Help with my first cycle

I

il_dottore

New Member
Hi guys,
I write from Italy, this is my first post were I would like your help to set up my first HST cycle. I beg your pardon if my English is not so good.

I'm 36 year old, 172cm, 62,5Kg 13% BF. I train at home, alone.
For the first 4 weeks of septmber I did strenght cycle (5x5). Then maximals. And then a mixed strenght/mass cycle until yesterday (12-10-8-6-4-3). Next week I'll do active rest and then a week of SD (only rest).
My diet is TKD (Targetted Ketogenic Diet) 2100 Kcal (Mon/Thu) 2500 Kcal (Fri/Sun). I work out Mon/Wed/Fri and on these days I have 110g carbs and 200g respective on Mon/Wed and  Fri post-wo. I begin my carb load on Fri after wo till Sun dinner. On Sat/Sun my carbs up to about 400g. Since Sept I gained 1,100 Kg of LBM and only 100g of Fat (this is what my Tanita scale says).

So, the exercises I would like to do are:
Squat, Deadlift, Good-morning, Bench, EZ Bent-over Row, Military press, Pull-up (Curl, French-press, Abs if necessary/if time)

My questions are:

1) Squat and Deadlift in the same wo? I thought Squat as basic exercise and only 1 series of Dead to maintain (I'm more strong in dead than in Squat)
2) What about the exercises in brackets? Are they necessary or I can skip them?
3) What order for the exercises? Is it mine correct?
4) What about series no? I thought: 1x15; 2x10; 4x5

So, for now it's all. I hope you can help me to setup my cycles at best to have a great growth  
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(il_dottore @ Nov. 03 2007,06:58)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Hi guys,
I write from Italy, this is my first post were I would like your help to set up my first HST cycle. I beg your pardon if my English is not so good.

I'm 36 year old, 172cm, 62,5Kg 13% BF. I train at home, alone.
For the first 4 weeks of septmber I did strenght cycle (5x5). Then maximals. And then a mixed strenght/mass cycle until yesterday (12-10-8-6-4-3). Next week I'll do active rest and then a week of SD (only rest).
My diet is TKD (Targetted Ketogenic Diet) 2100 Kcal (Mon/Thu) 2500 Kcal (Fri/Sun). I work out Mon/Wed/Fri and on these days I have 110g carbs and 200g respective on Mon/Wed and  Fri post-wo. I begin my carb load on Fri after wo till Sun dinner. On Sat/Sun my carbs up to about 400g. Since Sept I gained 1,100 Kg of LBM and only 100g of Fat (this is what my Tanita scale says).

So, the exercises I would like to do are:
Squat, Deadlift, Good-morning, Bench, EZ Bent-over Row, Military press, Pull-up (Curl, French-press, Abs if necessary/if time)

My questions are:

1) Squat and Deadlift in the same wo? I thought Squat as basic exercise and only 1 series of Dead to maintain (I'm more strong in dead than in Squat)
2) What about the exercises in brackets? Are they necessary or I can skip them?
3) What order for the exercises? Is it mine correct?
4) What about series no? I thought: 1x15; 2x10; 4x5

So, for now it's all. I hope you can help me to setup my cycles at best to have a great growth  
tounge.gif
</div>
You are trying to grow?
Yes

Skip the Keto, use it for a cutting cycle

eat more, 2100 Kcals/day is barely minimal for your current stats, try 2300-2500 Kcals/day.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">1) Squat and Deadlift in the same wo? I thought Squat as basic exercise and only 1 series of Dead to maintain (I'm more strong in dead than in Squat)</div>Sure you can but watch out for lower back strain, especially since you are doing GMs as well.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">2) What about the exercises in brackets? Are they necessary or I can skip them?</div>No they aren't but that doesn't mean don't do em, if you have time and the recovery ability go ahead. If you notice strength beginning to suffer in your compounds drop the isolation.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">3) What order for the exercises? Is it mine correct?</div>Doesn't matter much as long as you aren't causing one exercise make another suffer. IOW, doing squats then deads then GM, this may make your GM not only pointless but seriuously set you up for back strain issues.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">4) What about series no? I thought: 1x15; 2x10; 4x5</div>That's fine but if only doing one set of 15's you may want to slow down the movement, do a slight hold at peak contraction. This will aid in acheiving the burn that the 15's are meant for.
 
Welcome il_dottore!

Great advice from Dan as always.

My 2¢: Some folks are happy to deadlift and squat each session on a 3 x weekly schedule and you may be fine too. However, if you find that your lower back starts to complain (as mine would) then a good plan is to alternate between the two (ie. squats one session, deads the next). Once you get to the point where you are deadlifting ~2 x body weight you may find that deadlifting once a week is best for recovery and progress. If you are training on a 3 x weekly schedule then you could squat on Monday and Friday and deadlift on Wednesday.

Check out the link below to the Simplify &amp; Win thread which has a lot of good ideas to help you set up a productive routine.

I arrange things so I always do bent-over rows or chins when I squat but only chins when I deadlift; after a hard deadlifting session I don't want to be bending over with a heavy load for rows. Similarly, you might not want to do deads and GMs in the same session.

Don't lower your calories on non-training days.

