psychology of HST

T

the professor

New Member
i'm 26, been training for close to 13 years now. Generally, its been each muscle getting hit 1 per week, with 6 or 7 sets to absolute failure. Good gains (5'7, 214 lbs), not so much in the last few years. So i've been trying HST lately, and like it so far. Although, for the workouts with sub-maximal weights (workouts 1, 2, 3, 4 during a 2 week block of 10 reps or even 5 reps) psychologically, it does not feel like i'm doing enough work; often i leave the gym feeling as though i have not sufficiently stressed the muscle....and find it very difficult to leave. Ive tried slowing down the reps etc, but its the same. I'm not questioning the science behind HST at all, just curious if anyone else who came from a volume training background experienced this? Maybe i just need a long SD period? any thoughts appreciated.
 
Professor,

I think it's all that old failure training you were doing that's got you second guessing when It's time to leave the gym. I used to train HIT and felt the same way when I started HST( I'm in the negatives of my first cycle) but I stayed the course and am at my all time largest.

are you doing 2 sets for the tens and three for the 5s?
 
I am a recovering over trainer. Yeah it is hard to go from thinking failure is good. To the thinking of HST. Think this way time under tension is good. I think once you do a full cycle you may understand it better. You will see the whole process. If you are just itching for more work -- why not try twice a days.

Wow 214 at 5'7 what is you body fat?

bob
 
Mike, i did 3 sets of the 15's, 3 sets of the 10's, currently doing 3 sets of the 5's. I now realize this is still a little much, whats your suggestion? bob, body fat right now is 14%
 
Nice on the Bf%.

3 sets all the time is tough. One thing to do is focus on total reps not sets. (this fits with the "clustering" way of thinking). -- yet another new way to think!! So If you did one set on the 15s, two in the tens, and three in the 5s your "total reps" would stay in the 15-20 range.

Bob
 
no problem
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You also have warm up sets. And burn sets. In my previous answer I was only counting work sets.

Bob
 
ya, i do tons of warm up sets. the odd time, when i'm dont my chest or back exercises, at the 10's or 5's i'll do a light set of a bout 20, really squeeze, just to enhance the pump....is that what your referring to about burn sets? how do you work them in?
 
Prof

To be honest with you, you need to when you SD next time, take a huge SD 14 days or so, only then would you feel like you are doing the HST thing!

To keep the volume constant you should have done:

15's - 1 set / 10's - 2 sets and 5's 3 sets

alternatively you could opt for huigher frequency:

15's - 2 sets / 10's - 3 sets and 5's 6 sets

Which in my opinion is a rather high volume considering you are keeping the frequency 3 x week.

Going 3 sets on 15's would have meant 9 sets of 5's - way too much, IMO.

I suggest you go real heavy on the 5's and negatives to compensate the feeling of loss
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, kinda like just missing failure on the last rep.

Some guys call it in-roading, darn the terminology of these muscle heads
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">really squeeze, just to enhance the pump....is that what your referring to about burn sets? how do you work them in?</div>

That is not exactly what he's referring to, have you read
the pimp my HST e-book?

I see they are not available on-line now due to some problem om the site, e-mail me at faustos@aspenpharma.com and I'll send it to you.

Cheers
 
<div>
(Fausto @ Mar. 05 2006,05:04)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">That is not exactly what he's referring to, have you read
the pimp my HST e-book?

I see they are not available on-line now due to some problem om the site,</div>
I also posted a new link to the version I converted to PDF for Jules in the Customization thread in General Training.

Also the FAQ ebook is working but you have to access that thread via going to the FAQ and not by clicking the short cut on the main forum page.
 
thanks fausto,

I figured i should have done SD before i started, but was anxious to give it a shot, was thinking that since it is so different from what i was used too, i might get something small out of it. Thanks for the extra info too. I managed to find Dan's link for the ebook and it worked (thanks Dan). Looks like i'll have about 14 days to read it!
 
<div>
(Bob Evans @ Mar. 05 2006,15:33)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Ok  what is in-roading?  fausto et. al. ?

Bod</div>
A HIT term used to indicate the depth of fatigue and therefore the impact of the stimulus.
 
thanks Dan.. Makes sense. And I did not mean to sighn that Bod... rather Bob... I won't bed Bod for a few more cycles.


roberto
 
Dan...the man.

Thanks for that, and for the other info too...
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Rob - if I were to implement in-roading into HST, it'd mean getting as close as possible to failure without actually hitting it...but Dan, once again nailed it in the head
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Prof...I did not maen for you to take the SD suggestion literally, but rather on the end of this current cycle, however it is up to you, if you feel that you can stop and re-0think your position, then by all means....just don't want you to think that what I say is written in stone
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I do think however that it is the very reason why you feel like you are not doing enough work at the gym, due to your experience and the RBE you have accumulated so far using HIT techniques
wink.gif


Anyways - just another technique I guess, we after all are always seeking the &quot;holy grail&quot; of hypertrophy, part of our craze I guess
laugh.gif
 

cheers guys - its back to work now!
 
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