Intermediate Lifter HST

A

armsbrah

New Member
I've tried HST in the past (3x Full Body Split with 15's, 10's, and 5's at 2 weeks a block for each cycle) and had tremendous results. Recently, I've been doing PHAT and getting good results, but I want to switch back to HST in order to experiment with something new again.

My question is now that I am stronger and bigger (highly relative, I know, but I am compared to my old HST cycles), how do I go about approaching volume and frequency of the split ?

I've seen people advocating Upper/Lower splits for experienced lifters following the HST principles and 1-2 sets for the 15's, 1-2 sets for the 10's and 2-3 sets for the 5's ?

What's up with that ?

More volume with the lighter poundage or more volume with the higher poundage ?

Also, how does this look for an HST split:

Workout A:

1.Squats
2.Legs Extensions
3.Bench Press
4. Cable Crossovers
5. Pendlay Rows
6. Pull-ups
7. DB Shoulder Press
8. Lat Raises
9.Hammer Curls
10. Tricep Rope Pushdowns
11. Calf Raises
12. Forearm work (reverse curls or static holds)
13. Shrugs

Workout B:

1.Squats
2. Leg Curls
3.Bench Press
4. Dips
5. DB Shoulder Press
6. Upright Rows
7. Cable Rows (or Pendlay Rows again)
8.Pull-ups
9.Some form of curls
10. Some form of tricep pushdown
11. Calfs
12. Forearm work
13. Traps
 
3x 5's is because some folks mentally feel the need to maintain the rep total throughout the differing load phases. Similarly, some will focus on rep total (clustering) rather than sets x reps, and there's also going to be a certain point where 10 reps might not get it done for you once you hit the 5s. Frankly, 15 reps at 5RM and above is the upper limit that I would recommend for an essentially vanilla HST set up. Of course, if you're at doing different lifting protocols; strength-directed, Olypmic lifting, power lifting etc. then that's going to be subject to change and there's a more directed, planned approach in play.


I would stick to the full-body split, only I would remove some of those isolations;

Cable cross-over, curls, forearm work, traps - I'd remove all of them.

Upright Rows - a great exercise but a highly dangerous one with regard to rotator cuff.

Frankly, the glaring omission from your routine is the deadlift (or a below-knee Rack Pull).

$0.02
 
13 exercises X 3 sets = impossible to maintain. The max I would do would be:

Squats or Deads.
Leg Extensions or curls
Bench press or dips
Neutral Chin ups or pull ups
Shoulder press
Shrugs or face pulls

If you feel direct arm work is necessary throw in a set of hammer curls and close grip bench press.

Save the other stuff until you are advanced.

! set 15's
2 sets 10's
3 sets 5's

Minimum 3 times per week. Should be doable in under one hour, even the 5's. If you decide to increase frequency to 5 or 6 times per week, decrease 10's to 1 set and 5's to 2 sets or even 1 set if you feel fatigued.

$.01
 
I didn't want to add deadlifts because deadlifiting after squats would be tiring imo...then again I've never tried it. If I want to up the frequency to more than 3 times per week, how would it look ?

Also, you're advocating one exercise for each bodypart like bench press or dips, etc. Do you think it will be enough ? Currently with PHAT, I am doing a lot of volume so the feeling of having to cut some of it out is foreign to me.
 
You could alternate deads and squats. Thats what I used to do.

If you plan on upping the frequency, and doing full body each time, you need to work out how many workouts per mini-cycle you´ll do then adjust the increase accordingly. Instaed of increasing 5% each time you could use the same weights two workouts in a row, for example. You´ll need to adjust volume too. Instaed of 2 sets on the 10´s you can do one each day.

Most people tend do only do one exercise for each body part, apart from back where you could do both rows and chins. Theres no point doing bench press then cable cross for chest as it wont do anything for growth really apart from tiring you out. Id advise the following:

Deads, alternated with squats.
Chins
Legpress
Rows
Dips
Benchpress
Military press
Calf raise

Youre hitting all your muscles with that. The legs and back are getting a little more volume due to their size.

Ive recently finished a full cycle fo upper and lower splits with an A and a B workout. I feel this is better for me as Im able to get more volume in each workout per muscle group. The downside is that Im not hitting every muscle every second day. I am hitting each muscle properly twice a week. I will be continuing this way indefinitely.
 
How was your upper/lower routine setup ?

Did you up the weight every workout for each respective workout ? In the traditional HST, each mini-cycle is 6 workouts (or 2 weeks). In your upper/lower split it's 8 workouts for 2 weeks, how did that work ?

What was the volume (sets,etc.) ? I'm guessing you did 4 workouts per week instead of 3 full-body workouts.
 
Have you looked over the HST Ebook? I put several examples of routines for more advanced lifters in there.
 
armsbrah said:
Also, you're advocating one exercise for each bodypart like bench press or dips, etc. Do you think it will be enough ? Currently with PHAT, I am doing a lot of volume so the feeling of having to cut some of it out is foreign to me.
Click to expand...

No, not unless your frequency is very high or you are talking about the 15 rep range.

BTW, have you ever looked as this study? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10647555

It is not directly comparable to a progressive load routine but still gives something to think about when you get into high number of sets/exercises per muscle group. There is a point of diminishing returns, even for heavily juiced pros.

As for PHAT, I think one would have to be genetically gifted or "enhanced" to handle that amount of volume. I certainly do not have the drive or stamina to do PHAT but if it works for you, I am all for it.
 
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armsbrah said:
How was your upper/lower routine setup ?

Did you up the weight every workout for each respective workout ? In the traditional HST, each mini-cycle is 6 workouts (or 2 weeks). In your upper/lower split it's 8 workouts for 2 weeks, how did that work ?

What was the volume (sets,etc.) ? I'm guessing you did 4 workouts per week instead of 3 full-body workouts.
Click to expand...

I did upper and lower with an A and B split. So two completely workouts for both lower and upper. Monday lower a, tue upper a, thu lower b and fri upper b. So yes 4 workouts per week. Each mini-cycle lasted three weeks. 1st week was 80%, second 90 and last week was 100%. 3 mini-cycles consisting of 12,8 and 5RM. Nine weeks total plus an extra week or two for extending 5RMs or negatives.
 
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