Overlapping Maxes

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imported_edukate

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Say my max for bench press was 125 for 15s and then 135 for 10s. How would I go about decreasing the weights I used for each workout in between. If I were to follow the general 5-10 pound decrease for upper body, that would take me below my 15 rep max while in my 10 rep part of the cycle. This is confusing me alot. Any help would greatly be appreciated! Also, any help in applying this to adjusting dumb bell weights would be awesome as well. Thanks in advance.
 
Bryan states in the FAQ that overlapping weights or zig-zag is ok (if it is not too much). So, don't worry. The initial days of the 10 when you are using less load then you used for your 15RM workout will give you CNS a break.
 
Thanks! I don't know how I missed that. I was looking everywhere.
 
One cool thing I noticed after doing HST for multiple cycles in a row is that the maxes start to spread out. I used to have a similar situation with my chins and now it's perfectly balanced.

Go with the advice above, but don't worry about it this much.

If you're doing 125 15x, you will no doubt be able to do a LOT more than 135 10x in a few macro-cycles. Just keep at it (and keep eating big and clean!)
 
I didn't want to create another thread since, but since this question is related to maxes, I was wodnering... what exactly is the improtance of setting up maxes for all 15, 10, 5 rep mini cycles if you strength should theoretically be increasing as you follow HST? Doesn't the importance lie simply in continuously increasing poundage?
 
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(edukate @ Apr. 15 2009,2:17)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I didn't want to create another thread since, but since this question is related to maxes, I was wodnering... what exactly is the improtance of setting up maxes for all 15, 10, 5 rep mini cycles if you strength should theoretically be increasing as you follow HST? Doesn't the importance lie simply in continuously increasing poundage?</div>
Yes, the importance is the progressive increasing of load and it makes sense that you ramp the mesocycles up to the maximum poundage you can use for that rep range, thus the RM on the last day. If you don't use exactly your RM (because it already increased in the course of training for example) don't worry, just take note of it and adjust the loads accordingly the next cycle.
 
ok.. sorry to bring this back up again, but i'm still trying to set up my hst schedule.

if i have pretty significant overlaps in my weights can i simply increase volume within the next cycle?

for example if the last set of work outs in my 15 cycle is: 15x2, 20x2, 25x2 (15rm). can i just do 15x3, 20x3, 25x3 during the first three days of loading in my 10 cycle?

i hope im getting these concepts/ principals down right.
 
Hey edukate, I'm not sure if I've understood your notation correctly but if you are using loads of 15, 20, and 25 for the last three workouts during 15s then you haven't worked out your increments correctly. That's equivalent to increments of 20% based on your 15RM load of 25. That's huge!

If I was using 25(kg?) for my 15RM load, I'd calculate a progression for 15s using 5% increments of 25kg, starting out with 75% like this:

18.75, 20, 21.25, 22.5, 23.75, 25kg

In order to make this practicable, I'd more likely do something like this:

18, 20, 20, 22, 24, 25 - or whatever was easier to load on the bar. It doesn't matter if you have to repeat loads for a few sessions. It's the progression over the whole cycle that matters more.

If you apply this to your 10s mesocycle you may find that you get less overlap.
 
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