End of Cycle Question?

M

MichaelKies

New Member
Im a new member to the HST site and HST training in general. Ive been lifting for over 20 years, but will be starting my first HST cycle this monday (currently SD'ing).

Here's my question: What to do after the 5's? The site recommends doing negatives which is not very easy when not working with a partner. Another option it says is to keep working the 5's---for how long??? After the 5's should I immediately start another cycle with slightly higher RM's? Or should I SD again and THEN start another cycle with the higher RM's???

Thanks for any input!!!
~M
 
Continue on with your 5RM, possibly getting new personal records (PR) of strength. You could soak that for about a week. After this, the options are unlimited, but I like the idea of doing sets of 3's followed by a week of pushing your 1RM. That's four good weeks of lifting after your 5RM has been achieved in the normal HST mesocycle.
 
Ok, so 1 more week of 5's, 2 weeks of a 3rep meso, and 1 week of 1's. THEN?
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? Time for an SD? Or immediately start back with 15's at a higher RM??
 
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(MichaelKies @ May 02 2008,3:26)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Ok, so 1 more week of 5's, 2 weeks of a 3rep meso, and 1 week of 1's. THEN?
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? Time for an SD? Or immediately start back with 15's at a higher RM??</div>
Whether or not it is time to SD is determined by your goals. If you are cutting, then in most cases I would suggest skipping the SD. If you are bulking, then by all means take an SD albeit longer since your cycle is longer.

I will still take an SD between cuts from time to time to give my body a break and avoid RBE, but that choice is yours.
 
Ok, so it is completely fine to immediately go back into another cycle, starting with the 15's, without SDing (as long as my body can handle it at that point, and as long as Im not really trying to bulk)?

(Really appreciate the help/advice!)
 
Thought of another question....Is it wise to change the excercises from one full cycle to the next? I.e., switching from Squats to Deads, DB curls to BB curls, etc? Or is this just a matter of preference?
 
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(colby2152 @ May 02 2008,3:21)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Continue on with your 5RM, possibly getting new personal records (PR) of strength.  You could soak that for about a week.  After this, the options are unlimited, but I like the idea of doing sets of 3's followed by a week of pushing your 1RM.   That's four good weeks of lifting after your 5RM has been achieved in the normal HST mesocycle.</div>
And if you've still got any juice left, you can try Dan's Max-Stim method. There's nothing like lifting your 5RM 20 times to get your heart pumping!
 
Just remember SD is quite important, not only it allows your body to recover a bit from the strenuous end of cycle stress but it improves the muscles responsiveness to hypertrophy in the next cycle by deconditioning them a little.
 
As for continuing the 5's...go until the fat lady sings: which is when you stop making headway. Max-Stim is still a viable concept at this time though, since it's fatigue management in a class of it's own. Some guys have run 5's for 7 or more weeks out; it depends on your conditioning and recovery abilities.
Since you're not new to lifting I'd expect new maxes for you but not like a newbie. After the cycle, and SD, I usually add ten lbs to everything at the beginning of the prior log and go again, but I'll make new maxes whenever I can. No sense staying on a rigid course; the goal is size, and that's of course strength-related. I'm just saying that on the max days you'd want to work hard, but along the way, if something is just too easy (midcourse), you can bump it a bit as long as you aren't slamming your CNS. It takes a cycle or two to get adjusted and know where you stand.
IF you should advance too quickly, you'll know it soon enough, and have to repeat some w.o. weights until you can advance again.
First cycle is probably best done by the book (vanilla, we calls it).
 
Thanks Quad. I definitely put alot of credence into what you and Colby have to say, as Ive read quite of few of both of your threads.
So along the lines of what you were talking about when doing the 5's until the &quot;fat lady sings&quot;----if Im already on my 2nd week of 5's and Im on the friday which would be my RM, how would I go about doing and extra week or two? Would I drop down and just add another 5lbs to the previous weeks routine...or....???
And Im definitely going Vanilla on this first go around...(although I do think Ive got too many excercises in my workout, which I know is a common HST newbie mistake)
 
Just finished my 1st week of the 15's.....LOVE what Im feeling so far! 15's were definitely tougher than I thought they would be, but in a good way! Next week Im sure will be a B*TCH!! lol
 
I am bro, I am! I honestly cant WAIT until my next workouts! I used to be on a 4 day on (2 body parts each day), 1 day off routine (probably overtraining a bit), and in this first week, I have been AMPED to get in and kick my own butt!! Not sure if this is mental or not, but I have voraciously EATING this week also!
Yeah, I definitely got the weights correct (with some tweaking here and there).
 
Sorry to jumb on your thread michael, but i've got a question similar to your opening post.

I finish my 2nd week of 5's then a week later I go on holidya for a week, so wont be able to train so going to use it as my SD before starting cycle again. My question is what would people recomend I do during the week b4 my holiday. Do I
1) Find my new rep max's as I know my strength has increased this cycle.
2) Do some negs, then find RM's 1st week back
3) Keep at the 5's then find RM's 1st week back???
 
I would continue the 5's, do the holiday and consider it as a deload, return to the 5's a little lighter and progress until hitting the wall. You'll know your maxes then, from where you hit the wall. It's only a week.
 
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(cookieftm @ May 15 2008,11:23)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Sorry to jumb on your thread michael, but i've got a question similar to your opening post.  

I finish my 2nd week of 5's then a week later I go on holidya for a week, so wont be able to train so going to use it as my SD before starting cycle again.  My question is what would people recomend I do during the week b4 my holiday.  Do I
1) Find my new rep max's as I  know my strength has increased this cycle.
2) Do some negs, then find RM's 1st week back
3) Keep at the 5's then find RM's 1st week back???</div>
you dont need to retest your maxes,unless your going to use another exercise,just add another 5 or 10 lbs on each of your previous maxes,depending how easy they were.
imo when you get to your max day on 15s,10s,5s, if i find the weight to light i increase it and use that on the next cycle.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">So along the lines of what you were talking about when doing the 5's until the &quot;fat lady sings&quot;----if Im already on my 2nd week of 5's and Im on the friday which would be my RM, how would I go about doing and extra week or two? Would I drop down and just add another 5lbs to the previous weeks </div>
use the same weight you used on the friday,if you can increase it then do it for another wk or two,rbe takes longer to catch up on the heavy weights,then as said above you can try 3s or max-stim,another alternative if you want to make the cycle longer is,instead of doing 3x5 do 4x5 for a wk then 5x5 for another wk same weight but more TUT.
 
Guys, Brian recommends doing 2 sets of the 15's (which Ive been doing), but on the last friday, if Im at my Rep Max, should I only do 1 set, or try to push thru and get as many reps as I can on the second sets? (Theoretically if Im at my MAX I should be stuggling to get to 15 on the 1st set, so is it over kill to do two sets???)
 
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(MichaelKies @ May 15 2008,7:11)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Guys, Brian recommends doing 2 sets of the 15's (which Ive been doing), but on the last friday, if Im at my Rep Max, should I only do 1 set, or try to push thru and get as many reps as I can on the second sets? (Theoretically if Im at my MAX I should be stuggling to get to 15 on the 1st set, so is it over kill to do two sets???)</div>
no its ok remember your going to sd so plenty of time to grow after
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