Starting HST! Comments and suggestions very welcome!

M

muskelman

New Member
Greetings fellow musclemen!:
Thank you for all the information that seems very promising so far, hopefully it will help me in my quest for muscles very soon.
I am planning on starting my first HST cycle very soon. Apoligizes if my training history is a long read.
I believe in a force of divine love behind the whole of creation and building bigger stronger muscles is a stepping stone on the way to manifest and realize that divine love in everyday life.

Training background:
Was a pretty athletic high school tennis player until 18. From then on a there were many years without any excercise besides a few all nighters on the dance floor to throbbing electronic music.
After 30 I started to lose shape and at age 33 I entered a local sports club.

My starting stats were 179 cm, 70,5kg and 17,5% body fat.
From August 2008 to December 2008 I gained 6 kg of bodyweight to 77 kg and dropped body fat to about 14 %.

I guess this was the beginners gains. I trained with very High Intensity and low volume inspired by DC training among others online, normally about once a week for upper body, legs were trained less often, my daily life of standing commuting at trains and work causes me some tiredness and stiffness so when too tired I don't train legs although I am planning to improve my frequency of legs as well.

The training to failure must have taken its toll and in January 2009 I got injured with wrist tendonitis ( I have extremely thin wrists), very painful for a few days and it took me a month until next very light session. So in 2009 I dropped all the weight I had gained and was down to 68,5kg in August, training was kept very light about once a week.
In September 2009 I progressively improved my strength until November 2009. Cold winter and colds and until today I really haven't gained anything in strength or weight from a frequency of about 5 times a month for upper body trying to progressively increase the weights ala Stuart Mc Robert.

Starting stats before my first HST cycle 179cm ,71 kg, 12,6 % bodyfat.
My goal is to regain at least 3kg of weight hopefully mostly lean body mass and I will also start creatine supplementation again

The sports club in Tokyo where I work out is more leisurely recreational than geared towards weight lifting and bodybuilding and it doesn't have a squat rack and some other things but I will work with what there is.

So I have been planning my first HST cycle like this

(I am very open to suggestions and hints!)
And about lower back training and hyperextensions I really could use some suggestions about volume and frequency

The weight increments in kg to be used in the successive workouts performed Mon/Wed/Fri

Bench 15*2 22/ 25/ 25/ 27,5/ 27,5/ 30
10*2 30/ 32,5/ 35/ 35/ 37,5/ 40
5*3 35/ 37,5/ 40/ 42,5/ 45/ 47,5

Pecdec 15*2 25/ 25/ 35/ 35/ 35/ 35 I can only increase the weight by 10 at the time
10*2 35/ 35/ 35/ 45/ 45/ 45 in the pecdec machine, yes I know it's not a core excercise
5*2 35/ 45/ 45/ 45/ 55/ 55

Dumbbell shoulder press 15*2 6/ 6/ 7/ 7/ 8/ 8
10*2 7/ 8/ 8/ 9/ 9/ 10
5*3 9/ 9/ 10/ 11/ 11/ 12

Lateral raises 15*1 3/ 3/ 3/ 4/ 4/ 4
10*1 4/ 5/ 5/ 5/ 6/ 6
5*1 5/ 6/ 6/ 6/ 7/ 7 if I still have power I might do 2 sets

Triceps pushdpwn rope 15*2 7,5/ 10/ 10/ 10/ 12,5/ 12,5
10*2 10/ 12,5/ 12,5 12,5/ 15/ 15
5*3 12,5/ 12,5/ 15/ 15/ 15/ 17,5
Sitting cable row
I don't trust the staff at the club enough to teach me proper form of standing bent over rows which I tried but they hurt my lower back, I found that sitting cable row is the safest row I can do

15*2 25/ 27,5/ 30/ 32.5/ 32,5/ 35
10*2 30/ 32,5/ 35/ 35/ 37,5/ 40
15*2 32,5/ 35/ 37,5/ 40/ 42,5/ 45
Lat pull down to front
I would love to do chin ups or pull ups but at the moment I barely have the strength to do a handful so hopefully after a cycle or 2 I will get my strength up

