Is this even really possible?

Z

ZeroAkarui

New Member
I've done 4 cycles of HST, spread out over a long period of time. First time I did the whole cycle, got 1/2in on my arms. 2nd and 3rd where without 15s, and I got barely anything on my arms, if anything. I'm not in the process of my 4th cycle where I did the 15s again, and I got 1/4-1/2in (depending on the day) on my arms again, but stopped getting bigger when I moved into the 10s.

So my question is this... even though 8-12 is the optimal range to put on muscle, could my body just be different and I put on muscle better at 15 reps? Or am I missing something important in this equation. Thanks.
 
8-12 is not the optimal range to build muscle. It's load that matters. How was your nutrition during each of your cycles? Did you gain any weight during your 2nd or 3rd cycles? Did you measure anything besides your arms?
 
During the first three, my nutrition was just whatever I ate. Didn't pay attention to it. During this 4th cycle, I didn't make a specific diet, but I did figure out what I needed to eat and how much per day of the foods I have availible to me.
Yes, I measured just about everything, and I have the most growth during the 15s, always. The only reason I said the arms is because those are the measurements I knew by heart.
So now my question turns to this... is it possible to shorten my HST to just 15s and 10s? Maybe 15,12,10. Because I seem to get nothing from 5s or post-5s (Even when I didn't do HST, I never got any real results with low rep, high weight workouts. I barely got any results with anything non-HST, though I never did 15 rep range non-HST).
Thanks.
 
A few questions:

What kind of set/rep scheme were you using for your HST cycles? ie. how many sets for each reps range?

If you take bb bicep curls as an example exercise, what sort of progression are you doing? ie. what are your start and finish weights for the cycle and how do you increment along the way?
 
standard HST. 1st and 4th cycles were 15,10,5,5RM. 15 was 1 set. 10 was 2 sets. 5 was 3 sets. That's for compounds, iso's were 1 set in 15s, and 1-2 sets in 10/5s, I basically always did 1 set. For the 2nd and 3rd cycles I did the same, except no 15s. And since I saw no real gains at all during them, but did when I used the 15s, and the gains came DURING the 15s, that has led me to this conclusion.

I was using 5% of the weight progression. For the 4th cycle I even read the Pimp my HST ebook so I did the whole first workout being 70% of RM or whatever it is. So for Bicep curls, it would be 5 lb increments.

My only real theory I've come up with is that the 5+ years of doing body weight exercises to failure at kung fu has made those kinds of muscle for prodominant. Just a far out there guess though.
 
I will not disagree, a nice drop set of incline curls, ending on 25 reps with a 15 rep max or so during the 5's is noty a bad idea and has in the past increased my arm isze, this however is limited by your overall mass. (take about 15 - 20 pounds mass to score an extra inch ion the guns)
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Also Include the good ol'triceps always as they are 2/3 of the size, ther I like to do french curls/skullcrushers or overhead cable extensions.
 
if you want to do 15,12,10, give it a go if it works good ,if it doesnt try the 15,10,5, again
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OK, the only other base not covered is calorie consumption.

It is possible that you are eating very close to maintenance and that during 15s you have just enough surplus to build a bit of size but then, once you get into 10s and beyond where the energy requirement is higher, you are effectively eating at maintenance and are not consuming enough to grow.

You should continue to gain weight if you are eating enough (about a pound a week is a good target). If you are not gaining weight then you need to up your calories. You will gain a little fat too along the way but this seems to be unavoidable if you are staying natural.

Eat around 500 cals over maintenance each day and remember that as you add body weight your calorie requirement rises a bit so by the end of the 5s your maintenance level will be higher than it was at the start of the cycle and you will need to eat a bit more food in order to continue to grow in a subsequent cycle.
 
Also, as an afterthought, be sure you are getting a good balance of the major food groups and enough protein etc.

Hope that helps.
 
i look best during the end of the 15s and mid 10s...i believe it is due to increase glycogen.


how many sets did you do in the 15s?
 
Dropping the 5s would be the biggest mistake of your life.

Here is what is probably happening - the 15s cause your muscles to store more carbs/water/etc, but it's not actual fiber growth. During the later parts of the 10s and the entire range of the 5s, you are basically consolidating your gains since then your muscle fibers are probably actually growing during this time.
There is pretty much no way that the higher loads during the 5s would be ineffective if the much lighter loads you are using during the 15s and 10s actually work.

What will likely happen if you stick to just 15s and 10s is that when you go on SD, your muscles will drop all the extra water and your size gains will disappear. With gains in water/carbs/etc, you have to keep working out or they disappear after a week or so. Of course gains in muscle fiber size will disappear too, but not until you've taken several months off from the weights.

I also still think you need to increase the calories as Lol suggested once you get into the heavier weights. Remember that maintenance goes up as you gain weight, so you'll need to continually increase your calorie intake. Like he said, if you are not gaining weight, you need to increase the calories. It's not the fault of the training, it's the fault of your diet. You have to gain weight to gain muscle, it doesn't just appear from nothing.
I suggest counting calories as a way to ensure you are eating enough, since I do not believe there is any way to be sure you are getting enough food otherwise, but some guys would suggest that you just eat enough that you are starting to get some fat gain, to ensure you are getting enough food to grow muscle.
 
Ok, I'll keep up with the regular cycle. I was thinking it could be what Totentanz just said, (ie 15s swell and the 10s and 5s make it so I keep the gains) but I didn't know any of the science behind what was actually happening so it was just a random guess. I'll also make sure to up my calories. Thanks all.
 
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