Need help, starting first cycle

[RoWdY_RuFf_BoY]

Hi, Im starting my first cycle and Im in the week finding out my maxs and finishing friday to start my 9 day SD and I got a few questions about HST.

1. About Maximums, does it have to be the absolute maximum for the rep range? and by that I mean, on the last rep, my body part is just about to die? Cause when I do an exercise I can reach 15 reps and maybe actually do 1 or 2 more reps whereas if I do the exercise SLOWLY then I can make it only 15 reps? Know what I mean? And how exactly important is rep maxes while doing HST?

2. How many exercises per body part should I do? Im thinking of only doing one set per exercise but some body parts only have one exercise, is that ok?

Note: I've only got Dumbells with a total weight of around 50Kg, so 25Kg max each dumbell if Im using them both at the same time.

The exercises for my bodyparts are as follows:
Traps - Shrugs
Biceps - Hammer Curl, Concentration Curl
Chest - DB Flyes, Dips with weights (If I do bench press, I can maybe only go up to 10 reps with my max weights which is why Im thinking of not doing it)
Triceps - Lying DB Tricep extension
Abs - Crunch with weights
Back - Bent Over DB Row
Shoulders - Shoulder Press, Lateral Raise, Rear Delts
Calves - Standing DB Calf Raise
Quads - DB Lunges, DB Squat

3. While doing HST, I read each workout goes up by increments (5lbs is a suitable increment per exercise), but what about for example my Lying DB Tricep extension has a max 15 rep of only 15Kg, and 5lbs being around 2 Kg, so at the first block of 15, my Lying DB Tricep extension starts at 3 Kg Lying DB Tricep extensions on my first workout? is that right? (Assuming I do workout 3 times a week(2*6=12, Max=15-12=3)).

Can anyone please answer my questions? I am really interested in this program, as you can see I have many questions about it.

Thank you for reading this,

RoWdY_RuFf_BoY

 

[Joe.Muscle]

Not to be too short with my answer but here goes.

Lift the weight controlled manner and use the weight max for that movement being controlled. Your max dont have to be 100% exact just close as possible to your max reps.

as far as your routine just follow the guidelines on the HST website. They have a sample program set up, easy answer is just follow that program.

1 or 2 exercises for compounds you can get by with just 1 exercise.

And SD properly and keep your HST volume close to were your old program volume us to be...within reason of coarse.

I would say 2 sets for everybody part should be fine for your first cycle.

Good luck

Joe

 

[RoWdY_RuFf_BoY]

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.

 

[Fausto]

RoWdY_RuFf_BoY

Not to leave new people haniging, let us give some more opinions, after all this forum is about helping each other and newcomer need all the help they can get as HST is really from "another planet" in this world of complicated programs one finds out ther all promising very good results

However HST is very scientific and is basically taken from results in-lab of the available research for a number of years into a practical set of principles, there are no restrictive rules, but a few principles that one needs to adhere to in order to obtain growth!

Thus we normally refer newbies to our FAQ forum to pick up on all different ideas, and suggestions that were written up from the forum and some of Bryan's own posts. There are two very good e-books that one should download and take home to read thouroughly, namely the FAQ e-book and the pimp my HST e-book.

The articles section also contains valuable information and lots of tips and tidbits.

so without further adue let us answer your questions:

1 - It is best to have absolute maximums, these could very well be surpassed by the time you reach them as it is not unusual to get some good strength gains, absolute maximums are achived regardless of the speed of the reps, once you slow down or cannot lift another rep that's your maximum!

2 - Exercises per bodypart - if you choose a compound exercise (bench press/military press/squat) then you will work the intended body part as well as other muscles, so it is first choice ans that is what we recommend.

If you want to add isolations that too can be done, but we don't recommend these too much, specially when getting to the 5's and negatives, compounds seem to do a better job and thus the choice.

You will most likely end up having to get yourself heavier d/b's in time to come, but your workout loks ok.

Bench should not be dropped if you can avoid doing that, dips is a very good compound exercise, d/b flyes are rather restrictive and therefore you could rather drop them once on the 5's and negatives.

3 - Increments - for dumbells please use %'s rather than staright weight as the % will help you better with restrictive exercises such as the d/b tricep extension specially if this is the one hand one d/b kind of exercises I am thinking of.

Well I have to go, hope this helps you some for now!

 

[RoWdY_RuFf_BoY]

Awesome, thanks for the info.

I'll make sure to re-read the official way of doing HST before my first workout to make sure I understand.