15*2 25/ 27,5/ 30/ 32.5/ 32,5/ 35
10*2 30/ 32,5/ 35/ 35/ 37,5/ 40
15*2 32,5/ 35/ 37,5/ 40/ 42,5/ 45

I am not sure if it will be too taxing to do both rows or pulldowns continuously but since I am not going that heavy I will try and see if it is okay

Alternating dumbbell curls 15*2 5/ 5/ 6/ 6/ 7/ 7
10*2 6/ 7/ 7/ 8/ 8/ 9
5*3 9/ 9/ 10/ 11/ 11/ 12
Smith shrug
There is no free olympian bar or heavy enough dumbbells

15*2 40/ 45/ 47,5/ 50/ 52,5/ 55
10*2 47,5/ 52,5/ 55/ 57,5/ 60/ 65
5*3 52,5/ 57,5/ 60/ 65/ 67,5/ 72,5

Crunch machine 15*2 40/ 45/ 47,5/ 50/ 52,5/ 55
10*2 47,5/ 52,5/ 55/ 57,5/ 60/ 65
5*3 55/ 60/ 62,5/ 67,5 70/ 75

Since I have never trained leg much at all I will do Leg press at only every 2nd workout alternating with lighter leg extensions. There is no squat rack and I chose not to do smith squats

Leg press
15*2 80/ 90/ 100
10*2 90/ 100/ 110
5*3 100/ 110/ 120

Leg extensions 15*2 30/ 35/ 40
10*2 35/ 40/ 45
5*3 40/ 45/ 50

Leg curl
15*2 30/ 30/ 35/ 35/ 40/ 40
10*2 30/ 35/ 40/ 40/ 45/ 45
5*3 35/ 40/ 40/ 45/ 50/ 50

Lower back training since I don't do any dead lifts and like to improve my lower back strength I will be doing some hyperextensions, not sure about volume and frequency though. Any suggestions?

Until I figure something out I will start by doing 2 sets of 10 and increase towards 15, I will not use weighted hyperextensions in the beginning since I have never trained this frequently before and I am a little bit worried about overstraining my kind of weak lower back

Salutations to all and I will try to keep an update on my progression. I am planning to start this cycle on Monday August 9

Muskelman
 
i think this is a better set up,and done in this order.

Leg press
15*2 80/ 90/ 100
10*2 90/ 100/ 110
5*3 100/ 110/ 120

straight-leg-deadlift in smith machine
its better than leg-curls and works the lower back good,and you can do a shrug at the top.

Bench 15*2 22/ 25/ 25/ 27,5/ 27,5/ 30
10*2 30/ 32,5/ 35/ 35/ 37,5/ 40
5*3 35/ 37,5/ 40/ 42,5/ 45/ 47,5


Sitting cable row
15*2 25/ 27,5/ 30/ 32.5/ 32,5/ 35
10*2 30/ 32,5/ 35/ 35/ 37,5/ 40
15*2 32,5/ 35/ 37,5/ 40/ 42,5/ 45


Dumbbell shoulder press 15*2 6/ 6/ 7/ 7/ 8/ 8
10*2 7/ 8/ 8/ 9/ 9/ 10
5*3 9/ 9/ 10/ 11/ 11/ 12

Lat pull down to front
15*2 25/ 27,5/ 30/ 32.5/ 32,5/ 35
10*2 30/ 32,5/ 35/ 35/ 37,5/ 40
15*2 32,5/ 35/ 37,5/ 40/ 42,5/ 45

Triceps pushdpwn rope 15*2 7,5/ 10/ 10/ 10/ 12,5/ 12,5
10*2 10/ 12,5/ 12,5 12,5/ 15/ 15
5*3 12,5/ 12,5/ 15/ 15/ 15/ 17,5


Alternating dumbbell curls 15*2 5/ 5/ 6/ 6/ 7/ 7
10*2 6/ 7/ 7/ 8/ 8/ 9
5*3 9/ 9/ 10/ 11/ 11/ 12
 
