I need help

C

combat_action

New Member
Hi everyone. I'd like some help. I did a cycle in the past and didn't get results other than 40 lbs taken off my bench. I've been weightlifting for over 8 years. I'm 245 lbs with 17% bodyfat. I love the idea of hitting the muscle three times a week with HST, but it didn't go the way I hoped the first try. Here's exactly what I did...Maybe you guys can see something wrong. -And no, my diet is not the problem. I almost doubled my carbs during the first 2 weeks of the program and stayed at 300 grams of protein throughout.

First, I did an week of SD.
Second, I decided on doing two weeks of 12's, 2 of 8's, 2 of 5's, 1 week of negs.

I did an upper/lower body split.
12's=2 sets first week, 1 set on my rep max day
8's=2 sets first week, 1 set on my rep max day
5's=3 sets first week, 2 sets on my rep max day
Day 1-
bench press
incline dumbbell press
barbell rows
pulldowns
shoulder press
side laterals
barbell curls
skullcrushers

Day 2-
squats
front leg press
seated calves
stiffleg deadlifts
barbell shrugs

I basically hit lower body twice, upper body thrice (is that a word?)
M-Day 1
T-Day 2
W-Day 1
Th-Day 2
F-Day 1
S-rest
Su-rest

Any thoughts? I know it's a long read, but the more info I put out, the more you can potentially help...
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One more thing. If my rep max for side laterals is 50 lbs for 12 reps, do I have to do 25 lbs the first day going by inc. of 5? To me, the first week, even after SD is too easy and I feel like it doesn't help. I'm sure it's like that for everyone, is there a reason to do it?
 
First thought -- You should SD for at least 10 days. And if you are doing side latterals of 50lbs you are throwing alot of iron around. A full two weeks of SD would be more appropriate.

Bob
 
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that, but I have no will power to stay away from the iron. I thought that after a week you'll start loosing muscle. I'm also wondering if my maxes would stay the same with such a long lay-off. Any thoughts to this?
 
Even though you say your diet wasn't an issue, it is still something you may want to look at a little further. Doing a split like you did is almost the same as increasing to full body 5 times a week and can increase your carb requirements dramatically. A lot of people underestimate how many carbs they need on that kind of frequency. It's a lot different than doing one bodypart each day.

I think what you should do, instead of doing a split, is run a regular HST cycle first. Cut down your exercises to some compounds, a few isolations for good measure, and do that three times a week. See how the normal HST cycle works out for you first before you try any customizations, like upper/lower splits.

As for your question about increments for side laterals. You could just use increments of 2.5 lbs instead, but I would personally stick to increments of 5 and just repeat a few weights. So your progession would look more like this:
35 40 45 45 50 50

It's okay to repeat weights a workout or two. You could also just use the 2.5 lb increments if you want. There isn't much reason to favor the 5 lb increments over the 2.5 lb. Generally, as long as your increments are between 5-10% of your rep max, you should be fine.
 
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