Progressive tension question

[twindeltatandem]

From one of Lyle's articles:

"In an exceptional paper (which I recommend the reading of to any nerds in the field) titled “Mechanism of work induced hypertrophy of skeletal muscle” a researcher named Goldspink pretty much laid it out concluding that:

It is suggested that increased tension development (either passive or active) is the critical event in initiating compensatory growth.
​

Basically, the development of high levels of tension within the muscle is the key factor in initiating the growth process. I’d note that there are also some elements of fatigue that may be contributing to what ‘turns on’ the growth response. Finally, I’d note that in order to keep stimulating growth beyond an acute training bout, there has to be an increase in tension. Basically, over time you have to add weight to the bar."

This brings into focus something that's been bugging me about HST. I've read here on the site that one should increase the RM's 5 pounds or so from one cycle to the next. However, is that really enough to do it?

I'm sitting around on SD right now, and I've been planning out my next cycle. It took a lot of self control to type 5 - 10 pound increases in for my RMs. I think I should be able to do a little bit better than that, particularly on some lifts.

However, I don't want to over-extend.

So this is my thought...since at the end of the 5s, most people tend to milk the cycle as long as they can using, for example, pause sets, drops, etc., why not do the same at the end of each (for lack of a better term) microcycle?

So let's say I plan on working up to 10 sets of 225-lb squats. But when I get there I realize I'm not spent on that final day of 10s. So why not continue to increase the weight and come back to the 10s again in a couple of days? At least until I've explored my 10 RM for the major lifts (squats, deads, bench, press)?

So then if I, say, work my way up to 235 for 10, I could reset my target 5 RM from 260 to 275 (assuming a normal distribution per Brzycki et. al.). This would take into account any stength gains made during the 15s and 10s, and would ensure adequate tension during the 5s.

(BTW, I don't really see that testing the limits would make as much sense at the end of the 15s as it would at the end of the 10s, but I don't know...

It seems that most people on these boards have experienced their greatest gains by the end of the 10s. I know I did on my first cycle. Conventional gym wisdom might favor the notion that the 5s are a way to squeak out primarily strength gains to be converted into mass gains during the next cycle. So why not spend the effort extending the 10s first, then the 5s if there's anything left in the tank?)

John

 

[electric]

The best thing to be done is to take your RMs again at the end of your HST cycle, SD and start your next cycle with your new RMs. If you extended your 5s by using linear progression and going beyond your previous 5RM you can use your new 5RM and if you don't want to re-test your other RMs, induce them from some conversion formulas. If after the 5s you extend your cycle with negatives (so you don't have a new 5RM) and you don't want to retest any maxes you can, as suggested by Bryan, aim for a 5-10lbs increase in load on all lifts. That number is just a reference to indicate that you should be increasing your loads all alround in a cycle to cycle basis to keep growing.

 

[Lol]

Adding 'only' 10lb to the bar each cycle adds up over the course of a year; in 5 cycles you'll be lifting 50lb more. For some lifts like squats and deads this might be considerably more.

Like electric said, if you think your lifts have improved a lot more than 10lb, try for new 5RMs at the end of the cycle but don't forget that you will only see a true 5RM after several rest days as by the end of 5s you will be carrying a fair amount of accumulated fatigue.

 

[twindeltatandem]

So you don't recommend extending the 10s? Why would that be different than extending the 5s? As long as there is still linear progression, wouldn't you want to go as far as you can?

(I know 10 lb increases add up quickly--bad example based on the fact that I'm not well conditioned and therefore able to make large initial gains.)

 

[electric]

You don't extend the 10s because you are going to do 5s afterwards. You extend the 5s because you are going to SD after you are done. The fatigue accumulated after the extended 10s will impact your 5 rep mesocycle but the fatigue accumulated after extending the 5s (or using negatives or triples) is going to be recovered during the SD.