Any Improvement at ALL?

Training Bodybuilding
1

Here are the results after 13 weeks on HSS-100, tell me if I’ve made any progress whatsoever…

week 1, 5 sets, approx 6 reps, average about 155 lbs each set

week 13, 6 sets, 3 reps, 185 lbs each set.

I’m not seeing the improvement in this.

As well, a year ago at this time I benched 200 for 1 rep max. Tried 225 today, could hardly hold it up. Been eating clean for a very long time now, 4000 calories or more a day, gaining weight.

Squats have no doubt gone up as I can now do about 230 for i’d say 6 reps, whereas before beginning of 13 weeks I was about 175 for 6 reps. Wana explain why my upper body is ridiculous?

2

id say thats improvement.
i checked a 1rm chart and for instance if both those were your5 rep and 3 rep maxes theres a big difference
155x6 = 188 1RM
185x3 = 202 1RM

as you can see the sets you are doing now are much tougher compared to the sets you were doing at the beggining. i hope that helped some.

3

Even the slightest improvement, is still an improvement.

If you’re sure your eating enough, are you training hard enough?

4

[quote]rsg wrote:
Even the slightest improvement, is still an improvement.

If you’re sure your eating enough, are you training hard enough?[/quote]

if anything i’m training a little too hard

5

[quote]relativelyfunguy wrote:
rsg wrote:
Even the slightest improvement, is still an improvement.

If you’re sure your eating enough, are you training hard enough?

if anything i’m training a little too hard

[/quote]

You’re not doing enough push-ups. They are the primary mass building exercise for your body no matter what anybody says.

6

If there’s not a deload included in whatever HSS-100 is (sounds like a gun), take a week off and max again and see what happens. you’re most likely over-reached.

7

[quote]relativelyfunguy wrote:
Here are the results after 13 weeks on HSS-100, tell me if I’ve made any progress whatsoever…

week 1, 5 sets, approx 6 reps, average about 155 lbs each set[/quote]

Your total volume on this exercise for this week was 4650 lbs.

[quote]
week 13, 6 sets, 3 reps, 185 lbs each set.[/quote]
But for this week it was 3330 lbs.

[quote]
I’m not seeing the improvement in this.

As well, a year ago at this time I benched 200 for 1 rep max. Tried 225 today, could hardly hold it up. Been eating clean for a very long time now, 4000 calories or more a day, gaining weight.

Squats have no doubt gone up as I can now do about 230 for i’d say 6 reps, whereas before beginning of 13 weeks I was about 175 for 6 reps. Wana explain why my upper body is ridiculous?[/quote]

It’s hard to say where you may have missed something, but your total volume on the bench press seems to have dropped a good deal in that time period.

I didn’t match up what Thibs recomendations were for the time periods that you gave, but that might be worth looking in to. There is also the question of the 100 rep sets. That seems to be one of the key components in the HSS-100 program. Were you doing those?

Also, volume programs are not very good for strength. Some have reported very good gains in size while actualy losing strength in 1 rep. max.

You could also run exactly what you were doing by Thib in one of his Locker Room session threads. He is very helpfull and courteous.

8

[quote]HugeMutha wrote:
relativelyfunguy wrote:
rsg wrote:
Even the slightest improvement, is still an improvement.

If you’re sure your eating enough, are you training hard enough?

if anything i’m training a little too hard

You’re not doing enough push-ups. They are the primary mass building exercise for your body no matter what anybody says.[/quote]

Yes. They’re particularly good for building up the quads and hammies and posterior chain. Calves too.

9

the reason my total volume for this 4 week period is less is because this is the max strength phase where your “H” heavy lift is only 5-6 sets of 1-3 reps, whereas the beginning 4 weeks accumulation phase where your “H” heavy lift is 5 sets of 6-8 reps.

It’s interesting that you mentioned volume programs deal more with gaining size than overall strength or w/e, because I have gotten noticeably bigger, even though I’m still small in my eyes, and while my strength has gone up some, not as much as how I look.

10

oh and, yes, I have done the 100 rep thing at the end every single time.

