No pump during 5's

G

GothicSerpent

New Member
I'm on my second round of 5's (as opposed to negatives) and I'm just not feeling a "pump" when I'm done with my workout.  The 15's and 10's were great and my muscles felt full and huge after each workout.  Currently, I'm using my 5 rep max for the next two weeks because I work out alone and can't do negs on many of the exercises.  Today was my first day of this second round of 5's and I did two sets for each exercise after doing only one set during my last week of the first set of 5's.  I don't even know if it's necessary for muscle growth but I was just curious if it is a common thing not to feel the so called "pump" for low reps as opposed to the higher reps of 10's and 15's.
 
You should do a burn set durring your 5s and negs. That is a high rep set untill you get a burn. This is for metobolic stress that aids in muscle growth. A stress that low reps just won't give you. And, by the way, you get the beloved pump. Don't do it for each lift -- rather for each muscle. And do it at the end of working each muscle. For example after incline and dips then do it for chest.

presto -- the pump returns.

Bob ;)
 
i don't usually work out with a spotter either, so instead of doing another 2 weeks of 5s i like to do 2 weeks of dropsets with my 5rms.. there is no better way for you to get pumped and feel the burn to me than a good set of dropsets..
 
If you following HST to the letter you might not get a great pump when you start a new reps round. I've felt that way and accepted it, because going from 8s to 5s with less weight than I finished the 8s it makes sense.

I don't agree completely with it.... :confused:

It's gotta be necessary to be lifiting heavy enough to really get a feel for what you're doing. If my weights aren't heavy enough I make them heavier.

I may be screwing up here, but I work hard on every exercise. If I was doing 160 in an exercise at 2 x 8 reps and then I moved to 5s and 160 isn't enough I may go up to 170 the very first time I feel it isn't heavy enough weight.

What I'm saying...I do all I can for the sets and reps I'm doing.

When I started with HST I can't tell you how many times I walked out of the gym feeling like I'd done a half-a$$ workout. The overlap and stuff was just too much for me.

So...now if I can do 45# on exercise for 10 reps x 2 sets, then I move to 8 reps next cycle I'll start with the finish weight of the 10 reps cycle. If I can do it..I do, if not I'll back off a bit and do the less weight and the required reps x 2 sets.

If I'm screwing up. You can tell me, but try to have a very good explanation. I've been getting great gains...

Have I modified the HST..I don't know. I still try to follow it pretty closesly, but that overlap bit and light workouts I just can't handle.

I mean like I'm hogging down the food, protein drinks, l-glutamine, creatine, fish oil, etc. I'm taking all this stuff to turn me into a new creature, so I'm persuaded I need workouts to be tough enough to really need all the xtra stuff I taking.

One previous poster mentioned a set of 15s... laced in with the 5s. I'm not too sure that's any better than what I'm doing. I'm at least staying true to the reps requirement.

If I'm wrong... chew me out and tell me where to go, but provide some proofs when you do it.
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To counter act the light weights when I change reps, I slow down the speed which I raise and lower the weight.  So if I doing my first day of 10's I try to raise and lower the weight slow enough so that the 10th rep is the last one I can lift.
 
Domineaux,

If all you are doing is eliminating zig-zagging or repeating weights, then there is no problem with that. Progressive loading is a main principle of HST and it sounds like that is what you are doing. If, however, you are just lifting as heavy as you can all the time, you are probably doing more than you need to and possibly speeding up the RBE.

Don't confuse how difficult your workout feels with its effectiveness. You want 100 pounds to be really heavy? Don't sleep the night before your workout -- it'll feel plenty heavy. But does this mean you've had a better workout? You only need to lift heavy enough to cause damage to the tissue. How heavy that is, depends on how conditioned the tissue is. If you start heavy from the beginning, and then can't continue to progressively increase the load with each workout, you may be causing (1) your muscle to condition much more rapidly, (2) and thus making each workout a little less effective than the last, while (3) making each workout really difficult (and possibly taxing on your CNS).

If, however, you can still increase your loads with reasonable frequency (every workout, every other workout), then what you are doing is perfectly fine.
 
"Don't confuse how difficult your workout feels with its effectiveness. You want 100 pounds to be really heavy? Don't sleep the night before your workout -- it'll feel plenty heavy. But does this mean you've had a better workout? You only need to lift heavy enough to cause damage to the tissue. How heavy that is, depends on how conditioned the tissue is."

Sage and well articulated advice from the Semajes!
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There was mention of this in the FAQ, that you might find useful.

Dropsets and High Rep Sets

From the post - "You perform your desired number of reps, in this case lets say 5. Then you immediately strip some weight from the bar and keep going without resting. Normally, you will strip the weight twice before “calling it good”. All the reps performed, including the work reps, should reach about 15-20 to create a real metabolic environment inside the cell sufficient to activate ERK1/2 and related signaling proteins."
 
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