Frist week of 15's down - I'm loving this!

[Rotlex]

I was going to hold off on posting about my first HST experience until I got into the 10's, but after today's workout, I just had to release a little excitement.

This is my first cycle of HST. Been doing a split routine for the past 10 months or so, and felt I needed something different. Well, I came off of my 9 day SD, and started my 15's this week. I thought I was going to hate them, and much to my surprise, I am enjoying the heck out of it, LOL. Maybe it has to do with taking 9 days off prior, but the burn and pump I am getting from this workout feel better than anything I have had before. I'm done with the workout in just over an hour, and I feel more energized than I can possibly believe. Also, while I think it's a combination of SD, taking up my calories, and really pushing my first week into this, I've managed to gain 2 pounds, and keep my BF% unchanged. (I'm currently 192lb at 12% and started two weeks ago, before SD, at around 190lb)

Basically, I ended today's 15's with the following exercises and weights. Been doing 5lb increments, and will finish up the 15's next Friday:

Squats - 2x15@170
Leg curls - 2x15@110
Leg press - 2x15@255
Incline bench - 2x15@140
Dips - 2x15@25lb on dipping belt
Pull ups - 2x15@55lb assist (Been incrementing these backwards)
Military press - 2x15@120
Bent over rows - 2x15@100
Barbell shrugs - 2x15@235
Nautilus rear delt - 2x15@110
Incline Dumbell curls - 2x15@35
Skullcrushers - 2x15@60
Seated calf raise - 2x15@240

I think I've gone a little light on some of the movements, but I'm trying to keep 100% strict form throughout. I've found, that in the past 3 days, this has helped my squat tremendously. I have to admit to myself that for the first time in a LONG time, I'm actually doing ATTF and "feeling" it more than I ever have. When I get to the 10's, my weights are going up quite a bit, but I want to make sure I don't sacrifice form for weight.

I guess that's it for now, but I wanted to once again say thanks to everyone on these boards, and to Bryan, for having this site! It think this may truly be what I have been looking for for a VERY long time!
Until next time, and have a great weekend all!

 

[Dave16]

Sounds like you're enjoying the program so far. Its nice when you're workout doesn't feel like work. I'm new to this too and will be starting my first cycle in 2 weeks after a 9 day SD.

Why have you chosen to do 2 sets in the 15 rep phase? Most people seem to recommend 1 set for ther 15s, 2 sets for the 10s and even 3 sets for the 5s.

Also, why are you doing leg presses and squats in the same workout? Isn't that a bit much?

 

[Rotlex]

Dave,

As far as the two sets on the 15's, I guess I just planned initially on doing 2 sets throughout the whole cycle. As I'm pretty used to maxing out to total failure, doing multiple sets and exercises per body part on a split, I just can't get past the mental barrier of only doing one set of anything. My thoughts may change on this when my next cycle starts, depending on where I start with the weight though.

I guess the same goes for squats and leg presses. Coming off of a long run of heavy leg work, that used to include multiple exercises, and probably 20 sets just for legs, having these two together for a total of 4 sets, just seemed "right" to me. Also, I'm not doing deads on this cycle, not really sure why, LOL, and so far, the combo is working out fairly well. When I get to the 5's, if I up the sets to 3, I may drop the leg press or rotate the squats and leg press.

Bottom line is I'm just getting used to this after a lot of reading, and will probably make some changes after the complete cycle, and another SD. (Hopefully by Christmas time).

 

[Hardrock]

Great to here you are liking the program. Word of caution: be careful with the volume- you are doing alot of exercises which may push you into overtraining if you're not careful.

 

[faz]

rotlex if it gets to heavy in the 5s you could drop leg press-curls..and even the db curls,skullcrushers.

dave you can do as many sets as you can handle just dont get carried away

 

[Rotlex]

2-->

Quote[/b] (faz @ Nov. 18 2005,12

2)]rotlex if it gets to heavy in the 5s you could drop leg press-curls..and even the db curls,skullcrushers.
dave you can do as many sets as you can handle just dont get carried away

Faz, I was actually thinking the same things about the arm work. I can't believe I'd actually say that, as I used to reserve a day just for bi's and tri's, LOL, but I'm finding that they are getting a GOOD amount of work in just off the other exercises. When I get to the 5's, I may in fact just drop them altogether.

 

[colby2152]

Great to see your enjoying your first round of HST and that you are concentrating on sticking to the principals!

And I agree with Hardrock, watch out for the volume so you don't overtrain. You have a lot of exercises. If you drop the iso's in the 5's, then all you need to do is watch out how you do the 10's. When I do my cycles, at the beginning of the 15's, I go 2-3 sets.. it's all by feel... but I didn't have as many exercises as you do.

Best of luck!

-Colby

 

[imported_goal220]

Quote[/b] (Hardrock @ Nov. 18 2005,11:51)]Great to here you are liking the program. Word of caution: be careful with the volume- you are doing alot of exercises which may push you into overtraining if you're not careful.

I was going to say the same thing. 13 excercizes is quite a lot to do in 60 minutes. In my opinion, you should drop the Nautilus rear delt, choose either bb rows OR pullups, and choose either dips or skull crushers (most people round here from what I've read would keep the dips on this one). That will give you 10 and remove the redundant excercizes. 10 excercizes is plenty.

