Trying out heavier weights

[HST_Rihad]

Quoting the HST FAQ Book:

Pre-existing Methods and/or practices that HST Refutes:
• Training a muscle no more than once or twice per week.
• Training less frequently as your "intensity" increases.
• Adding weight only when you can complete a certain number of additional reps at that
weight. (This is a fundamental difference!)
• Training to failure every set and/or workout (If you don't how would you know if you can
perform additional reps at that weight yet?)
• Forced reps
• Performing several "obligatory" exercises per body part per workout
• Performing multiple exhaustive sets per exercise
• Changing exercises to "confuse" the muscle.

Regarding the part in bold: assuming I've just reached my 5RMs, and decided to continue doing them for 2 more weeks, how would I know if it's time to add a weight increment if I don't first attempt to do 6 or 7 reps, while making sure to always stop short of failure?

Or does the quote simply recommend the usual progression starting from sub-maximal weights, like there's no need to first rep out on every workout?

 

[grunt11]

First it depends on if you have reached the 5RM you figured out at the beginning or you really reach your new 5RM. If the it’s the first case most people keep pushing for a new 5RM.

If you truly reached your new 5RM then there are several things you could do. You could keep adding weight doing negatives, at least for the exercises this is doable for. You could keep adding weight moving into your 3RM range. Or you could keep using your 5RM weight and push for more reps. Ideally you want to always be adding more weight but a couple of weeks at the same or similar weight is going to be OK in terms of Repeated Bout Effect.

 

[Totentanz]

The information you quoted is saying that the text you bolded is something that HST DOES NOT recommend.

So ideally if I were you, I would keep adding weight like grunt recommended, 10 lbs or so at a time, each session until you find your new 5 RM then just continue using that weight for the rest of your cycle. Or do negatives, 3s, as grunt suggested.

 

[HST_Rihad]

The information you quoted is saying that the text you bolded is something that HST DOES NOT recommend.

Yeah, I know that. Thus, by refuting something, HST recommends the contrary. So, it seems to recommend going past your true 5RM _without_ first attempting to reach 6-7 reps with that weight, which is kind of scary to me, I'll explain why:

So ideally if I were you, I would keep adding weight like grunt recommended, 10 lbs or so at a time, each session until you find your new 5 RM then just continue using that weight for the rest of your cycle. Or do negatives, 3s, as grunt suggested.

The exercise in question is barbell bench press. I don't have a spotter, so can't do negatives. I've already had two cycles (4 months) trying to go past my true 5RM weight of 75 kg (165 lbs) to 77 kg (170 lbs) and do them for 2 weeks, but reps inevitably decreased to 4-3 no matter how hard I tried to make them 5. Since I don't seem to have reached my true 5RM in squats and SLDL, my weight progression is fine there. That's when an idea came to me to first rep out on my true 5RM weight (75 kg / 165 lbs), which is a tiny bit less prone to injury, and is more suitable hypertrophy-wise (IIRC 65-80% 1RM). All in all, I think I'm going to try it out this cycle. I won't stand blowing my BP progression for the third cycle in a row