Thanks, for input.
I see if I can find someone to instruct me on smith deadlifts, the thing is most of the staff at the sports club are skinny as sticks and doesn't look like they have done much lifting at all so I haven't felt comfortable asking for much instruction so far...but maybe some of them have some knowledge.
I will change the order of excercises as well although leg not being a priority I still feel like doing them after upper body...
Gonna be starting creatine loading today and start loading up on rice beans oatmeal whey protein and more
In iron I believe:cool:
 
Started Monday August 9. Bodyweight 69,9 kg bodyfat 13,6%

Lost a kilo since last Wednesday, probably due to a missed meal or two and very hot humid Tokyo weather sweating loads. Will drink more water and eat more food! But starting at this low of a bodyweight I think that I can make some good gains. Aiming for a gain of 4 kilos in 2 months, see how it goes

First workout went well. Light weights but keeping rest between sets short produced a good burn in the muscles. Not as sore a day later Tuesday as I used to be when I trained closer to failure most of the time. Creatine loading has begun at 15g/day the first 2 days.
I will pray to the God's for strenght and keep eating;)
 
muskelman said:
Thanks, for input.
I see if I can find someone to instruct me on smith deadlifts, the thing is most of the staff at the sports club are skinny as sticks and doesn't look like they have done much lifting at all so I haven't felt comfortable asking for much instruction so far...but maybe some of them have some knowledge.
I will change the order of excercises as well although leg not being a priority I still feel like doing them after upper body...
Gonna be starting creatine loading today and start loading up on rice beans oatmeal whey protein and more
In iron I believe:cool:
Click to expand...
watch this http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Hamstrings/SMStraightLegDeadlift.html
you can bend your knees slightly.

if you want to do legs last thats ok,but do a push then a pull excercise that way the muscles get a longer break.
 
Thanks Faz :)
Ive been switching the orders of excercises according to your recomendation.
The deadlift looks pretty doable but I think I will try to get through my first HST cycle with hyper extensions and develop some strenght and get used to the high frequency first.
I normally stretch each body part after it's done and my first workout including a short warm up and stretches took about 1 hour, training with short rest between sets. So I might be dropping lat raises and pec dec as I will need longer rests between sets further into the cycle.

30 degrees celsius and 86 degrees humidity as we speak. Plenty of drinking water and starting to load up on food.

Upon awaking 9 am oatmeal and whey protein shake.
10 am breakfast of brown bread with pumpkin seed and sunflower seed butter. A heaped tablespoon of flax seed meal
1 am large bowl of oatmeal whey protein, soy milk topped with Milo chocolate malt powder.
3 am carb electrolyte sports drink another oat meal and whey shake.
5pm 3 bananas plus dates loaded with good sugars and carbs and more flax seed meal and a handful of almonds
About 2030 will be a dinner of fried basmati rice ghee for the good fats some veggies and soy protein. Perhaps a mango and some soymilk with chocolate Milo as a night snack.

Haven't really counted the calories but I am pretty confident that I have the appetite to start gaining weight. Previously once gained 7 kilo in 4 months although perhaps almost more than half was fat so that was probably a little too fast.

So my basic carb is oatmeal, be it in porridge or in powdered form in shakes throughout the day. I do eat basmati rice, brown rice and occasionally semi white rice. Occasionally buck wheat soba noodles and rice noodles and occasionally brown spaghetti. Some soymilk with oatmeal and bananas and dates along with other fruits.
I don't eat any meat but oatmeal is 15 % protein and I mix with protein powders preferably rice protein although I still have a last tub of whey to finish, I try and avoid milk products due to use of hormones and drugs in the dairy industry and it doesn't seem too be too agreeable with my digestion either.
I eat quite a bit of lentils and some soy protein, very affordable and 50 % protein although too much soy product doesn't seem to be good for digestion either. And I try to get a couple of good spoons flax seed meal down as well. Alpha Omega 3s fiber and protein. Cooking with unrefined cold pressed oils, canola olive oil coconut oil and ghee (clarified butter)
And especially on a bulk I am not afraid of ice cream occasional pastries the missus bring home and chocolate milk

fredh da star: You must know your Swedish, yes I am Swedish. Was not very big back in Sweden but relatively both tall and beefy here in Japan:eek:
 