Other than that, it sounds like you're doing really well. You might want to boost your cals a bit. If you're willing to add a little fat, you'll most likely find that you will gain LBM at even faster rate, which in your case, would put you at the upper end of gains for people doing their first cycle. Great stuff man and keep it up.

 

[Lol]

Hey Rotlex,

Sounds like you're enjoying HST as much as me!

I've just completed the 15s of my first cycle. I have been doing 1 set each of 14 exercises. First week felt easy, second week was tougher but I easily made my "all max" day yesterday. I intend to alternate a few of my exercises for the 10s (eg. I'll alternate squats and leg presses instead of doing both) and try to reduce the number of exercices to 10 or 11 as others here have suggested.

Plenty of DOMS today and I'm eating like a horse ( a meat eating horse! ). Can't wait for the 10s to begin.

Do keep us all posted with your progress.

 

[9to5lifter]

Great to hear that you enjoy HST! If you choose to do more sets (2-3) during the 5's and post 5's, you may find that you will need to drop some exercises in order to save time. In that case, isolation exercises should be the first candidates. Anyway, as you put it, the first cycle is an attempt to get used to the "feel" of the program and plan your subsequent cycles accordingly. Best of luck to you and keep us posted.

Regards,
Dimitris

 

[Fausto]

Great to hear another guy enjoying HST.

As you progressyou may find some small stumbling blocks mostly related to excessive volume

At that time, reduce the amount of non-productive exercises such as most isolations, some of us can others can't (drop them all)

But really there is no comparison when you are doing heavy work as to how much more your muscles are working compared to the small isolation work.

HST is a different "kettle of fish" but a wholesome kettle nevertheless.

Keep up the good work, enjoy and listen to your body....

 

[Rotlex]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the replies, as well as the encouragement and thoughts on different things.

I see that everyone is kind of on the side of dropping some of the iso's, and to be honest, I've been kind of leaning toward the same thing. As I'm entering my 2nd week of 15's, finished a workout this morning, I'm still feeling pretty pumped, and capable of working through the rest of this week with the chosen exercises. However, as I head into the 10's next week, I think I'm coming pretty close to a decision.

I'm going to try and cut this down to 10 exercises max, most likely dropping the skullcrushers and nautilus rear delt. I think I'll start rotating the squats and leg presses, so as to only be doing one of them on any given day. I think I can see that as the weight starts to go up, it's going to be tough to make it to the end of a routine with a total of 13 movements, over like 26 sets

I figure I'll adjust the positioning of the dips, to where I normally do the skullcrushers, rather than doing them right after bench, and keep a more upright position so as to hit the tri's just a bit more. Also, once I get to the 10's and 5's on these, I'll be adding quite a bit of weight to the dipping belt, which is probably going to alleviate the need for ANY iso work on the tri's at all.

Anyway, I'm still enjoying the heck out of this, and am really sorry I did not discover HST sooner. I'm only a week or so into my cycle, and I'm already thinking I wish I would have known about this back at the beginning of this year when I got back into training pretty heavily.

Thanks again everyone, and I'll post a little more progress once I'm about half way through the whole cycle.

 

[Fausto]

Steve

Quote[/b] ]I see that everyone is kind of on the side of dropping some of the iso's, and to be honest, I've been kind of leaning toward the same thing.

Glad you are getting the grip of HST and sooner than I did for one

Quote[/b] ]Anyway, I'm still enjoying the heck out of this, and am really sorry I did not discover HST sooner. I'm only a week or so into my cycle, and I'm already thinking I wish I would have known about this back at the beginning of this year when I got back into training pretty heavily.

Rather be glad you found it and had the brains to use it

many guys take it as crapola but don't give it a shot, you did and the rewards are yours to keep

 

[jvroig]

Quote[/b] ]Rather be glad you found it and had the brains to use it many guys take it as crapola but don't give it a shot,

Oh, Fausto Fausto Fausto, so funny and yet so true.

I remember an ancient post where someone said he was really skeptic about HST because of this and that, too much science (science evidently hurts his brain, no surprise there), and that he bet Arnold didn't know any real science at all but became the eternal poster boy for BB. Yeah, sure, conveniently forgetting that they were all pumped full of steriods back in the day, so they really didn't need any science at all, they just had to chew grass and their jaws and maybe even their necks would get enough of a workout to hypertrophy.

Anyhoo, regards to those newbies enjoying HST.

If something ever goes wrong with your workout, or you are disappointed with your gains, come back here, we can all blame Fausto, hehehe. Kidding, don't do that. He'll put you in a stranglehold between his stronger-than-steel biceps.

Regards,
-JV

 

[Fausto]

Rotlex

Quote[/b] ]If something ever goes wrong with your workout, or you are disappointed with your gains, come back here

Will help you fix it of course, that is what we do around here!

Steve , sorry for highjacking your post, sure you have some space for humour

Now to business - Batman

Quote[/b] ]we can all blame Fausto, hehehe

Ah...ah...ah...ah...ah

Just how cool can one get, hey? Hey, feel free, I have been wrong before of course

Quote[/b] ]He'll put you in a stranglehold between his stronger-than-steel biceps.

Wishful thinking, JV you're the pits...I am however training through Christmas and all

Fat chance

just to get those bi's

Watch out, I may just get a bigger than normal bat in my vice grip