the frequency poll

I've been doing twice a day MWF. However, I didn't do it like Bryan suggested though. I took my usual workout and broke it roughly in half and did it AM/PM. I did a drop set with each exercise in the 5's. Starting neg's tomorrow and I've already gained 8 pounds for the cycle.

I think the higher frequency is necessary after you've done a few cycles; at least for me.
 
I usually use an upper/lower split for a 3x frequency, so that's how I voted. Last cycle, though, I went for 5x for the first week of 15's and 10's, then alternated back to 3x as I neared my 15RM and 10RM. I felt like I needed more recovery time, but maybe next cycle I'll use clusters to allow me to maintain the higher frequency.

Do you guys really stick to 6+ times/week when doing 5RM's? I don't know if my joints could take that. Again, maybe clusters are the answer?
 
Now on summer break, I work 7 days a week and due to home cooking (awful), I find it difficult to consume enough clean food to support a 5 day per week program, so instead I do a regular M W F split.
However, when I return to college at the end of August, I plan on using a full body routine 5 days a week as I will have more time and a myriad of endless, freshly prepared healthy food choices, (plus the 5 days/week workouts should help prevent the inevitable midsection growth that occurs with excessive consumption of certain beverages on the weekends) I simply cannot wait to see the incredible results I will produce with a higher frequency HST routine and healthy diet!
 
That's one thing I still don't understand about the higher frequency - doing full body workout 5 days a week... doesn't HST call for 36 hours for you to recover?

As my 2nd cycle will start when I return to school, I was considering doing an upper/lower split which ends up being 3x full body per week.

-Colby
 
The muscle does not overtrain, so you don't need 36 hours to recover as long as you do not fatigue your CNS. Also, to be able to do higher frequency, you will need to eat more.
 
From the HST article:

2) Acute vs. Chronic Stimuli
In order for the loading to result in significant hypertrophy, the stimulus must be applied with sufficient frequency to create a new "environment", as opposed to seemingly random and acute assaults on the mechanical integrity of the tissue. The downside of taking a week of rest every time you load a muscle is that many of the acute responses to training like increased protein synthesis, prostaglandins, IGF-1 levels, and mRNA levels all return to normal in about 36 hours. So, you spend 2 days growing and half a week in a semi-anticatabolic state returning to normal (some people call this recovery), when research shows us that recovery can take place unabated even if a the muscle is loaded again in 48 hours. So true anabolism from loading only lasts 2 days at best once the load is removed. The rest of the time you are simply balancing nitrogen retention without adding to it.

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As you can see, all this says is that anabolism will last at most 48 hours, all sorts of things start to decline after only 36 hours... so this would seem to suggest that it would actually be beneficial not to wait 36 hours, but to keep that anabolic state going throughout your entire cycle.

Now look at some other things that Bryan has said:

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Pre-existing Bodybuilding Concepts that HST Refutes:
• A muscle must be fully recovered before you should train it again.
• You should not train a muscle that is sore (DOMS, not injury).
• You must never train a muscle on consecutive days. (i.e. train the same muscle everyday)
• The concept of “Overtraining” as it applies to muscle tissue.


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So as you can see, training every day would be perfectly acceptable and may even be preferrable for hypertrophy, assuming you can keep up with the caloric demands of working out that often. I would suggest everyone try it at least once. I liked it, though it made it almost impossible for me to eat enough to gain weight, so I've gone back to 3-4 times a week training. But I think higher frequency would be excellent for people who have an easier time gaining weight or people who are trying to cut.
 
Thanks for the input Toten... I am going to try an upper/lower split next cycle when I return to school, and then depending on how that fits with my schedule (since that = more days at the gym), I may give that higher frequency a shot, but that's a few months down the road. :D
 
Could the same principle of training everyday (high caloric demands) be used to lose bodyfat as well? Or would the below maintainance diet and reduced ability of the body to repair microtrauma increase the risk of injury? I suppose it would be depend on the body's existing fat/energy stores, below what % would you think it would cause problems?
 
I do every other day.  One on/one off (off day is now a cardio day).  This makes 3 days one week, 4 the next.

I made a long workout that does my whole body twice in the workout.  That way if I'm short on time I can split it into AM and PM fullbody workouts.
So I get 3-6 or 4-8 workouts a week.

Here are the lifts
AM:
Squat, SLDL, Row, BB Bench, OHP, Cable Crunch.
PM:
CDL, Leg Extension, Good morning, Calf Raise, Shrug, Curl, Skull Crusher, DB Bench

This training cycle I weenied out and did "vanilla" with the 1x15, 2x10, 3x5, 5x3 pattern so I can get both AM and PM in one workout.  Next time it will be more sets so it will be AM and PM again.
 
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