in 5 rep cycle now

C

cp65

New Member
Hi guys...

i did the 15 rep cycle for two weeks...

i did : 2 x squat, 2 x leg curl, 2 x bench press, 1-2 x dip, 2 x pull down, 1 - 2 x bent over row, 2 x shoulder press bb, 1 - 2 x bent over laterals, 2 x shrug, 2 x biceps curl bb, 2 x triceps pushdown, 2 x calves

in the 10 rep cycle:
2 x squat, 2 x leg curl, 2 x bench press one workout, the other workout decline bench press, 2 x pull down one workout, 2 x bent over row the other workout, 2 x shoulder press bb one workout, 2 x bent over laterals the other workout, 2 x shrug, 2 x biceps curl bb, 2 x triceps pushdown, 2 x calves

now we are in the 2nd week of 5's
we do the same as in 15's only at 5 reps... otherwise you have the feeling you didn't do enough...

is that wise or not?

we do the reps very slow to get the best feeling, but in some exercises you feel like you can do more reps, and in some it's getting too heavy in the 2nd set, but will one set be enough???

please advise

carlo
 
I would probably continue with 2 sets per exercise, since this is how you started. If a weight feels light for a given exercise, you can just use larger increments. Do not worry too much if you can't get 5 reps for your second set, that's ok. You could use clusters to compensate if you wish, sometimes I do that, but it's your decision really (and it is not that important). You can probably introduce some metabolic sets now after your work sets, if you want to. If you feel the volume is too much now (and you have the time), consider a split routine. Read the FAQ also, I believe most of your questions will be answered there.
 
Hi Cp65

You should be able to do more than 5 reps (in your first set) until you get to the end of your 5s because that should be your 5 rep max. If you can still do more than that's great as it should mean your strength has increased (unless you miscalculated your max to begin with). Either way just keep increasing the weights and you'll get to a point where you find it hard! :D

With respect to the set up of 15s, 10s, 5s - this is the easiest way to set up your cycle and understand the progressive loading element of hst. I know set my starting weight at something which would be roughly the same if i was setting up my cycle in this way but then just increase the weight each week and do as many reps as I can for each set until the movement starts to slow - which is a sign of approaching failure so I stop. The point being that the number of reps isn't really that important, the fact they go down is just a side effect of the load increasing.

Clusters means targetting a certain number of reps and simply splitting that into as many sets as you require to complete 10 reps. E.g. if you wanted to to do 2 sets of 5 thats 10 reps. You may find you can only do 3 in the second set so you would then do an additional set of 2 to reach that 10 rep goal.

Metabolic sets involve ensuring the muscle has done enough metabolic work for optimal gorwth. What you're really looking for is to create a 'burn'. You can do a light set of 15s after the last set of the exercise, drop sets or a set of pulses...for further info read through the faq and the customizing hst thread in the general training forum.

Hope that helps

Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top