Well,
didn't want to make it a discussion about a vegetarian against a meat eating diet.
Personally I don't think that meat is a high quality protein. The heaviness and difficulties in digestions outweighs the possibly high protein content. There are numerous dangers associated with meat eating found in various studies. Here's one link

http://www.stephen-knapp.com/why_be_a_vegan_vegetarian.htm

One reason is that I don't want to contribute to the suffering of animals. In todays dairy and animal farms animals suffer inhuman or "inanimal" conditions. Packed in amazingly small spaces being fed antibiotics hormones and other toxic drugs that we ingest when we eat the meat. It is also said that they kill the cows slowly letting the blood seep to enhance the flavor of the meat.
It might be the adrenaline from the animals fear and suffering that gives the meat it's enhanced flavor.
I also believe that everything we eat affect our mental state of being. By eating meat the fear that the animal felt by dying carries over to us along with other parts of it's animalistic consciousness on a subtle plane, the more sensitive person will feel this more. I believe that by eating a more plant based diet it is more easy to experience a balanced stress free state of being.

A part from the spiritual part I am also convinced that I am more energized and even stronger eating a plant based diet.
I don't have the greatest of bodybuilding genetics but let's see if I as a fairly untrained 35 year old can make some descent gains on a HST protocol eating a vegetarian diet.
Bill Pearl is one bodybuilder with great genetics that switched to a vegetarian diet

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/weis18.htm

fredh; I saw that your 17 years old. A great age to be training and you have the chance to make some great gains :D
So another Swedish hey. Why not pray to The Mighty Thor the Thunder God of Strength!;)
 
A diplomatic statement. I am not telling anyone to switch to a vegetarian diet but urge everybody to think for themselves and follow their own personal conviction
 
Yes, you chose to follow a vegetarian diet based on morals and everyones morals are different. I respect you for that. Still, meat equals meat.

I'm sure you'll experience good gains if you're currently untrained. You seem pretty intellectual and knowledgable so it'll probably be a cake walk. Imagine having brains and brawn, brother!!!
 
Hi fredh,
Meat is meat, can't argue with that;) But morals is only one side of the coin to why I choose not to eat meat. My spiritual as well as physical well being is the other based upon my own personal experience. I used to eat meat and after switching I do feel more energized physically and clear headed.
 
1st week of 15s finished! Have done 3 full body routines for the first time ever!
Was very happy to see that my weight was up 2kg to 72 kg in only 5 days!
Of course water weight and probably some undigested food in my intestines and I have been starting creatine supplementation again. but a great step in the right way.
Might up my goal to 75 kg after the 8 weeks. Been eating really well. Throwing extra heaps of oatmeal powder in my morning, in between meals, and pre and post work out shakes. A few sturdy lentil curries and rice. Last night a couple of ghee greasy soy burgers with mayonnaise, bananas, mangos, nuts, dates and more.

Weight still very light.
The guy behind me doing heavy smith military presses was grunting today, I was very happy to be the HST guy with only 5 kg added to the bar for a total of 25kg for the bench press:D My faith is growing, let's see if the grace keeps flowing;)!
Was keeping rest between sets very short, feeling good and big after having noticed my gain of 2 kilos.
Tired towards the end with lactic acid and tired after long day at work etc. Clustered my second sets of db curls and smith shrugs, 15 + 8 + 7 reps.
What do you think about taking shorter rest between sets not recovering fully and then having to cluster? Compared to taking a longer rest and performing 2 sets of 15?
My grip strenght is weak, I have very small wrists and hands so that is something to watch out for.

