Is HST appropriate for me as a tennis player & swimmer?

[pepperr]

16 exercises is definitely a lot. Why do you feel the need to target different heads of the triceps? I would focus on building some strength and size in those areas first and only if you find that you are getting an imbalance, then you may have to correct but odds are they won't grow imbalanced unless you have screwy genetics or bad form on your lifts.

I feel this way about the pecs and delts(my bad - my tricep move engages the long and short heads) because I read up on negative consequences from other BB's on bodybuilding.com and the like from doing too many flat benches and ruining shoulders, or having poor posture due to overly developed anterior deltoids, etc.

It may be because they DO have bad form, but I also want to equally develop the different heads by using exercises based which portion they engage the most. Would it be enough for deltoids to just use Posterior raises and Shoulder presses?

How many reps am I doing for each exercise up until the 6th day(which I've read is maxes)?
What if the weights available at the gym don't allow for certain increments?

Say I'm doing delt work and I can only use DB's under 20lbs. How would I use weights for this in increments if my gym only moves up in 5's?

Actually, I compared my routine with the sample one on the homepage and I end up doing an equal amount of sets(20/day) I'm going to use the full body method and I anticipate it'll take me about an hour and twenty each day in the gym. 15 for warm up(low rep pyramid style @ 2sets each), 30 total for routine, and 35 minutes waiting time in between sets.

 

[pepperr]

Bump please.

 

[Lateralus]

I feel this way about the pecs and delts(my bad - my tricep move engages the long and short heads) because I read up on negative consequences from other BB's on bodybuilding.com and the like from doing too many flat benches and ruining shoulders, or having poor posture due to overly developed anterior deltoids, etc.

It may be because they DO have bad form, but I also want to equally develop the different heads by using exercises based which portion they engage the most. Would it be enough for deltoids to just use Posterior raises and Shoulder presses?

One heavy over-head pressing movement is enough for shoulders. One heavy triceps excersize ie. Dips or Close-Grip Bench Press is enough for Triceps. As Totentatz said, there is no need to isolate each head of every muscle.

How many reps am I doing for each exercise up until the 6th day(which I've read is maxes)?

You do whatever reps you planned out for any given rep range, the entire rep range.
Day 6 will not necessarily be maxes. It will be your tested RM for that range.

What if the weights available at the gym don't allow for certain increments?

You'll have to round your calculated weight to the nearest available. If that leaves you with 2 identical sessions, that is fine.

Say I'm doing delt work and I can only use DB's under 20lbs. How would I use weights for this in increments if my gym only moves up in 5's?

If you are unable to get enough weight on any given exercise, you should replace it.

 

[pepperr]

I'm going to try this out and see how long it takes me:
______________________________
Barbell Squat Machine x2
Stiff Legged Deadlifts x1

Incline Bench Press x1
Standard Grip Dip x1
Wide Grip Dip x1

Pull Up x2
Bent Over Rows x2

Shoulder Press(Anterior) x2
Rear Delt Raise(posterior x1

Bicep Curl x1
Hammer Curl x1(for tennis)

Overhead Tri Ext. x2

Calf Raise x2

Hanging Leg Raise x2
__________________________________
I've only subtracted 2 exercises.

Can you explain how to find out what weights I SHOULD be doing up until the 6th day reserved for RM? Let's say my 15RM for bench is 100. How many reps should I do day 1-5? in what increments? Still confused on how to set it up.

 

[Lateralus]

Let's say you choose 5% increments for progression and 2 sets.
You'll be extracting 5% of RM for each session, counting backwards. Your rep count will remain the same. Your 15 rep cykle for bench would then look like this:

Session 1: 15x2 @75 kg
Session 2: 15x2 @80 kg
Session 3: 15x2 @85 kg
Session 4: 15x2 @90 kg
Session 5: 15x2 @95 kg
Session 6: 15x2 @100 kg

 

[pepperr]

Many Thanks Lateralus. I've figured out all my RM's. I have a issue: when I do my 5RM's, I feel that I don't have very good form for things that involve free weights(biceps, triceps, shoulders, DB rows, etc.). Now, I don't swing my weights when doing when doing curls or tricep ext's, but my elbows aren't remaining stationary - it's extremely difficult to do so. I want to prevent muscle imbalances due to poor form. What do you suggest?

