Starting Hst In A Few Days...

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sammy1987

New Member
Hi everybody,

I am getting ready to begin my first HST cycle. I am only going to focus on a couple of muscles though (medial delts, lats). I am a very, very thin guy and I'm only interested in gaining width and create that v-shape look. I already have a 31" waist.

The two exercises I am planning on doing are:

- side lateral raises (dumbells)
- wide-grip, overhand, lat pulldowns (machines)

Keeping the HST principles in mind, this is the plan I have come up with for cycle 1--does it look alright?

Week 1-2 (15's)
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 5 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 10 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 15 lbs
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 20 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 25 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 30 lbs

Week 3-4 (10's)
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 15 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 20 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 25 lbs
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 30 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 8 lbs
LPD - 2 x 35 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 8 lbs
LPD - 2 x 40 lbs

Week 5-6 (5's)
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 25 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 30 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 8 lbs
LPD - 2 x 35 lbs
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 8 lbs
LPD - 2 x 40 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 12 lbs
LPD - 2 x 45 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 12 lbs
LPD - 2 x 50 lbs

Week 5-6 (5's)
-Repeat 5's (Week 5-6)-

Am I on the right track here? As far as the diet, I have already calculated and planned my new necessary diet. This includes 1.4 times my bodyweight in grams protein and 22 times my bodyweight in calories.

Is there anything I am overlooking? Aside from my 3 days at the gym, my life is quite sedentary, I work in an office at my desk all day.

Thanks for any help.
 
Old and Grey,

Thanks for the fast reply. Yes I have read the eBook. Maybe I misunderstood something in the eBook when I formulated my routine for the first cycle?

So, after lifting for a while, then I can start my HST? Assuming that is correct, how is my routine for cycle 1? Is something missing?

Thanks again.
 
Weightlifting it's not only about muscle tissue stimulus. The exercise with weights also has a metabolic / hormonal component. Big compound exercises are responsible for activating strongly this metabolic / hormonal response and aid on overall muscle gain. They also make you stronger and balanced, helping you to perform the lifts correctly and minimizing injuries.

Even Ii you're pretty sure you only want to get a V-Shape at least do the three big compounds (bench, deads and squat).
 
sammy1987 said:
Hi everybody,

I am getting ready to begin my first HST cycle. I am only going to focus on a couple of muscles though (medial delts, lats). I am a very, very thin guy and I'm only interested in gaining width and create that v-shape look. I already have a 31" waist.

The two exercises I am planning on doing are:

- side lateral raises (dumbells)
- wide-grip, overhand, lat pulldowns (machines)

Keeping the HST principles in mind, this is the plan I have come up with for cycle 1--does it look alright?

Week 1-2 (15's)
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 5 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 10 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 15 lbs
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 20 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 25 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 30 lbs

Week 3-4 (10's)
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 15 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 3 lbs
LPD - 2 x 20 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 25 lbs
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 30 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 8 lbs
LPD - 2 x 35 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 8 lbs
LPD - 2 x 40 lbs

Week 5-6 (5's)
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 25 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 5 lbs
LPD - 2 x 30 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 8 lbs
LPD - 2 x 35 lbs
-MONDAY-
SLR - 2 x 8 lbs
LPD - 2 x 40 lbs
-WEDNESDAY-
SLR - 2 x 12 lbs
LPD - 2 x 45 lbs
-FRIDAY-
SLR - 2 x 12 lbs
LPD - 2 x 50 lbs

Week 5-6 (5's)
-Repeat 5's (Week 5-6)-

Am I on the right track here? As far as the diet, I have already calculated and planned my new necessary diet. This includes 1.4 times my bodyweight in grams protein and 22 times my bodyweight in calories.

Is there anything I am overlooking? Aside from my 3 days at the gym, my life is quite sedentary, I work in an office at my desk all day.

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Why only two exercises? You will only be in the gym for 15 minutes or less. You need to be doing full body workouts to gain a decent physique I would recommend - bench press for chest, lat pull down, bent over rows, t bar rows or chins for back, military or overhead press for shoulders and squats (or leg press) for legs.

Bodyweight x 22 for calories is quite high bearing in mind you say you are sedentary, where did you get that figure from?
 
