Frequency

J

Joe.Muscle

Active Member
Hey guys long time no talk!

As far as Frequency goes are the majority of you guys here running HST as a 3 day a week full body routine or 4 day a week upper / lower .....upper / lower routine?

Just curious as to what a lot of the veterans are doing...who have been here like myself over the years.

I switched my training a couple of months ago to upper on Monday / lower on Wednesday / and....full body on Saturday routine...and saw gains for the first time in a while ( I am guessing from the additiononal work per session).

However I still prefer full body workouts for simplicity.

Just curious as to what everyone else expierence has been.
 
Hey Joe! Good to hear.

My training is quite different these days. I'm not looking to gain in upper-body mass much at all. I'm just after a bit of extra leg strength and size so I can improve my O-lifts. That translates to me squatting quite a lot, in one form or another.

My O-lifting has me squatting with lighter loads and then I try to do at least two heavier sessions. Right now, I'm learning to squat as deeply as possible with good form which has meant going back to lighter loads and improving my mobility and flexibility. It's a gradual process. My leg training is still HST based in that I'm progressing the loading over a cycle. I'll be working up to heavy triples but they won't be heavy like low-bar back squats used to be as I just can't shift the same loads with fully ATG high-bar back squats or front squats.
 
Hey Joe. Good to see you! How's life?

My current cycle is 4 full HST workouts with AM/PM split to complete one HST full body workout. It's about 20 to 25 minutes in the AM and 20 to 25 minutes in the PM. Having a home gym gives me this luxury that most working guys cannot fit into their schedules. I could probably fit it easily into a one hour, once per day, 4 times per week scheme but I like to stay fresh and not wrung out after workouts.

Previous to that I was doing 3 full HST routines over 6 days with, for example, AM/PM on Monday and AM/M on Tuesday to complete one HST workout. It worked very well but was too much volume so I increased frequency but cut the number of workouts from 12 to 8. So far, so good. I respond best to high frequency, low volume and steadily increasing load. I do not believe muscles need much rest but stop responding after a certain number of sets and all you are doing is burning calories and risking injury. 95% of lifters, however, would disagree and stick to 12-15 sets per bodypart and working the body in total only once per week. When they stop growing, which is pretty quickly, they blame it on genetics and start with bigger and bigger loads of steroids. Then they look like pumpkins with clothes on. :rolleyes:

I hope that makes sense. I sometimes visualize things in my head but do not put them in writing so well.

O&G :cool:
 
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I still do 3 times a week. I don't have time for more than that.

Still making gains too. Or I was, when I was bulking.
 
I workout about 3x/week during the 10s and starting the 5s. During the 5s, as things get heavier, I drop it to about every 72 hours, and when I am pushing PRs and new territory in terms of strength and mass, I need more recovery between workouts and drop it to about 2x/week. My best gains seems to be with heavier loads and roughly 2x/week frequency.
72 hours seems to be about ideal between stressful workouts for me.
 
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The varied opinions here goes to show that we are all different in what our bodies can take etc. It is always good to read/learn what others are doing and trying as it helps us think outside the box.

For me, I am trying some high frequency on lagging body parts to see what happens. I won't do this long term though. I am thinking the occasional 2 week blocks just to see. For biceps and triceps, I am training 5 days a week with weekends off. On my body, these muscles seem to really take a beating and then recover fast. I am attempting to see how fast I can add 3/4" here. Just my own competition going on...
 
Hi

Just to add my views..

Over the years I have pimped and tweaked most of the varieties and all that, but, ultimately, for convenience as much as anything (family life and work commitments) I always end up back doing the basics, in Vanilla flavouring (British spelling :D)

2 week macro-cycles, 3 X week for 15s and 10s, and then, as I've got older and weaker, on advice from Bryan, I have now dropped down to 2 X week for 5s and negs - though still 6 workouts per macro-cycle, (so that becomes three week macro-cycles,) stretching the whole HST cycle out to 10 weeks before I SD.

Hope that makes sense? At least it does in my head...

Brix
 
Old and Grey said:
Blimey Brix, you must have some kind of funny math these days in London. I only see 7 weeks unless you do 6 weeks of 5's but I like the idea and may steal it this fall. Much better on the old joints. London has been in decline ever since you let those brightly coloured taxis in! :)
Click to expand...

2 weeks 15s,
2 weeks 10s,
3 weeks 5s,
3 weeks negatives.
 
Current:
1 week 15s
2 weeks 10s
2 weeks 5s
1 week testing maxes

Moving to:
1 week 15s
3 weeks 10s
3 weeks 5s

3 times per week on full body work outs,
 
O&G

re negs, I only do a handful of heavy basics. Normal leg press or squat, with 5 rep max, then neg dips and chins, and depending on my energy levels, maybe rack pulls and or calf raises/toe presses

I have tried one legged neg squats, but as Im getting older and this is more for maintenance than bulking, I just stick with 5 rep max squats or leg presses (have had a prolapsed disc a couple of years ago, so tend to leg press more than squat these days)

Brix
 
Not that I'm a HST Veteran, but I'll add my $.02.

First 2 cycles I did 2 weeks of 15s, 2 weeks of 10s, and 4 weeks of 5's. This last cycle I skipped 15's and did 2 weeks of 10s and then, I think, 10 weeks of 5's... which may have been too long. I just kept going with 5's until I pretty well stalled on strength progression; then I maintained those loads for another 2 weeks... then finished with 2 weeks of a comination of negatives (5xnegs with 1-2rm weight) and 1rm attempts.

Next cycle, I'm going to do
2 weeks 15's
2 weeks 10's
4 weeks 5's
1 week negs
1 week combination of negs and 1rm attempts

Definitely the strongest and biggest I've ever been.
 
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