hey everybody...
I'm just starting the 5's in my first HST cycle. So far, so good...I've made some pretty good gains thanks to tireless hours reading through these boards
. Here's my question:
For the 15's, I did two sets for each exercise, and for the 10's, I did three sets, so as to keep the number of reps consistent at 30. This fairly high volume never affected my ability to recover in time for the next workout or had me go to failure (I'm 19), so I figured it was fine. Now, in the 5's, I'm wondering how many sets I should use..I've seen numerous posts that say as many as reasonably possible without affecting your next workout, but as I do that, my workouts become very similar to the classic 5x5 routine. Is that still optimal for hypertrophy?
I've been thinking of doing a cycle of 5x5 after this HST cycle ends, to ramp up strength a bit for a future HST cycle. Seeing as how my 5's are looking just like a 5x5 cycle, should I just finish off the current HST cycle as planned and just up the weights as I transition into 5x5? Should I SD or rest at all before a 5x5 cycle from HST?
Any help/suggestions are MUCH appreciated..
I'm just starting the 5's in my first HST cycle. So far, so good...I've made some pretty good gains thanks to tireless hours reading through these boards

For the 15's, I did two sets for each exercise, and for the 10's, I did three sets, so as to keep the number of reps consistent at 30. This fairly high volume never affected my ability to recover in time for the next workout or had me go to failure (I'm 19), so I figured it was fine. Now, in the 5's, I'm wondering how many sets I should use..I've seen numerous posts that say as many as reasonably possible without affecting your next workout, but as I do that, my workouts become very similar to the classic 5x5 routine. Is that still optimal for hypertrophy?
I've been thinking of doing a cycle of 5x5 after this HST cycle ends, to ramp up strength a bit for a future HST cycle. Seeing as how my 5's are looking just like a 5x5 cycle, should I just finish off the current HST cycle as planned and just up the weights as I transition into 5x5? Should I SD or rest at all before a 5x5 cycle from HST?
Any help/suggestions are MUCH appreciated..