Read the FAQ and Website

[sayw0rd]

Hi, I've honestly read the FAQs and the website but I still have a few questions, I may be just be reading too much into it but here it goes. I'll break it down to parts to make answering easier

1. Should the weight be heavy enough so I can ONLY do 2sets of 15,10,5s?

2. So let's say my max reps for 15s are 100; 10s are 200. I
increase accordingly for 15s then on my 10s 2week cycle, do I start increasing from 200? or should I just keep increasing from my 15sets 2week cycle.

3. Should I use this sample workout for my HST program? http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_notes.html
(probably yea

)

4. I've read that you increase 5lbs. for upper body and 20lbs. for lower, true? because I see in the sample 2 week cycle using 10 reps, the leg curls are going up by 5s
http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_notes.html

5. The leg press in the above sample workout, seems to be going up in irregular numbers, what should be the exact weight? 20lbs?

6. So you assign your max weight to the final workout of each 2 week block and then decrease in 5-10lb. increments. What I see is that even on the days you aren't doing the workout, you are still decreasing the weight (like squats, leg press, squats) is this an error on the website?

7. After I'm done with SD, do I start the whole cycle over with the max weights of my past 15s, 10s, and 5s and start increasing from there?

Again, I apologize if this has been clearly stated but I have really done researching and these questions I have a lot of trouble getting answers to.

I have been working out for 5years, started with starting strength and then moved onto to 5x5 mad cow and now I'm looking for a new workout since I haven't been gaining.

Thank you for your time and effort. I know it's like drinking from a fire hydrant

 

[imported_electric]

You should use your 15RM on the 6th day of the 15 mesocycle, your 10RM on the 6th day of the 10 mesocycle and your 5RM on the 6th day of the 5s cycle. So if your 15RM is 100 then you should use 100 for the 6th day of the cycle. My suggestion is that you use 75% of your 15RM on the 1st day, 80% on the 2nd, 85% on the 3rd, 90% on the 4th, 95% on the 5th and finally the 15RM on the 6th as stated above. The same should be done for the other mesocycles (10s and 5s). This CAN produce some zig-zag (using lower weights in the beginning of a mesocycle then you used on the end of the last mesocycle). It is ok.
Ideally you should test your 15RM, 10RM and 5RM before SD and use that values for your HST cycle. If you don't want to do that you can use your last cycle RMs with a little bump up. How much is a little is up to you, basically it depends on how easy (or hard) each RM was last cycle.

 

[Fausto]

1 - No, weight must be calculated or worked to a max for each rep scheme, 15's, 10's and 5's, electric is right!

2 - If you got your RM's for each rep scheme, then on the 6th day of each mesocycle you hit the RM, before that you build up to that one day at a time. Ususally you start with 70 - 75% of the RM

3 - You can, its a good place to start!

4 - I prefer %'s, it just...works better, but yeah, guideline wise it can be done, 5Lbs for the smaller exercises 10 Lbs for the big ones, problem is Flyes, lateral raises and the like, although I would rather you forget about these till a much later stage!

5 - Work it with %'s and you will be fine

6 - If you use a decrease mode, then ignore the non-workout days.

7 - You should be able to "bump" them RM's a little, some of us do a PR day just to see how much more we can lift for a particular exercise, teh post 5RM is a good qway to get these.

You should be fine...just stick to simplistic stuff!

 

[sayw0rd]

Thanks for the tremendous help you guys. I really do appreciate the effort.

@Fausto,

1. should the jumps in % wise be different for lower body and upper body?
-If so, what would they be? I'm also going to take your advice and use %s.

2. You said if decreasing mode, ignore non-workout days, isn't the HST workout program in a decreasing fashion? It says to assign you max reps for the end of the 2week block and decrease it 6times. I'm just confused on what you're trying to say

3. What does PR day mean? haha

 

[imported_electric]

sayw0rd:
1) I suggest using 75% of your RM for the first day, increasing 5% each workout so that on the 6th day of each mesocycle (the two week block) you get to 100% of that RM. Of course you'll end up having to round the weight to usable values.

2) You decrease the weight backwards from the 6th day to the first day of each two week block. So if your max for an exercise is 100, your workouts should use something like: 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100.

3) PR day is the 6th workout day of each two week block, where you use your Personal Record for that amount of reps. If the maximum weight you can lift for 15 reps is 100 for a certain exercise, you'll use 100 for that exercise on the 6th day of the 15s, your PR or RM day.

