Strategic Deconditioning how long to do it for the first time?

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cookieman9000

New Member
Hey so I want to start HST. I'm coming off texas method, where I was using weights that are 80-93% of my 1rm. I would use once a week a weight around 80% and once a week a weight around 90+% of my 1rm basically. How long should I do it then before I can start my first HST training cycle? My strength seems to stall a lot lately, and after reading HST, I want to try it.
I'm well aware that between each training cycle I should take an entire week off, to decondition my muscles. My question is regarding for someone who has been doing a different routine, that uses fairly heavy weights on a regular basis.

Thanks in advance...
 
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Welcome to HST!

I would just test all your rep range maxes during one week then take an entire week off. Last training day friday first day of cycle 10 days later.
 
gbglifter said:
Welcome to HST!

I would just test all your rep range maxes during one week then take an entire week off. Last training day friday first day of cycle 10 days later.
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Thanks.

I can already estimate my rep range maxes. I'm well aware how much I can lift for 10 reps, and how much weight I need to add or decrease to gain/lose a rep on a given exercise.
My last training day was Wednesday, so should I wait 10 days from then?
My question, is whether it'll be enough to decondition my muscles, after using relatively heavy weights for a good amount of time.
 
A 5RM is 90% of 1RM so thats not too dissimilar from what most do here, some(myself included) even go as high as 95% as well as negatives at the end of the cycle sometimes.

If youre pretty sure of your rep maxes then just wait 10 days, or even 12 if you plan on beginning on a monday. Thats plenty time.
 
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gbglifter said:
A 5RM is 90% of 1RM so thats not too dissimilar from what most do here, some(myself included) even go as high as 95%

If youre pretty sure of your rep maxes then just wait 10 days, or even 12 if you plan on beginning on a monday. Thats plenty time.
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I see. I have 2 more questions.

1. I'm soon going to be tested on bodyweight pullups (in 2 months), and I need to retain my ability to do them. Is it okay if I do a few sets of pullups during Strategic Deconditioning, just to make sure my skill isn't decreasing. I can do about 18 pullups if I go all out, so my body weight shouldn't cause much tension. I worked really hard to get to 18 pull ups, and I don't want to lose my strength and endurance in them.
2. Is it okay if I start with 10 reps on my 1st cycle, and start right away with 6week training cycles? I can't do 15 reps, because since I can only do 18 reps on my pullups, that means I can only add around 15-20lbs to my bodyweight to do 15 pullups. And it's not enough weight to strip off 6 workouts, if you get my point. (I don't have any rubber bands or machines, that can make me do pullups with less than my bodyweight)

If I understood correctly, 15 rep weeks are good for injury prevention, but I'm 17 years old. And I feel like my recovery so far, is good enough that I don't need to worry about it yet.
 
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1. You could do but it will affect you. If you rest completely then once you start up again you should see gains from body weight only pullups. Im not sure what I would do if I was in your situation TBH. I feel like I lose a lot of strength after the SD but it is two months until then and all your strength will come back before this.
2. There are a few that skip 15´s or just do one week. How many weeks will you be doing each rep range?
 
gbglifter said:
1. You could do but it will affect you. If you rest completely then once you start up again you should see gains from body weight only pullups. Im not sure what I would do if I was in your situation TBH. I feel like I lose a lot of strength after the SD but it is two months until then and all your strength will come back before this.
2. There are a few that skip 15´s or just do one week. How many weeks will you be doing each rep range?
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Well, I'll be using 2 weeks for each rep range. So I'll basically be doing 6 week cycles.

Also my problem is not the strength in pullups, but since I can already do 18 reps, I also need to maintain my strength endurance not just my strength. I need to actually do 18 reps or close to it, and cause metabolic fatigue to my muscles to maintain my abillity or even improve a little. Otherwise I can regress by 1-2 reps.

By the way, how much strength do you typically lose after a whole week of rest?
 
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cookieman9000 said:
Well, I'll be using 2 weeks for each rep range.

By the way, how much strength do you typically lose after a whole week of rest?
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If you skip 15´s you´ll be doing 4 weeks.

Its difficuilt to gauge in figures really. Bacically the first sessions, which are at around 80% of the specific rep range max, feel really heavy. Takes a week or so to "feel" strong again.
 
It typically takes in excess of 2 weeks of not training before you actually lose strength. You may not "feel" as strong as you do when lifting but there should be no loss of actual strength. Many people will actually gain a small amount of strength while SDing but the psychological factors convince them they must be weaker; ergo they are.

And yes, since you have a pull up "test" coming up, you can continue to train a muscle for endurance during an SD but I would not make a habit of it. Nor am I sure that that is better than a week of rest. I certainly would take a couple of days off before your test as you don't want to test a fatigued muscle.
 
At our gym we have a machine that allows you to do assisted pullups at the gym and this allowed pullups to be scalable for progressive loads. If you don't have this, the gym might have bands that you can use by affixing it to your foot to add some extra pull. If that still isn't an option I have had a lot of good results from clustering my pullups. With clustering you can make both your continuous reps and weight progressive.
 
gbglifter said:
If you skip 15´s you´ll be doing 4 weeks.

Its difficuilt to gauge in figures really. Bacically the first sessions, which are at around 80% of the specific rep range max, feel really heavy. Takes a week or so to "feel" strong again.
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May I ask how is it 4 weeks? If I'm not wrong it's 2 weeks for each rep. So that means that if I do 10,5 and 5 reps max it amounts to 6 weeks, no?
 
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