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(Totentanz @ Sep. 04 2007,00:46)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I don't know anyone who has completed a cycle doing 6 sets of 5 reps during the 5s. Seems like that never works, unless you aren't doing deadlifts or squats. Even then, 6x5 top sets sounds pretty hard.</div>
6 Sets across with your top loads for 5s would kill a large gorilla!
That would probably be an equivalent TUT to about 60 reps with your 15RM. Even if you managed it by clustering, your CNS would be so fried that you would have to drop your w/o frequency. The stronger you get, the more the big compounds will drain your CNS.
Some more helpful insights from Bryan:
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">So, with a goal of gaining shear muscle size, HST advocates that you start with the “minimums” and then increase things as you are able. Use the minimum effective load, the minimum effective number of exercises, and the minimum effective volume. The reason we use these minimums is to ensure the maximum effective frequency. The reason we strive for the maximum frequency of loading is to approximate the effects of mechanical overload protocols used in the research that produce incredible rates of muscular hypertrophy.
*having the liberty to train twice per day, and/or everyday opens up the possibility to significantly increase training volume.
As long as a "highly conditioned" person stays within his/her limits of exercise tolerance, doing more generally means better gains. I don't mean more fatigue, I mean more reps with a given load... Sounds like one in the same but it isn't really. To understand, consider the "effort" (A.K.A. CNS activation) it requires to do the 1st as compared to the last rep of your 10 rep max. The tension produced on the tissue doesn't change from the 1st rep to the last. The only thing that changes is the amount of CNS activiation required to contract the muscle under load.
So, more reps doesn't necessarily mean more fatigue IF you can get enough rest inbetween sets. To get more and more rest, simply do 2 workouts spread out by several hours. Hence, the value of training twice per day.
Another advantage is being able to do more volume per bodypart during one session. You can split the body up into 2 halves and train half in the AM and the other half in the PM. This essentially allows you to double the amount of volume per session per bodypart.
My comments about training twice per day, 3 times per week as optimal stem from the ability to increase the volume per bodypart, and still having edequate rest inbetween training sessions (M,W,F).
*I know this doesn't contribute much to the thread, but its important to keep in mind that the relationships between load and volume are not static. For example, given
sufficient load, adding more volume after gains have stopped is a legitamate strategy. Like wise, given
sufficient volume, simply increasing the load is an obvious solution to stagnation.
People are always asking "how many sets?" or "how many reps?" for the fastest gains. The answer is, "it depends". This is not the answer most people want to hear. They want a hard and fast rule that takes out all the thinking and personal management of their own progress. They say, "Give me your rules and I'll try them. If it doesn't work then your method is no good." This is a faulty approach to reaching ones goals when it comes to learning how to train for size. Without an understanding of how their body works, they will never be abel to effectively manage their own training for the most efficient increases in size.
Gauging load and volume is like hitting a moving target. Your body is constantly changing its level of adaptation or conditioning. That is why having a method that allows you to predict what you will need to do each workout over an extended period of time based on our understanding of how the body will adapt to each workout [run on sentence, sorry] is the best method for consistant gains. This assumes the method is based on a sound understanding of physiology.
*If you don’t have enough weight, increasing the volume does not increase hypertrophy, it only increases endurance.
Again, as the weight gets heavier, the ability to achieve sufficient time under tension diminishes. It’s simply too heavy to support long enough.
On the other hand, increasing volume will quickly diminish the amount of weight you can use. Not only that, but as you increase volume or begin to train to failure, you also increase the amount of time it takes the CNS to recover (see Int J Sports Med. 2003 Aug;24(6):410-8). But don't forget that the CNS
does adapt to different levels of volume. This is what traditional “Periodization” is all about. (NOTE: HST does not use “periodization”. HST uses simple “progression”) So even if a high volume workout kicks your butt in the beginning, that doesn't mean that 3 weeks later it still will. Your tolerance for long workouts will increase if you do it reasonably.
There is also injury potential. As the weight gets heavier and heavier, the potential for injury goes up. This is simply because you will begin to approach the physical/mechanical limits of the tissue (see below for further comments on this). This is the reason that most BIG guys using HST methods and AAS don't go any lower than 8-10 reps during their cycles, and they don’t train to failure.
Now that I've rambled on and on, let me finish by saying this. Start out deconditioned. This ensures that your options for increasing the stimulus are wide open as you progress along. Research has led many of us to believe that a single set is sufficient for a deconditioned individual to grow just as much as with 2 sets. This is because the one set initiated the signal to the point of diminishing returns with more than 1 set.
If you do not start out deconditioned, in my experience 1 set isn't usually sufficient UNLESS you train a body part every day. So over the course of 6 days, you do 6 sets. If you can’t hit it every day, you will most likely need 2 sets per workout every other day.
Beware however of training everyday with heavy loads. What happens is there are neural changes that happen immediately after a workout (see Eur J Appl Physiol. 2003 Apr;89(2):115-21). This is part of the RBE. What this does is prevents as much neural activation during the following bout, thereby reducing the potential for injury. However, what it also does is places more load on the mechanical (i.e. passive) structures of the tissue rather than the contractile structures. In essence it greatly reduces the elastic activity during loading and places more load on fewer fibers and more load on the tendons and other connective tissue. This is how injury happens with frequent heavy loads. Unfortunately, it can also lead to significant gains.
When you get into the 10s I have almost always seen 2 “work sets” following a sufficient warmup, to be sufficient. Remember that during the 15s, 2 sets of 15 is 30 reps and it is usually strength-endurance that gives out. During the 10s the weight has increased sufficiently that although you might get another set, 2 sets will have worked the muscle just enough to grow.
During the 5s experienced lifters will then need to reduce the number of exercise and increase the number of sets to 3 (or 4). Yes, the loads used during the 5s should normally be heavy enough to stimulate growth, even with 1 or 2 sets. However, we have just progressed over the last 6-8 weeks up to this point. Our level of resistance to the load has increased to the point where two sets (10 reps) isn’t sufficient.
Bear in mind that the manner in which you perform each rep will have an impact on the effectiveness of the set. Emphasize the negative and use speed (NOT momentum) for the concentric portion.</div>
