Starting HST again after long lay off

B

board2death00

New Member
hi everyone.
i was a frequent reader of this site a few years back. i did HST For a year or so but changed my work out and havent looked back.
since then i have hit my plateau again.
so i am back. and hoping to make some big gains. here is my question.
im looking to make my HST work out and this is what i have come up with. please any advice is very helpful. thank you in advance

i set up 2 work outs.
i will do 2 weeks of 15's, 2 weeks of 10's and 2 weeks of 5's followed by 2 weeks of drop sets

week one:
monday - work out 1
wednesday - work out 2
friday - work out 1

week two:
monday - work out 2
wednesday - work out 1
friday - work out 2

work out 1
squat
flat barbell bench
incline dumbell bench
pull ups
bent over barbell rows
seated barbell shoulder press
preacher curls
skull crushers

work out 2
straight leg dead lift
incline barbell bench
flat dumbell bench
seated cable pull downs
seated cable rows
seated dumbell shoulder press
dumbell curls
cable pushdowns

what do you think?
please help. i need some change in my work out
thanks.
 
Provided you decondition for ~ 14 days, I don't think you'll need to do any isolation exercises until the first week of 5s.

I assume everything is 1 set each.

I'd replace SLDL with Leg press - just a bit more comprehensive, but not a drama if you don't.

Don't incorporate the DBs and BBs of same exercise in the 15s and 10s - the difference between handled weight is too great IMO.

Dips are the optimum chest exercise I believe, great range of motion and the heaviest poundage handled day in day out.

WO 1:

Squat
Dips
Pull ups
BO BB Rows
Military Press
Calf Raise - if wish
Shrugs - if wish

WO 2:

Leg Press/SLDL
BB Incline Bench
Cable P/Ds
Cable Rows/T-Bar rows
Military Press
Calf Raise - if wish
Shrugs - if wish

When you reach the 5s, add in a set of Incline Dumbell Curls and Skullcrushers to the workout. These are the worthwhile isolation exercises as they work the respective muscles in their stretched positions. Preacher curls and pressdowns aren't going to prove very effective.

Also to consider for the 5s:

Hammer curls - how're the forearms looking?
Loaded Stretches
Drop sets for chest, back and legs.
Incline Flyes - optional depending on chest development

If you're going to include DBs, add them in the 5s as well - maybe a set after the BB exercise..? The load is less, but the stretch and ROM tends to be greater.
 
thanks for the advice. i do have a few follow up questions:

why should i not do the isolation moves in the 15's and 10's?

i lack in the chest development area, that is why i put both DB and BB exercises in each work out. if i drop to 1 per work out, i dont think dips will do anything. whenever i do dips, my tris only get worked out.
do yousuggest knocking it down to only 1 chest exercise per work out?

i have pretty developed forearms. i have no idea why. but my whole like they ahve always been big. so i dont need to do hammers. what is the best bicep exercise i could do?
what about the best tricep?
 
Hey :)

Arm growth is chiefly because of the heavy compound core movements - like dips, bench, chins, deadlifts, etc. Only by seriously overloading them with the heavy weights in these compounds will they grow. The best thing to do for isolations then is simply to reserve them until you can do heavier sets of them - so Jester suggested you do them starting at the 5's so you start off with hgher poundages. Opting to do them even in the lighter phases might make RBE catch up with them faster since there is usually very little progression possible in these exercises due to the relatively light maxes (as compared to your maxes in core movements).

However, another thing to consider is stretch, since in the load category the isolations are woefully no match against core movements - it's not uncommon to be able to curl a dumbbell around 40-50 pounds while being able to chin a total of 180, benchpress 180, deadlift 250, etc. Given that, I seriously doubt adding those pretty much lighter isolations would work, especially when dealing with even ligther loads in the 15's. So aside from starting them only during the low rep / relatively heavier phase, choose exercises with the best stretch. Even if you add isolations in the 5's, but the stretch of the exercise you chose is no greater than those of the core movements you have, then they won't do you any good. You have to choose isolations that will increase the stretch - so the best exercises would be skullcrushers for triceps (which you already have) and incline hammer or incline regular curls for biceps - among the two, do the incline regular curls if your forearms are ok because it has better stretch and can generally take more load.

Regards,
-JV
 
Hmm, this is very interesting. I have been dropping isolation exercises for arms as I get to the 5's as the muscles start to feel fried and concentrating on the compounds. I have been doing it 'wrong' then?
Something learnt for my next cycle in 11 days.
Jazzer :)
 
I'd go with 2 sets for any body part you feel is lagging. Or 1 of 2x exercises for that body part. The reason I think that BBs >DBs is because the max load is greater - so better hypertrophic stimulus and better incrementation. DBs prob. have their place during the 5s, so maybe add a set of them then...?
 
Sorry, I probably didn't explain myself very well. I do BB for all exercises apart from reverse flyes for rear delts. What I meant was that I had started to cut out curls and skullcrushers in the 5's when I experienced a bit of joint pain (broke my elbow years ago) and concentrated on compounds. Advise to do the opposite was given above and I was curious.
Apologies to board2death00 for hijacking the thread.
Jazzer :)
 
The above reply was to b2d00, sorry for confusion.


I'm not sure on how to treat your particular injury/work out now you've had the injury, but with regard to isolations, I think the best way to view them is like the icing on your chocolate cake.

Your chocolate cake is dang fine in flavour to begin with, and it is has that layer of caramel in the middle (or it should :p) and is cooked to perfection . . . but if you wanted to get that extra bit more out of it, you add the icing.

Now what about the icing alone? Yeh it's not so bad, it still tastes pretty good when you lick the bowl clean.. but its nowhere near as complete as the whole thing.

Isolations are the icing...compounds are the chocolate cake.
 
Hey Jazzer :)

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Advise to do the opposite was given above and I was curious.
Click to expand...

Well, that advice was given to someone with no injury that prevents lifting of heavy isolations.

In your case, it would probably be best to just do it the way you've been doing them. Heavy DB curls, for example, might only aggravate your injury, but doing 15's of them specifically for the lactic acid buildup might help heal them.

Perhaps you can ask a sports doctor, if you know or have a good one, about your injury.

Regards,
-JV
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top