My 2nd week of 15s will be broken up schedule wise for a camping trip and some snorkeling in crystal clear seas. Out of town for 4 days on a campers diet. But I will reassume bulking shortly.
I do have the confidence of putting weight on, I even have to be careful not to load those oatmeal shakes too much or there will just be too much Love in those Lovehandles:cool:
I'll be back
 
Back to the gym after a 6 days abscence for my 5th workout of the 15s.
Although not in the gym I have been very active, traveling swimming and snorkeling 2 - 3 hours a day :cool: Was feeling a little bit weaker than on my 4th workout. And now getting close to my 15 rep maxes so I did quite a bit of clustering.
For my calf raises I did 11 + 10 + 9 reps instead of 2 sets of 15. Any comments on clustering like this?

I will try to keep the frequency at 3 times a week from now on.

Also due to difficulties in my schedule later I am thinking about squeezing 3 workouts from Monday to Friday, only problem is that I can't workout on the Wednesday. Any ideas on how to plan the schedule?
Sports clubs in Tokyo normally close one of the days of the week :mad:...
Still at 72kg. Did not loose or gain any weight while away at camping, stopped the oatmeal protein shakes but had large hearty servings of camp cooking.
Stay strong and good
 
Greetings!
Finished with my first week of 10s. Had to do some clustering towards the end of the 15s. In my calf raise for example something like 12 + 10 + 8. Kept rest between sets short rather than waiting.
Starting 10s was a great break although they get heavier for every workout too.
Anyway being a HST beginner I must say that I am starting to love this way of training. I have never trained this much before and not going to failure I am not getting very sore either.

At 72,5 at my last weigh in 2,5 kilo up without barely any fat gains and lookibg good and slightly pumped. Trying to up my food intake although there is a limit too how much oatmeal a man can eat in one day...Got a bag of maltodextrin on the way, hope that it migh be an easy way to get some extra carbs down.
I have been starting to think about the post 5s as well and how much to increase weights for next cycle.
Found one post where it was recommended to increase the weight in the end of 15s and 10s rather than the 5s?
Have been thinking of going with my 5rms for the first week and perhaps clustering it into 3 * 5 since 5 * 3 would have me close to failure each set I would think? Or are we supposed to go to failure on the 5s?
After the first week I might to increase the weight if I am feeling strong.
Hopefully I will be, being pretty new to lifting and in my first HST cycle as well.
Very good stuff so far and I want to thank especially mr Byan Haycock for his knowledge and his great generosity in sharing the HST so freely!
Thank you Faz for input and everybody else too who are sharing their knowledge here in this forum!
Time to hit my 4th workout of the 10s
Stay good and strong
 
Once you get to the end of 10s, approach the 5s like the other two mesocycles, except you will likely need a little more rest between sets (especially during the second and successive weeks) in order to recover your strength. So you should have calculate your loads such that, by the end of the second week of 5s, you are at your RMs. (A good rule of thumb is to calculate loads with %ages and to go from ~75%RM to RM in 5% increments.)

During 5s and post-5s you will not be doing much for your metabolic systems, so it's a good idea to add in a high-rep set for each exercise after the heavy sets are done. This will help you to keep that 'full' feeling in your muscles that you get during 15s and 10s.

Unless you specifically want to use maltodextrine (a highly processed polysaccharide), you might just find that some fresh fruit will give you the extra carbs you need, along with a whole lot of extra micro-nutrients. I started out adding maltodextrine to shakes but switched to adding fruit and have never looked back.
 
Hi and thank you Lol!

I have actually been cramming loads of bananas, delicious and nutritious dates and dried apricots. I am also a firm believer in fruits and the added vitamins and nutrients.
I just have been feeling a bit full and bloated from all the oatmeal, boiled for breakfast and in pre and post workout shakes with rice protein plus fruits. Gonna try and see if the maltodextrin will be a little bit easier to down and still have some fruits together. My weigh in today was 72,7 kilo and bodyfat down to 10.0 % my lowest rating ever. But my weight is up 2,7 kilo only 3 weeks into HST! , I guess it's the newbies gains. But since I haven't gained any fat at all I will be upping food intake a bit more and it looks like my goal of 75 in the end will be very attainable.
I meant going with my 5rm my first week of post 5s having worked up to 100% of 5RM in 2 weeks of 5s.
And after a few workouts at 5rm adding a little bit of weight if feeling strong.

