HST Ebook

First off as already said good read and enjoyed it.

the one thing that is missing or not emphasised enough is the 7/8th week or negatives phase. This is the one part which differs a lot from most traditional routines. I for one have never done specific negative cycles. I'm pretty inexperienced on how to warm up , what loads to use and exercise selections. Obviously the suggested routines cannot be used for negatives as there central to squats and deads or compounds .

Hst is pretty easy to grasp for those that have been lifting for a while as it does follow others routines in part but the one part I needed guidance is not covered exclusively.but there is a whole chapter on diet.

just my two cents. Tell me to **** off but was hoping to get that bit clear in my head. I realise that I prob can and will figure it all out for myself but reason I read it was for that part which wast really covered ( unless I missed it)
 
**** off

No actually I'll take a look at it and see if I can't improve that section in the book. Thanks for the feedback.
 
I won't probably be getting any updates for a little bit though. I have a court hearing next week.

I will get an update on those items though, just might be a couple week.s
 
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Fair enough.

I'd offer advice if I practiced in the States but your legal system has so many differences to the original common law system (basically UK, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong) that I wouldn't know where to start. You seem to have a handle anyway.
 
Totentanz said:
I fired him a while back and am doing things on my own.
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Good workout after that?

Finished reading the book. Really good job, Totz. Agree about adding a bit more on approach to negs/assisted negs etc. I realise that there's a fair bit in the FAQ's on negs but a little more in your book would be good for any newbies who may not even know what negatives are all about and why they are worth doing for hypertrophy.

All the best with the court case.
 
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Quite frankly, I would steer newbies away from negs. Most of them don't even have proper form for some time. There may be some benefit to them continuing their 5 RM's for a couple of weeks but I don't think it is advisable until they have a few flawless HST routines under their belt. In fact, my recommendation would be to add reps as opposed to weight in a post 5 RM period. The risk of injury versus the reward is too high, in my opinion. However, perhaps I am ultra-sensitive to injuries and am aiming my comments at real newbies to weightlifting, not advanced lifters who want to try out HST.
 
O&G: I meant newbies to HST, not to weight training in general. Sorry for confusion. :)

The thing is, incorporating negatives into a routine is one of the things that differentiates HST from other forms of weight training so folks are going to have questions about them. Negatives tend not to have much direct carry-over to other activities but they definitely do induce hypertrophy. Seeing that it's not that difficult to use them for the upper-body, it makes sense to have a handle on how they are performed and what works best.
 
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Lol said:
O&G: I meant newbies to HST, not to weight training in general. Sorry for confusion. :)

The thing is, incorporating negatives into a routine is one of the things that differentiates HST from other forms of weight training so folks are going to have questions about them. Negatives tend not to have much direct carry-over to other activities but they definitely do induce hypertrophy. Seeing that it's not that difficult to use them for the upper-body, it makes sense to have a handle on how they are performed and what works best.
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they are good for dips/chins if you cant do any.
 
faz said:
they are good for dips/chins if you cant do any.
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Yes, absolutely! And you'd be hard pushed to find a gymnast that didn't use negatives in their training on a regular basis for development of many of the strength moves on the various pieces of apparatus that they use.
 
Perhaps I sounded a bit more negative on negs than intended. I have found them to be of benefit if I finish a cycle but do not feel ready to take an SD although that is happening less and less often. Since I work out alone, I am limited in my selection of exercises. Some of the exercises I do with them include:

Neutral Grip Chins

Dips

Leg Press (2 legged concentric and 1 legged eccentric)

Seated Row machine (2 handed concentric and 1 handed eccentric)

Bench Press in a cage (Decrease weight to press weight back up (a pain in the ass) and use safety pins to halt eccentric movement)

Any DB (or machine) movement that your can safely raise the weight up with two hands or feet.

For negs, i usually use a weight that I can just complete two full ROM's on and then continue on for several neg reps.

Happy lowering!

O&G :cool:
 
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One legged squats are good too. Two legs up, one leg down. Carrying dumbells, or even weightless if you have enough bwt.

I personally dont like the idea of the 'Leg Press (2 legged concentric and 1 legged eccentric)' you suggested O&G. I used to do it myself, but with the extra weight negatives allow to be lowered, I found the risk of twisting my spine on the way down too easy to do. Maybe its just me, but I don't think I would recommend a newbie trying those, particularly with the level weight that would be used.

On my negs cycle, I really limit it to one leg squats, or 5rm leg presses, and neg dips and chins, and just increase my reps/sets, or cluster to 30 reps. So maybe 30 reps clustered, or 5-6 sets of 5s.

So I guess it is a complicated aspect of HST afterall!

Brix
 
Brixtonian said:
I personally dont like the idea of the 'Leg Press (2 legged concentric and 1 legged eccentric)' you suggested O&G. I used to do it myself, but with the extra weight negatives allow to be lowered, I found the risk of twisting my spine on the way down too easy to do. Maybe its just me, but I don't think I would recommend a newbie trying those, particularly with the level weight that would be used.
Brix
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I agree. I don't think newbies have any business playing with negs.

Interesting on the one-legged leg presses. I never had that feeling. Perhaps because I slide the foot of my "working" leg over more toward the center of the platform a little bit before the eccentric potion.
 
I stopped doing one-legged LP a few years ago now. I think I recall straining something, and I think it was down to - probably - too much weight, sacrificing form, and as such, twisting my spine. I usually train alone, and have no one to correct my posture, so while it may 'feel' right, I cant see if I am in alignment, and with the weight I was lowering, it was a lot of risk on my spine.

That said, I did certainly benefit from them. I used to lower quite a lot of weight (for me) and made some good progress and size with them.

Now I just stick to my 5rm, trying to increase the weight by 5kg each workout, and throw in a few cluster reps, or do one-legged squats.

I think newer guys should stay with their regular 5rep sets, tbh.

Brix
 
Totentanz many thanks for the ebook, it's inspirational and an excellent guidance for newcomers. You covered all the basics, the stuff that really matters most.
 
hmart - thank you for the comment. I appreciate it.

Negatives - I mostly avoided the negatives issue just because I think for many people they aren't viable, especially people newer to lifting. I personally prefer increasing the loads after you end the 5s until you find new maxes as it makes setting up your next cycle simple, since you never have to spend a week retesting maxes and also allows you to continue growth for as long as possible prior to SD. I believe this is the most successful way to bulk with HST, I've had good success with that, nativetroutbum recently had a real good bulking cycle where he did just that. However, I clearly did not cover actual negatives and how to do them well enough at all in the book so that is something I need to expand on, although I will be sure to include what my personal preference is and state that it is just that - my preference and what I tell people to do when I am helping them program routines.
 
223 downloads and counting...

Will get some updating done this weekend, I will let you all know when I actually upload an updated version, shooting for hopefully midweek nextweek.
 
Thanks for compiling this ebook, my wife and I are working through our first cycle and so far so good.
 
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