my hst variation

G

greatescape

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Hi I am 32 years old, I weigh 230 lbs and I am 6'3".
I have 8 years of training experience, my last cycle was defranco westside for skinny bastards with more a day for my arms (fst-7)
Now i would to try hst, I planned this cycle, I would like to know what you think of it (6 weeks cycle full body 3 days a week)

1 week 15 rep
2 week 12 rep
3 week 10 rep
4 week 8 rep
5 week 5 rep
6 week 3+2 (2 are in rest pause) + 1 or 2 neg

The percentages will every week 80%-90%-100% or 70%-85%-100%

I was also interested in trying the method max stim, I thought to try it in 100% day training
but I'm no sure
I know that is a very strange routine, I would to know what you think of it, if it was ok..


Thanks
​
 
add some information to my workout.
I want to know how many sets I have to add to maintain the correct progressive volume of training

my workout will be something like this

Squat
Deadlift
Inclined Bench Press or normal bench press
Dumbbell flies
Chins
Rows
Shrugs
Shoulder Press
Lateral Raise
Rear Delts
Dumbbell Curls
Lying Triceps Extensions
Calf Raise
Abdominal Crunches

thanks
 
How many exercises are you performing each workout? ie. Is your supplied list of exercises split into two, for A and B workouts?

Check out the Simplify and Win thread for some ideas on setting up a successful cycle.
 
list of exercises is to be performed in one workout, I had found it on a popular site for bodybuilding
I know that may sound exaggerated, but I chose it because it seemed very complete.
I also would to know what you think about the percentages. if it was better the 10% (80-90-100) or the 15% (70-85-100)

weeks 1-3-5

Squat
Deadlift
Inclined Bench Press
Inclined dumbbell flies
Pull up
Barbell Rows
Military Press
Lateral Raise
Dumbbell Curls
Lying Triceps Extensions
Calf Raise
Abdominal Crunches

weeks 2-4-6

Leg press
Stiff leg Deadlift
Bench press
Dumbbell flies
Chins
Seated Cable Rows
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Rear Delts
Dumbbell Hammer Curl
Seated Triceps Press overhead
Calf Raise
Abdominal Crunches

is it better ??
thx for help :)
 
With 8 years training experience under your belt you will no doubt be shifting some hefty loads during 5s. If you are going to try HST you would do well to use the standard set-up for at least one cycle so you can see for yourself how well the progression works over the 8-weeks of a regular cycle. More thought has gone into the standard set-up than you might realise and it actually works very well for fatigue management.

I would use 75%-100% in 5% increments for each 2-week block; 2 weeks x 15s, 2 weeks x 10s and 2 weeks x 5s. For the final two weeks either continue with the 5s, incrementing load where possible or switch to triples and increment load accordingly.

AFA reps and sets are concerned, try 2 x 15, 3 x 10, 3-5 x 5 and 5-7 x 3. This is more total reps than I would suggest for someone reasonably new to training. As each mesocycle progresses you may find that subsequent sets are hard or impossible to complete without hitting failure, eg. for the last 10s workout (10RM) you might manage 10, 8, 7 reps, in which case you could add another set of 5 reps to get your total of 30 reps or just stop there, depending on how much fatigue you are feeling.

It's important to take a period of SD before you start your cycle -- especially if you have been lifting heavy for some time. Before taking a ~9-day SD, it's a good idea to find your current maxes for all the exercises you plan on using. You could do 15s on Monday, 10s on Wednesday and 5s on Friday. If you already have a good idea of your maxes then you can go straight into SD. Make sure you eat at maintenance cals over that week.

AFA exercises are concerned, I think you will probably do better focussing your energies on some major compounds with a light sprinkling of isolation movements if desired.

Again, it's worth reading through the Simplify & Win thread (link in footer) but I'd go with something like this:

A)
Dead or SLDL
Bench
Chin or Pull-up
Press
+ Any iso junk

B)
Squat
Dip
Row (Kroc db rows if lowerback is fatigued)
DB Press or Upright Row
+ Any iso junk

Alternate between A) and B) workouts.

All the best.
 
hello guys, thanks for the help, I read the link that you have told me and I found it very useful thanks
Yes I'm doing SD now
Then I had chosen this type of training (15-12-10-8-5-3+2) because I found it interesting.
I liked the idea of varying the number of repetitions each week, but I did not know how I had to adjust with varying percentages.
lol then you say me that it is better to use 5% jump to increase the weight?
10% or 15% to every workout is too much?
I wanted to try the vanilla after the summer, it seemed perfect to me
now I want to do more intensive training, and the vanilla seemed too light (maybe i wrong i know).
I would then try a different workout as those proposed on pimp my hst
could you give me a hand lol ?

and what do you think of myo-reps, is it a good training method to insert inside?
 
