Grunt11's Training Log

grunt11 said:
Ok anyone who says that HST is not a workout can kiss my gluteus . . . .

The Dips went amazingly well today. I only did 3 sets of 5 @ BW but felt like I could have done 10 easy. I’m so glad that I can now actually perform them and figured out a way to do it with my equipment. I tried chairs in the past but it was to unstable. This time since I have two Olympic bars I raised the safety bars on my power rack up to about shoulder level and placed the Olympic bars across them forming a “V.” I start by using a 2-stepper to get up high enough.
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I sometimes use the parallel bars on either side of my treadmill for dips (the manual says it will support up to 300 lbs). But most often, I use a walker. You know the kind with wheels on the front, the ones that old people put tennis balls on the feet? It works great and has a great hand grip. I just have to keep my knees at 90 degrees. I got it from my mother-in-law. :-)
 
Don’t know why but this made me think of the poster that says “SQUAT Because somewhere out there, a girl is warming up with your max.”
 
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grunt11 said:
Don’t know why but this made me thing of the poster that says “SQUAT Because somewhere out there, a girl is warming up with your max.”
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Ouch!

This is one of my big motivators. Some lady I saw working out in the squat rack beside me last year - even though she was beefy for a girl she probably weighed less than me - was squatting 50 lbs more than me, barely breaking a sweat, while I'm straining my ass off.

I try to be humble about stuff, but that kind of thing sticks with you.
 
I got the body fat caliper and a measuring tape today.

Looks like after 7 weeks of gaining a pound each week my body fat measures at 8%.

One question. Is there a standard way to measure the size of each muscle group? Relaxed, flexed, pumped up? For measuring gains (changes) I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as the method is consistent. But I’m curious about what method is assumed in the HS: Maximum Size Calculator.
 
Today was the last day of my “A” workout (Dead Lift, Flat Bench, Wide Grip Pull Up) of my 5s.

Ok I said I was only going to Dead Lift once a week during the 5s but I lied. However, taking two days off between Dead Lifting rather than one like last time paid off. Rather than being stuck at 250lbs for 5 I moved up to 270lbs for 5 but still only did one set. 300lbs by the end of next week is looking doable.

Even though I didn’t get all my reps on the Flat Bench last time at 170 I still made a shot at 175 and got 4 reps on the first set but failed after one rep on the second. So in order to get in 3 sets I dropped back down to 160 about 10% and did 2 more sets of 5.

Pull ups went well at BW+20 doing 3 sets of 5 and only having to kick on the 5th rep of the 3rd set.

Since I’m essentially working out the same muscle groups just with different exercises tomorrow I skipped doing any loaded stretches or pulses this time and just rep’d out with a set of each of the three lifts I did today.

Having my “C” workout be sort of a “light” day give me a break in my chest/lats/lower back that get hit hard on my “A” and “B” workouts. Still looking at fine tuning things for my first real HST cycle.

So far after almost 7 weeks I’ve noticed that the muscles getting the most volume, triceps and front deltoids, (spread over multiple days not in any one day) are making the biggest sized gains. These are the muscles that also feel day to day like I’m beating them with a meat tenderizer. The muscles that appear to be making the least gains are the ones getting less total volume, chest, lats, biceps and also don’t feel as worked on a daily basis. I’m hoping that adding in the day with Chin Ups and Dips will help make up for this. Any other suggestions are welcome.
 
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Today was suppose to be a day off but due to some crap going on at work that’s been stressing me out I just had to exercise so I went ahead with my “B” routine today (Squats, Dips, Close Grip Chin Ups).

I dialed the squats down to 185 so I could do some full squats going all the way down. I added 10lbs on for the Dips and felt like I could have added a lot more. Added 20lbs for the Chin Ups and got all 3 sets of 5 w/o kicking. I didn’t add anything else in since I don’t want to overdo it by not taking a day off.

Got some nice feedback yesterday at work when a coworker who I hadn’t seen in two weeks walked up with big eyes motioning across his chest from shoulder to shoulder saying “you’re getting bigger aren’t you?” Very satisfying.
 
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I decided to take next week off work and even possibly the one after because of leveraging the holidays. So instead of progressing into the post 5s I’m going to start my SD now since my work involves a lot of physical activity and this way I can just sit an veg out in my home theater watching movies, a huge backlog of anime series or playing video games.

Based on my experience so far and all the reading I’ve done here I’m pretty sure I’ve nailed down the basic routine for my next (first real) HST cycle. Which should look like this.

