains! For anyone who doesn't realize it, ATG is MUCH harder than parallel or above.

I cut my weights to less than half when I switched to ATG, though so far I've had excellent size increases since the switch. Admittedly, I wasn't even going to parallel before, but I wanted to make the point that as good as the poundage increase is, it's even much better given the switch to ATG style.

As a relative newbie around here myself, I like seeing such reports also.
 
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