My HST setup - opinions?

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ManosHandsOfFate

New Member
I have decided to take the plunge and cease my linear 5x5 (which I've been on for over a year) and start HST.  I'm testing my max's this week on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and will take the following week off.  Here is my setup:

Workout 3 days per week, full body everyday (Mon, Wed, Fri).

Rep ranges will be 12-9-6.  I decided to go a bit lower overall since I'm trying to cut a few pounds, so I want to keep my lifts a bit heavier.

I will be putting my max lifts on workout number five in each mesocycle, and will attempt to go beyond that mark on the 6th workout by 5%.

I am going to vary slightly from Bryan's advice - the first week of each mesocycle I will be performing TWO working sets of the weight, and on the second week I will only perform one, in order to compensate for the increase in load.  The exercises that I will be performing are:

Leg Press
Smith machine lunges
DB incline
DB flat
Chin-ups
DB row
Tricep pushdown w/rope
BB bicep curl
Sit-ups

Depending on how I feel, I will consider dropping the isolation work on the second week of each mesocycle in order to concentrate more on the compound lifts. If necessary, I will perform cluster sets to reach certain rep goals, though I can't imagine needing to do this until the sometime during the second week.

I would greatly appreciate and suggestions/opinions.  Thanks!
 
Not being critical, but is there a reason you don't have squats or deads in there? Like, do you have bad knees/ankles? If not, I would highly recommend replacing leg press/lunges with either one of those. And, I would consider putting in some type of overhead press for your shoulders.
 
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(UFGatorDude30 @ Jun. 26 2007,09:26)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Not being critical, but is there a reason you don't have squats or deads in there?  Like, do you have bad knees/ankles?  If not, I would highly recommend replacing leg press/lunges with either one of those.  And, I would consider putting in some type of overhead press for your shoulders.</div>
Good questions.

As I mentioned, I've been on the linear 5x5 for 61(!) weeks - resetting a lot, but always lifting heavy, to the point where I dropped over 27 pounds without losing much strength.

However, that's 62 weeks of squats, deadlifts, Pendlay rows, and benching. First, it got mentally boring, and second, doing those exercises with the frequency/volume that I was doing them at, with two herniated discs in my back...well, my body was telling me that maybe I should cycle off those exercises for a short period of time.

As far as shoulders go, I will throw in some rear delt flys, but the chset movements work my shoulders enough - to throw in a heavy compound movement on top of that could a) overwork the muscle and/or b) cause complications in the future.
 
Well those certainly are good reasons to switch things up.. I would have to say your exercise selection is pretty good then.  There will be a lot of guys here that will question your use of DB's over the bar, and doing arm iso's... but I feel like you've already been there, done that, and trying out something new... which is great.

I like your idea for putting yourself above your maxes on the 6th workout... I'm a firm believer in trying to get some strength out of a cycle instead of focusing simply on hypertrophy.  That could be because I have a ways to go in getting my numbers up... but anyways, I would definitely give this routine a try.  Start a log, and you will see a lot more people giving advice than you might get in one of these threads.

Good luck  
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(UFGatorDude30 @ Jun. 26 2007,10:16)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Well those certainly are good reasons to switch things up.. I would have to say your exercise selection is pretty good then.  There will be a lot of guys here that will question your use of DB's over the bar, and doing arm iso's... but I feel like you've already been there, done that, and trying out something new... which is great.

I like your idea for putting yourself above your maxes on the 6th workout... I'm a firm believer in trying to get some strength out of a cycle instead of focusing simply on hypertrophy.  That could be because I have a ways to go in getting my numbers up... but anyways, I would definitely give this routine a try.  Start a log, and you will see a lot more people giving advice than you might get in one of these threads.

Good luck  
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Thank you, I appreciate the response
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You have been the only person, I believe, to respond to any of my posts.

Trust me, I'm a firm believer in using the bar as often as I can, if only because you can generally lift more weight with a bar than you can the total of two dumbells. You are right though - after working exclusively with the bar for well over a year, I had to make some changes. My lower back was starting to ache a bit more lately, and I have not been looking forward to m workouts as much lately. I will probably run this cycle for about 6 weeks, then just right back into my 5x5, this time for a shorter period of time.

I agree with your assessment of devoting the last day of each mesocycle for weights above my max. IMO, I don't see much of a point to a lifting program if it doesn't involve at least attempting to push yourself past your current limits. Not only that, but if I am able to set new max lifts on vertain exercises, I would aready have my next cycle all figured out, without having to test anything
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I will follow your advice and start a log, hoping to get some more responses. Oh, by the way, did some testing yesterday, and my body is already sore
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Manos

my quick opinion:

your workout looks fine to me, as gator indicated earlier I'd have liked to see squats and deads in there as with the high rep set up you'd be able to get your back up and running before you hit the heavies.

frequency would drop, deads just once p/week and squats twice, IMO you should include both.

Isos? Up to you!
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(Fausto @ Jun. 27 2007,07:08)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Manos

my quick opinion:

your workout looks fine to me, as gator indicated earlier I'd have liked to see squats and deads in there as with the high rep set up you'd be able to get your back up and running before you hit the heavies.

frequency would drop, deads just once p/week and squats twice, IMO you should include both.

Isos? Up to you!
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Thank you for the response.

Trust me, I would also like to put deads and/or squats in my workout, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I've been doing those exercises religiously for over 60 weeks. Not only was I getting mentally bored of doing the same five exercises for over a year, but my lower back was really starting to ache as the weeks went by. A short hiatus (6 weeks) from doing those exercises won't hurt me in the long run, I believe.

I also should mention that I was sore (in a good way) on my first test day, especially in my legs. The fact that I'm stressing the muscles in a different way is surely a good thing any ways.
 
i think you would be better droping the db flat and adding a shoulder exercise,the incline should work your pecs well.
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(faz @ Jun. 27 2007,10:43)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">i think you would be better droping the db flat and adding a shoulder exercise,the incline should work your pecs well.
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The shoulder &quot;bundle&quot; (or whatever you want to call it) it very important to any upper body movement. I don't want to add any unneccesary stress to those muscles, and figure that doing two different angles of benching will hit the shoulder enough.

Not to mention that I feel like my chest is lagging a bit
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">A short hiatus (6 weeks) from doing those exercises won't hurt me in the long run, I believe.</div>

I supose not, have it your way! Maybe as you say you just need &quot;time off&quot;, I voice my opinion as to what I feel is best, but as HST not written in stone!
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I will be putting my max lifts on workout number five in each mesocycle, and will attempt to go beyond that mark on the 6th workout by 5%.</div>

I like that idea a lot... push those PB's!
 
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