Generally you want to increment each rep range from 75% of that ranges rep max to 100%, or even 80% to 110% under the assumption you will gain 10% in strength, very possible if just starting out.
So an example would look like this:
If your 15RM (Rep Max) for an exercises is 100 lbs. the you would start the 2 week 15s micro-cycle with 75 lbs. or 75% of your 15RM. Then subtract 75 lbs. from 100 lbs. and you get 25 lbs. for the total amount to increment over the next 5 workouts. Note though you are doing 6 total workouts you are only incrementing the weight 5 times. (1) 75% to 80%, (2) 80% to 85%, (3)85% to 90%, (4) 90% to 95%, and (5) 95% to 100%. So 25 lbs. divided by 5 increments comes out to 5 lbs./increment.
Ok real world it seldom works out so evenly but the concept is the same no matter what weight range you are working in. Generally most people end up using 10 lbs. on things like Squat, Bench and other heavy compounds. 5 lbs. on lifts like Presses or BB Curls and as low as 2.5 lbs. on isolation exercises like Lateral Raises, although in some cases if your compounds are very heavy you could end up incrementing 15 lbs. or 20 lbs., because of the weight ranges they are working with.
In a less even example say you have a 140 lbs. 15RM on the BB Press it would at 75% give you 101 (I’d just round off to the nearest 5) so call it 100 lbs. 140-100=40/5 =8 lb. increments. Assuming 2.5 lb. plates are the smallest you can only increment by 5 lbs. or 10 lbs. in a case like that I would start at 100% and the 6th workout and increment backwards something like this:
Workout = Increment
6 = 5 lbs.
5 = 5 lbs.
4 = 10 lbs.
3 = 10 lbs.
2 = 10 lbs.
So you’ve incremented 40 lbs. by frontloading the larger increments. There’s no rule you have to do it that way but it just makes sense to me to put the heavier jumps in the beginning. Also if when counting down from 100% you have to drop below 75% that’s ok but I would try to stay above 70% of your RM.
Also on very light weight exercise you may have to double up and use the same weight a couple workouts in a row.
Ok after that long answer here’s the simple one yes you can do what you said:
so how about for the main compound movements i have: Squat, Bench press, Deadlift, Bentover rows, and Shoulder press i can increase it by 10
and the smaller exercises like dips, laterial raises and EZ curls i use 5 for increments... how does that sound?
You don’t have to do Lateral Raises but I find they are the best exercise for hitting the medial Deltoids and giving me wider looking shoulders. Upright Rows will also hit the Medial Delts if you want to stick with compounds and can tolerate them.
P.S. After re-reading that I think I should also note that people shouldn’t get too caught up in the fine details. Many people come here from programs that are very specifically laid out and told to do it exactly that way or it won’t work. IMO the real beauty of HST is that it’s a set of simple principles which can be used in a variety of ways. Just look at my log or the logs of those who have been here for quite a while and most of them don’t resemble anything like vanilla HST but they generally follow the principles:
