What am I doing wrong?

C

CTeen

New Member
Howdy everyone,

I've been doing HST for about 9 months now and I'm loving it. I gained about 30lbs in that time and I was very pleased. However, as one gains weight its rarely 100% muscle and as such I wanted to diet down some.

My starting stats: 20 years old, 194lbs, 6', 14.75 biceps, 37.5 inch waist, 16 inch calves, 26 inch thighs

My current stats: 20 years old, 186lbs, 6' (haven't grown any!), 36 inches or so (a little lower) on the waist, 14.25 biceps (this is my biggest concern), 16 inch calves and 25 inch thighs.

I measured the above stats as it gave me a half-decent meaure of my progress and were the easiest and most accurate values I could obtain.

My plan: repeat the last day of my 10s 3 X a week and do cardio 3 X a week while also restricting energy intake. I've been losing about a pound and a half a to 2 pounds a week (which was my goal). First question: is this too fast? Second question: should I be training differently?

My protein intake is still pretty high (I aim for at least 1.5g/kg body weight). I'm aiming for about 2700kcal/day. I take a whey protein supplement and plain ol' creatine.

I definitely look slimmer, my pants are looser and I think my arms might be a bit firmer, but isn't half of an inch loss quite dramatic over the period of a month? My legs are holding, so I'm hoping I'm not losing LBM and I just happened to have fat arms :p Doubtful, huh? I really don't want to be wasting my time and losing my gains.

Is this normal? Should I change anything? Am I worried for nothing? Thanks for the advice, feel free to put me in my place.
 
It also could be glycoen stores and water that causes your measurements to be different. That is why I average out my measurements every week. I take it you have no bf% readings. If you lose too much weight (over 1.5 lbs a week), then you will be sacrificing muscle. I aim for .5 lbs of fat a week to lose, by eating 300-500 calories under my maintenance levels.

What does your WO look like? Possibly, just stick to compounds only and throw the iso's out of your routine. Your arms may be getting overworked while not getting the ample nutrition.

-Colby
 
For my 10s I do:

2 X Leg press
2 X Deadlifts
2 X Calf-Press
1 X Calf-raises

2 X Chest dips
2 X Incline Dumbbell Press
1 X Chest cable Cross

2 X Bicep curls
2 X incline Bicep Curls

2 X Triceps Rope
2 X Triceps Pushdown

2 X Lat Pulldown
2 X Dumbbell Rows

2 X Shrugs
2 X Lateral raises
1 X Dumbbell Shoulder Press

it takes me about an hour, start to finish.

If I only do compound exercises, wouldn't that imply only having a 15 minute workout?

Take care,

-Jon
 
Lower the # of exercises/volume... Try something like this:

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">
Leg press
Deadlifts
Calf-raises
Chest dips
Incline Dumbbell Press
Lat Pulldown
Dumbbell Rows
Shrugs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
</div>

The # of sets shouldn't be set in stone... do as much as you can for a given muscle group. Excluding the shrugs and calf raises, those are all compound exercises.

-Colby
 
Colby how many sets are you you using now a days?

I know you have been doing HST for a while like myself.

I am up to 12 total sets a week for some muscle groups...on 3 day a week routines.
 
Should I lower it permanently, or only while 'cutting' ?

No biceps/triceps exercise?

Thanks for the replies, just trying to get everything right. Its been a whirlwind of a week, and if theres one thing I like being in control of its my body.

Take care,

-Jon
 
Whether bulking or cutting, you don't need a ton of exercises. Really, in my mind, isolations are good for either metabolic work or for when you are already huge, but need to balance out body parts. They can also work for people who lift in competition and need to build strength in strange areas.

With HST, I firmly believe you should stick mainly to compounds for your main movements, adding in maybe two isolation movements at most when you need to focus on lagging areas. You can also use isolations in the 5s and post-5s as I already alluded for metabolic work, since some compounds are difficult to attain a burn.

The modifications Colby suggested to the routine are good. I find my most success using something simple. My HST routines usually look like this: squats, deadlifts, BB bentover rows, weighted chins, weighted dips and military press. Usually 2 sets for each if I'm doing sets.
You don't really need a biceps or triceps movement. In my routine, dips and chins hit both very hard, while deadlifts, rows and military press also hit the arms pretty well... I stick to using curls and skullcrushers strictly for metabolic work. That's just my routine though, and what I would do.
If you pick the right compounds, isolations aren't really needed for your working sets. So you may want to keep that in mind when selecting your lifts. You could add in an actual working set for each (yes, I'm advocating only a single set for each) if you really feel the need, but if you are doing the right compounds and using those isolations for metabolic work, your arms should be growing nicely (along with the rest of your body...)

For cutting, you should be able to use the same routine you use while bulking. I would trim back the volume a bit. As long as you are able to maintain strength, you can keep dropping the volume. While cutting, it can be difficult to do high volume... you don't have to drop volume, only do so if you are really having a hard time. You don't want to burn out, since that can lead to all sorts of nasty things...
 
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