please critique my HST routine

B

BigL

New Member
Hi all, I just started doing a basic HST routine for cutting (i am into the 2nd week of my 15's). Here is my routine and exercises

Routine: HST workout on Monday-Wednesday-Friday PM .

Cardio on Monday (AM) - Tuesday (PM) - Thursday (PM).

My cardio consists of a 20 minute walk on an incline. Nothing too instense, I just get the heartrate up a little bit and break a sweat.

Sets/Reps:
2weeks each of
1x15
2x10
3x5
The last two weeks I do 3 sets of my 5 rep max on each set of every exercise and immediately after my 3rd set I do a drop set

Exercises:

Squat
Leg curls
Flatbench
Bentover rows
Lat pull-downs
sitting dumbbell presses
rear delts
shrugs
standing bar curls
close grip (for triceps)

I thought a basic routine like this can either bulk you up if you intake more calories or cut you up if you are dieting and doing cardio, but after reading the thread started by EdgeArchitect (titled 3x5 routine [I hate to start a new thread but at the same time i didnt want to hijack his thread]) I am wondering if I should be doing a different routine and/or exercises to cut.

Instead of doing a 3x5 week should I be doing more reps? Anything else I should change?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
everything looks
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good workout
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Hey all, so I have 2 weeks left of my HST cycle that I listed above. I feel great and I have even received compliments from people that I look in much better shape. HST truly is great.

I have some questions regarding my 2nd cycle.

First, as you can see I do the same amount of sets for each repition scheme for both compound and isolation exercises. I am wondering If I can change this up to the following.

I will continue to do 1x15 for two weeks but for the 10 and 5 repition weeks I am thinking of just doing 1 set for the isolations (leg curls, lat pull downs, rear delts, bar curls, and close grip)

Will this be effective or will my bi's, tri's, lats, hammys, and rear delts fall behind?

My thinking is I probably shouldn't be doing the same amount of sets for a small muscle such as my biceps as I do for my legs, back or chest, but I just want to run this through the board to see if this would be fine.

What do you guys think?

Also, since I am using HST to cut I should not strategic decondition after my 1st cycle correct? I should start the 2nd cycle right away the next week?

Thanks
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I will continue to do 1x15 for two weeks but for the 10 and 5 repition weeks I am thinking of just doing 1 set for the isolations (leg curls, lat pull downs, rear delts, bar curls, and close grip)</div>

I often do this, works fine for me. Even though I recommend newbies to stick to compounds, if you follow the vanilla routine there are iso's in there!

Obviously I pay more attention to compounds, ther is just more &quot;meat&quot; to them IMO!
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Thanks for the help. I also considered this.

1x15 remains the same

On the 10 rep weeks I do 2 sets for compounds and 1 set for isos

On the 5 rep week I do 3 sets for compounds and 2 sets for isos.

Is this better or just do 1 set of isos on both the 10 and 5 weeks?
 
BigL

Looks good so far, let us not re-invent the wheel, you will only know after you try!

Give it a bash and see!
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Fausto, you do 1 set of isos on each rep week?

also, I like to do drop sets on my last two weeks. Is it neccessary to do drop sets with isos or should I just save them for the core exercises?
 
I do isos from 5's onwards.

Drop sets with compounds work well, but I have used them for certain isolations.
 
I usually don't rest much in between sets, so the workout gets too much with isos's in there, also I only use iso's as an extra stimulus, not as a means to an end!

This is a routine I have used before - worked very well for biceps, incline curls 3 sets, 18 kg x 5, 12 x 10, end with 9 x 15 (each arm of course and no rest, just enough to pick up the d/b).

I also do some variations with either skull crushers or overhead cable extensions, cable works well, similar to above, but heavy weight tends to fry my elbows.

I don't do these all the time and cannot say this is the real McCoy, just do for a while if you see fit and check the results.
 
If you are up to packing as much muscle overall, then isos are not necessary at all.

Now if your aim is a little different, say trying to build up a lagging bodypart, then smart choice and use of isos can help. Often quoted example is bringing up arms - aside from your core exercises, you can complement them with additional isolations that significantly increase the stretch - so you do incline regular/hammer curls and skullcrushers after the compounds that work your chest.

For simplicity's sake, you can just do all exercises (compounds and isos) from the 15's up to negs. Pretty vanilla, should also work well.

Regards,
-JV
 
Then don't you don't have to bother with isolations at all as long as your set of compound exercises are solid
 
I dont mean to sound repitiive. I just want to make sure I understand this. You are recommending that I do not do Iso's for any repition week: the 15, 10 nor 5?

What I was planning on doing is the following:

2 weeks of 1x15 of just CORE exercises and no iso's

2 weeks of 2x10 of Core Exercises and just 1x10 for Isos

2 weeks of 3x5 for core exercises and 2x5 for isos

Than the last two weeks I was going to do 3x5 of my max weight for the core exerices with drop sets after the 3rd set and just 2x5 for isos with no drop sets.

I will be using the exercises I listed in the first post of this thread but I will be replacing close grip with straight bar cable push downs for triceps and eliminating the rear delts. I will also  be doing 1 set of incline dumbbells for my chest. The only thing I havent liked thus far is the development of my upper chest by just doing one exercise with HST.

What do you think? Anything I should change?
 
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