Question about weight increments...

R

Rozzy1

New Member
Hey everyone --

I'm new to the HST training, and have just assembled my routine which I'm going to start on Friday.

I have a question about the 5 lb weight increments that applies to each exercise in each workout...

For exercises that require using dumbells (like DB incline press or DB shoulder press) or machines (Leg curls or Pulldown)
How do I work up in increments of 5?
I've just printed up my HST Calculated Training and there's no possible way to lift 55lbs with a dumbell (a 27.5 lb dumbell?)
and the machines at my gym only seem to go up in increments of 10.

Should I maybe change the dumbell and machine exercises so that they go up in increments of 10 instead and leave the other exercises with increments of 5?

Thanks in advance,

Mark
 
Rozzy1,

A good solution to the problem of load increments is to start at 75% of your xRM (for any mesocycle) and work up to your xRM in 5% increments. This will give you 6 increments in each mesocycle and will prevent you from starting out with loads that are too light.

If the load increments are small enough to make fractional weight increases impractical, just repeat loads until you reach an increment that is large enough to load on the bar.

Eg. If your DB Press 15RM is 50lb (each db) then for 15s you would ideally do:

37.5lb, 40lb, 42.5lb, 45lb, 47.5lb, 50lb

But in practice, using available dbs, you'd probably have to do:

40lb, 40lb, 45lb, 45lb, 50lb, 50lb.

Hope that makes sense?
 
Lol,

That totally makes sense, thanks so much!

I'll follow what you just told me and for the dumbells/machines, i'll just have to go in increments such as you said (40, 40, 45, 45, 50, 50)...

Hopefully the benefits are still the same! I'm sure as long as I make the most out of each set it shouldn't matter!

Can't wait to start this program....

Mark
 
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