Pictures everyone?

Sniggel - I think your weight progress in pounds converts to 130lbs---->183lbs. Excellent work. I think you'll see Some new growth with HST. Good luck.

SM and lcars - thanks guys. Yeah 170 was my guess too, If I want to really try and rip up I guess I'd have to go a bit lower, I'm just afirad I would feel to small being sub 170 again.

As for cutting. SM, evaluating the past two years, I think losing muscle mass during a cut has been a huge donwfall of mine. It feels like i put on a solide 5lbs of muscle mass, just to lose 2lbs of it during a cut. What do you do in order to minimize this? This year I have decided to take it nice and slow. Instead of running I have been walking on a slight incline on the treadmill for 45 mins. (3-4 times per week). Just recently I started running for 10 mins, then walking on the incline for the remaining 35. I try to take in enough protein, but really normally only end up getting 1xbodyweight. I take CLA, fish oil, flax oil, sesamin, glutamin, cellmass, multi, and Myoplex RTD. Diet is probabaly along the lines of 50%P 25%C 25%F. Maintenance calories are probabaly 2800 and I am taking in 2000-2300 daily. (maybe too low?)

Any suggestions would be great. I dont wanna lose muscle this time!
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Just to keep the posts and pics in the forefront I've finally pinned this thread so no more searching for it, yeahhhhhhhhhhh
 
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(Dan Moore @ Oct. 22 2006,13:02)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Just to keep the posts and pics in the forefront I've finally pinned this thread so no more searching for it, yeahhhhhhhhhhh</div>
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cool .


@tank,its a difficult one,i hate cutting in the fact that i lose size,but once you begin to uncover the cuts in your muscle and begin to see the muscle groups separate you get a buzz,i tend to cut nice and slow nothing too intense so i dont lose much muscle in the process.

good luck lcars.
 
First of all, I want to say hello to everyone since I just registered on this forum today
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Then little background of my training. I'm currently 25 years old guy from Finland. I've been training naturally for about 8 years, never had any serious breaks, only been out from the gym when been sick. I've kept my training quite similar over the years, 4-5 training sessions in week, every bodyport once a week. I'm naturally very skinny, and gaining mass is very hard to me. I'm 183cm tall (guess that's about 6'1&quot;) and i weight about 198lbs My personal bench press record is 330lbs, my biceps are 17.6 inches (in pump
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...
I try to add a few pics here, not sure if i succeed because this really is my first time posting anything here
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Now these coloured pics are from the last summer, where i was about 7lbs lighter, and the black and white pic is from last winter, during my &quot;mass season&quot; (never really gained the mass i wanted)...

Today I started my first HST cycle, and I'm very excited about it since all my gains has completely stopped after last summer... I'll keep posting how my first cycle goes
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TestoKitty: Looking good man! I look forward to hearing how your 1st HST cycle goes.
 
Thanks Lol, it's really nice to notice that on this forum people are truly supportive, unlike on many other forums
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I noticed something funny with my weight, a week ago when I stepped on a scale, it showed 194,5lbs, and yesterday it was 203,5lbs, and today my morning measurement was 202lbs. I've tried to gain weight the whole autumn without success, but now during last week i've gained this 8-9 pounds. What I did last week, was my regular (non-HST) workouts for chest on thursday and back on friday, and then on saturday I did a &quot;pre HST workout&quot;, which was the first workout of my HST program, just to see if i have guessed the weights right. Then on yesterday I started my very first HST cycle. The reason for the sudden weight gain COULD be that during the last week i took my weight gainer drinks very strictly every day, and it contains creatine so that could've given me that 8-9 pounds...
Anyway, as I said, I feel very excited of my first HST cycle. Just feels funny that I only have to go to gym 3 times a week, but I guess that at the end of the program I will be begging for more off days
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I can't speak for your weight gain, although I can vary four pounds up or down a day myself. As for your first cycle of HST, keep in mind that it works from a deload.
I went from regular training right into HST and got no results the first cycle. All I would have had to do was NOTHING for a week or two, and I wouldn't have wasted that first cycle.
It stands to reason that if you're used to lifting 100 lbs. x so many sets, then you're not gonna grow from lifting 80 lbs. for the same sets...unless you deload that muscle to where it can be stressed by the lower weights.
 
You're probably right, but as I cant keep myself off from the gym, and since my last week wasn't a complete workout week I decided to start without the whole week off. May have been a wrong decision, we'll find that out
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TestoKitty: as you have found, gaining weight once you have already put on some size is not easy. You have to treat eating as if it's your job!

From your pics it's clear you have a pretty low bodyfat level so you should be able to add some size without too much fat if you eat around 500 cals surplus to requirements daily. If you are really worried about adding a bit of fat then you need to get over it as it's the lot of a natural lifter.
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You can always cut off fat at a later date. However, there's no sense in bulking too quickly and adding more fat than necessary, so calculate your maintenance cals (pretty much what you are eating right now) and add the extra 500 to that.