 

[Fausto]

sayw0rd

Eletric beat me to it

1 - Usually lower body takes bigger jumps (10%) but I'd keep this rule of thumb for all the big ones, including bench, so 5% I'd leave for the exercises where less weights or smaller increments are used.

2 - It does not have to be in decreasing mode, it can be increasing instead, so you either start from the RM and decrease or you take 70% of teh RM and increase, "capisce"?

3 - Electric already answered that!

 

[sayw0rd]

Hey, sorry for the slow response to all this. Work is requiring all my attention.
Again, I really do thank you guys for your patience and understanding.

I have a question which is the same as before but I think I worded it wrong. So here I will try to explain it in detail.

1. I know it says to set your max reps on the 6th workout of your 2week block and then decrease. That would work if I was do squat 3x a week or bench 3x a week but in the website My Webpage it shows it switches off from squats to leg presses, from bench to dips, etc.

Even though it does switch exercises, it still decreases the weight on the days you aren't even squatting. Notice the jump from Day 1 to Day 3 for squats(website). It does go up by 20lbs. but the question is why is it still increasing by 20lbs. even on the leg press day? Is that normal?

Also if you see the decreasing of the weights for Dips on the website, if you decrease the weights 6x by 5lbs. it doesn't match.

I guess my question is should I just increase 5-10% for each workout session even though I'm not doing that specific exercise for that day? Like Day 1: Squats - 100lbs Day2: Leg Press: 300lbs Day 2: Squats 140lbs?

Sorry if I look anal but I want to get a clear understanding of this workout program before I jump into it. I'm sure you weight-lifters understand

Thanks!

 

[imported_electric]

I think you are overthinking it. You should set your RM on the 6th day of the mesocycle and you should start each 2 week block at around 75% of your RM for that mesocycle. Just spread the increases on the workouts between the first and the last. If you do an exercise every workout it will increase in smaller jumps, if you do it every other workout it will increase in bigger jumps.
Don't worry too much about the size/weight of the increase, a strong lifter's increase for the deadlift is tons away from a weaker lifter increase for the press, so 10lbs or some other absolute weight isn't a very good reference.

 

[Fausto]

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I guess my question is should I just increase 5-10% for each workout session even though I'm not doing that specific exercise for that day? Like Day 1: Squats - 100lbs Day2: Leg Press: 300lbs Day 2: Squats 140lbs?</div>

The answer is yes, best way to appoach this is to create your own workout sheet with excel or something like it and adjust these %'s your self, if you are doing another exercises in between (as is the case you mention).

If you struggle too much send me an e-mail to [email protected] and I will send you an excel sheet then you can fix this problem yourself.

If you wan the whole thing fixed for your case then send the workout, all you RM's for each exercise, and I may take longer but I will get you sorted!

 

[sayw0rd]

Electric and Fausto, thank you so much for your help.

@Fausto, I think I will take you up on that offer

I really appreciate you going out of your way to help a beginner out in this wonderful program.

Is there anyway I can somehow repay you guys back? I know in Bodybuilding forum, you can rep them for being helpful. Any such thing here? I would really like to let everyone know how helpful and knowledgeable you guys are.

 

[imported_electric]

Spread the HST word and I'll be happy.

 

[sayw0rd]

Will do

I've already told my friends about this, that's why I'm being so gung-ho about every little detail so I don't relay on false information.
(They're extremely lazy to look up &amp; research heh)

So here's my workout program that I would like you to critique. It may seem a bit much but I have been a constant lifter for many years so I believe my body is used to the strain, though this workout program will probably only keep me at the gym for
1 - 1hr 30mins. Max.

I've read the Simplify &amp; Win so I've taken out some of the pointless iso workouts.
Thanks Fausto &amp; the others who contributed to that wonderful forum post.

Workout A

Squat (I use the smith machine due to a back problem)
Flat Bench
Power Shrugs
Chin (1st set I’ll use wide grip, 2nd set I’ll use Narrow.. is that okay?)
Lateral raise (rear)
Bicep Curls
Triceps Pushdowns
Seated Calves (my gym does not have the standing calf raise machine)
2sets of Weighted Hyper-extensions
4sets of weighted abs workout

Workout B

DeadLift
Weighted Dips
Rows
Military shoulder Press
Lateral raise (rear)
Power Shrugs
Bicep Curls
Triceps Pushdowns
Seated Calves
3sets of abs workout (body weight only)

The sets will be as the website states, 2sets of 15s,10s,5s and 5s again while increasing weights every workout session then 7-10days of SD. Frequency will be 3x a week. Alternating between workout A &amp; B.
(I would love to do eccentric negatives but my partner and I don't always go on the same days)

Also, I will be using 5% increments for ALL workouts, is that fine? From what Electric says, I should start from 75% of my Max reps and work my way to 100%, he didn't say anything about using a different % jump for other workouts so I'm assuming you use the 5% jump for all the workouts?