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Using 5% for load increments turns out to be a pretty handy way to keep the loads moving up a useful amount each session and ensure that the starting loads are not ridiculously light.

So, using 5% increments you would have:

75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 100% as %ages of RM for that mesocycle.

This also prevents folks from calculating silly loads for dumbell movements. ie. Taking 40lb dbs for RM and using 5lb for each increment leading to a progression like this:

15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40

Instead of something like this:

30, 30, 35, 35, 40, 40

Where you start with 75% of the RM load and then use loads that are practical for the other workouts -- in a commercial gym, dbs are often only available in 5lb increments.

Blade's Myoreps are great. I think they can be particularly useful if you do not have access to as much load as you would usually need for 5s or if you are avoiding heavy loads because of injury or joint pain. I used myoreps for bench to help rehab my shoulders. It seemed to work very well and now I am able to use >5RM loads without pain.
 
Hi,

I am about to get started on my first HST cycle and I too was wondering about volume. I intend to use 10 exercises (yes, I know this could be less, but it is still well within the 'not more than 12' recommendation).

If you are doing 1set for 15s, 2 for 10s and later 3 for 5s, how do you fit that into an hour once you reach the 5er weeks?

In other words, how much rest time do you use?

Generally, I would use more rest time for heavier weights (going in the direction of strength training), say 3 min. Even if you halve that to 90 seconds, I think it would be hard to fit 3 sets of 10 exercises into an hour of training.

In order to save time, I intend to do 1 set of all exercises and then repeating that 3 times while trying to keep rest times in between exercises minimal. Don't take this literally, but this would essentially be one huge superset. It would also allow each muscle to recover longer than 3min before being worked again and it might help building stamina as well as saving time.

Do you see any good reason (i.e. very bad for gains) not to do this?

I don't want to cut the number of exercises down to 8 or even less, and I don't want to be at the gym for more than an hour.

So how do you guys do it? Especially those going in for 4 or maybe 5+ sets once they reach the 5s section of HST?

Your opinion is greatly appreciated :)

Thank you,
David


ps

Here is a short article that might really interest you. It talks about how different loads and time under tension recruit different energy systems. Scroll down to the bottom to check out the table if you don't wanna read it.

http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/throw-out-the-rep-ranges-a-different-perspective/

It also recommends rest time between sets. If I use the same approach for the 10s as suggested above for the 5s, i.e. going through all exercises once and then repeating that again one ore more times, do you think that would somehow be less beneficial to training the 'lactate energy system'?
 
David

Those doing 5 sets of 5 are usually only doing 4 or at most 5 major compound exercises with a couple of isolation movements thrown in for arms. That is doable in an hour. Using 12 exercises and 3 sets is not doable in an hour and likely will be counter productive. If you feel you absolutely must have more volume, and you do not really know that until you have tried HST as it is designed, then I suggest using a split body program to keep your workouts to 40 to 60 minutes.

Great

I suggest using 15, 10 and 5 reps for your first cycle of HST. Doing sets of 15, 12, 10, 8 and 5 provides very little advantage and requires one to work at higher percentage load increases which is more exhausting and going to "failure" twice as many times, neither of which is beneficial.

I would also hold off on max stim until you have mastered and are comfortable with HST. I get the impression from your writing that you typically change programs quite frequently. If so, HST may not be a good choice for you as consistency is a key.

David and Great

I never got the real benefits of HST until I stopped tweaking the program and most who say it does not work have not really followed it or have very low production of T and nothing will make them grow until they seek medical help. Tweaking HST without truly understanding why it was designed at it was is the equivalent of buying a Masserati and putting a Ford flathead in it. And don't forget your diet.

Happy lifting.

Old and Grey :cool:
 
Thank you Old and Grey :)

Would you mind sharing how much rest time you use during the various phases of HST? I didn't find this covered on the HST site (yet).

Cheers,
David :)
 
Regarding rest times;

15s - 45 to 60s

10s - 60 to 90s

5s and beyond ~2-3min (5min for 3s would be acceptable)


A fair rule of thumb is also 'what you need'.
 
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