Speaking of imbalances, I have a massive imbalance my back; my right lat is massive compared to my left one. I am indeed right handed and my shoulder is larger and stronger on the right side due to tennis. I guess this is why my right Lat is also larger. Do you have any suggestions? I found One-arm eccentric pullups on TNation and plan to incorporate 2 sets each day I train.

In addition, is it possible to gain noticeable size while eating at maintenance? I haven't counted macros or calories for 2 years and am not willing to again. To be honest, I'm afraid t gain fat and go above 8% BF.

 

[pepperr]

Bump please.

 

[grunt11]

Now, I don't swing my weights when doing when doing curls or tricep ext's, but my elbows aren't remaining stationary - it's extremely difficult to do so. I want to prevent muscle imbalances due to poor form. What do you suggest?

It doesn’t sound like you really have anything to worry about if you’re not as you say swinging the weight. Unless you use something like an “Arm Blaster,” do Preacher Curls or Concentration Curls your elbows are going to move some. That’s part of the reason you can do more weight with regular BB Curls than something like Preacher Curls, because other muscles play a larger role since your arm isn’t completely isolated. If your form really breaking down, injury is going to be the more likely result than muscle imbalance.

Speaking of imbalances, I have a massive imbalance my back; my right lat is massive compared to my left one. I am indeed right handed and my shoulder is larger and stronger on the right side due to tennis. I guess this is why my right Lat is also larger. Do you have any suggestions? I found One-arm eccentric pullups on TNation and plan to incorporate 2 sets each day I train.

I had a huge muscle size imbalance from a broken leg that was in a cast for 8 months. I only did specific exercises targeting that leg for about a month before just going back to normal workouts and running. I think the best way to balance things out is just going to be to keep adding weight to your Lat exercises and the imbalance will take care of itself.

In addition, is it possible to gain noticeable size while eating at maintenance? I haven't counted macros or calories for 2 years and am not willing to again. To be honest, I'm afraid t gain fat and go above 8% BF.

You should not gain any size at all eating maintenance. You could recomposition your body eating maintenance but at 8% BF I don’t really see that happening. BTW if you’re not counting calories then how do you know if you are eating maintenance, and not above or below? The reality is that if you are afraid to gain fat then you will not grow very quickly if at all. You could try to put on muscle slowly w/o much fat but it’s going to take a long time and therefore a hell of a lot more work since unless you are already near your genetic muscular potential skimping on calories will simply stunt your growth potential. Nothing says you can’t bulk and cut more frequently so your BF never gets very high but unless you are eating over maintenance you simply can’t get bigger.

 

[pepperr]

It doesn’t sound like you really have anything to worry about if you’re not as you say swinging the weight. Unless you use something like an “Arm Blaster,” do Preacher Curls or Concentration Curls your elbows are going to move some. That’s part of the reason you can do more weight with regular BB Curls than something like Preacher Curls, because other muscles play a larger role since your arm isn’t completely isolated.

Sorry, I'm a tad confused: should I perform curls using a bar or DB for isolation?

You should not gain any size at all eating maintenance. You could recomposition your body eating maintenance but at 8% BF I don’t really see that happening. BTW if you’re not counting calories then how do you know if you are eating maintenance, and not above or below?

I know because I've been eating at maintenance for the past 3 months(for my activity level) due to the fact that I haven't been gaining weight. While my exercise will increase slightly, I increase my intake a bit by drinking 1 more glass of milk each day.

 

[grunt11]

Sorry, I'm a tad confused: should I perform curls using a bar or DB for isolation?

BB or DB doesn’t matter as far as isolation. If you are trying to really isolate your biceps then you need to perform exercises that prevent all other movement except the flexing of your arm. However, these are not necessarily the best exercises to make your biceps grow. Regular BB curls (even if your arms move some) will let you use more weight which in turn will stimulate more growth. The same goes for heavy compound exercises like Close Grip (regular or parallel) Chin Ups.

I know because I've been eating at maintenance for the past 3 months(for my activity level) due to the fact that I haven't been gaining weight. While my exercise will increase slightly, I increase my intake a bit by drinking 1 more glass of milk each day.

You just answered your question about gaining noticeable size while eating maintenance. Since you haven’t gained any weight you haven’t gotten any bigger. The only way someone eating maintenance is going to gain significant muscle is through body recomposition. This is only going to happen if they have a lot of extra body fat to burn as fuel. Thus they lose fat and gain muscle. However, at 8% body fat you don’t have enough body fat to burn in order to fuel significant muscle growth. You will simply have to eat more than maintenance to grow significantly.

 

[pepperr]

I want to follow Lyle's recommendation in eating 200-300 calories more each day. Do you think I'll see significant results at the end of the 8 weeks? I've just started SD.

Also, if my arms are small relative to my torso, do you recommend doing 3 sets? I saw the sample routine and it only had 2, while chest had 3 and back have 4. I'm following it but want my arms to grow faster.

Please take a look at my routine. I opted for the barbell when doing SL deads because Dbells were difficult to manage in terms of numbers. How does it look? I only had time to enter my 15's for now.

Some reason the file gets compressed and really decreases the size and quality.

 

[grunt11]

I want to follow Lyle's recommendation in eating 200-300 calories more each day. Do you think I'll see significant results at the end of the 8 weeks? I've just started SD.

200-300 calories is sufficient however it’s also likely cutting it close so if you don’t make sure you are really eating at least that much extra you could hamper your growth especially when you are first starting out and making your easiest gains.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html

going by Lyle’s estimates (some estimate more but not much) that if you are a novice natural lifter you could gain about 2 lbs. of muscle per month which in 2 months gives you 4 lbs. I imagine 4 lbs. of muscle on someone with low body fat will be noticeable however probably not significantly so.

Also, if my arms are small relative to my torso, do you recommend doing 3 sets? I saw the sample routine and it only had 2, while chest had 3 and back have 4. I'm following it but want my arms to grow faster.

Not if you are just starting out. The exercises that will make you the biggest the fastest are the heavy compound ones. You can certainly double up compounds for your upper body like Flat Bench + Incline Bench for chest (+triceps), Chin Ups and Rows for back (+biceps). For Arms I would stick with something like Triceps Dips (triceps) and BB Curls (biceps) but that might not even be necessary since your arms might respond well to just doing heavy chest and back compounds.

Please take a look at my routine. I opted for the barbell when doing SL deads because Dbells were difficult to manage in terms of numbers. How does it look? I only had time to enter my 15's for now.

That looks like a lot of exercises to be doing in one session if just starting out. The first thing is that if you do that much in your workout 200-300 calories over maintenance isn’t going to let you grow much since you’ll be burning most of that up just to fuel your workout leaving little left to grow with.

If you haven’t already read through this thread:

http://thinkmuscle.com/forum/showthread.php?16246-Simplify-and-Win!

I would simplify that routine down to something like 8 compound exercises and stick with that at least for one cycle if not more. By then you will start to see if some body parts are responding better than others and figure out a strategy to bring along the lagging body parts.

 

[pepperr]

Okay, I've reduced it to 10 exercises. I'm still a tad confused: If the weight during session 1,2, and 3 are too light, how many reps do I do? What if I do not feel any significant burn?

How many sets should I do for compound exercises? I don't fully understand the progressive method so I want to stick with the fixed sets.

 

[grunt11]

Okay, I've reduced it to 10 exercises. I'm still a tad confused: If the weight during session 1,2, and 3 are too light, how many reps do I do? What if I do not feel any significant burn

This addresses “sub-maximal” workouts:

http://thinkmuscle.com/forum/showthread.php?12711-Sub-maximal-workouts

How many sets should I do for compound exercises? I don't fully understand the progressive method so I want to stick with the fixed sets.

