Hello, long time, no post, no worries, I make up with a lack of frequency in the length of my posts...
I am having slow size gains…they are noticeable, but after a year, I was hoping to be bigger. One of the problems as I see it is that I just was not able to lift enough weight at the start, so my increments from the first week through the last week of a cycle were small…lots of zig-zagging, etc. Also, not lifting a lot of weight regardless of how the program is set up will lead to smaller gains, i.e. the stronger you are, the more you can lift and the more hypertrophy you will see. Because the HST program is not designed to elicit large strength gains, the problem of not lifting enough weight did not improve much and the slow gains I was making continued to be slow. I did see some good size gains on my first cycle because I was eating like crazy, gaining some fat, etc. But once I started stabilizing my BF% and got into my 2nd 3rd, 4th, etc. cycles, the gains definitely slowed.
One of the reasons I believe the above to be true: for 4 cycles straight, my 5 rep max for squats was 110. By the time I got to the end of the 5s I was either over trained or I dunno what, but I just couldn’t add weight beyond 110lbs and still get 5 reps. So I tried something else. I took an SD, 2 weeks. When I cam back, instead of starting my HST program again, I just started more of a strength training style of program, split plan, muscle groups once a week, etc…not that I was throwing out the HST principles, but I just wanted to try something else. Within 4 weeks my squat had steadily risen to 145x5 and I could do a couple sets. Now I am able to squat 155 for 5 reps and do 5 sets. I simply was not able to see those kinds of strength gains on my HST program. I am growing at a faster rate this way as well. I have slowly been morphing the program back into a slightly HST kind of pattern. I am not back to doing every exercise every session (full body). But I am doing pullovers Monday and bench on Friday. And I am doing my hammer curls on a different day than my weighted pull-ups. It seemed that my hammer curls suffered greatly if done on the same day as pull-ups. So I have abandoned having a completely chest/triceps day and a completely back/biceps day, yet I still squat only once a week and that is going quite well. So the question is:
If I want to continue to use some HST principles even though I am not doing the exact HST sample program, I need to consider the repeated bout effect. From some of the things I’ve read on this site, I believe that I can go for 3-4 weeks without increasing weight and not experience RBE. But what if I am increasing weight? If I squat once a week and increase the weight by 5 pounds every other week, will I experience RBE eventually even though the weight is increasing? What if I am not able to increase the weight every other work out? What if it takes me an extra week? Am I just flirting with RBE this way?
When I first changed away from the HST standard program, I saw dramatic strength and greater size gains right away as if the HST program had hit a plateau long before I switched. Now I am seeing the same plateau with this new program I have been using. I am just trying to figure out why and consider the details of RBE along with any program I design for myself. I can see why it is so easy to jump to gym science conclusions, like changing your program will help you bust through a plateau or you need to switch it up every now & then to shock muscles into growing again. Hmm, I need some advice from some experts to reel me back in here.
I am having slow size gains…they are noticeable, but after a year, I was hoping to be bigger. One of the problems as I see it is that I just was not able to lift enough weight at the start, so my increments from the first week through the last week of a cycle were small…lots of zig-zagging, etc. Also, not lifting a lot of weight regardless of how the program is set up will lead to smaller gains, i.e. the stronger you are, the more you can lift and the more hypertrophy you will see. Because the HST program is not designed to elicit large strength gains, the problem of not lifting enough weight did not improve much and the slow gains I was making continued to be slow. I did see some good size gains on my first cycle because I was eating like crazy, gaining some fat, etc. But once I started stabilizing my BF% and got into my 2nd 3rd, 4th, etc. cycles, the gains definitely slowed.
One of the reasons I believe the above to be true: for 4 cycles straight, my 5 rep max for squats was 110. By the time I got to the end of the 5s I was either over trained or I dunno what, but I just couldn’t add weight beyond 110lbs and still get 5 reps. So I tried something else. I took an SD, 2 weeks. When I cam back, instead of starting my HST program again, I just started more of a strength training style of program, split plan, muscle groups once a week, etc…not that I was throwing out the HST principles, but I just wanted to try something else. Within 4 weeks my squat had steadily risen to 145x5 and I could do a couple sets. Now I am able to squat 155 for 5 reps and do 5 sets. I simply was not able to see those kinds of strength gains on my HST program. I am growing at a faster rate this way as well. I have slowly been morphing the program back into a slightly HST kind of pattern. I am not back to doing every exercise every session (full body). But I am doing pullovers Monday and bench on Friday. And I am doing my hammer curls on a different day than my weighted pull-ups. It seemed that my hammer curls suffered greatly if done on the same day as pull-ups. So I have abandoned having a completely chest/triceps day and a completely back/biceps day, yet I still squat only once a week and that is going quite well. So the question is:
If I want to continue to use some HST principles even though I am not doing the exact HST sample program, I need to consider the repeated bout effect. From some of the things I’ve read on this site, I believe that I can go for 3-4 weeks without increasing weight and not experience RBE. But what if I am increasing weight? If I squat once a week and increase the weight by 5 pounds every other week, will I experience RBE eventually even though the weight is increasing? What if I am not able to increase the weight every other work out? What if it takes me an extra week? Am I just flirting with RBE this way?
When I first changed away from the HST standard program, I saw dramatic strength and greater size gains right away as if the HST program had hit a plateau long before I switched. Now I am seeing the same plateau with this new program I have been using. I am just trying to figure out why and consider the details of RBE along with any program I design for myself. I can see why it is so easy to jump to gym science conclusions, like changing your program will help you bust through a plateau or you need to switch it up every now & then to shock muscles into growing again. Hmm, I need some advice from some experts to reel me back in here.