Skip SD?

P

Pikehunter

New Member
Sorry. One confusing HST weekend for me! In the FAQ book, Bryan writes:

"If your calories are really cut, and you don't want to eat maintenance for 2 weeks, don't SD. Move right into the 15s after your 5s. Not only that, but go ahead and extend the 5s as long as your joints are keeping up (i.e. feeling good)."

This is very confusing to me. Why would someone on a calorie restriction be given a pass to skip SD and move right into a new HST cycle? I would think if anyone would be given a pass to do this, it would be someone with a calorie surplus; not someone dieting.

Any help?

Thanks.
 
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Hi Pikehunter.
I'm new here, but from reading through the HST articles and FAQ's, I might guess the reasoning behind this advice is:
When eating under maintenance, muscle atrophy would be much more of an issue, durring SD.
I other words: If you insist on maintaining calorie restiction, inactivity is a bad idea. Implied the better option is to do SD, while eating at maintenance (at least), and then continue cutting with your next cycle.
Keep in mind, your priorty durring cut would be resisting atrophy. Not gaining muscle.
 
Just as Lateralus said. If you are cutting calories, why would you want to be inactive? That's pretty much a recipe for muscle loss.
 
Lateralus said:
Hi Pikehunter.
I'm new here, but from reading through the HST articles and FAQ's, I might guess the reasoning behind this advice is:
When eating under maintenance, muscle atrophy would be much more of an issue, durring SD.
I other words: If you insist on maintaining calorie restiction, inactivity is a bad idea. Implied the better option is to do SD, while eating at maintenance (at least), and then continue cutting with your next cycle.
Keep in mind, your priorty durring cut would be resisting atrophy. Not gaining muscle.
Click to expand...

I guess i'm looking at it from a different view point. When I think training, i'm always thinking enough calories (probably because I lean towards the ecto side) to support recovery and growth. On a sub-maintenance caloric intake, I would think the calories neceassary to rebuild and grow wouldn't be there, but I guess it would depend.

Thanks again.
 
Yes, the calories aren't there. Remember, when you are on a diet, you aren't going to grow anyway, so there is no reason to SD. The main goal you will have when on a cut is to lose fat while maintaining your muscle mass.
 
what if u just don't like taking an entire week off and u aren't restricting your cals, can u still skip SD, or even have a mini one say for about 3-4 days.

The first few sessions of 15's aren't particularly intense anyway so sort of deload sessions IMO
 
If you are primarily interested in strength training I think just doing a de-load is fine. Based on my personal experience with HST over the last 8 months I would say you can also get away with skipping SD for the first few cycles if you are already very deconditioned from not lifting regularly (I had a 15 year layoff). However, I’ve found that one I recouped my previous gains from 15 years ago my hypertrophy pretty much stagnated until I started forcing myself to SD. I managed to make it 9 days before I just couldn’t stand it anymore, but now I’m growing again.

If anything you are better off skipping the 15s rather than SD if you are already conditioned from lifting and aren’t feeling any overuse issues with your joints or connective tissues. Or even just do 1 week of 15s rather than 2.

Also, from everything I’ve read about 9 days is as short an SD as you want to do if you want it to be effective.
 
There is evidence that a 9 day SD with no training at all during that period elevates your satellite cell count, which could be why so many people are able to surpass plateaus after a 9 day SD...
 
damchubbz said:
still 9 days is a LONG time!!!!
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only a wk really,finish your old cycle on the friday,if your doing m,w,f, then restart a wk monday.
remember you can make your cycles longer,mine are usually 10wks+ by then your ready for a break,its good mentaly/physicaly to get away from the gym for a wk.
 
damchubbz said:
still 9 days is a LONG time!!!!
Click to expand...

It is hard but if you just do like faz said, end your cycle on Friday, take the weekend off and the whole next week, then restart monday, that's nine days. I've experimented with it a lot and found that 9 days off really does do some wonders. I've inserted 9 day SDs in after doing heavy 5s for a long time, finding new maxes, then restarted 5s and within a few weeks I am already surpassing the new maxes I had just found... try it, see how it works for you.
 
Totentanz said:
It is hard but if you just do like faz said, end your cycle on Friday, take the weekend off and the whole next week, then restart monday, that's nine days. I've experimented with it a lot and found that 9 days off really does do some wonders. I've inserted 9 day SDs in after doing heavy 5s for a long time, finding new maxes, then restarted 5s and within a few weeks I am already surpassing the new maxes I had just found... try it, see how it works for you.
Click to expand...

sorry when u said restarted on 5's u mean it went to then straight from your SD or from when u next time arrive at that cycle?
 
I mean I went straight back into the 5s. Basically, I used a 9 day SD to break through a plateau. I did two weeks of 5s building back up to my previous RMs, and to get back into the groove, then pushed for and achieved new maxes. I believe the 9 day SD definitely enabled me to do that. Simple deloads are great but for natural trainees, I think we need every advantage we can get. The study that supports the 9 day SD shows a huge increase in satellite cells on the 10th day after a break from training. That's a big deal. That basically means your potential for growth is going to be greater if you stop lifting after a long cycle, rest for 9 days and then restart. Obviously if you were on AAS you wouldn't need that, in which case you could just drop the weight and build back up instead, but for a natural I think it really is crucial.
 
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