Newbie with questions

S

sandy77uk

New Member
Hi all

I'm new to HST and to be honest the whole lifting scene, I started doing the SL 5x5 routine back in April and have really enjoyed it, however I'm hearing lots of really good things about HST and the specific layout and knowing what I will be doing for 6 weeks really appeals to be me. I'm going on holiday at the end of this month.

is it viable to work out my 15's -10's and 5's and then use that holiday as a period of SD ready for HST when i come back?

I've been reading the main HST page and it talks about the different types of exercises and suggests a sample routine, ie. legs alternates between leg press and squats (can I just drop leg press and do squats each day?, I love doing Deadlifts, so is it viable to alternate squats and deads, or is that not enough impact on the legs?) also bicep curls (can I do close grip, underhand chins to hit the biceps rather than dumb or barbells?)

There doesnt seem to be a "if you are a newbie, do the following strictly till you understand what you are doing"

so I'm looking for advice as i've just confused myself by reading the same guides on the main page

Thanks in advance

James
 
I too am new to HST and am finishing my 1st week of 10's. I have been doing Squat-Deadlift-Squat and repeat for the 6 parts of each two week period. One bit of advice - limit your DL's to only 1 set. They are great, but sap too much of your energy for the remainder of the workout.
 
sandy77uk said:
Hi all

I'm new to HST and to be honest the whole lifting scene, I started doing the SL 5x5 routine back in April and have really enjoyed it, however I'm hearing lots of really good things about HST and the specific layout and knowing what I will be doing for 6 weeks really appeals to be me. I'm going on holiday at the end of this month.

is it viable to work out my 15's -10's and 5's and then use that holiday as a period of SD ready for HST when i come back?

I've been reading the main HST page and it talks about the different types of exercises and suggests a sample routine, ie. legs alternates between leg press and squats (can I just drop leg press and do squats each day?, I love doing Deadlifts, so is it viable to alternate squats and deads, or is that not enough impact on the legs?) also bicep curls (can I do close grip, underhand chins to hit the biceps rather than dumb or barbells?)

There doesnt seem to be a "if you are a newbie, do the following strictly till you understand what you are doing"

so I'm looking for advice as i've just confused myself by reading the same guides on the main page

Thanks in advance

James
Click to expand...

You can always alternate squats and deadlifts. I'd forgo deadlifting 3 times a week even if you're young and fairly new. Deadlifts will obliterate you and drain your CNS.

You can do chins in place of bicep curls. Any other back work should be alternated with the chins, IMO. You could do chins 3 times a week or you could do a split of chins/rows. If you do this, I'd have the rows being done on the days you do squats as opposed to the days you deadlift. If you get to the point where you can do more than 15 full-ROM chins at once, I'd start adding weight. If your gym doesn't have a dip belt, buy one from Amazon or your local sporting goods store for like $30. Or you can just put a dumbbell between you legs and do it that way.

By "follow strictly" I think it's saying "don't change the fundamentals" of the program. That means keeping within the rep and volume ranges. HST is a set of principles more than anything, and can be applied to a variety of different custom programs. Any program that has progressive overload over time followed by a period of deload or a 1-2 week break is HST-indicated, or compatible with HST. But sticking to the vanilla program is the easiest thing to do. That doesn't mean you can't pick the exercises you do though.

You can do something like:

Squat/Deadlift (or Squat)

Bench (or Bench/Dips)

Rows/Chins (if just Squat, you can do Rows/Deadlift)

Overhead Press
 
If you plan to alternate squats and deads, then you'll want to alternate your secondary leg exercise as well. I strongly prefer to pair squats with something for hamstrings such as romanian deads, stiff leg deads or ham curls. Then pair deads with either leg press or leg extensions to hit the quads on deadlift day.

You can drop leg press and just do squats too, that's fine. If you do that, I wouldn't do full deadlifts. I did do deads and squats together in the same workout for a long time when I first came to HST and I was able to tolerate it. So you could try it, but it just depends on you. If you are going to do squats every workout but you still want the deadlift movement, you could also do rack pulls instead of full deadlifts and do those as your main back exercise.
 
thanks for all the comments guys, really appreciate it, the exampled on the main HST page shows back being 2x10 of chins and 2x10 of rows, so theres no split there, its those 4 exercises everytime i go in, so if thats a case, does that knacker me for using chins in place of biceps? and ive always considered chins to be more a bicep movement and pullups a back exercises

legs looks fairly easy in that I can alternate squats/romanian deads with vanilla deads/leg press (now on the SL 5x5 program they suggest you only do a single set of 5 deads as it is exhausting, with this, am I ok to be doing 1x15?

what I find confusing is there are two examples given, but they both differ vastly with set count
 
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