@leonardo,

Thank you.

@mickc,

I got that figure by dividing my calorie intake by my weight. But, let me also mention that I have an ectomorphic body type and have damaged villi due to a mild case of Celiac disease--meaning that absorption of nutrients is a little more difficult for me than for the average Joe.

I am always going to be very thin and I am ok with that. In fact, I don't want to become a giant muscular guy, that's not who I am. I do want to get width. Being skinny is more aesthetically pleasing with broad shoulders and a wide back (in my opinion).

Also, yes that will be a quite a ridiculously short workout--I am quite aware of that. But, the gym is a couple blocks away from my house and my int is to go to the gym, work hard, go home.

Thanks.
 
If you are looking to build delts and back, that's a pretty terrible exercise selection. You need to move some serious weight to build up the back. I would recommend deadlifts but at the very least, you need to do some rows and pair those rows with pulldowns or weighted chins/pullups. Pulldowns are a good exercise but pullups or chins would be better and since you're skinny, chin ups should be easy for you. Do chins and add some weight to them and you'll see your lats start to spread within a few months of consistent progression.

Lateral raises won't build delts. It's like doing tricep kickbacks for your triceps, you're basically wasting time. You need to do some kind of overhead press to get those delts going, then you can finish them off with lateral raises if you must, but I wouldn't bother. Pair the military press with incline bench. I would forget about the lateral raises completely until the 5s and then only add them in as a light set of 15 reps AFTER you are done with all the heavy work.

So if you absolutely are hell-bent on doing this minimalist routine, you should do something more like this:

Bentover Row or Deadlift (you could do rack pulls instead of deads)
Weighted chins or pulldowns
Push Press or Military Press or some kind of machine overhead press if you must
Incline Bench

I wouldn't waste my time with only a couple sets of each. If that's all your doing, then up the volume. Do 2 sets in the 15s, then during the 10s do 3 sets of rows and press, 2 sets of chins and bench. In the 5s, do 3 sets on everything. If you choose to do rows instead of deadlifts then add in Barbell shrugs. Don't use DBs for anything at this point, you don't need them and it just makes progression harder when you are a newbie who can't use the big DBs. I would suggest trying to get over this idea that you are an ectomorph who will always be very skinny. There is no such thing as an ectomorph and I am proof that someone who is naturally very very thin does not have to remain that way if they have the necessary willpower to make a change.
 
If it is ok, I would like to share my opinion (based on my experiences) on exercises like tricep kick backs and lateral raises...

Based on my experience, you can build muscle with lateral raises and tricep kickbacks, so I am not sure it is fair to totally dismiss them.

With my triceps exercises, I have been locked into doing just a few due to injuries and I guess the way my joints are. Kickbacks and close grip bench presses (with dumbbells) were all that I could do with my set up and home gym facility. For the longest time, all I did was kickbacks and nothing else. My triceps grew. I was using Max OT then, so the weights were heavy as well. After getting on to HST (which is the best program I have EVER followed), I started incorporating seated dips and close grip bench presses. My wrists, elbows and left shoulder are weak links and were giving me what I call warning signs. Last year, I upgraded my gym and can now do tricep push downs. So with triceps, that is all that I do now (tricep push downs) and I have the horse shoe shape well developed and the triceps are still growing.

With the lateral raises, I believe this exercise builds muscle too (based on my experience). However, I have always used a pressing movement like the military press and then followed up with the lateral raises right after. I used to go very heavy on the lateral raises (back in the Max OT days), but these days I am going with a more conservative weight and increasing the load where I can as the cycle progresses. My sister inlaw is a physical therapist and she has told me that provided you do the lateral raises correctly, they are an effective and safe exercise to do. She has advised me that shoulder issues are a common thing that Bodybuilders go to see physical therapists about, so I asked her advice on correct technique etc. I have seen a lot of benefit to doing them in my routines.

