Sample Routine

RUSS recommended you simplify your routine, and I will vouch for his word. I too had a 9 exercise routine set up when I first came upon HST and asked for advice from the veterans on the forum. I was told, by RUSS and others who backed up his advice, to reduce the number of exercises down to 4-5 basic compound lifts, as they will work out your whole body and there is not much need for additional iso's. If your main goal is bulking and gaining as much LBM as possible now, then SIMPLIFY (read the "simplify and win" thread if you haven't already done so). This may seem counterproductive, and believe me, only 2-3 weeks ago I was in the same boat as you and had alot of difficulty cutting down from 9 exercises to the 4 I do now and having very short workouts, but after actually trying it out...I am quite pleased with the results so far.

Once you have a solid setup of 4 or so compound lifts, you should start off with a rep target of 15-20 for each exercise and go from there. You can easily judge if the volume is too much or not enough based on the level of soreness and aches you feel the day after a workout. Personally, I am currently doing 30 total reps for my upperbody exercises and 20 total reps for my lowerbody (squats/DL's) and am fine thus far. Later on if I'm feeling fatigued or what not, I will reduce the volume. This is just an example of how you can easily figure out the volume as there is not a perfect range as it all depends on your body.

Summary: Simplify your routine, plan to workout 3x a week (MWF), find volume based on body's response to the training, and eat BIG (calculate your TDEE and add 300-500cal to gain weight).
 
I appreciate all the replys... Like I mentioned, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel so and I can always up the volume of the routine if need be..

I still want to start off with 12's instead of 15's so I'll go with a the following and adjust accordingly

WK-1: 2X12
WK-2: 1X12
WK-3: 2X8
WK-4: 1X8
WK-5: 4X4
WK-6: 3X4
WK-7: 2X4
WK-8: 1X4

Since I've never done a true HST cycle, I have no idea how the above rep scheme is going to play out.. But I guess I have to start somewhere..

Monday
Squat
Flat Bench
Hang Clean & Press
DB Rows
CG Bench-----------drops wk 7-8
Incline DB Curls--------Drop wk 7-8

Wednesday
Deads
Incline Bench
Arnolds
Chins
CG Bench-------drop wk 7-8
Incline DB Curls----drop wk 7-8

Friday:
Squat
Flat Bench
Military Press
Seated Rows,single Arm
CG Bench---drop wk 7-8
Incline DB curls----drop wk 7-8

Ok, I've narrowed the routine down to 4 basic compounds per workout.. with CG Bench for Tri's and Incline DB's for bi's.. as the intensity of the routine increases I will drop CGB and Incline DB's..

Also depending on the the intensity, I may consider doing 2X8 for week 3 and then dropping to 1X8 for week 4.. same with wks 5&6 and wks 7&8 but this all depends on how intense the workouts become due to weight increases and how well my body is handling the rouitne..

I've also noticed on other posts that some base routiens based on reps other than sets.. for example.. 30 reps for bench and 20 reps for squats?

I can see how this would work using a 15/10/5 rep scheme 2X15, 3X10, and 6X5 but how would this work using a 12/8/4?  2X14, 3X8 and 6X4?  

decrasing the sets as the weight progresses??
 
The central nervous system or CNS. The CNS' capacity for work as it applies to the volume and load.

The greater the weight, the greater the load on the CNS, the greater the fatigue, the longer it takes to recuperate both between reps/sets and between workouts. HST calls for increasing loads every workout. Eventually, we reach a point where the weight is heavy enough that it seriously loads the CNS. In order to manage fatigue, we reduce the volume to maintain frequency and to increase weight. Otherwise, it would be impossible to train as frequently as needed to create this chronic anabolic environment.

Whether you begin with 30 reps total or any other rep scheme, you will eventually come to the heavy loads and will have to reduce the volume anyway. You will have to reduce the volume to maintain the frequency. One way to manage fatigue is Max-Stim. Basically, it's a rep/rest scheme that allows more reps and/or greater load while doing it in less time. Sometime, lifters here will refer to "doing 20 or 30 reps" when they mean they use the Max-Stim method of doing reps.

Max-Stim:
http://hypertrophy-research.com/index.html

But whatever the reps/sets/rest scheme you choose, bear in mind that what matters most is the load progression and the frequency. So adapt your reps/sets/rest scheme to allow you to progress the load from one workout to the next and to maintain frequency of workouts.

The growth response is proportional to the load applied. The greater the load, the greater the growth response per rep, the fewer reps needed for sufficient growth response. You may just find that during the 4RM mesocycle, 1 set is enough to elicit the growth response you need. Perhaps you will find that you are not able to do 6x4 each exercise each workout three times per week for two weeks. Much less 4 weeks. At least not on your very first cycle. Begin with less, gradually build up to what you want, adjust as needed as you go along.