Don't forget that as your weight goes up so will the calories required to enable you to continue growing. I stalled out during the year because I forgot this.

As Quad pointed out, a deloading period prior to the start of each HST cycle is a pretty important part of it. If you have been training at close to max loads at low reps for a while now then it would be smart to do a proper SD. It's something you get used to having to do (and start to look forward to after a month or so of 5s!
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). However, if you have been using around 10 reps for your exercises then the 15s will act as a kind of deload before you get back to 10s and beyond.

All the best!
 
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(Lol @ Nov. 21 2006,17:20)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">TestoKitty: as you have found, gaining weight once you have already put on some size is not easy. You have to treat eating as if it's your job!

From your pics it's clear you have a pretty low bodyfat level so you should be able to add some size without too much fat if you eat around 500 cals surplus to requirements daily. If you are really worried about adding a bit of fat then you need to get over it as it's the lot of a natural lifter.  
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 You can always cut off fat at a later date. However, there's no sense in bulking too quickly and adding more fat than necessary, so calculate your maintenance cals (pretty much what you are eating right now) and add the extra 500 to that.

Don't forget that as your weight goes up so will the calories required to enable you to continue growing. I stalled out during the year because I forgot this.

As Quad pointed out, a deloading period prior to the start of each HST cycle is a pretty important part of it. If you have been training at close to max loads at low reps for a while now then it would be smart to do a proper SD. It's something you get used to having to do (and start to look forward to after a month or so of 5s!
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). However, if you have been using around 10 reps for your exercises then the 15s will act as a kind of deload before you get back to 10s and beyond.

All the best!</div>
Hehe, tell me about it. I just started my second bulk, and since I can´t eat as clean now as i did my first bulk (I´m not the one buying the food right now) I was afraid I would put on more fat if I ate as much as I did my first bulk.
But I have noticed that I just need to eat a lot and I dont need to be afraid of gaining too much weight because I have seen now these first 2-3 weeks that weight gain is progressing at a good rate (not too fast). So I dont have to restrict anything, just eat as soon as I am a little hungry, and especially the hours after workout.
My third bulk might be tougher though
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Hmmm, maybe it will be easier to cut when you´re bigger since you use more energy. Or maybe you will get hungrier just by being larger and it will be just as hard as normal?
 
Lol: Before starting this HST i was training doing most movements for 8-10 reps, except bench with 264lbs for 3 sets of 5 reps. I understand that proper SD is important, but as i said i just cant keep myself off from the gym for one week (except after my first HST cycle i will). It's just a mental thing for me, i get kind of depressed and feel that i'm so skinny if i'm out from the gym for one week
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I'm not really conserned about gaining weight or fat, it has just been quite difficult for me. Even if i went out for a pizza every day (which i know isnt the proper way to bulk), i still didnt gain weight
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Sniggel: Haha...I've noticed that (at least in my opinion), when trying to bulk and when drinking regularly weight gainers, i seem to get hungry more often. Dont know it theres any truth behind this or if this is a common phenomenom but at least thats how i feel. Now when trying to gain weight, i just try to eat whenever i dont have anything else to do. I think that if i go to eat when i feel hungry, i'm a bit late, i should've aten earlier
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Good training sessions and luck for everyone!
 
If you can't mentally bring yourself to SD now I don't see how you are going to do it at the end of your first HST cycle. And you are setting yourself up for dissapointment by not SDing first.
 
What you will gain taking 9 days off is far more than what you will lose if you take 9 days off! Just take a week to get your 15, 10 and 5RMs first. The SD will get you raring to go and any slight losses over the SD (and they will be very slight and likely just fluid) will be quickly regained. You know it makes sense. Well, I suppose you don't yet but you will if you do!
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Couldn't have said it better myself guys. The disappointment of working your butt off for 8-10 weeks to gain virtually nothing is going to be a lot worse than 9 to 14 days of doing other things, getting your life in order, having fun, or whatever.
It's sort of like the big secret of HST. I look at it as the deload creating LOAD, when you return to the gym, as opposed to LESS load by lifting less.

Any way you want to look at it, it works and works well. 0nce you get used to the concept of not killing yourself every workout.
As far as those weight gainers go, I think they were made for you younger, more slender guys. They just make me fat overnight.
 
Okay guys, you talked me over
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I will start the first cycle on next monday. This week is still going to be as hard as quitting smoking, but i believe you that it's going to pay off later
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During this off week i might just well start getting my diet right and concentrate on eating as much as i can
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TK, Looking ripped... wish I had that size in the arms, but I have my time...

I'm excited about putting new pics up in a few months... get to show off my badass scar from the appendix surgery!
 
Thanks Colby. I guess that &quot;ripped look&quot; comes mostly from good lighting and a little tan
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During the past year, I haven't been able to put on any size on my arms, hope I'll make some gains now when I change my routine to HST
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