HELP!!!, plateau already

L

lukas7878

New Member
Hi everyone,

i need some help from you guys. im 18 and have been training for about 5 weeks now, with a lot of HST in mind.

Problem is, i seemed to have hit a plateau with my muscle increases. I have been working mainly bi's, tri's, shoulders and back, and i thought i would measure my bicep circumfrence. Started at 32cm right and 30cm left. To my surprise i had 2cm growth in just over 2 weeks, then 1 cm in the next 2 weeks, now i dont seem to be growing at all. Im stuck at Right - 36cm, Left 35cm. Im certain this also applies to my shoulders and back as well.

(see attached graph)

I have looked at many plateau busters, but none seem to apply to me. Mainly because i dont have a strict routine, I just train every second day with a variety of workouts until im sore. And because this plateau has come within 5 weeks, not 5 months.

So should i rest for 10 days then hit it hard again? Or should I train extra hard?

Any help at all would be great.
Cheers
 
Well first of all you should be following HST principles, if you're not, start following them properly. Haphazard training is sure fire way to not only plateau, but also get injured.

As long as you're steadily increasing the weights your growth shouldn't ever plateau, as long as you're eating enough. Its when your strength plateaus and you can no longer lift increase the weight that your growth plateaus.
 
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(lukas7878 @ Sep. 25 2006,02:05)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Hi everyone,

i need some help from you guys. im 18 and have been training for about 5 weeks now, with a lot of HST in mind.



(see attached graph)

I have looked at many plateau busters, but none seem to apply to me. Mainly because i dont have a strict routine, I just train every second day with a variety of workouts until im sore. And because this plateau has come within 5 weeks, not 5 months.

So should i rest for 10 days then hit it hard again? Or should I train extra hard?

Any help at all would be great.
Cheers</div>
Good grief

Don't ever measure you arms again until you can deadlift at least 400 pounds.

My philosophy:

Do HST as explained on website. Go through at least 2 full cycles, not measuring a thing, only focusing on getting stronger by at least 2% on all lifts each cycle. Also, stop working your arms, or at least do your bicep curls last in your workout.
 
Its not such the size im worried about. Ive been stuck on the same weight with my back and shoulder workout for about 2 weeks. If i go higher with the weight i just cant do more than 5 or so reps.

Basically, should i keep working with the same weight for a bit longer until i can yet again pull 10-12 reps with a higher weight? Or is there something else?
 
When you say a lot of HST in mind..does that mean uve simply started working out every other day? Theres a whole lot more to HST than that.
I would suggest what you do is stop what your doing now and find your 15-10-5 rep maxes, decondition and start up a HST cycle.

Also is there a reason your not working your legs or chest?
 
I have a few probs, first being i dont have many weights, so i cant exactly increase by a tiny bit. Just started on the legs as i only fixed the homegym the other day. And chest is a no-no at the moment, cant do pushups because of a previous shoulder injury so im going to by some dumbells for that.

In a nutshell, yes i have read all the HST articles i can find, and my routine is as HST as it can get, as i dont have the equipment and flexibilty everyone else might have and other more personal reasons, best i can put it.

I just know im not getting any stronger and i cant decide to either push through it or rest and try again.
 
Do you wanna give a more detailed description of how you set up your cycle etc with each lift, then it will be easier for people to understand and maybe help modify it.

I dont understand why you would have hit your strength limits unless you've gotten a lot weaker, because HST is designed to progressively work up to your initial 15-10-5 repmaxes every two weeks. Do you mean you dont have the weights to enable you to do this?

Also you say you've been stuck on the same weight for back and shoulders for two weeks &amp; if u went higher u cant do anymore than 5 reps...so u wanna know if u should try to keep going until you can do 10-12 reps? Yet if youve been working at 10 reps for two weeks you should progress to working for 5 reps anyway
rock.gif
 
Well you're in a unique situation, read through the FAQ forum and read as many articles in there as you can, there's a bit in there that basically says once your body adapts to a particular weight, hypertrophy stops. You can increase CNS efficiency so you can do more reps, so you can start doing 12-15 reps of your 10RM, for instance, but after about 4 weeks at that weight the connective tissue around your muscles will toughen up and that weight won't promote growth anymore. The only thing to do then is increase the weight, when you can no longer increase the weight and you stop growing, you SD.

Other than tell you the theory I don't know if we can advise you because we don't have enough information, and it sounds like your limited equipment is the biggest obsticle to doing a proper HST program.
 
Lukas

If you want real help, post your intended or current workout, what weights and equipment you have...and we will try to re-construct things for you.
wink.gif
 
<div>
(stevejones @ Sep. 25 2006,02:31)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Good grief

Don't ever measure you arms again until you can deadlift at least 400 pounds.  

My philosophy:

Do HST as explained on website.  Go through at least 2 full cycles, not measuring a thing, only focusing on getting stronger by at least 2% on all lifts each cycle.  Also, stop working your arms, or at least do your bicep curls last in your workout.</div>
I agree with steve. Keep in mind most people should be able to hit a 400 pound deadlift, it's a modest weight to pull.
 
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