First HST cycle - need advice

A

amazinglarry104

New Member
Hey everyone, I'm starting my first cycle. Finding out my maxes this week. I plan on doing 1x15 , 2x10, and 3x5.

These are the exercises I picked

- Leg Press (I currently cant do squats because I am recovering from a hip injury)
- Bench Press
- Pull Ups
- Shoulder Press
- V-bar Rows
- Dips
- Curls
- Skull Crushers
- Calves
- Abs



- Is this set of exercises good? I haven't done this before, so I'm looking for some advice.
- Also, for some lifts like pull ups and dips I need assistance to do 15. Is that ok?


Thanks
 
Looks like a good selection of exercises to me. I’m assuming that since you can’t do Squats that Deadlifts are also out of the question. If not you might consider doing Deadlifts since IMO they are the best single mass building exercise. The only other thing you might consider is something like side lateral raises to hit you middle delt not only to help it keep up with the front but also since wider delts will help make you look bigger in or out of a shirt.

There’s no problem at all using assistance for body weight exercises. It allows you to follow the principle of progressive loading just like any other exercise.
 
Personally, I'd ditch the curls and skullcrushers, however counterintuitive that may seem to you. In my current cycle, which is at its end, I've noticed tremendous growth in my legs (+1.5 inches so far, still have to do negatives). My arms weren't showing such progress at all. For my legs I did Leg Press, Leg Extension, SLDL NEVER EVER even going NEAR failure. It actually felt comfortable, seriously, and they showed the best growth. My arms I did the same for as you, but I've kicked the curls/tri iso's, as they weren't growing for **** (I also 'tried' more for my arms, going to failure or close to kind of frequently, which only hampered progress, in retrospect).

You're doing rows, pull ups, bench press, shoulder press, dips for your arms. Adding those arm iso's would mean 8 exercises just for your arms. Compare that to the 1 exercise you're using to stimulate the legs (Leg Press), which are bigger.

You're going to get in time-trouble when at the end of the 5s weeks. 10x3 = 30 sets in one workout with 3 mins of rest between every set as you're training at max.

What to take away from this:
- ditch the arms iso's (curls, skull crushers)
- embrace the fact that sometimes, training sessions will be easy
- Stay AWAY from failure as much as possible
- +2-3% on loads every single training session, don't zig-zag
 
Last edited:
grunt11 said:
If not you might consider doing Deadlifts since IMO they are the best single mass building exercise.
Click to expand...

hey Grunt, what u mean deadlift? there is only 1 deadlift rite? which is SLDL right? or is this deadlift that u talk about called triple extension?
 
I would start with the standard Deadlift at first since it allows you to use more weight when lifting off the floor than SLDL or Romanian Deadlifts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syt7A23YnpA

The first video shows conventional style but another common style is Sumo which looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOhWfhvJPLE

For hypertrophy the conventional style is probably best since you work through a greater range of motion. If you’re just starting out Deadlifting I would recommend conventional style unless you have lower back problems which might benefit from the more upright posture of Sumo Style. I assumed that you might not be able to Deadlift if you can’t Squat since it involves many of the same muscles moving in a similar way. If it turns out that your problem just prevents you from starting out low then you could try Rack Pulls which is just like doing a Deadlift but start out with the bar elevated, sitting on the safety bars of a power rack, or some people put the weights themselves on sturdy boxes since that allows the bar to flex from the start of the lift which makes if more like a regular Deadlift. But I wouldn’t worry about the bar really flexing until you’re putting at least 4 x 45 lbs. plates on each side.
 
thanks for the help.

I found all my maxes last week, and I just finished writing up the routine. The weights zig zag a bit, but from what I've heard that isn't really a bad thing. Also, I tried to keep the lowest weight between 70 and 75% of the max, which means I have to repeat a weight 1 or 2 times for a few of the lifts. Is that ok?

Here is the routine
Thanks

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Backing what G11 says looks good. When getting into 5's it might be beneficial to drop down to only the first four exercises to focus on strength gains and aid in recovery. Your workouts will get rather lengthy at this point with 11 exercises probably 1hr and a half plus.

You could try an alternating A/B routine as such
A/B
Bench/Dip
Pulldown/V Bar Row
Shoulder press
Leg Press

Just a suggestion not the gospel. Good Luck and look forward to seeing your progress
 
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