Taking out ISOs during the 5RM

K

KungFuJoe

New Member
I seem to hear about this a lot. What's the reason why some people will only do compounds during the last 3-4 weeks of HST? Is it because the load becomes so great that it's hard to complete a full workout (I'm kinda in this dept), or is it because at that high weight/low rep level, ISOs don't work as well?

And if you do cut them out, do you replace them with anything else or is the end result just less exercises per workout?
 
i do the opposite i do isos during 15s and 10s and then drop them in the 5s.
i just do 1 set .
when you get to the 5s the weight is heavy enough to give your arms a good workout.
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">What's the reason why some people will only do compounds during the last 3-4 weeks of HST?</div>

To increase metabolic stress, hopefully create a better environment for hypertrophy...enter the pimp my hst phylosophy as per Vicious.

Have you read the e-book?
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(Hammer-Man @ May 26 2006,13:40)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">KungFuJoe is asking why people do isolation exercises in the 15's and 10's, but don't do them in the 5's and post 5's.</div>
yeah got mixed up there hammer but i think i answered it anyway.

i do the opposite i do isos during 15s and 10s and then drop them in the 5s.
i just do 1 set .
when you get to the 5s the weight is heavy enough to give your arms a good workout.
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I can only answer for me, but heavy isolation exercises have never worked very well for me. I feel very little strain in my biceps and triceps for example, but a ton in my elbows, wrists, and shoulders. It also seems too easy to let bigger muscles some in and assist, which pretty much goes against the whole point of isolations. For me, it seems that going below 8 reps for isolations ruins their effectiveness.

Coversely, heavy pulldowns and benches put a pretty good load on my biceps and triceps.
 
why start or drop isos halfway through?

in particular bi's and tri's hst style training/progressive load works for your arms as well as just the main core muscles,i just include just a few isos in my routine such as rear delts bi's tri's and sometimes laterals.
 
I dropped them during the negatives. I did negative dips and pull ups. Those two right there pretty much made me unable to do any bi and tri iso's unless I did lighter weights than I was using in the 5s.
 
Yeh, I think the weight in the 5s is enough to activate all the muscle fibres and sufficiently tire you out enough to make iso's unnecessary.
 
Thanks for the replies! I'll eliminate bb curls and tri pull down for my next HST cycle during the 5s. That will also keep the workout time to just an hour and a half
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Kung, a little off topic but perhaps still relevant is that my personal opinion is that you should find a way to cut your workouts down to under an hour. Anthing above that is &quot;usually&quot; counter-productive for the natural lifter. One way of doing that, of course, if to add frequency. Another way is to properly utilize progressive loading. The worst way is adaption wherein you keep the load close to the same and increase volume. You could theoretically get to the point where you had to lift 24 hours per day or stagnate. Obviously not a good solution to growth.
 
wow I was reading, haven't been here in a while, and I look over to read the posters name to see the one and only Old and Grey. I'd just like to say it is very nice to see that you have come back. I started with your advice on HST and have made great gains since then. Good seeing you.

Back to the post. Yeah I've had to drop some of the iso's in my post 5's also because the weights have been getting too heavy (I used to be able to get away with a 30 second rest period, but I can't anymore). I always add a 3rd drop set now to everything though to sort of make up for it. Workouts run about an hour and a half. I'm really good about my pre and post workout nutrition to counter balance any negative effects from going over an hour.
 
I would love NOTHING more than to cut my workout down to less than an hour...but I don't see how I can do that without sacrificing too much of a workout. I try to get plenty of rest between sets and workouts so I admit that a lot of time is spent resting. But if I don't rest, I struggle on the next set/workout.
 
KungFuJoe,

Put your routine up here to see what we can do to fix it. You don't need to be in the gym for an hour and a half to make fantastic gains.
 
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