Progression more important than initial weight?

[Coltaine]

Hi, I am very new to HST, and in fact I am just about to put together a routine that I intend to follow for the next 8 weeks. I noticed that on some exercises the start-out weight will be very low however, which has me worried that I will be just wasting my time.

For example, I intend to do Incline Dumbbell Bench Press. My 15 RM is 35 lb (each DB), so I would have to start out with 10 lb Dumbbells in order to work my way up to my RM of 35 lb in 5 lb increments. 10 lb dumbbells are hardly a challenge; I suspect it would be little more than a warm-up. However, I recall Bryan mentioning that fatigue & intensity aren't necessarily responsible for muscle hypertrophy. So I wonder if I keep the routine like this despite the low weight, in order to keep the weights increasing every day? Or would it be better to start out with 25 lb dumbbells and go with a 25/25/30/30/35/35 progression instead?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Coltaine]

Another problem is with the DB Curls, my 15 RM max is 15lb, but even if I increment them every other workout, the initial weight will be extremely low; i.e. 5/5/10/10/15/15. Should I do 15lb for the entire microcycle? Or should I not worry about the the low weight? Maybe progression is what it's all about?

Hope someone enlightens me

 

[imported_goal220]

Quote[/b] (Coltaine @ April 11 2005,6:39)]Another problem is with the DB Curls, my 15 RM max is 15lb, but even if I increment them every other workout, the initial weight will be extremely low; i.e. 5/5/10/10/15/15. Should I do 15lb for the entire microcycle? Or should I not worry about the the low weight? Maybe progression is what it's all about?
Hope someone enlightens me

If you or your gym doesn't have smaller increments you may want to try this:
Mon. 15's DB curls: 10/5/5
Wed 15's DB curls: 10/10/5
From Fri you can progress normally

You can also do 2 sets during the 15's. Although hypertrophy will usually occur during the 15's the main intention is to flush the muscle with lactic acid. Presuming you are very deconditionined, the 5lb'ers believe it or not should actually be enough. If you start with 15pounds you won't be progressively loading and therefore no doing HST. You also dramatically increase the likelyhood you will hit RBE much faster. Progression is what it's all about. The idea is to start with the lightest weight possible that will still induce growth. This will then give you more room to add weight.

Hope this helped.