start a new cycle after the 6 week

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dor_dru

New Member
Do you think its OK to end 5's and start a new cycle right away?

I feel the best result for me was gained in the 10's.
The reason i think i can go straight to another cycle without SD is that i read in the book that you can drag the cycle to 12 weeks if you feel good and strength going up.

I don't really wanna keep doing the 5's for 2 more weeks or lower the reps.
I'm focused on hypertrophy and its feels like it will benefit strength much more.

Really wanna hear you're opinions.
Thanks.
 
Are you adding metabolic work after the heavy sets? If not, it's worth doing.
What you are "feeling" during 15s and 10s is most likely the effect of an increase in intramuscular glycogen storage. That can drop off a bit during 5s unless you add in a lighter set of 10-15 reps for all major muscle groups.
After your heavy sets are done, drop the load you are using for 5s to something around what you were using during the first week of 10s and then do a higher rep set with that. Pump the reps out so that you get a good burn going on.
Doing this for all the exercises you are doing may not be necessary but I'd certainly do it for your main compounds. If you like your arms to feel full, do it for your bis and tris too.
Don't be deceived by the full "feelng" you get from metabolic work. You should do at least four weeks of 5s to get the full hypertrophic benefit from the heavy loading. You should be aiming to add about 1lb to the scales every week during fives, so be sure you are eating enough to grow.
 
Lol said:
Are you adding metabolic work after the heavy sets? If not, it's worth doing.
What you are "feeling" during 15s and 10s is most likely the effect of an increase in intramuscular glycogen storage. That can drop off a bit during 5s unless you add in a lighter set of 10-15 reps for all major muscle groups.
After your heavy sets are done, drop the load you are using for 5s to something around what you were using during the first week of 10s and then do a higher rep set with that. Pump the reps out so that you get a good burn going on.
Doing this for all the exercises you are doing may not be necessary but I'd certainly do it for your main compounds. If you like your arms to feel full, do it for your bis and tris too.
Don't be deceived by the full "feelng" you get from metabolic work. You should do at least four weeks of 5s to get the full hypertrophic benefit from the heavy loading. You should be aiming to add about 1lb to the scales every week during fives, so be sure you are eating enough to grow.
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So to you sum up
I should keep doing 5s for 2 more weeks and it will benefit my growth?
If understand you correctly there is no real point do higher reps just to fill the pump... so i wont do it.
 
I suggest you read Totentanz HST ebook. Metabolic work is also addressed there, look for pages 36 to 38.

By the way I'm currently ending a cycle next week and I also plan to start a new one without taking SD. I'll do the 15's weeks.

What worries me at the moment is if hitting the light loads of 15's without an SD will be enough to stimulate growth in my muscles, since they won't be deconditioned.
 
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Here's my experience: Depending on how you setup of your progression and if you are a fairly new lifter you can continue the 5s for a long time and get a lot of benefit from them. In my last cycle I started at 70% of my 1rm and added 5lbs each workout (rough simplification), since I worked out 3 times a week this totaled a 15lb a week increase. Others prefer to setup their cycle progressing from 70% to 100% in two weeks but for me I thought I could get a little more mileage doing it this way. In my case I was able to progress into the 5th week and I feel it was just some irregularity at then end of week 4 that threw me off. In October when I can get back to lifting more seriously I plan on trying this and I hope to make it 6-8 weeks before the linear progression buries my body. My final point is that this is a common strength training methodology and in my estimation sacrifices a bit of hypertrophy effect to focus on strength. If hypertrophy is more important then you have the above advice which is probably superior.
 
leonardopm said:
I suggest you read Totentanz HST ebook. Metabolic work is also addressed there, look for pages 36 to 38.

By the way I'm currently ending a cycle next week and I also plan to start a new one without taking SD. I'll do the 15's weeks.

What worries me at the moment is if hitting the light loads of 15's without an SD will be enough to stimulate growth in my muscles, since they won't be deconditioned.
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Leonard: you're better off taking an SD or extending the 5's. The loads at 15rm wont be enough to stimulate growth right after you do the 5's. Om the other hand: you could see it as a de-load but the best scenario IMO is to take a full SD.
 
gbglifter said:
Leonard: you're better off taking an SD or extending the 5's. The loads at 15rm wont be enough to stimulate growth right after you do the 5's. Om the other hand: you could see it as a de-load but the best scenario IMO is to take a full SD.
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Well, in this case maybe I could jump right into the 10's and forget the 15's week. I'm a little tired of the heavy 5 loads. What do you think?
 
OP, why not just follow HST or are you so advanced, experienced and knowledgeable about physiology, which is doubtful since you seem to have little knowledge of why metabolic work is important, that you can improve upon HST and ignore one of its core principles?
 
leonardopm said:
Well, in this case maybe I could jump right into the 10's and forget the 15's week. I'm a little tired of the heavy 5 loads. What do you think?
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I think you should just follow the programme as stated a la vanilla-HST. If you're tired after the 5's then SD. Take 10 days off, dont stress out, recuperate and then start again fresh on the 15's. You might think you can build more muscle by skipping the SD but you probably wont. Get a year of standard hst cycles under your belt.....then you can perhaps tweak it.
There are a few that skip SD/deload but they're advanced and know what they're doing. Just have patience.
 
OP (read: dor_dru),

The core principal of HST is an ever-increasing weight load... Once you've hit this plateau, it is required to do the 9-14 strategic deconditioning... Do not go outside of this... Now, if you're not okay with priming your muscles with the 15-rep, two-week period, you can always do the 1-week rep-drops, and do something like WEEK 1: 14 RM ... WEEK2: 12 RM... WEEK 3: 10 RM... I am considering this, because it appears more hypertrophy-specific; however, my weights are so low (I'm weak) right now that i wouldn't be able to properly progress the weights, so I might wait to do this...

Anyhow, don't veer from the intended plan. There are tweaks to it, though, that you can take. You should be increasing your weights every workout, though, on most body parts.
 
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Thanks for the suggestion. I took 9 days off and decided to begin this 5th cycle already in the 10's. My SD worked well since the first workout of 10 was tough as hell. Is even possible to doubt I could handle the progression.
 
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