Minimalist high-frequency cycle - stupid idea?

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Leifmk

New Member
I have been lurking here a little and am considering trying an HST variant in the near future.Background: 41 years old, have been lifting for only about five years, shortly after the birth of my first son. In that time I have tried various methods -- had excellent newbie gains on Starting Strength for the first five or six months, then after that it has been a tale of slow progress interrupted by periods of stagnation and regression when training has gone to crap for one reason or another. Injury, birth of second son, more injury, birth of third son, etc. For most of this time I've followed programs more or less intended for powerlifting; I've competed at one small local meet as well, and that was fun, but I currently have no immediate interest in doing so again (might want to later, though). My main handicap, apart from not being in my 20s or even 30s anymore, is that I never get enough sleep, and this cannot be fixed, at least not while I have young children. Also I get minor sicknesses all the damn time because kids are biological warfare vectors. Thus, recovery is and will always be a bit of an issue. My main asset is that I have, at least in theory, the opportunity to lift with a very high frequency. We have a decently-equipped free gym in the basement at work, and I also have a barbell with enough plates and a sturdy squat rack in my garage at home (no bench as yet). So there is very little overhead time cost for "going to the gym" for me; it's either an elevator ride and a few meters of hallway from my office, or literally ten steps from the middle of my living room. Over time I have come to believe that a very high frequency strategy might trump all others, especially for natural lifters (and I have no interest in steroids, not least because they're actually go-to-jail-illegal where I live). So, my minimalist idea is to go for a cycle based on as many as six workouts per week, but six pretty short ones. Maybe as little as two big compound lifts each day, plus maybe a very small amount of minor work. The simplest version would be an A day with squat and bench press, and a B day with deadlifts and overhead press. Alternately, I might add rows to the A day and front squats to the B day. On top of this would come pullups on a greasing-the-groove basis (i.e. small sets spread throughout the day every day). My current situation is that I am in a somewhat but not extremely detrained state (#3 son was born in January and that played merry hell with all activities not essential to sustain life, for a while). For such a cycle of 6-8 weeks I would be eating at a slight surplus and the immediate goal would be to regain some lost muscle mass and rebuild work capacity. This cycle would begin after Easter and thus go on into early summer. It might be followed by a cutting phase, although aesthetics are a pretty low priority for me at this point (see: very married, three kids of which only the oldest is even out of diapers yet, so who cares how many abs I can display at the beach?) My main question is whether anyone has any experience with running HST on such a very high frequency schedule, and if said experience indicates that it is a very stupid idea or not.
 
I am currently running a 3 days on 1 off full body programme as below and just approaching the end of the 10s, everything feels good at the moment but have found (on last part of 10s only) that I need to split it into an AM and PM workout. How the 5s will be is yet to be seen as this is 1st cycle training like this.

Routine A – Flat Bench / Bent over Rows / Landmine Press / Rear Squats (ATG) / Good Mornings / Calf Raise
Routine B – Military Press / Supinated Chins / Dips / Deadlift / Good Mornings / Calf Raise
Routine C – Incline Bench / Landmine Rows / Landmine Press / Hack Squat / SLDL / Calf Raise
 
12 sets per week for the total body is not a very effective plan IMO. You can quadruple that volume and be done in 20 minutes each day. Something along these lines would work nicely:

Incline Bench
Dips

Neutral Chin Ups
Seated Row Exercise

Shoulder Press
Shrugs or Face Pulls

Squat or Leg Press
Ham Exercise
 
Leifmk - should have mentioned for each upper body exercise I do 20 reps (15s is 15 plus 5, 10s is 2 sets of 10, 5s will be 4 sets of 5 will cluster where necessary) and for lower I do 30 reps (this may reduce during the 5s or will 4 sets of 5 and reduce weight to 70% of 1RM)
 
Old and Gray is right.

I am training 6 days a week and I am doing 24 sets per muscle group per week... and could easily add more.

My workout takes 20 minutes exactly!