A. Dead Lift / Flat Bench / Wide Grip Pull Up
B. Barbell Calf Raise / Incline Bench / Close Grip Chin Up
C. Squat / Dip / Cable Row
D. Barbell Calf Raise / Standing Shoulder Press / Parallel Grip Chin Ups

I will work out Saturday through Thursday with Friday off. So it will flow like this:

A, B, C, D, A, B, Off, C, D, A, B, C, D, Off for a two week micro cycle. This way most of my upper body parts are being hit every 24 except over Friday. It also means I’m only doing Squats and Dead Lifts 3 times each a cycle. I will start with 60% of my 1RM for each exercise using linear progression. This means except for the Shoulder Press which will be 5lbs all other increments will be 10lbs.

I’m going to try and forgo sets and just do 20 reps for each exercise during each cycle using clustering. However, if I don’t find that working out I still have things divided up so I can superset a push/pull each day.

As things progress, probably in the mid 10s or starting 5s I will look to incorporate some specialization exercises for anything I feel needs more attention. Based on this first time through I’m expecting that my biceps, lats and chest may need the more but I plan to wait and see.

As always comments and advice are welcome.
 
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grunt11 said:
I’m going to try and forgo sets and just do 20 reps for each exercise during each cycle using clustering.
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If you are considering 20 rep exercises , I would recommend that you try the Max-Stim M-time method rather than simply clustering. It is an extremely effective way of dealing with fatigue, and allows for increased TUT.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve done some reading on it but not enough to fully understand it. I have a MaxStimulation.pdf downloaded so I will give it a read. I know I can do a search but do you have any specific recommendations for reading?
 
grunt11 said:
T
I have a MaxStimulation.pdf downloaded so I will give it a read. I know I can do a search but do you have any specific recommendations for reading?
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No, the pdf is all I have. I used to correspond on the now defunct Max-Stim site. So I had a lot of input when I was working my program.

Of course, I tweaked the heck out of the suggested routine, but I was greatly helped by the concept of M-time. Get the weight clear out of your hands between reps. Don't do sets of 15, 10, or 5, then rest for two or three minutes between sets. Rather, Max-Stim has you rest between reps for several seconds, up to but not exceeding 30 seconds. It's a little awkward with back squats, but otherwise M-time is easily applied.

I used to start with about a 3 second pause between reps for the first five reps or so. Then, for reps 5 to 10, I would rest 5 seconds. As I began to fatigue, I would add another second after each rep, but always tried to keep the total rest time less than 30 seconds.

I had great success with Dan Moore's program. I recommend it unreservedly.
 
TunnelRat said:
No, the pdf is all I have. I used to correspond on the now defunct Max-Stim site. So I had a lot of input when I was working my program.

Of course, I tweaked the heck out of the suggested routine, but I was greatly helped by the concept of M-time. Get the weight clear out of your hands between reps. Don't do sets of 15, 10, or 5, then rest for two or three minutes between sets. Rather, Max-Stim has you rest between reps for several seconds, up to but not exceeding 30 seconds. It's a little awkward with back squats, but otherwise M-time is easily applied.

I used to start with about a 3 second pause between reps for the first five reps or so. Then, for reps 5 to 10, I would rest 5 seconds. As I began to fatigue, I would add another second after each rep, but always tried to keep the total rest time less than 30 seconds.

I had great success with Dan Moore's program. I recommend it unreservedly.
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Thanks for the feedback. I gave the PDF a read along with the “Max-Stim questions” thread and some others.

Based on what I’ve read so far M-Time sounds perfect for what I want to do but I don’t care for the vanilla routine preferring to stick with what I posted above.

The one question I haven’t seen answered is when in the HST cycle to start Max-Stim? It seems that most of the posts I’ve read about combining Max-Stim with HST involve extending the 5s. Is there a point before which Max-Stim is not a good idea, like the 15s where you are suppose to induce a “burn” which Max-Stims seeks to avoid?
 
grunt11 said:
The one question I haven’t seen answered is when in the HST cycle to start Max-Stim? It seems that most of the posts I’ve read about combining Max-Stim with HST involve extending the 5s. Is there a point before which Max-Stim is not a good idea, like the 15s where you are suppose to induce a “burn” which Max-Stims seeks to avoid?
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With Max-Stim there are no 15s or 10s or 5s. Rather you do a constant 20 reps for each exercise. Instead of changing the reps, you change the percentage of your RMs.

