4th Cookie Cutter Cycle

Robthebod

Robthebod

New Member
Hey everyone! I’m on my fourth cookie cutter vanilla HST cycle and finally got confirmation and can post on the forums. I am a 55 year old male, very active, and love HST training principals! I have trained off and on since I was 14 years old, beginning with a mail order system called Universal Bodybuilding. This is my only hobby and I find that as I am getting older I am becoming more committed to bodybuilding. Weird huh? Oh well, I look forward to conversing with all of the like-minded fitness enthusiasts on this forum!
 
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Welcome aboard Rob. In actuality, the older you get, the more you need strength training to keep the joints and bones moving painlessly. Keep on truckin'.
 
Thanks O&G! Been reading your sage advice for some time now without being able to contribute. Now that I finally have confirmation I am excited to be able to discuss Bryan’s training principals with y’all!
 
Welcome Rob! Glad to have you on the board. You've obviously got a lot of experience that we hope you will share.
 
Hi Guys

Also just come on line after reading posts for ages.

I’m 45, from Australia and been lifting for about 5 years with very little success. I’ve been doing HST for 2 years without achieving my goals but thinking that was my fault.

I started my 4th cycle last night with some serious changes including reduced volume, training full body 3 times a week instead of split upper/lower 3 times over 6 day period and zero alcohol!

I’ll be really interested in the results as I am going entirely by the book this time, hoping I get somewhere because I’ve been really disappointed having put in so much effort over the years.

FYI, my stats are as follows;

180cm (5’11)
73 kg (160lb)
12% bf
Small frame - 18cm (7”) wrist and 25cm (10”) ankle.
Hard gainer (but sure everyone says that)

Not looking to get huge, just a good 80 or so kg for my height.

I’ll keep you up to date and fire off any questions as they come to mind.

Luke
 
Luke matthews said:
Hi Guys

Also just come on line after reading posts for ages.

I’m 45, from Australia and been lifting for about 5 years with very little success. I’ve been doing HST for 2 years without achieving my goals but thinking that was my fault.

I started my 4th cycle last night with some serious changes including reduced volume, training full body 3 times a week instead of split upper/lower 3 times over 6 day period and zero alcohol!

I’ll be really interested in the results as I am going entirely by the book this time, hoping I get somewhere because I’ve been really disappointed having put in so much effort over the years.

FYI, my stats are as follows;

180cm (5’11)
73 kg (160lb)
12% bf
Small frame - 18cm (7”) wrist and 25cm (10”) ankle.
Hard gainer (but sure everyone says that)

Not looking to get huge, just a good 80 or so kg for my height.

I’ll keep you up to date and fire off any questions as they come to mind.

Luke
Click to expand...
Welcome on board Luke
 
At your current weight, I would shoot for a minimum of 175 grams of protein per day. Then, in order of quality, good fats to help raise testosterone levels, complex carbs, and as few simple carbs and bad fats as possible. In the USA, we have drinks called "protein water" that contain solely whey protein isolate (15 grams) and no sugar or fats. They do have an artificial sweetener (sucralose) so they taste pretty good and are not as filling as some of those protein shakes filled with carbs. I use a brand called PROTEIN2O. 60 Calories per 500 ml bottle.
 
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Luke matthews said:
Hi Guys

Also just come on line after reading posts for ages.

I’m 45, from Australia and been lifting for about 5 years with very little success. I’ve been doing HST for 2 years without achieving my goals but thinking that was my fault.

I started my 4th cycle last night with some serious changes including reduced volume, training full body 3 times a week instead of split upper/lower 3 times over 6 day period and zero alcohol!

I’ll be really interested in the results as I am going entirely by the book this time, hoping I get somewhere because I’ve been really disappointed having put in so much effort over the years.

FYI, my stats are as follows;

180cm (5’11)
73 kg (160lb)
12% bf
Small frame - 18cm (7”) wrist and 25cm (10”) ankle.
Hard gainer (but sure everyone says that)

Not looking to get huge, just a good 80 or so kg for my height.

I’ll keep you up to date and fire off any questions as they come to mind.

Luke
Click to expand...
Welcome mate, good to see another Aussie on board :). Yeah what these guys said. I have similar stats to you too currently actually, a couple of centremetres shorter though, but I've definitely seen the results of HST. I remember my first year or two (or even three *shakes head in embarrassment*...) of training I ate as little as possible as I was scared of gaining fat haha and was too worries about being 'healthy'... I got down to 57kg and I was thinking "why aren't I gaining weight...?" XD

As soon as I started eating properly (and taking it as important as training things really shot up.
 
