HST for arms and no 5s (Injuries)

J

jch6565

New Member
Make a long story short. My doctor has essentially limited my lifting weights to basically my arms and those have to be specific as well. I am not an athlete I just like to work for health and fun.

1. My focus no is mainly on cardio, because that is pretty much all i can do. I know that mass increase some with calories, but would HST for arms make a noticable difference. Call it vanity.

2. I also would like to stay away from the 5s mainly due to preference of higher reps. Could I always do the 15s with every cycle and then take the 10s on 2 week cycle with the 10 rep max?

Thanks for the help.

I know I am not going to turn into Arnold by just doing arms and running, but even a slight notable difference would nice as well.
 
HST will work fine for just arms but keep in mind that most of us just aren’t genetically gifted to have big arms so any program will only do so much.

I don’t see any problem avoiding the 5s for your arms. I’ve been following Totentanz’s advice and keeping any arm isolation exercises above 8 reps and in doing so have almost eliminated the tendonitis that was starting to plague me. You could always build your cycle around something like 15s, 12s, 10s, or 15s, 12s, 8s or 15s, 10s, 8s. Try out what you think will work best.
 
Thanks Grunt. I will try the approach of maybe using 8s as a replacement for my 5s. I know there is no way that my arms will get overly huge due to

1. No excess calories
2. No compound movements
3. More cardio focus in my training.

I'm just looking for any improvment however slow and slight. I'll probably do 3-4 cardio workouts per week of slow runs and also some HIIT as well and then do HST for my arms MWF.
 
Something else to consider when doing arm isos is to try out Myo-reps:

http://www.clutchfitness.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9363

It’s a way of doing clusters of reps or rest pause. One nice thing about them is they keep the total number of reps lower but still give you an intense workout because they are a more efficient way of doing reps than traditional sets and reps. This could be helpful in preventing repetitive stress injuries like tendonitis to your elbows.
 
Did a lot of reading up on the myo reps.

1. could I do them MWF let saw shoot for an activation set of failure around 10-12 and + 15 myo reps?
2. How do you know when to up the weight for an exercise?
 
Actually you don’t want to go all the way to failure but rather a couple of reps short. The idea is to tire you muscles without burning out your central nervous system.

As for upping the weight you just progress the weights the way you normally would like with HST. In the example they give here the percentage is based on your one rep max. However I wouldn’t start out as low as 50% but rather at 70%. I tried it once from 50% and the weights were way to like and the workout felt more like high intensity cardio.

Week 1-2: 50-55%, 20-25 +15 (20-25 +5+5+5)
Week 3-4: 60-65%, 15-20 +16 (15-20 +4+4+4+4)
Week 5-6: 70%, 12-15 +15 (12-15 +3+3+3+3+3)
Week 7-9: 75%, 10-12 +15 (10-12 +3+3+3+2+2+2)
Week 10-12: 80%, 8-10 +14 (8-10 +2+2+2+2+2+2+2)
Week 13-14: 80-85%, 6-8 +4, reduce load by 10-20% and continue 5-10 +6 (6-8 +2+2 # 5-10 +3+3)

Since you are going to be doing arm isos I wouldn’t worry about testing your one rep max but rather start with a weight that you think will let you get about 15 reps. Then just do your activation set until you feel like you can only get one or two more reps and stop. If you end up doing 20 reps that’s ok just add weight every workout the way you would with HST. Keep a log so that when you will know how many reps you can do with each weight which will make it easier to find a good starting point on each subsequent cycle. With arm isos I’d probably only add 2 ½ to 5 lbs. each workout depending on if you are doing one or two arm exercises and the difference between your 15 rep max and your 8 rep max. You can repeat weights if you have to in order to get 6-8 weeks. When you get to the point that you can only do 8 reps before feeling like your will fail on the next rep or two you can repeat that weight a few times and if you start getting more reps then add a little weight, but after 6-8 weeks total you should stop and SD.
 
thanks for the info. What I might do for 6 week cycles is

Have my activation set around 10-15 reps. Stop the sets with 1-2 in the tank and do the myo reps. When i do a workout with a weight with 15 reps, which in reality means 16-17 reps I up the weight by 5 pounds. Then do my +15 of myo-reps.

This approach keeps things very simple. And if I then want to drop my activation sets into the 8-12 range that would be easy.

**You the lifting portion of the exercise fast, and the negative slow?
 
For myo-reps they recommend fairly slow on the eccentric (negative) and fast on the concentric (positive).

Remember to keep stimulating muscle growth you want to try to add weight every workout or at least every week even if that means you do fewer reps on the activation set. It’s the progression of the load more than anything else that forces your muscles to adapt and grow to keep up with the increasing weights at least until you reach a stalling point which is when you SD and then start the process over again.
 
Don't believe you cannot get large arms by just working your arms. I've seen enough guys with no muscle development to speak of aside from their arms to be certain that you can do it. Aside, simply looking at the principles of muscle growth - muscles in which you stimulate protein synthesis will grow. Since you will be stimulating protein synthesis in your arms, they will grow.

One thing... I would find out from your doctor if it would be acceptable to do shrugs as well. I think it would be better to stimulate your upper traps in addition. Also, possibly lateral raises if possible.
 
Totentanz,

Would i better off with doing myo reps or hst with a 15-10-8 approach? More running and HIIT for me.

For shoulders and I can do a shoulder complex with no weight or 2.5s
 
grunt11 said:
I don’t see any problem avoiding the 5s for your arms. I’ve been following Totentanz’s advice and keeping any arm isolation exercises above 8 reps and in doing so have almost eliminated the tendonitis that was starting to plague me. You could always build your cycle around something like 15s, 12s, 10s, or 15s, 12s, 8s or 15s, 10s, 8s. Try out what you think will work best.
Click to expand...

Would love to lighten the load for arm iso's, but do you really believe you can maximize hypertrophy without the heavier loads? My results seem to show better growth in the 4-8 rep range.
 
omega99 said:
Would love to lighten the load for arm iso's, but do you really believe you can maximize hypertrophy without the heavier loads? My results seem to show better growth in the 4-8 rep range.
Click to expand...

I don’t doubt that you can maximize hypertrophy with heavy arm isos if your body can tolerate them, however IMO it’s not worth the risk when doing something like Myo-reps can get you close to the same results using lighter weights.

Many people develop injuries from heavy arm isolation movements both because of the unnatural nature of the movements and strain that produces and the often uneven muscle development they get from isolation movements leading to injuries like tendonitis and muscle and tendon tears. My boss is recovering from a torn biceps tendon from just doing preacher curls with 40 lbs. dumbbells while doing that P90x cult. I had to stop doing arm isolation movements completely because of tendonitis which is now nearly gone.

If you can tolerate and have the time for heavy arm isolation movements then by all means do them, however for most people I really don’t think that they are worth the risk, and certainly not until you’ve gotten big from compound movements first. To me doing lot of or heavy arm isos before getting big from compounds is like painting the trim before painting the walls.
 
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