This addresses how many set to do.

http://thinkmuscle.com/forum/showthread.php?12723-How-many-sets-and-how-to-determine-it

As long as you adhere to the basic principle laid out in the 4th post of this thread you are doing “HST” and will gain the benefits of following those principles.

http://thinkmuscle.com/forum/showthread.php?12725-The-basics-of-HST

 

[pepperr]

Thank you so much, Grunt11. I really appreciate you being patient with me and posting links to answer all my questions. How do I rep you?

 

[grunt11]

No problem pepperr. I figured those guys explain it better than I can. By all means if you still have any questions please post them. Even though not a lot of people post here I see quite a few lurking and I imagine they would also benefit from questions being answered.

Cheers

 

[Lol]

Ok, I'm chiming in late here so this may have been covered already by Grunt and others.

1. If you want to gain muscle mass then you need a solid base of exercises to work with: deads, squats, bench, chins, presses will always be stables for most folks wanting to increase strength and add size. That's the easy bit!

2. Once you have your exercise selection sorted you have to know how to perform them with good form. This allows you to be consistent which, in turn, makes for better progress and reduces the chance of injury to almost nil. You can address form issues if you get one or two good books on the subject (eg. Ripp' and Kilgore's Starting Strength is a great place to start).

3. Most of the gains you make early on will be in load and not size! That's because your nervous system is adapting to the demands you are placing on it and you are learning to contract your muscle fibres more efficiently. You will also be learning to coordinate the various limb/lever movements required to make each lift. Again, this will allow you to lift heavier loads without your body having to increase the amount of force-producing muscle tissue. Your bones, tendons and ligaments will all start to toughen up; then, after about 6-8 weeks of steady training, you will get to the point where your muscles are getting enough stress applied to them on a regular basis to stimulate some real growth—but that will only happen if you give your body what it needs to use for fuel AND building blocks! So...

4. Aim to gain a pound a week! You probably won't manage it but you need to have a goal. That's ~500 cals a day over maintenance. Every day! Maintenance will vary daily depending on what you do so you'll need to average things out. Also, as you get heavier, your maintenance level will rise too so you can't just work out 'maintenance + 500 cals' once and then forget about it. Every month you should reassess how things are going and recalculate your daily maintenance cals and then add 500 to that. Make sure you get your daily protein and fat requirements and then add carbs to that.

5. If you're worried about gaining some fat then you will most likely never gain anything! You need to get over that hurdle. If you want to go the drug route then that's different but if you intend to stay a natural lifter, some fat gain along with muscle gain is inevitable. Once you've earned your muscle, you can take steps to trim off the fat you don't want and minimise muscle loss.

6. There really is an awful lot of very helpful info in the FAQ's. Do read and digest them if you want to maximise your progress. If you train hard and eat enough, there's no reason why you can't add 20lb of solid muscle to your frame in a year.

 

[pepperr]

Very helpful tips. I got past the fear of gaining fat after going to Vegas and eating steaks from Puck's Cut =]

Lol, using Lyle's model of growth, I will gain 4 pounds of lean mass at the end of 8 weeks if I gain 1lb/week. Is this typical for HST users? Is the additional size noticeable after the first cycle for new lifters? I've only been lifting a year, so luckily I still have a bunch of potential mass to gain.

 

[Lol]

Lol, using Lyle's model of growth, I will gain 4 pounds of lean mass at the end of 8 weeks if I gain 1lb/week. Is this typical for HST users? Is the additional size noticeable after the first cycle for new lifters? I've only been lifting a year, so luckily I still have a bunch of potential mass to gain.

That really depends on how much you have already gained in your first year. I added about 40lb in my first year of training (lean plus fat). I find it hard to see much in the way of obvious changes unless I add about 10lb in bodyweight. For me, my ability to lift heavier loads tells me I have added lean mass (using my usual compound lifts and assuming I've been lifting consistently). Without clothes, I look bigger when I have dieted down; with clothes, I look bigger when I am fatter!

 

[pepperr]

To be honest, my first year of training was inconsistent; I actually only trained seriously for about 6mo that year. In addition, I was cutting. I don't know if I made any gains since I was dropping body fat. According to AA, I should still have that 1st year potential. What do you think?