Don’t worry, I’m not posting here to knock HST. Just wanted to let people know that I re-activated the “HST Results” thread, and since there seem to be several people with new/continuing results, I’d like everyone who’s kept decent records to post over there to up the “database”. Thanks!
I’m not saying HST won’t work for people. From my experience, I thought it would work better for those who are overtrained. But if you’ve been using the program for multiple cycles and still making gains, then it’s obviously working well for you. Like I’ve said before, it has sound reasoning, but it didn’t pan out for me.
And you’re right that making progress week-to-week is the overall key. As long as you’re increasing the weights each workout, then you should make progress following HST. I personally didn’t get anything out of it except a huge loss of strength and no increase in muscle mass. Now that my volume is up, and I’m training harder and with heavier weights, I’m making progress.
As for combining something else with HST to make it more effective, I think that boils down to what works best for you. If you want to combine some "power exercises" to keep your strength up, then go for it. I tried HST for one full cycle. It didn't work. I didn't like it. So I've moved on. I don't have enough experience with the program to make recommendations on how to make it more effective, especially for someone else.
I’ve found three things that work for me best since I began working out. 1) 5x5 2) Renegade Training 3) EDT. I’ve made my best progress with those types of programs. Now, the only thing I need to do is keep my training and progress steady. As I’ll make fantastic gains for a few months, then I’ll back off on my training or change to a different program and end up regressing. Now that I know what works, I can keep using those techniques to keep my gains in constant motion.
Great feedback, and I’m glad I’m not crazy and there is some credence to this HST thang…
TO address your point on overtraining Nate, I actually think I undertrained by giving myself too much rest per body part. Though I agree I may have been bombarding each part during my workouts. THe HST thread came out right about the time I read this cool book called “The body Electric” whereby the doctor/scientist experimented on growing severed limbs back on simpler life forms. THe ones who didn’t naturally grow one back such as a Salamander and it’s tail. The author, mmuch like Brian, contended that with constant “irritation” (he irritated the nerves with electric currents) the body responded with growth due to the fact the limb didn’t have time to HEAL, and “seal” over with scar tissue, etc. So the constant assualt on a given muscle made total sense to me. The old strike an iron while it’s hot philosphy came to mind. Anyway, I think it really works and will probably do it for the better part of my net total workouts. I’m trying different things like splitting the last workout of the week to slightly larger workouts and giving myself Sunday (football) to rest.
Call me crazy but it rocks!
Thanks for the Feedback,
Raygo