not able to do negs

P

Peak_Power

New Member
I work in a small corporate gym, and so its awesome that I can do my workouts here anytime I want, but I am the only one who works here so I don't have a training buddy/partner to help me do negs. I wouldn't really think it appropriate to ask a member to help me. Any advice on post-5s routine? Or just do the 6 weeks and then SD?

Anyone notice significant growth in the negs period, or is this more for building strength?
 
Negatives are great, but not necessary.  Just extend the heavy 5 rep weights for a few weeks.  You can train with the heavy weights for weeks on end.  If you start feeling burned out or your progress is completely standing still, then SD and start over.
6 weeks is too short for my taste. I believe in extending the hypertrophy for as long as possible before restarting. Of course I am a max-stimmer and we use 12 week cycles with some seriously heavy loads near the end. Dan Moore (HST expert and Max-stim author) has told me it could be very beneficial to keep going once I am maxing out and reaching my strength limits. In other words he thinks it may be superior to go for a few weeks at the same weights once you reach your strength limit, rather than Sd early and possibly miss out on some growth.
Oh, and Bryan also has said this, that there is nothing wrong with extending the heavier weights for more than two weeks, that it could be very beneficial. 6 to 8 weeks was never written in stone by Haycock, that is just the basic HST routine, which of course can be personalized depending on your goals, etc.
 
If you can do 3 sets of 5 reps consistently for a couple of weeks, then it is time to progress the weights. IF YOU STILL can complete 3 sets of 5 reps with the heavier weights, then progress again! Just go easy, if you can only do like 3 sets of 2 to 3 reps, you are going too heavy and could get injured.
 
I'm thinking of adding in a 6-8 rep for weeks 5&6 (with weights heavier than 10RM), and then 4-5reps for weeks 7&8 (with weights progressing to 5RM). What do you think of this as an alternative to 4 weeks of 5s?
 
Oh, and I know this is very obvious, but when going heavy, don't go to failure and try to get a spotter if you can! I workout at home with no spotter, so I use a power-rack with safety bars, so if I do reach failure I won't kill myself under the load!
ghostface.gif
 
<div>
(Peak_Power @ Aug. 29 2006,23:37)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I'm thinking of adding in a 6-8 rep for weeks 5&amp;6 (with weights heavier than 10RM), and then 4-5reps for weeks 7&amp;8 (with weights progressing to 5RM). What do you think of this as an alternative to 4 weeks of 5s?</div>
That sounds fine!
 
What Scientific Muscle said! He has given very good answers.

You want to remember that 15s are said to mainly get you ready for the heavier work, so if you only had 2 weeks of 10s and 2 of 5s that's 2 weeks of prep plus possibly SD time for only 4 weeks of work to induce hypertrophy. So doing at least 4 weeks of work post 10s is important.

I agree also with SM that your plan for weeks 5-8 sounds fine. Progression doesn't need to be rapid, just steady, since the same weight can continue to induce hypertrophy for some weeks.

You might see how you feel at the end of week 8, and still possibly extend another week or more. If the 5s are not too tough, go for it a bit longer and heavier. If they're tough then maybe it's time to end the cycle.
 
some exer. can be done as neg. without a spotter like wgt dips and chins and some trap exer.

when i get to the end of week 6 (2 weeks of 5s) i usually continue with about the same wgt. but bump it up when i can get a reliable spot. combining another 2-3 weeks of max wgt work with the above mentioned neg work usually wears me down physically and mentally (3x a week almost never miss a day) so 8-9 total weeks then sd works good for me. personally i see roughly the same amount of growth thru 10s,5s and negs but obviously not much in the 15s.

if during this time you find your max wgts still going up by all means dont stop unless you feel you really need it.

another note on the negs. if you havent tried the ones i mentioned yet give it a shot and youll see how taxing (mentally and physically) they can be. wgt. chins especially. save those for the end as you may not be interested in doing anything else after.

good luck
 
Dips and chins do not require any one to help when doing neg's. Also, if you're doing standing OH presses (if not you should be) you can do neg's by push pressing the weight overhead and then doing neg's.
 
Peak....

Carry on with 5's as far as possible, as sci... muscle puts it if you start feeling worn out then you know it is time to SD.

Going into week 12 is not unusual.
 
Good answers all- I would consider adding dropsets to the last two weeks (whether it's 7th/8th or 11th/12th week).
 
Something that worked well for me was to just extend the 5s.

I increased weight on lifts where I could by a small increment like 5lbs on barbell lifts. I also dropped down to 2 work sets and occasionally took an extra day when needed.
 
Last cycle, I continued to add weight every three or four workouts, and my strength kept up with it. I just didn't add weight to too many lifts in the same day. I also switched to the max-stim style when weight got too heavy to do a &quot;regular&quot; set. That enabled me to progress above my 5 RM.

Funny thing about dips. I kept adding weight -- five punds every other workout -- and instead of doing negatives, I was able to keep doing sets of five, then clustered sets of five, then max-stim. I didn't end up doing negatives at all!
 
Always great when you can continue making strength gasins post 5's like that. It means you'll have heavier loads for neg's.
 
I'll do Dips and Chins using my feet to push up, and one arm rows and shoulder press using the other arm to help lift the weight up, same with one legged leg press (both out with both legs, lower with one). Could also do one arm preacher curls and tricep extension if I want as well.

A one-man neg workout, how cool
smile.gif
 
Hey Peak if you want to have some fun after the 5's do 5's / 15's / 10's all in one week  
cool.gif


eg.
(as heavy as possible on all days but not till failure)
Mon - 5 rep workout
Wed - 15 rep workout
Friday - 10 rep workout

biggrin.gif
fun fun fun  
biggrin.gif


the following week Wash, rinse, Repeat (you may be able to bump up a little weight on all days)
 
<div>
(Peak_Power @ Aug. 30 2006,04:37)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I'm thinking of adding in a 6-8 rep for weeks 5&amp;6 (with weights heavier than 10RM), and then 4-5reps for weeks 7&amp;8 (with weights progressing to 5RM). What do you think of this as an alternative to 4 weeks of 5s?</div>
I'd rather do four weeks of fives. It's just that to do a 6/8 rep mesocycle properly you would have to know your 6/8RMs. If you know them, great. If you don't know them, I don't see the point in doing this. Just do more reps at the beginning of the 5s if you want to. There's usually some zigzag at the beginning of each mesocycle which would allow you to do this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top