I didn't do the routine on the menu (I had no way to do some of them). I did squats, deads, chins, dips, bench, and row, plus some gingerbread isos. I figured my rep maxes for 10 reps, 8 reps, and 6 reps. Then I'd start at 75% of my RM and increment up to 110% for each two-week micro cycle of 10,8, and 6 RM.

I had good gains both in strength and lean mass. I am finishing up my HST cycle this week. I'll take a break to SD over the holidays; then I hope to start a Max-Stim cycle in January.
 
Sorry for the confusion I understood that it’s a constant rep scheme. What is confusing me was trying to integrate HST and Max-Stim and how to start out. My understanding is that the early part of the HST cycle (what I called the 15s above) was designed to condition you for the later stages by inducing a burn. Seems that Max-Stim instead just starts out with the equivalent of the 10s weight wise and progresses from there w/o the “warm-up cycle.” I’m assuming if I’m in reasonable shape that’s not likely to be a problem?

I did some calculations of 75% of my 10RMs and they all fell within 5lbs of what I had calculated for 60% of my 1RM which is what I had planned to use as my starting weights. I think to keep things simple I will just start with 60% of my 1RM and use a straight progression. I did fine with straight progression on my first practice HST cycle and still consider myself pretty de-conditioned since I’ve only be lifting 8 weeks now after about a 15 year layoff. Flat Bench was all I stalled out on but then I switched to it mid cycle and over estimated the weight I added it in at.
 
I finally got around to measuring my muscles since I wanted to wait a day after I last lifted. I will measure again just before I start my next cycle. I also plugged my wrist and ankle measurements into the calculator to see what is suggest will be my max size and this is what I got:

Calculator/Measured

Chest 43/36.5
Upper Arms 15.3/11.25 (both)
Forearm 12.2/10.25 (both)
Neck 15.9/14.5
Thigh 22.4/21 (both)
Calf 15.2/13.75L, 14R

Hips NA/36
Shoulders NA/44.5

My body fat percentage is still 8% at a body weight of 148lbs which gives a LBM of 136lbs I believe. According to the calculator my maximum LBM should be 169lb at 8% body fat. That give me about 33lbs of LBM to work with theoretically.

The good new is I was previously mistaken about the Air Farce ;) weight standards thinking that my max body weight was 170 which I was dangerously close to when I did join because since I’d been power lifting (didn’t matter I could run marathons). Turns out the weight standard only applies to joining. After that as long as I pass the fitness test and don’t have a waist larger than 40 inches I’m good. Presently my waist is under 29 inches.

Based on the measurements above it looks like chest and upper arms are where I have the most room to improve. So I think the routine I am planning on should cover that well:

A. Dead Lift / Flat Bench / Wide Grip Pull Up
B. Barbell Calf Raise / Incline Bench / Close Grip Chin Ups
C. Squat / Dips / Cable Row
D. Barbell Calf Raise / Standing Shoulder Press / Close Parallel Grip Chin Ups

Maybe some additional bicep work since I didn’t feel they got hit enough this first time around.
 
Ok one week of SD was all that I could handle. I just feel so tired and weak if I don’t exercise almost every day. Being impatient and wanting to see how Max-Stim was going to feel I divided my 4 workouts into 2 groups and did one AM and the other PM.

I was hesitant about doing Max-Stim for weight that was only about 60% of my 1RM thinking it would be tedious but after I got going that was no problem. Initially I tried racking and un-racking for pushing movements but didn’t like that at all so I reset the safety bars so the BB would rest on them just where it would if I had it on my chest and that worked great.

Talk about getting the most out of each rep especially the pushing movements were pushing off the rack gave no bounce or stretch reflex. Felt sort of odd at first starting from the bottom but once I got use to it each rep felt much more productive that way.

At first I didn’t think Max-Stim would make any difference at such a low weight but it actually did. Had I done a straight 20 reps I would have slowed down toward the end as I got tired but in this case I was able to keep the concentric speed as fast on the last rep as the first.

I wasn’t sure about the timing of the M-Time so at first I tried counting but that was screwing up my rep count. Then I noticed that when my arms were on level with my heart I could feel the blood rushing into them. It sort of felt like how your stomach feels when your hot and start drinking cold water. Once that feeling stopped I did another rep which seemed to equal out to about 5 seconds. I also notice I didn’t get that feeling as quickly if I left my arms up above or down below the level of my heart.

I now also see what people are talking about with the sweating thing. It’s not like regular sweating either, more like sort of a cold sweat.

So far I’m thinking I’m going to like using M-Time. Can’t wait until the weights start getting heavier.
 
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