Again, the rep ranges are not strict. Instead, they represent a load. 4RM for instance, represents a load that you are able to lift 4 times consecutively before you fail to lift it due to fatigue or momentary muscle failure or a combination of both. As you can imagine, 4RM represents a very heavy load indeed.
 
I understand.. so since I'm starting the 4's on the 5th week... would it be wise to calculate my 4 rep max and then back it up 4 weeks... say starting week 5 with 50% of my 4 rep max...

Or should I do a 4 rep max for week 6 and drop it back according to week 5.. So On week 5 I start with ?% of my 4 rep max and work forward to week 6? for week 7-8, since I'mcontinuing with 4's.. how should I calculate that if not the way I described above?

this is what I thought would be best..

Calculate 4 rep max.. I'll use bench as an example..

4 rep max for bench: 315lbs
wk5
Monday: 2X4X205
Wed: 2X4X215
Fri: 2X4X225

WK6
Mon1X4X245
Wed: 1X4X255
Fri: 1X4X265

wk7:
mon: 1X4X270
wed: 1X4X280
fri: 1X4X285

wk8
mon: 1X4x295
wed: 1X4x305
Fro: 1X4X315
 
Not only would it be wise, it's exactly what must be done. Establish RM, count back from that for two weeks' worth of workouts at some kind of increment such as 5% or 10lbs/kg. Do this for each rep range.

Take your example again (corrected for 10lbs increment).

205 215 225 235 245 255
265 275 285 295 305 315

Now for your 8RM (estimated at 270lbs).

220 230 240 250 260 270

Your 12RM (estimated at 230lbs).

180 190 200 210 220 230

Let's put it all in one table.

180 190 200 210 220 230
220 230 240 250 260 270
205 215 225 235 245 255
265 275 285 295 305 315

As we can see, there's a lot of zigzagging going on here. Let's clean it up.

180 190 200 210 220 230 12RM
240 250 260 260 270 270 8RM
280 290 305 305 315 315 4RM
315 315 315 315 315 315 4RM

Zigzagging isn't bad and if you must zigzag, don't worry about it. As we can see in the corrected table, I've repeated the heavy loads in each rep range except 12RM. I also repeated the same 4RM load for two weeks at the end. I've done this because the heavier the load, the longer it remains effective at stimulating a growth response.

On the front page right bottom corner, there's a neat calculator. Enter each exercise, their RMs and increments, press calculate and you can print it.
 
Great.. just to make sure I understand..

On lower reps such as 4's.. if done for 4 weeks.. it's best to calculate your 4 rep max and work back (2 weeks / 6 workouts)  in 5-10lbs increments..  

For the following 2 weeks,(which are also 4's) to avoid zigzagging.. use the 4 rep max for the entire 6 workouts.. then start the entire cycle again, after off time,  based on new max's for each exercise and rep range..

q
 
By the time you get thru your cycle at the end of week 6 , your 4RM will have increased - it's easiest to just keep adding load till you stall during the last 2 weeks , when you stall either SD then , or keep using that load for the remaining w/o's.
 
One last stupid question...

Lets use the second cycle as an exaple.. on my second cycle, I plan on doing 8's, (2sets)

so when I calculate my 8 rep max.. the spreadsheet I'm using automatically calculates the amount of weight for each week... Now the reps are calculated on an 8 rep max... but when I get to the 6th workout of the cycle.. will I have increased enough strength to complete 2 sets of my 8 reps i Initially based the lifting cycle on?

has this ever been brought up and if so.. what do you do if you stall? Since the max's are calculated off 15/12/10/8/6/5/4/3, etc.... is it never a problem when you're nearing the end of a cycle and doing multiple sets of your initial max?
 
If you can lift two sets then good for you. But if you can't, don't worry about it. Or you can cluster reps or do M-S style. Again, HST's principles don't call for doing as much as possible all the time. Instead, it calls for doing as little as possible now but as often as possible over time. If you were to do too much in one workout, you'd have to take a long time to recover which would defeat the original purpose of training with sufficient frequency.

If it helps you understand better, look at the number of reps and sets you used to do over one week. Or one complete cycle.
 
I understand that but the reason I ask is, I see others doing routines like
2x12, 3x10 5X5, but the caculations are all based on 1X12max...1X10Max and 1X5max.. Not
2X12max or 3x10max..etc... so it made me wonder, if they are based on 1X12 how do they know they'll be able to do 2X12 of the speciffic weight by the end of the cycle? andif they can't.. do they keep going until they can or just move forwarde..?
 