I set my diet plan as follows;

73kg x 24 hrs bmr
1.4 x activity level
600 calorie surplus for total 3000 calories

160g protein from powder, dairy and lean meats

85g good fats from oily fish, olive/canola oils etc

380g carbs, mostly complex

Zero alcohol.

Will raise the protein and drop carbs slightly.

As far as I know, this is textbook so will be interesting to see the results.

I track calories and macros closely through food app so shouldn’t be a problem.
 
Luke matthews said:
I set my diet plan as follows;

73kg x 24 hrs bmr
1.4 x activity level
600 calorie surplus for total 3000 calories

160g protein from powder, dairy and lean meats

85g good fats from oily fish, olive/canola oils etc

380g carbs, mostly complex

Zero alcohol.

Will raise the protein and drop carbs slightly.

As far as I know, this is textbook so will be interesting to see the results.

I track calories and macros closely through food app so shouldn’t be a problem.
Click to expand...

Personally I prefer to bulk at a lower surplus of 100-200 kcals to minimise (as best I can) fat gain, middle age is a f***er.
 
At 500 cal surplus a day I’m looking at only 750g gain per week. Probably only gain around 4 kg on a cycle of which some will be fat. Any less than this and I don’t think I will gain anything.

On previous cycles I have actually lost weight due to insufficient calories. Plus, I tend to lose fat pretty quickly and easily even though it goes on easily. I’m going to stick with this plan and see what happens.
 
I’m just going to throw this out there. In my three previous cycles I have continued the fives another 2weeks by increasing the load by 5lbs each session as if I were still in the regular cycle. In other words, I have done 2 weeks of 15 reps, 2 weeks of 10 reps, and 4 weeks of 5 reps. So far, except for a couple of exercises in a couple of sessions in the 10s I have been able to compete the prescribed reps (adding 5lbs per session) without resorting to cluster sets.
I don’t know how long I can keep this up, as sooner or later I will reach the inevitable peak or wall of progression and most certainly stall.
With my mentality, clusters are a sign of failure. I suspect that’s not true after reading on the forums about the benefits of clusters, but old habits, and ways of thinking die hard.
Negatives are not much of an option when you train alone as I do with the movements that I do.
Just thought I would see if anyone else has been practicing this.
 
Robthebod said:
I’m just going to throw this out there. In my three previous cycles I have continued the fives another 2weeks by increasing the load by 5lbs each session as if I were still in the regular cycle. In other words, I have done 2 weeks of 15 reps, 2 weeks of 10 reps, and 4 weeks of 5 reps. So far, except for a couple of exercises in a couple of sessions in the 10s I have been able to compete the prescribed reps (adding 5lbs per session) without resorting to cluster sets.
I don’t know how long I can keep this up, as sooner or later I will reach the inevitable peak or wall of progression and most certainly stall.
With my mentality, clusters are a sign of failure. I suspect that’s not true after reading on the forums about the benefits of clusters, but old habits, and ways of thinking die hard.
Negatives are not much of an option when you train alone as I do with the movements that I do.
Just thought I would see if anyone else has been practicing this.
Click to expand...

Yeah I generally progress as much as possible too, but yeah to me clustering is a way of AVOIDING failure ;). It's not about maxing out in each set, but listening to your body and doing what you're physically capable of that day (as your capacity can definitely change from day to day). So if we're talking RPE, you'd aim for RPE of about 8/10. Maaaybe 9/10 at most. And it allows you to get more reps with a weight too as you're listening to current fatigue and avoiding reaching that blowout point. If you just have it stuck in your focus that you've gotta reach 5 no matter what, lots of strange things can happen to get to that 5 hehe, and not safe things! The body under that intense pressure is very clever and will do whatever it takes to get it up there, oftentimes out of your conscious awareness!

Clusters still allow for weight progression which is more important at this phase of the cycle rather than hitting certain reps in a particular set. I know what you mean with the mentality, and for sure it's good to train that 'push yourself' aspect or strength, but you can always at the end of a cycle just go and test your 5RM and see how it's sitting then.

But something I've been experimenting with is pushing for 5 reps ONLY on the first set, then the rest are cluster. That first set gives a good reference point for where you're sitting strengthwise with that weight, then you can consider the rest as just a way of getting sufficient mechanical tension with that weight
 
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