Pretty happy with HST!

H

HectaM

New Member
Hey everyone,

I'm new to posting here, obviously!

I thought I'd quickly share my first cycle results and see if you folks can give recommendations on how I can get better results in the future.

Ok so, I I've got some history of lifting, I've lifted for 4 years pretty regularly, I took about a year off in the middle for travel purposes.

Mainly I was in the HIT camp, I know the HST community is full of converts from HIT.

Basically I'd been training to failure for 75% of my training "career."

Recently, I found this site, and tried out the HST thing, I completed my first cycle and went from about 150 pounds to 170 pounds in 7 weeks.

My diet was approx 3,500 kcals a day with at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.

My HST routine looked like this:

Squat:

Deadlift:

Stiff Legged Deadlift:

DB Bench Press (x2):

Military Press: (x2):

Cable Row:

Triceps: (Close Grip Bench/Cable Pushdown x2):

Bicep Curl:

Traps:

Lat-Pulldown:

Incline Crunches:

I know it's kind of high volume, but I can get in and out in about 45 minutes.

I just did a straight 2 weeks of 15's, 2 weeks of 10's and two weeks of 5's, with one week of negs.

I basically took my 15, 10, and 5 rep maxes and just plugged them into the HST calculator and incremented them 5-10 pounds each day (respective to the overall weight.)

Here's my before pics:
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m128/Vestibule/BeforeFront.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m128/Vestibule/BeforeBack.jpg

Here's my after pic's:

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m128/Vestibule/AfterFront.jpg

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m128/Vestibule/AfterBack.jpg

I'm obviously carrying a good amount of body fat after the bulk so I'm actually giving HST a try while cutting right now.

So, any suggestions on how I could improve my results in the future? Although I am pretty happy with what I got!

Thanks!
 
You could probably get away with a quick 4 week cutting cycle going 750-1000 calories under maintenance. Your body obviously responds to a caloric surplus. After that, I would consider a slow bulk under HST.

It's great to hear another success story!
 
nice job.
if i were you i would begin to concentrate more on the diet aspect now. it seems you have a w/o prog. that you like and is giving you results.....thats 1/2 the battle. youve gotten a good "jump start" on gaining by seriously overeating to gain max muscle (and fat unfortunatly). read all the info you can in the diet/nutrition section and if you do cut dont go for too long or too extreme or you might be right back where you started from.

3500 cals at 170bw is way over maint. 3500cals at 150 is way, way, way over maint. hence.... too much fat gain. (although your pics really didnt look to bad). most shoot for around 1lb a week gain (usually max amount of muscle you can gain in a week) and you averaged about 3lbs. again, not all that bad for getting started, most refuse to believe they can eat that much and wonder why the scale wont go up. well youve got that part figured out so perhaps now a smaller amount of excess cals will limit the fat gain.

again, read the diet/nutr. threads (especially colbys optimiz. cal intake). youll see alot of facts and numbers repeated over and over again. make note of them and apply it to your diet plan.

good luck, your off to a great start.
 
colby2152,

Thanks for the response!

Do you really think that a 750-1000 calorie deficit is ok to do?

Usually, when I cut I go around 500 or so under maintenance.

Like right now I'm about 165 now and eating around 2,000 calories a day.

I was under the impression if you go too far under maintenance you risk loosing lean body mass, thus destroying a good chunk of your hard earned gains.

Thanks for the help!
 
bluejacket,

Thanks!

You were replying as I was replying! We were writing at the same time!

Anyhow, yea, I think that 3,500 is a little much myself, I could probably get away with 3,000 and be fine.

Sometimes I just think "Man, well if I'm gonna gain weight, I'm not gonna mess around!"

And I don't mind cutting
smile.gif
so we'll see how this works.

I think your right though, and next bulking cycle I'll cut it down just a bit.
 
your welcome,

just remember, we are all learning as we go. you seem to have a good handle on your w/o and that will improve with each passing cycle. likewise with diet, as long as your tracking your intake and monitoring the changes (wgt, appearance, measurements, bf) you will steadily zero in on what works best for you, whether it be gaining, cutting or maint.

good luck
 
If you don't mind cutting, just use your 500cal deficit and go at it for a while. If you wanted faster results, you can decrease cals a bit more without seriously risking LBM loss. Lyle's PSMF has been giving some good results, so there's something to it.
 
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