Most folks will find that, for the RM workouts, getting extra complete sets in with what was their previous RM will not be possible. For some it might, especially if they are new to training. A second set is more likely to be possible if you haven't reached failure during the first set. Hitting failure on the first set pretty much rules out a second complete set. Like Martin pointed out, though, it would be better to stop a rep or two short of failure, rest and then go for another set. Rinse and repeat until you have your required rep total. Don't forget that HST is not about reps and sets.

For workouts prior to the RM workouts it might well be possible to get 3 x 10 or whatever. Just so long as you are avoiding failure most of the time, you will be keeping fatigue levels down which will allow you to keep frequency high.
 
<div>
(Lol @ Sep. 09 2007,12:02)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Just so long as you are avoiding failure most of the time</div>
Avoiding failure is a big part of why we thus arrange the sets, reps, and mesocycles. Going to failure seems to fry things both in the muscles and in the CNS. It takes much longer to recover from failure than it does to recover from fatigue.

It may seem like HST doesn't offer the &quot;intensity&quot; of some other programs, but it does offer pretty good growth potential. It takes a little bit to get used to routines that take less than an hour, but the results speak for themselves.
 
I do understand the concept.. but that dosn't really answer the questions...
for example on the a 10 cycle... doing 2 sets of 10... for each of the 6 workouts..

the last workout (6th one) is based on 10MR.... but often people have 2 sets of 10?
Are they actually calculating this off of doing 2 sets of 10?

Are the other sets mearly warmup sets? and only 1 set per cycle is actually a working set?

so when I see something like this..
wK1-2: 1X15
WK3-4: 2X10....=1Xwarmup 1Xworking
WK5-6: 3X5.....=2Xwarmup 1Xworking


same for other rep schemd.. 5's.. 3 sets of 5 but the 6th routine is based on their 5RM but they have their routine setup to do 3 sets on the 6th workout.. this is what I don't understand??

If the program is based off the 6th exercise being your RM then it seems each new cycle should only be 1 set..   Anything else would be more than you're capable of doing and lead to failure?  AM I miising something???
 
strength gains...
smile.gif
 
<div>
(RUSS @ Sep. 09 2007,16:51)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">strength gains...
smile.gif
</div>
I asked earlier if this were the case but didn't get an answer... so what you're saying is.. strength gains.

If my 10RM is 100lbs.... you're saying by the time i hit the 6th trainig session of the cycle my 10RM should have increased so I would be able to do that established weight 2X10 Instead of 1X10 as established two weeks earlier?
 
<div>
(RUSS @ Sep. 07 2007,11:00)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">By the time you get thru your cycle at the end of  week 6 , your 4RM will have increased - it's easiest to just keep adding load till you stall during the last 2 weeks , when you stall either SD then , or keep using that load for the remaining w/o's.</div>
Wether you can complete 2 sets or not isn't vital to progression - at first though you may be able to for the first cycle - won't know till you get there. I have (over time) gone to a 2xwhatever , 1xwhatever for the first and second weeks but use two major compounds per major muscle group this makes this a non-issue for me. For you - do the entire first set , attempt the second if you feel failure coming on do rest pause cluster sets to get your total volume of the remaining sets or &quot;max stim&quot; as they like to call it around here.
smile.gif
 
That answers my questions... well i have a routine put together and i'm ready to test it out starting next week.. One last questions...

I've limited my routine down to 5 compounds per working day.

Squats: M&amp;F
Deads: Wed only
Flat Bench: M-F
Incline bench: Wed only
Hang Clean Press: M-W-F
DB Rows: M-W-F
Pullups: M-W-F

I'm going with a 12/8/4 rep scheme
1X12
2X8
3X4
 
We don't count warm up sets, we only count work sets. So, the example you wrote is all work sets. For a rep scheme, here's an example based on 15RM, 10RM, 5RM:

week 1 2x15
week 2 1x15
week 3 2x10
week 4 1x10
week 5 2x5
week 6 1x5
week 7-8 1x5

The example above is based on the principle of progressively adjusting reps to accommodate the increasing load. This is done to manage fatigue which in turn is done to maintain frequency. It can be done like that because the heavier the load, the more effective one rep is to stimulate an appropriate growth response. Note that only the first set is prescribed and even then it's not strictly enforced, so you can do it any way you like as long as you lift the weight.

Concerning reps and sets, you must:

&quot;Lift the weight with good technique for an appropriate number of reps ultimately determined by you&quot;

But you are under no obligation whatsoever to:

&quot;Absolutely lift the weight for a very precise number of reps and not one bit less than that otherwise we'll call the police and get you arrested for cheating&quot;

So, when you ask us to tell you exactly how many sets and reps to do each workout, we can't really tell you since you're the one who will determine how much you can and will do.

-edit- Never mind, Russ answered that one. -edit-
 
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