longer cycle

[faz]

still got 5wks left on this cycle but thought i would start setting up my next one and need some advice.
if i wanted to make my cycle longer say 12wks can you see any problem with doing this.
using legs for an example
mon wed fri
squats leg ext leg curl leg press
do this for 3wks in the 15s and 10s and 6wks in the 5s
so in the 15s 10s 5s each exercise would increment 3 times
then 3wks of max weight 5s
btw i have never done alternating exercises on HST yet so thats another reason i am asking..

 

[colby2152]

Long cycles are awesome!

At least for me that is.

I would stick to just alternating the leg press with the squats every other day.

 

[robefc]

I like alternating exercises but I agree with colby in that I would stick to alternating 2 exercises and exclude the leg extension.

I'm doing a 12 week cycle at the moment and alternating exercises, just one week for the 15s, 2 for the 10s and then 4 for the 5s and 4 for the post 5s, doing this by simply repeating a few weights in the 5s and attempting to increase weights during the post 5s once a week (unless using negatives).

I've read some posts around here somewhere saying that you can easily extend the cycle and repeat weights and still stay ahead of rbe so I'd rather spend more time at the heavier end of the cycle.

Cheers

Rob

 

[liegelord]

I'd leave out the leg press and alternate the squat with deadlifts.

 

[robefc]

Definitely agree with including deadlifts but I would have thought he could do them as well as squats/leg press?

In fact that would make alternating squats and leg press an advantage as it would reduce the strain on the lower back as opposed to using deads and squats in every session...

just an idea

 

[faz]

cheers guys do intend to do deadlifts but that will be in with the back exercises...just using legs as an example of what i am going to do ....so rather than doing this


mon wed fri
squats leg ext leg curl leg press
you would do this

mon wed fri
squat leg press squat

can i ask you why you prefer to alternate twice instead of three times..

 

[robefc]

Well the reason I alternate in the first place is I only want to do one compound exercise per bodypart in a session but don't want that to mean I can only do one exercise for a complete cycle - I don't think that would be covering all the bases fully (e.g. want to do chins and rows for back).

There aren't 3 exercises for each bodypart that I want to include so there's no need for me to consider 3 diff sessions.

I did consider doing it once as I wanted to include dips, incline db press and bench but in the end I realised I was changing round the rest of my traning just to include bench so I didn't bother.

It would reduce the frequency of progression too although I'm less worried about that now having read a lot of posts about lengthening cycles and using the same weights for longer periods.

There might be an issue with neural learning but I know very little about that and must admit it's not something that concerns me (pm jvroig if you want to know more about that).

I don't really see much if a problem with alternating 3 different sessions as you can still adhere to HST principles but I would question whether there are 3 equally effective exercises per bodypart to do...and that if there are are they adding anything different to the other exercises? Leg extension (to continue the example) I would add in as a stretch point exercise in the same session as squats or leg press rather than use on its own.

Think that covers all my reasons!

Cheers

Rob