Another thing I'm concerned about is the order of the workout. I'm just following what the HST website has showed me but I'm beginning to wonder if Bryan meant it to be in that specific order? If you could just look at the order and see if everything is fine, that be great.

I would love to hear your constructive criticism as I have great respect for everyone here. Thank you!

 

[Lol]

<div>
(sayw0rd @ Nov. 03 2008,6:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">(I would love to do eccentric negatives but my partner and I don't always go on the same days)  

Also, I will be using 5% increments for ALL workouts, is that fine? From what Electric says, I should start from 75% of my Max reps and work my way to 100%, he didn't say anything about using a different % jump for other workouts so I'm assuming you use the 5% jump for all the workouts?</div>
Why not have a go at doing negatives for dips and chins and see how you get on? It'll be just about the easiest way to try them out: stand on a platform, assume top position of movement, take the strain, lower in 2-4 secs, rinse, repeat.

If you use a load which is about your 3RM you could do two regular reps first and then immediately follow them with a handful of negs.

Be careful! Don't plop down too quickly. If you can't control the descent well enough, terminate the set.

As far as increments go, I tend to get my best results when I increment each workout by 5% for each mesocycle. That usually means some zig-zag between mesocycles which I find helpful following a RM workout.

 

[sayw0rd]

Thanks Lol for the advice but I'm quite confused about what you mean when you say you increase 5% each mesocycle. Because I checked out your training log and you seem to either have the same weights for all the sets or sometimes you would ramp the weights upward.

I think you're saying (correct me if I'm wrong) keep the weights the same for each 2 week block and then increase by 5%?

Or

Day1 75% of my Max Reps then Day 2 80% of my Max reps and so on?

Thanks! I love your training log though, learned quite a bit.

Also noticed that using 75% and then increasing by 5% for each workout day, I would sometimes have to use the same weights for a couple of times because I would have to round down. What do you guys do then?

 

[TunnelRat]

<div>
(sayw0rd @ Nov. 03 2008,1:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Seated Calves (my gym does not have the standing calf raise machine)</div>
Use your Shirley Machine for standing calf raises. Hold the bar as though you are about to do a Power Shrug, then rise up on your toes. It works just fine.

Note: Do your seated calf raises first. That'll work out your soleus. Then your standing calf raises can really fry your gastrocnemius.

 

[sayw0rd]

<div>
(TunnelRat @ Nov. 03 2008,5:40)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(sayw0rd @ Nov. 03 2008,1:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Seated Calves (my gym does not have the standing calf raise machine)</div>
Use your Shirley Machine for standing calf raises. Hold the bar as though you are about to do a Power Shrug, then rise up on your toes. It works just fine.

Note: Do your seated calf raises first. That'll work out your soleus. Then your standing calf raises can really fry your gastrocnemius.</div>
should I do the standing calf raises even though they don't have a footblock? would the limited ROM cripple the workout in anyway?

Do you do it flat on the floor?

Thanks for the tip though!

 

[Lol]

<div>
(sayw0rd @ Nov. 03 2008,9:59)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Thanks Lol for the advice but I'm quite confused about what you mean when you say you increase 5% each mesocycle. Because I checked out your training log and you seem to either have the same weights for all the sets or sometimes you would ramp the weights upward.

I think you're saying (correct me if I'm wrong) keep the weights the same for each 2 week block and then increase by 5%?

Or

Day1 75% of my Max Reps then Day 2 80% of my Max reps and so on?

Thanks! I love your training log though, learned quite a bit.

Also noticed that using 75% and then increasing by 5% for each workout day, I would sometimes have to use the same weights for a couple of times because I would have to round down. What do you guys do then?</div>
Ok, sorry about that.

What I mean is that for a typical HST cycle you would start each mesocycle with 75% of your RM for that rep range and then work towards your RM in 5% increments. That gives you six increments which fits nicely in a two week block with three sessions a week. If you are rounding from calculated loads to get convenient working loads, it's absolutely no worry to reuse the same loads for a few workouts. progression over the duration of the whole cycle is what counts more.

