How Should I Incorporate 3s And Singles ?

[benben2356]

I'm approaching the 2nd week of 5s in my HST cycle and would like to incorporate 3s and singles after the 5s phase ...

When I finish the second week of 5s I plan to extend it for an extra week or so in an attempt to break new 5 rep maxes if I can ...

But once I am unable to hit 5 reps I would like to switch to 3s for a couple of weeks and then eventually singles.

I just wondered what the best way to program these would be ?

I've seen Totentanz post about it a couple of times and from what I gather it seems you are supposed to start the 3s with your 5 rep max or somewhere slightly lighter and then gradually increase the weight each workout for 2 weeks until you are using your true 3 rep max ....

But I don't know how to go about the singles ? Would you program them the same way and aim to hit a rep goal with some high rep metabolic sets to finish ?

Just wondered if someone could elaborate on this for me and give me some advice ...

My training log is in the training log section and I update it every workout if you fancy checking out what I've been doing so far

 

[Lol]

Once you get to post-5s, you can choose from several different approaches.
Eg. You could continue to make progress using your 5RM loads for a couple of weeks without incrementing at all. Just do triples (or sets of 4, or doubles) for enough sets to meet your rep target. Add in a bit more volume the second week if you are feeling good.
Or you could do triples with your 5RM load the first week and then increment the load a bit for the second week of triples.
Or you could increment a few times and cluster reps up to your desired total. (You might do a triple, then several doubles and finish up with a few singles to get to your rep count.)
Whatever approach you decide to take, be careful to maintain good form. There is no sense at all in incrementing a load to the point where your form gets sloppy and you get injured.

 

[benben2356]

Once you get to post-5s, you can choose from several different approaches.
Eg. You could continue to make progress using your 5RM loads for a couple of weeks without incrementing at all. Just do triples (or sets of 4, or doubles) for enough sets to meet your rep target. Add in a bit more volume the second week if you are feeling good.
Or you could do triples with your 5RM load the first week and then increment the load a bit for the second week of triples.
Or you could increment a few times and cluster reps up to your desired total. (You might do a triple, then several doubles and finish up with a few singles to get to your rep count.)
Whatever approach you decide to take, be careful to maintain good form. There is no sense at all in incrementing a load to the point where your form gets sloppy and you get injured.

Excellent post @Lol

Thanks for clearing that up for me ..

Looks like I have several tempting options

I like the idea of using my 5RM and aiming for a total rep volume goal with triples

But also I would like to keep incrementing as much as possible beyond my 5RM.

Obviously form is something I take very seriously nowadays so I won't be incrementing to the point of sloppy form....

I've been reading this post over and over trying to decide what variation to choose ...

My goal is both hypertrophy and strength but I do find I enjoy training for strength slightly more ....

So whatever option I go for it will most likely be the one that offers the most strength benefits.

 

[adpowah]

You can also cut your high intensity volume and back fill it will some higher rep work. Back when I was just training deadlifts I would pull 4-5 heavy singles and then do a 2-3x15 at something at maybe 40-50%. Lots of blood flow for recovery and practice, and I could work on variations that helped my strength. I found this fairly sustainable for I think the 2-3 months I did this.

 

[benben2356]

You can also cut your high intensity volume and back fill it will some higher rep work. Back when I was just training deadlifts I would pull 4-5 heavy singles and then do a 2-3x15 at something at maybe 40-50%. Lots of blood flow for recovery and practice, and I could work on variations that helped my strength. I found this fairly sustainable for I think the 2-3 months I did this.

That sounds ideal and pretty good fun ... I think I will use this approach for the very end of the cycle after my 5s , and 3s just to extend it as far as I can