So is it okay to go to failure in the 5s or should I stopped a rep or 2 short of failure?
About the high rep set...Am I supposed to switch to a lower weight after my 3rd and last set of 5 of my excercise and having exhausted myself with the lower weight switch to an even lower weight one more time?
I read something about 10 extra reps after the last set of 5s on an exercise and also something about going to failure 3 times in the drop set...? I guess I will start kind of try to get my feel for things...
It also looks like the duration of workouts will be quite a bit longer for 5s with 3 sets and longer rests between sets. I am close to 1hour for my workout now and am guessing that the 5s will take close to 1,5 hrs...Is it okay or recommended to train for that long?

Thank you for reading and I will keep training and eating and sleeping and...the sun rises again...
 
5th of the 5s

Hi!
I just finishe dmy 5th workout of the 5s. On my weigh in I was 46,7 kg! A gain of 4,7 kilos in one month and 20 days! Remaining pretty much the same level of body fat. My previous low reading at 10% was at another gym and the one today was at my regular place and 13,2 %. But these machines seems to fluctuate quite a lot in their readings, sometimes my bodyfat has been 2 kilos more or less within only 2 days, so I guess they are not be trusted to betotally accurate.
Anyway good gains, been eating well stomach expanding eating large meals of rice and I have gotten a tub of whey protein, cookies n cream, very tasty and been downing a few extra shakes as well.
Doubled the size of my shake botttle as well. Got a one liter now which I normally bring about 120 grams of oatmeal and about 60 grams of whey when I am on the run. Got to be a little bit careful though, this last week a little additional fat has been noticed around the waist and chest although looking full and strong, my suits is starting to feel a little bit tight as wel.

Todays workout

Unexpectedly the gym ws closing early today so I was in a real rush, kept the rest very short running from excercise to excercise and some super setting. Felt good though, good pump focused some fast and furious music in my ipod.

There was a serious multi setter on the bench so I started with legs instead of upper body as usual
Smith calf raise 100kg 5 * 3, dropset 85 * 10, although getting close to my previous 5rm I was feeling mighty strong and probably gonna be doing some increases in my post 5s, at least on excercises where I feel strong.
Leg press 120kg * 5 * 3 dropset 100 kg * 10 The legpress that I am using makes it rather heavy for me to get the excercise going for the first rep but once it is going I feel pretty strong. I have to be a little bit careful, was feeling a little knee pain on my previous legpress day only using 110 kg
Leg curl 50 kg * 5 * 3 dropset 40 kg * 10

Cable row 42,5kg * 5 * 3 dropset 35 kg * 10
probably have some left in the tank, very short rest intervals about 30 seconds

Bench press 45kg * 5 * 3 dropset 30 kg * 10
getting close to max and didnt really take the drop set to the max, saving some...

Pecdec 55kg * 3 45 * 3 25 * 3 was really toast probably due to doing rows before and keeping my rest really short through all excercises

Dumbell shoulder press 12kg * 5 * 3
Got my reps on 5rm quite easily with short rest, shoulders really feel a lot stronger from the HST will be doing some increases here in the post 5s as well

Lat raises 7kg * 5 * 2, 4kg * 10 pretty strong but as usual a little tired from the presses

Pull ups bodyweight * 4 uum I'm still pretty weak here just doing a few in between hoping to gain strenght in the future

Lat pulldown to front 45 kg * 5 * 3, 30 kg * 10
Feeling pretty strong probably be doing some gains here too

Triceps pushdown rope 17,5 kg * 5 * 3 , 12,5 kg * 10
feeling stronger here too
I opted for rope instead of bar although I am much stronger doing them with the bar. Does anybody know the difference between doing push downs with a bar or rope?