As an alternative to Dan's thoughts about slowing down the tempo during 15s, you could just do more reps in a set if you have some way to go before your 15RM workout - ie. keep to your normal tempo (or even a bit faster) and don't stop at 15 reps if you have plenty of gas in the tank. Just keep blasting away. I used to do around 25 reps for a set at the start of a cycle. However, I now choose to do 2 (or more) sets and to do the reps pretty quickly. This gives me a really good burn during the second and subsequent sets.
 
I won't go to high with calories and carbs because of I did it in the past years and I got to fat!!!
I would like to go slow but clean, grow as clean as possible. I also have stomac problems with carbs: air, meteorism and so on. I feel very well with TKD and I'm growing slowly and clean.

I'll begin my 15s with 2x15:

(max load for 15 reps in Kg) [max load for 5]
Squat (50)[80]/Dead (70)[115]
Bench press (44)[62]
EZ row (55)[76]/Pull-up (BW)
Military press with Clean (32)[42] (Clean, 3 reps, Clean, 3 reps, &amp; so on)

Squat 40 00 45 00 50 00
Dead 00 60 00 65 00 70
Bench 30 35 40 40 44 44
EZ Row 38 00 46 00 55 00
Pull-up 00 BW 00 BW 00 BW
M.P. 22 24 26 28 30 32
 
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(il_dottore @ Nov. 04 2007,06:17)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I won't go to high with calories and carbs because of I did it in the past years and I got to fat!!!
I would like to go slow but clean, grow as clean as possible. I also have stomac problems with carbs: air, meteorism and so on. I feel very well with TKD and I'm growing slowly and clean.</div>
Okay, but you have to realize that you are probably going to get disappointing results, and those poor results will be due to your unwillingness to eat more - not due to the workout.

If you keep your calorie excess under control, fat gain will occur but won't be out of hand.
 
Remember that on the week end I have the carb load with high Kcal.
M/T/W/T 2100Kcal
F 2300
S 2900
S 2300/2400
Weekly average 2300 Kcal 37Kcal x Kg BW for now...I'm increasing very slowly the post wo carbs and the week end calories

What about the wo? Is it ok?
 
w/o looks good to me.

If you have access to a dipping station, dips make a great exercise to alternate with bench.

If you can get 15 reps for your pull-ups then you should be adding some extra resistance during 10s and 5s. If you can't get 15 reps but you can get more than 5 reps then you should be using extra load towards the end of the cycle. You can always cluster reps into multiple sets.

You could try chins (supinated grip) as an alternative to pull-ups (pronated grip) as these will put your bis in a mechanically stronger position thus allowing you to lift more weight. If you run into any forearm pain from using a supinated grip for chins then parallel grip pull-ups are kinder and are really good too.

Negatives are relatively easy to perform for chins so these can be useful at the end of a cycle. Max-Stim style chins are also a really great way to help you to add weight and still get a decent number of reps completed without running up a huge fatigue bill!

All the best.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">If you have access to a dipping station, dips make a great exercise to alternate with bench.</div>

In the past I did DIP's using 2 chairs but I would like to start as simple as possible without too much alternated exercises.

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">If you can get 15 reps for your pull-ups then you should be adding some extra resistance during 10s and 5s. If you can't get 15 reps but you can get more than 5 reps then you should be using extra load towards the end of the cycle. You can always cluster reps into multiple sets.

You could try chins (supinated grip) as an alternative to pull-ups (pronated grip) as these will put your bis in a mechanically stronger position thus allowing you to lift more weight. If you run into any forearm pain from using a supinated grip for chins then parallel grip pull-ups are kinder and are really good too.</div>

I'm not able to do 15s and 10s pull-ups so I'll do them with chins and extra weigth if necessary and 5s pull-ups and extra weigth if necessary

Thanks a lot
 
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(Lol @ Nov. 03 2007,14:32)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Once you get to the point where you are deadlifting ~2 x body weight you may find that deadlifting once a week is best for recovery and progress. If you are training on a 3 x weekly schedule then you could squat on Monday and Friday and deadlift on Wednesday.</div>
~ 2xBW at which rep range? 1RM, 5RM, or what?
 
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(RUSS @ Nov. 07 2007,07:42)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">1rm.
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If 1RM, I'm already there. I have 143Kg over 62Kg of BW.

So the cycle will begin as follow:

1x15

Squat
EZ Row
Bench
Military Press

Dead lift
DIP
Chin-up
Military Press

If Dead lift every 5 days will cause back problem I'll change doing it only on Wednesday
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">If Dead lift every 5 days will cause back problem I'll change doing it only on Wednesday</div>

It shouldn't cause problems with such a low frequency.
 
Here are some 'average' figures to give you an idea of what you should be able to lift for a 1RM deadlift (no wraps or suits) according to experience. I picked the figures closest to your body weight:

Body Weight 60kg
Un-trained  51
Novice  95
Intermediate  109
Advanced  155
Elite  199

Taken from this chart:
Deadlift Standards

Once you are deadlifting close to Advanced, according to these figures, then max deadlifting more than once a week is probably not going to be a good idea. Training with loads around 15-10RM should be less of a problem if you want to increase frequency, but will still be taxing so you'll have to play it by ear, so to speak.
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