My HST Journal

[RottenWillow]

Glad it's working out for you (other than the insomnia thing ). Your first few 10 rep workouts should actually be lighter than the ones you just finished for 15 though right? (though they get heavier quickly it seems...)

Well actually most of my upper body poundages are beginning at exactly the same amount for the first day of the 10RM as they were for the last day of the 15RM. My shoulder press poundage is actually going up 3 pounds.

Blacklash, one problem I've run into that you just reminded me of is the trouble I had making very small weight increases. Since my upper body strength is pretty modest the increments for each workout are very small, many times less than one pound. I've been using ankle weights wrapped around the bar for the most part to deal with this but sometimes even that isnt quite right.

 

[tuc biscuit]

ever heard of plate mates?

 

[Backlash]

Wow less than 1 pound? That doesn't seem like the best way to implement the HST principles... do you have an example of your progression? It seems like you should be making bigger increments - in fact, I'd say you started way too close yo your 15RM max if you were only making 1 pound jumps. Your RMs that you posted aren't so light that you can't make the increments 5 or 10 pounds each workout (even though the starting weights would have been pretyy light).

 

[RottenWillow]

Wow less than 1 pound? That doesn't seem like the best way to implement the HST principles... do you have an example of your progression? It seems like you should be making bigger increments - in fact, I'd say you started way too close yo your 15RM max if you were only making 1 pound jumps. Your RMs that you posted aren't so light that you can't make the increments 5 or 10 pounds each workout (even though the starting weights would have been pretyy light).

Ok take my bent rows for example. My 15RM was only 30 pounds. That gives me very little room to work with, else I'll be down to almost nothing. The increment I choose was 2%, which for my squat poundages was pretty substantial, but pretty tiny for my rows and other upper body movements. I actually increased the increment though for some exercises because the poundages were so small. Row for example are at almost 4% increments.

Since I havent started my 10RM as of now I still have time to tinker with the increment percentages. Have a look at my 10RMs and make some sugggestions if you dont mind.

 

[Backlash]

I know what you're saying about the weights being super-light, but you aren't getting much of a progressive load if your total weight increment over 6 workouts was only 5-6 pounds, you know what I mean? That essentially the same weight 6 times in a row.

Looks like your rows and pulldowns will be the only things that are really gonna be super-light... I'm not sure what the best answer is. I think we need to get casualbb in here. He is the resident HST guru over on the training board. Shoot him a PM and see what he says.

 

[Backlash]

Anya what was the resolution to this? Did you ever get in touch with casualbb?

 

[hellboy]

For the exercises with tiny increments you may want to consider switching to a different but similar movement. One that you can use larger weights with and hence have larger increments.

I realize that you probably want to stick with basic movements and use free weights as much as possible - but in this particular situation some of the machines may be a better choice.

For rows you have lots of choices. One arm db rows, bent over bb rows, cable rows, hammer strength rows, nautilus... the list goes on.

For pulldowns maybe you could find an assisted pullup machine in your gym? Some kind of hammer strength or nautilus machine maybe?

Anyways, good luck. I like this tread.

 

[RottenWillow]

UPDATE #3

There's something I've noticed about my workouts that I want to warn others about. I think those of us that are accustomed to going to failure on every set are most likely to make this serious mistake.

For most of an HST routine you are not supposed to carry the set to failure. You should only be going to failure on the very last day of a given cycle and even then you might not actually fail provided you have made strength gains during that cycle. What I've have caught myself doing is feeling as if I'm not working hard enough and unconsciously performing the reps more slowly early on in a minicycle and even holding the weight at peak contraction on a lot on exercises where that is possible, i.e pulldowns, bicep curls, rows. I'm doing all these things unconciously to make the work harder, but as the minicycle progresses towards its RM I speed up the movement a little and shorten those peak contractions I was doing, apparently because I feel like I'm working harder now that the weight is increasing. However, this defeats the central idea behind HST, which is progressive resistence encouraging hypertrophy. If I make the movements harder earlier on in a given minicycle, then ease up when the weight increases I suspect the actual stress I'm placing on the muscle may be remaining the same throughout the cycle.

Now that I've made my self consciously aware of this mistake I can concentrate on correcting it but I suspect its a serious mistake which may well have hampered my gains.

 

[Gymgurl]

Keep up the great work and keep us posted. I'm interested in how your progress is since our stats are really close!

 

[Toozee]

I think you'll like HST once you get the hang of it. I really threw me at first too.
Try to keep the rep speed at controlled speed....sort of a slow moderate. Making the movements very deliberate. That way the rep speed will be a constant, and something you can still get the heavier weights with.

I would try to keep the increments at least at 5lbs. Even if you have to start an exercise off at an extremely low weight.
You could also maybe try to find a machine that may allow you to do more weight or maybe a different exercise. Hope this helps

I get a lot from reading of other people's experiences....so please keep it up!