Hybrid Program...how the heck do I SD?

TangoDown

TangoDown

Member
So if you've been paying attention to my log (I hope so :cool:) you'd know that because I haven't been able to work my lower body until I joined the gym for this past cycle, I've been doing Starting Strength on my lower body and HST on my upper body. So that's Starting Strength for deadlift and for leg press (can't squat atm because of my left ankle's lack of sufficient dorsiflexion due to a recent injury). Well I'm coming to the end of my first 5 rep mesocycle, and am about to start my second, so my HST cycle is almost done.

My question is, when my HST cycle ends, I'll need to SD, but since Stronglifts doesn't call for SD but rather a deload for specific exercises when progress stops (or for all exercises when overtraining starts), I am not in a position to SD for my deadlift and my leg press.

Now if I were just leg pressing, I would just SD everything else since my upper body isn't being utilized by leg press, but since I'm also deadlifting, which requires my back and forearms...as well as just about everything else...well you get the picture.

So gents, what should I do once my current HST cycle ends, which is soon?
 
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Just don't SD. Go right back into 15s or whatever you planned. There is no point in taking an SD at all unless you are able to take 9 days off from lifting completely, to take advantage of the effects of a 9 day break. Since you will still be lifting, just don't SD.
 
As long as my strength gains keep coming, I will be fine. You think not SDing will effect strength gains come next cycle? I know going back to 15s is kinda deloading.
 
I just realized that I'll probably end up maxing out and requiring a deload on my squat and leg press around the same time I end my HST cycle. I guess I could technically SD everything at that point, but that would modify Starting Strength since I then have to deload.

But like I've implied, I don't care nearly as much about muscular hypertrophy as I do about strength gains on my lifts ATM.
 
It isn't going to matter a whole lot. I don't SD regularly, only when I am not making progress anymore. A 9 day SD causes a spike in satellite cells which, in my (anecdotal) experience, seems to allow me and the people I've trained with to overcome plateaus. If you have not stalled out, then just do a deload. And with HST... yeah, you could skip the 15s.
 
Realized that my gym will be closed starting the 9th and opening up again on the 21st, so I might be forced to SD everything. I'd make it to another YMCA but I've got work in the mornings and the only YMCA with a decent gym that I know of beside my own is the one way out on the other side of the city.

Question, since with my SS stuff, I'll probably need to deload around the same point, would an SD suffice instead to allow me to then go back to where I was at, or would I then need to deload the deadlift and leg press as well, after the SD?
 
^^

So, now that I am forced to SD for 14 days, should I just jump back to my 5 rep max for my SS lifts when I come back?
 
I would imagine you'd want to start out at a percentage of your max for at least a few sessions before building back up, just in case you lose some strength (temporarily) during SD.
 
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