After following typical magazine gym routines for a couple of years HST intrigued me so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm just coming to the end of my 3rd week of fives and have made reasonable gains admittedly too much of it fat (diet refining needed). However my cycle seemed too easy. I was never sore from my workouts ever. I'm only starting to get sore pushing my new 5RM and adding in metabolic work. Has this happened to anyone else? After always training to failure for years HST does not seem challenging. Have I mucked something up at all?
Why was my cycle so easy??
- Thread starter Orion
- Start date
Did you read the free HST book.
DOMS does not equate to muscle growth. I typically only have a short spurt after a long SD. If you did not take a good (minimum 9 days, preferably 2 weeks) SD after training to failure for years, you probably wasted a cycle.
DOMS does not equate to muscle growth. I typically only have a short spurt after a long SD. If you did not take a good (minimum 9 days, preferably 2 weeks) SD after training to failure for years, you probably wasted a cycle.
Probably. Worth a try.
How much volume were you using?
Sorry, I'm not sure if you gave me your routine and volume before, I know we PM'd a bit about some of this some time ago but I get a pretty large volume of PMs from people so I can't remember them all and have to regularly delete them.
I think your issue is a combination of possibly a few too many calories -although not way too many, since you reported you were only gaining about 1kg a week - and not quite enough volume. Before you start your second cycle, we should figure it out. Also, I would probably increase the volume now while you try to get whatever growth you can still get out of the current cycle. You don't need to SD until you've stalled out on progress.
Sorry, I'm not sure if you gave me your routine and volume before, I know we PM'd a bit about some of this some time ago but I get a pretty large volume of PMs from people so I can't remember them all and have to regularly delete them.
I think your issue is a combination of possibly a few too many calories -although not way too many, since you reported you were only gaining about 1kg a week - and not quite enough volume. Before you start your second cycle, we should figure it out. Also, I would probably increase the volume now while you try to get whatever growth you can still get out of the current cycle. You don't need to SD until you've stalled out on progress.
Ok Totentanz here's my current routine as per your recommendations from our previous chats.
Workout 1
Deadlift 2 sets
Chins 2 sets
Dips 2 sets
Close grip bench press 1 set
Military press 1 set
Calf raise 2 sets
Workout 2
Back squat 2 sets
Romanian deadlift 1 set
Incline BB press 2 sets
Bent row 1 set
Shrugs 2 sets
Military press 1 set
Skullcrushers 1 set
BB curls 1 set
Calf raise 2 sets
This is my third week of fives have been striving to increase my 5RM each workout and have added one to two extra sets for each exercise using my 15RM for metabolic work. For eg 2 x 5 for incline press then 2x15 with incline press. What do you think? Oh and I alternate my workouts m/w/f.
Workout 1
Deadlift 2 sets
Chins 2 sets
Dips 2 sets
Close grip bench press 1 set
Military press 1 set
Calf raise 2 sets
Workout 2
Back squat 2 sets
Romanian deadlift 1 set
Incline BB press 2 sets
Bent row 1 set
Shrugs 2 sets
Military press 1 set
Skullcrushers 1 set
BB curls 1 set
Calf raise 2 sets
This is my third week of fives have been striving to increase my 5RM each workout and have added one to two extra sets for each exercise using my 15RM for metabolic work. For eg 2 x 5 for incline press then 2x15 with incline press. What do you think? Oh and I alternate my workouts m/w/f.
Most of my cycles now average 20-22 total sets. Since that is a lot of volume for HST I split it between 2 days to keep my workouts around 45 minutes. Therefore, I workout 6 days per week but hit each body part 3 times per week. Sometimes I may even do daily splits if I want to keep my workouts to about 20 minutes or so.
If you are gaining 1 kg per week as Totz mentioned, you must be in a caloric surplus of around 1,000 calories per day. That is a lot. When I used to bulk, which I rarely do anymore, I would keep my gains down to about 1 pound per week. Just my $.02 and I am not current on my knowledge of bulking and cutting.
If you are gaining 1 kg per week as Totz mentioned, you must be in a caloric surplus of around 1,000 calories per day. That is a lot. When I used to bulk, which I rarely do anymore, I would keep my gains down to about 1 pound per week. Just my $.02 and I am not current on my knowledge of bulking and cutting.
Like Old n Grey said, you don't need to feel sore after each work out for muscle growth. Typically that would happen with a balls to the wall type work out with lets say 9 to 12 sets off chest in one session. With hst you're breaking up the volume throughout the week but you're still doing 9-12 sets on the chest.
I and probably the majority of people using hst don't often get sore after training either so that's nothing to worry about. If you're gaining too much fat, check your calorie intake.
For me first week is just 7 sets 15 reps,weeks 2 &3 is 14 sets 8 reps per and, weeks 4&5 is 21 sets 6 reps per
Sci
Well-Known Member
Yeah, if I exercise with enough load, volume and frequency , I stay in a state of constant soreness, though fairly mild.