Hst Balance of exercises

D

Duke Shokan

New Member
Hi all,

Recently i started my first HST cycle and i am enjoying it.
I have been working out for about 8 years now (on and off), and i have tried different programs.
So far HST seems to work for me, i have made some nice gains already.
I am in my 2nd week of 10s but I am wondering if my set-up is balanced.
The reason i am wondering is because i have got a slight pain in my upper back (between shoulder blades)
Its never extremely painful, just now and then it pops up.
I have recently moved to a new place and i could have pulled something during the moving process.
But I am also thinking that i might have too many back exercises in my routine.

My program looks like this:

- Squats
- Deadlift
- Bench Press
- Barbell Row
- Barbell Shrugs
- Military Press
- Pull-Ups
- One Legged Calf Raises
- Skull crushers
- Barbell Curl

Mind you, im still in the 10s so not going extremely heavy. I have a scheduled appointment at a physical therapist at the end of this week. Its just that it sort of popped in my head just now, that i could be because of too many back exercises.

What do you guys think? Should I take 1 or 2 of the back exercises out or is it fine as it is? (my initial thought was that the big is large and has many different muscle, but i could be wrong)
 
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How hard were you pushing on the bench press recently? I ask because 2 times in the past when performing barbell incline presses I was forcing out the very last rep where I could barely get the bar to the top and because one arm is usually always a little weaker than the other, I focused on keeping the bar straight and not letting one side go up faster than the other. I ended up pulling a muscle in the middle of my back.

You probably don't need deadlifts and rows in the same workout. Since your also doing squats it might to be a bad idea to only do deadlifts once per week and barbell rows the other two days per week rotating the two. Doing all 3, squats, deadlifts, and rows in the same workout every workout could overwork the lower back.
 
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I guess my initial post was both long and complicated, so ill keep it short now :). I'd really like to know if its ok to have these 4 exercises all together in a hst program: deadlift, barbell row, shrugs and pull up.
They all target the back. I know everyone is different. Should i just keep doing it as long as it seems to go ok, or is it a big no-no?

Also i see a lot of guys put at least 2 chest exercises in their program. Is flat bench enough to stimulate the chest?
 
It should be fine, in fact in Brians original "vanilla" routine this is pretty much what he reccomended, though they were stiff legged deadlifts. When I first started (and I was not young!) for the back I did
deads
cable rows
pendlay rows
wide pulldowns
narrow pullups
(2sets, 3x a week)

I'd say it depends somewhat on your current level, if you're young and been training less than 2 or 3 years you'll still be lifting comparativly light weights it should be no problem, in fact I'm convinced this will produce better results for you (assuming you are newish to weights). I had awsome results doing the full "vanilla" type program (I also included squating & deads every workout up until I got to about body weight on squats & 1.5x bodyweight on deads, by about then it was too much and I began to reduce my workout over the next year or so to a "simplfy & win" type program)

Same thing goes for bench, you could do inclines as well if not lifitng too much weight (though don't overwork your tri's) comfortably. If doing only one bench exercise do inclined bench press (15-20 degrees) to hit the pecs more evenly.

If you feel any sort of pain then STOP your body is telling you something! You'll have less injuries and make better progress in the long run.

PS, I'd drop the shrugs, your traps should get a decent workout while doing deadlifts, to begin with.
 
I like to include squats and deads in my program. I compromise by doing chest-supported rows, or lying dumbbell rows. That saves my lower back a bit.
 
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