Official HST training program

[HST_Rihad]

I think the problem was that you were DLing 3 times a week. DLing is very taxing on the CNS. I know Starting Strength, which is a protocol for beginners, only has you deadlift every other session, whereas you squat every session (3 times a week). And you only do 1 set with DL, regardless of the fact that you work less frequently with it.

Plus, if you're continuously working with your maxes, no wonder you burned out.

In terms of rear delt stuff, are you doing any pulling exercises? I see RDL, but that's it. Any direct work for your back, like pullups/chinups/rows, etc? If you kicked rear delt flies and replaced them with rows, you'd still get the benefit of having your rear delts activated, but also get the benefit of working your entire upper back.

For now I'm doing the sample HST program as is, unchanged. It's been a breath of fresh air so far.
http://www.hypertrophy-specific.info/hst_notes.html

Coincidentally I've lowered my calories, aiming at more protein this cycle. This fact shouldn't affect the strength by too much. We'll see.


As for the frequency, good or bad, that's what HST prescribes. Although the HST FAQ certainly does NOT recommend doing 5-ish Squats and DL 3 times a week, let alone do them together.

Guys, is HST still the way to bulk? There's been some research and trend recently to train a muscle 2 times a week, for the sake of doing more in-session volume. It's been determined that training a muscle at high loads 2 times a week is no worse than 3 times in terms of resulting growth. You might want to google for a paper by Wernbom et al, 2007, "The Influence of Frequency, Intensity, Volume and Mode of Strength Training on Whole Muscle Cross-Sectional Area in Humans".

[grunt11]

That makes sense. I've seen some Powerlifting routines that use a **** ton of volume, especially on the bench, so there's a ton of pushing to be done.

The feck is a face pull?

Here’s what a Face Pull looks like:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercise...name/face-pull

Done lower it’s called a Rear Delt Row. Another popular way to do it is with bands.