I agree with what Totentanz and O&G are saying about the compound exercises and yes they are critical, but I personally am not convinced that certain exercises can be completely dismissed as not having any benefit whatsoever. With my chest, all I have ever done was bench press and nothing else. My chest/back ended up reaching a max size of 50". My chest looked freakishly big compared to my arms. After getting a new gym set up, it included a pec deck. I never was interested in using a pec deck and didn't care that it was included with the gym I purchased. However, I started using it just for the fun of it. I was a bit half hearted with the use of it at first, but you know what, after a period of time my chest development went to a different level. I believe the pec deck worked the muscles in a different way and my physique improved as a result. I still bench press though, so the pec deck is just a secondary exercise. I have seen the marked difference, so I now feel that the pec deck was useful in my case.

Maybe this post will be seen as putting a cat amongst the pigeons? I don't mean for it to be, but I just wanted to share my experience and what has worked for me. If I were forced with a choice on either doing compounds or these isolations, I would certainly choose the compounds. The reason for this post was that I wanted to share that I have grown muscle on the isolation exercises, so in my opinion I cannot dismiss them as useless.

Now, after saying all this.... If it were me that posted your original questions, I would listen to what Totentanz and O&G are saying about being new to weights and sticking to the compounds for a while at least. Bench press, shoulder press, back rows, squats. I think of these as the BIG 4 and I would do these until you have reached an intermediate level at least. After that, you can experiment and see what else you can incorporate into the routine. Everyone's body responds differently, so experimenting is necessary.

All the best!
 
The problem with lateral raises and tricep kickbacks is that they are only appropriate for high reps. Nobody in the entire world is going to have good form on lateral raises using their 5 RM when they are going through the set.

Those exercises are inappropriate for HST and should only be used as metabolic work. I don't really care what justification people have that they are valid exercises because that is not what I am arguing. I'm saying that in HST, if you use them throughout the cycle, you are going to fail. What muscles do you think lateral raises work when form breaks down and you are cheating the weight up? Same thing with tricep kickbacks. They are fine to use in the 10s and 15s if you really must, but in the 5s they are only used for high rep metabolic work performed AFTER your heavy work with a sensible lift like overhead press where you can maintain form.
 
Totentanz, I hear what you are saying, but... Based on my experience, I cannot dismiss them as exercises that generate growth. They have worked for me and still work for me and I have been using HST principles for a number of years now. I have really grown a lot on HST and feel that I am pushing the envelope with my genetic potential (according to the size calculators). My triceps have full horse shoe shape and my arms are still growing. My shoulders have broadened and are getting more of that boulder shape. The compounds are vital, but I just cannot dismiss some of these isolations. I have had a number of people tell me that I will never succeed unless I do dips or close grip benches etc. My shoulders and wrists got in the way of these exercises, so I had to improvise and it has worked out well for me. Only exercise I do now for direct tricep work is pushdowns. Triceps do get some work from bench, but I am able to focus most of the work on the pectorals.
I am happy to agree to disagree here... I just wanted to share my experience with these exercises.
On a side note, I eased up on the 5's a few cycles ago and will only maybe do them for a week at the end of a cycle. I am just not interested in busting my body up anymore with the ultra heavy weights. Years of Max OT did me in on that front.
 
I guess you didn't read my post clearly because I never said that those exercises should be dismissed, now did I?
 
Both Totz and Renky are correct and are in agreement although it takes a few reads to conclude that. Tricep kickbacks and lateral raises are not appropriate for heavy weights but make decent exercises for metabolic work for advanced lifters.
 
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as the guys have said do the big compounds like pullups/squats etc if you want to do laterals etc do them at the end of your routine.
 
Thanks O&G for the clarification... Absolutely yes, for beginners it is best to stick with the compounds to build the foundation size and strength. I know it seems lame to just stick with the BIG 4 (Squats, Bench, Shoulder Press and Rows), but this method is a good formula. As O&G says, when you get to the more advanced level you can experiment with the isolations. However, the compounds do need to stay in the routine where your body allows.

HST really does work... You just have to get in and use it. Train and train consistently. Totentanz, O&G, Jester and these other contributors know their stuff. Listen to what they say. While I may not agree totally on every nut and bolt with these guys, the fundamentals of HST are always there and we all totally agree on that 100%. HST does work. I owe gratitude to Totentanz, O&G and Jester for their early guidance and re-educating me. I have come a tremendous distance with "gains" in a few short years of being on HST.
 
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