11

Sounds like you have done well then. One of the strategies for building over all, strength and size is to take a pendulum type of approach.
One one side is volume specific training(higher reps/lower weight) and on the other is purely strength gains, with a decent mix within that continuoum.

Site search Pendulum Training.

12

[quote]jsbrook wrote:
HugeMutha wrote:
relativelyfunguy wrote:
rsg wrote:
Even the slightest improvement, is still an improvement.

If you’re sure your eating enough, are you training hard enough?

if anything i’m training a little too hard

You’re not doing enough push-ups. They are the primary mass building exercise for your body no matter what anybody says.

Yes. They’re particularly good for building up the quads and hammies and posterior chain. Calves too.
[/quote]

Sounds like you workout with your entire farm. I like my quiet time, thank you.

13

[quote]relativelyfunguy wrote:
It’s interesting that you mentioned volume programs deal more with gaining size than overall strength or w/e, because I have gotten noticeably bigger, even though I’m still small in my eyes, and while my strength has gone up some, not as much as how I look. [/quote]

Thats progress right there, it is a hypertrophy program after all, I had somewhat similar results in that my squat and quad size gained very quickly on this program, but the volume for my chest seemed to be a bit much to gain, I usually dropped the special excercise after the supersets, but thats probably an individual thing, my legs responded incredibly well to the volume but upper body not so much.

14

[quote]HugeMutha wrote:
Sounds like you workout with your entire farm. I like my quiet time, thank you.[/quote]

And it’s people who post like you that bring down the collective IQ of the forums. I really wish they’d bring back the rating system.

15

So much to say…

First of all, how are your shoulder and triceps training? You use them in your bench. Without full development of your shoulders, your bench will go nowhere. Do some external rotations and OHP’s. Strengthen your shoulder girdle. Skull crushers and pressdowns, too.

Second, technique. Are your elbows flared out or are they in along your sides? Read up on how powerlifters bench. Your bench will go up immediately.

Third, set / rep schemes. Do both max effort and dynamic effort. Search these terms and understand them.

Fourth, dumbbells. Use them more than the bar. It’ll focus more development on the stabilizer muscles, and improve your overall bench.

Fifth, variation. Do more incline and decline bench than flat bench.

16

[quote]kroby wrote:
So much to say…

First of all, how are your shoulder and triceps training? You use them in your bench. Without full development of your shoulders, your bench will go nowhere. Do some external rotations and OHP’s. Strengthen your shoulder girdle. Skull crushers and pressdowns, too.

Second, technique. Are your elbows flared out or are they in along your sides? Read up on how powerlifters bench. Your bench will go up immediately.

Third, set / rep schemes. Do both max effort and dynamic effort. Search these terms and understand them.

Fourth, dumbbells. Use them more than the bar. It’ll focus more development on the stabilizer muscles, and improve your overall bench.

Fifth, variation. Do more incline and decline bench than flat bench.[/quote]

My shoulders, in my opinion, are not very developed. Seems everyone else I know has pretty rounded shoulders with muscle, and mine are just so so. I don’t do any military presses, just front raises and side raises at the end of my HSS-100 chest days. Guess I will start doing military presses now though.

17

[quote
My shoulders, in my opinion, are not very developed. Seems everyone else I know has pretty rounded shoulders with muscle, and mine are just so so. I don’t do any military presses, just front raises and side raises at the end of my HSS-100 chest days. Guess I will start doing military presses now though.

[/quote]
I would think that you are on the right track with that. Raises won’t do too much for your shoulders, no where near what heavy pressing will do. What is your best lock knee overhead press? No push press or jerk, just press?

18

[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
[quote
My shoulders, in my opinion, are not very developed. Seems everyone else I know has pretty rounded shoulders with muscle, and mine are just so so. I don’t do any military presses, just front raises and side raises at the end of my HSS-100 chest days. Guess I will start doing military presses now though.

I would think that you are on the right track with that. Raises won’t do too much for your shoulders, no where near what heavy pressing will do. What is your best lock knee overhead press? No push press or jerk, just press?
[/quote]

i have no clue :\ . Guess that’s a sign i needa start doing these.