Dumbell curls 10 kg * 6 12kg * 4, 12 * 3, 6 * 10
was feeling toast here as well, was actually quite a bit stronger at the previous workout, probably because the high speed of the workout

Hyper extensions, regular and done to the sides, 5kg * 5 * 2, bodyweight * 10
feeling stronger in my lower back in daily life which is great, still using quite light weights but really happy to know that I can train them 3 times a week and getting stronger!
That actually goes for HST in general. Previously I was trying to gain progressively slowly ala hardgainer, Stuart Mc robert. Was sore from going close too failure and although resting many days I quickly stopped prpgressing at all. Really loving to train HST!!! Thank you again!

Crunch machine

70 kg * 5 * 3, 50 kg * 10

So happy about my gains and looking forward to the end of this cycle to see if I have made some gains.
Gonna keep eating which I guess is imoprtant for the heavy training but probably eat a little bit less during SD.

Aah now that kind of stoned feeling is setting in post workout. Had my shake and soon rice and beans.

Peace to all:D!
 
Update

Hi,
Correction of my previous post; my last weigh in was 74,7.
I finished my 6 the workout in great style. Got all my 5 rep maxes for 3 sets with more in the tank. i did however have a cold breaking out.
Season is changing here and the weather dropped from close to 35 plus to around 17 degrees celsius the next day. Anyway I had a 5 day break and started my post 5s with repeating my previous workout although it took much more of an effort being weakened from my cold. My 2nd day of post 5s was my last in my old gym before switching to save about 50 US $/ month. And I wanted to go out in style and pushed my self a bit to break a few new 5rm records. Still only 50kgs for bench, nothing too Herculian yet.

So I have had 4 workouts in my new gym and kind of have gotten used to it. Only a smith bench so I am smith benching now although it is just as much of an effort for me as regular bench.
Since the end of 5s my workouts have gotten long about 1,5 hours and I do some clustering to avoid going to failure. Am starting to plan for my next cycle and have started to set some new 5rm records but I probably will keep going with theheavy training a little bit longer.

Diet wise I haven't gained any more weight since September 20. My fat gained quite suddenly started to dawn on me and I have cut back a little on the eating. For me it's kinda that in the beginning it takes an effort gaining weight but once I have switched into gaining mode the fat starts to gather too.
And now in the post 5s I have only been training twice a week

Friday September 15s workout.

Smith bench 55*5 a new record for me by 5 kilos then 45 * 5 and 35 * 5, having pushed myself for records I don't feel the need to complete 3 sets at the same weight, I go a little easier and also try to save for some records on other exercises. I actually didn't record my lighter dropsets after the first heavy 5 but mostly I was doing one more medium of 5 and one last light set of 10

Rowing Machine 57 * 5
Pecdec 45,8 * 5
Dumbbell shoulder press 15 * 5
Lat pulldown 53 * 5
Lateral raises 8 * 5
Pullups BO * 5
Tri pushdown 50 * 5 , somehow I am using way more weight in the new gym for this one
Dumbbell curls 12,5 this pretty much the only excercise that I haven't been able to set a new record for, but I have been doing a few pull ups in between as well.
Smith shrug 75 * 5
Leg extension 84 * 5
Leg curl 52 * 5
Crunch machine 80 * 5
Hyper extensions straight and to the sides with 5 kg * 2. Haven't really dialed in my weight progression with hyper extensions because I have wanted to be a little bit careful not to overdo a previously weak low back, but I have felt great improvement in daily life as well training lower back 3 times a week

Had a break on Fridays for these exercise to save my legs for a very busy weekend at work but I have been doing Smith calf raise 110 * 5
and Leg Press 150 * 5 and I feel I have some new records left in these two exercises

But in most exercises I think it is going to be hard to break new records in this cycle but I think that is okay and I have already increased my bench with a little more than 10 %. So the last workouts I might try to be clustering up to 15 repetitions plus a drop set. How does that sound? And I am also thinking about setting new records for my 10 and 15 rep max
Measurement wise I think my chest has gone from 94 to 98 and my biceps from 30 to 31 and my waist from 82 to 84 oops but I haven't been to careful measuring
All in all am very happy about the HST style and I will keep going.
And on another funny side note. After my 3rd workout in my new gym I received a letter from them saying that they will close December 27! So I will do one more cycle and then start looking around again...

Peace and muscles!:cool:
 
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