I think what people don't understand is you HAVE to stay away from failure.

It doesn't matter your rep max...whatever rep range you are training in you better stay a good 3 reps or more away from failure.

When you groose the groove this often you are looking at increasing your weights over the course of say 2 week blocks.


I have stayed away from even getting close to my max as often as possible...and although this is mentally challenging because until you get use to it you think the workout is to easy...the results speak for themselves. You have to be expierenced enough to know to increase lifts when you can.

I have doubled my bodyweight dips in 2 months using this method.

This is why I think non linear training is better for high frequency training than linear training...but that is my my opinion.

For example when you get down to your 5 rep max you are most likely going to run into problems training that heavy everyday.
 
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HFT in my expierence has drastically and I mean DRASTICALLY increased my ability to do total work.

Back in the day me and a buddy of mine would work out together everday. I was stronger than him in the bench press from a 1 rep max standpoint but when we would put 225 on the bar and see who could do the most reps or most total work he would blow me away.

This is an example of how he could do more total work than me with the same weight.

HFT helps increase your total work in your lifts.

So if someone can bench press 225 for 5 reps and then 2 months later they can bench 225 for 10 reps what do you think happens to your body...I promise you its nothing bad! :-)
 
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HFT = High Frequency Training. I am personally interested in that because it fits my life situation well (or will, now that #3 son is no longer completely newborn and is starting to accept sleeping or playing by himself for longer stretches of time). I was mostly interested to see if anyone had specific experience with HST set up that way; as far as strength-focused training goes there are mountains of evidence that indicate its suitability (powerlifters here often train full-body programs 5-6 days per week, for example).
 
Power lifters are also HUGE, compared to your average 'bodybuilder' or 'lifter'. Training with greater frequency, and reduced volume per bout, at a sufficient load is going to yield results. It has yielded results for 70 years (basically since post-WWII when the birth of modern-day lifting was born, and people were actually allowed to have 'iron' again, not being needed for war effort etc). Reduced volume per bout is important, as excess and unnecessary volume is what primarily inhibits your ability to train frequently....................... The classic 'bro-split', "leg day" is probably the best example of this. The reason they can only do one leg day per week is they're doing 30 sets on legs per session. I currently train 5-6 days per week, full-body, operating at loads approximately 85% - 90% of my 1RM (approximately 5RM - 3RM), and have no issues completing the workouts. I'm also the biggest and strongest I've ever been (30 years old). The secret to hypertrophy is that there isn't a secret at all. Lift, eat, sleep, repeat.
 
Day 1: Heavy deads Heavy bench Explosive Rows Day 2: Squats Push press SLDL - reps Chins Day 3: Rack pulls Deads - volume Heavy bench Day 4: Squats Push press SLDL - heavy singles Chins Day 5: Speed deficit deads Heavy Rack pulls Heavy bench Explosive rows Day 6: Squats Push press SLDL - reps Chins
 
AlexAustralia said:
Day 1: Heavy deads Heavy bench Explosive Rows Day 2: Squats Push press SLDL - reps Chins Day 3: Rack pulls Deads - volume Heavy bench Day 4: Squats Push press SLDL - heavy singles Chins Day 5: Speed deficit deads Heavy Rack pulls Heavy bench Explosive rows Day 6: Squats Push press SLDL - reps Chins
Click to expand...


Nice!

My setup is similar...I see you are not doing any direct arm work either.

I haven't done any direct arm work in a while?

Are you still growing in the arms as well?
 
I haven't done direct arm work in ages. Occasionally I'll do a set or two of curls or pressdowns/crushers if I'm bored or whatever, but I'll probably done 10 sets total in the last five years.. My arms are still growing. My program obviously provides the least to chest and triceps. I think if I ever wanted to bring up triceps more (and I do, but chest is probably the least important muscle group so triceps gets less that way), I'd just do CG BP, probably decline - simulating dips (which are the best exercise for chest and triceps IMO, but hold the greatest injury risk for obvious reasons).
 
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