If you checked out my log over the last five months or so then it's not a good example of an HST set up. I've been cutting for a good while and I'm currently doing Lyle's UD2 program which is a diet/workout combo. The workouts pretty much adhere to HST principles if you use the routine for recomposition but I'm just using it to lose fat and maintain as much lean mass as I can. My top loads are actually dropping slightly over time however hard I try to prevent this from happening but I have dropped a good 30lb in body weight from my all time high of 224lb. If you check my early log I hope you'll see a much better example of HST cycle training with pretty consistent improvements along the way to boot.

I hope that's a little clearer.  

 

[TunnelRat]

<div>
(sayw0rd @ Nov. 03 2008,6:23)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">should I do the standing calf raises even though they don't have a footblock? would the limited ROM cripple the workout in anyway?

Do you do it flat on the floor?</div>
I use a 2x4 under my toes, it gives me a better ROM. However, even without a footblock, calf raises are a worthy exercise, especially if you lift heavy.

 

[sayw0rd]

<div>
(Lol @ Nov. 03 2008,7:16)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(sayw0rd @ Nov. 03 2008,9:59)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Thanks Lol for the advice but I'm quite confused about what you mean when you say you increase 5% each mesocycle. Because I checked out your training log and you seem to either have the same weights for all the sets or sometimes you would ramp the weights upward.

I think you're saying (correct me if I'm wrong) keep the weights the same for each 2 week block and then increase by 5%?

Or

Day1 75% of my Max Reps then Day 2 80% of my Max reps and so on?

Thanks! I love your training log though, learned quite a bit.

Also noticed that using 75% and then increasing by 5% for each workout day, I would sometimes have to use the same weights for a couple of times because I would have to round down. What do you guys do then?</div>
Ok, sorry about that.

What I mean is that for a typical HST cycle you would start each mesocycle with 75% of your RM for that rep range and then work towards your RM in 5% increments. That gives you six increments which fits nicely in a two week block with three sessions a week. If you are rounding from calculated loads to get convenient working loads, it's absolutely no worry to reuse the same loads for a few workouts. progression over the duration of the whole cycle is what counts more.

If you checked out my log over the last five months or so then it's not a good example of an HST set up. I've been cutting for a good while and I'm currently doing Lyle's UD2 program which is a diet/workout combo. The workouts pretty much adhere to HST principles if you use the routine for recomposition but I'm just using it to lose fat and maintain as much lean mass as I can. My top loads are actually dropping slightly over time however hard I try to prevent this from happening but I have dropped a good 30lb in body weight from my all time high of 224lb. If you check my early log I hope you'll see a much better example of HST cycle training with pretty consistent improvements along the way to boot.

I hope that's a little clearer.

</div>
Ah...okay lol. Thanks for clearing that up because I was going to emulate your workout program.

So I guess I'll just increase 5% starting from 75% of my max reps for ALL workouts.


Also, for the first few mesocycles, my weights are going to be significantly low. Should I always adhere and do the assigned reps or if I have some juice left, should I try to go for more reps but not to failure.
I know the 2sets of 15reps are more for trying to heal and feel the &quot;burn&quot; but I doubt that doing 2x15x5lbs bicep (which is the first day of my 15s 2week block)curls are really going to do anything to me.

I don't want to overtrain yet I don't want to do an exercise which wouldn't reap any benefits.

p.s. Any criticism towards my workout program though? I'd love to hear from you pros.

 

[Lol]

<div>
(sayw0rd @ Nov. 04 2008,12:49)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Also, for the first few mesocycles, my weights are going to be significantly low. Should I always adhere and do the assigned reps or if I have some juice left, should I try to go for more reps but not to failure.

I know the 2sets of 15reps are more for trying to heal and feel the &quot;burn&quot; but I doubt that doing 2x15x5lbs bicep (which is the first day of my 15s 2week block)curls are really going to do anything to me.</div>
During the 15s you want to go for the burn so early on in the cycle you could either slow the reps down or do more reps to get a lactic acid burn happening. I prefer to do more reps and keep the tempo up. I might do 25 reps at the start of 15s for the first set and then try for at least 15 reps for the second set (but avoiding all out failure).

Quick question: Are you saying that your 15RM for curls is less than 7lb? If you are starting your 15s with 5lb then using 5% increments your 15RM would be 6 2/3lb. I'm pretty sure that's not what you meant.