Let’s roll.
Hey, did you know Lonnie Lowery is giving away a FREE audio CD + DVD (seminar) disc pack tonight? Anyone who posts something intelligent on his PRIME thread goes into the drawing.
I’d do it if I were you!
Charles,
Do you know anything about NASA (Natural Athlete Strength Association)? I'll be competing in their organzation this coming March and plan on beating all of their records in my weight class and category. The reason I ask is that most, if not all, of their records seem rather low. As an example, the current state record in the 165-lb class for 30-34 year olds for bench is only 324. I plan beating it by at least 50 lbs. Any thoughts/experience with them?
Jeez, I wish I could help you on that but I’ve never heard of the organization. Anyone else know anything about it?
[quote]JRC wrote:
Charles,
Do you know anything about NASA (Natural Athlete Strength Association)? I'll be competing in their organzation this coming March and plan on beating all of their records in my weight class and category. The reason I ask is that most, if not all, of their records seem rather low. As an example, the current state record in the 165-lb class for 30-34 year olds for bench is only 324. I plan beating it by at least 50 lbs. Any thoughts/experience with them?[/quote]
Mhm, i wanna hve this package 
Mhm, i mentioned this trainign System some time ago in a post and one T-Nation reader asked me to explan it to him, so i wrote a text about it.
It has some aspects in common with EDT, so maybe you want to give your opinion about Cluster HST.
i hope you don’t mind if i just copy the text i sent this forum member.
======================
Actually it?s not very complicated.
You chose a few exercises that train the whole body and preferably provide a deep stretch. Don?t use too many, because it?ll take forever to complete one session.
Most guys use something like Back squats, Chins(close grip with palms facing your body), Dips and calf raises.
The meso cycle:
1 Determine your 1RM (sometimes 5RM for newbies).
2 Take 2 Weeks of, no training (this is meant to decondition your muscles and diminish the Repeated bout effect)
3 Then start training with 60% of your RM.
4 Increase weight each week by 5-10%.
5 In the sixth week you should use 90-100% of your RM.
6 repeat ?til hyyyyyyyoooooooooooge
It depends on your work capacity how much volume you can handle. Think most trainees start with 20-30 Reps and 3 sessions per week. Maybe you could start with more. You can increase reps and frequency as your body adapts to the volume. I heard of people that do 50++ Reps and train every day.
Don?t use too much volume or you?ll overtrain or get overuse injuries.
The Training Session :
1st of all, forget the word ?set?. The goal is to achieve a determined number of reps without experiencing failure no matter how you do the reps. Just do as many reps as you can do with good form in one cluster(aka mini set).
With 20 Reps this could be 5x6 or 6x5 or 15x2. Probably you will be able to do more reps in a given cluster in the first week than in the last week. In a training session the cluster size probably shrinks also as you get fatigued.
From time to time you can throw in some burn / drop sets to get some lactate which provides some additional (but not so important) metabolic growth stimulus and promote growth of non contractile tissue like bands tendons and so on, and loaded stretching. But be sure the exercises you choose for loaded stretching are not too heavy. If you do Dips / benches with 70% of your RM you should not do Flies with 80% because that would condition your chest to 80% tension and thus making training with less than 80% quite ineffective.
The stretch aspect is quite important for growth according to the HST theory (you can read tons of information on this on the original site hypertrophy-specific.com ? the cluster system takes these principles one step further as normal HST is still hooked to the conventional Rep schemes), so always use the greatest possible ROM. Do chins to the Dead Hang and so on.
It is recommended to do the exercises circle style to save time as the sessions could be quite long when reps or # of exercises increase (that?s why you should choose as few as possible to train your whole body).
Do like one cluster of squats, 1 cluster of chins one of dips and one of calf Raises with little rest. Then rest 1-2 minutes and start a new cycle. If you don?t want to block all 4 Stations you should superset just 2 exercises.
Wow, that was quite a lotta to write. I hope this is enough.
Btw, I guess you recognized that germans write nouns in capital letters, I am sure I did this accidently in the English 
so don?t expect to much correct spelling (also wrote this at 3 o?clock in the morning)
=========================
Not a bad way to train, but I’d put EDT up against that any day of the week…
[quote]meddl wrote:
Mhm, i wanna hve this package
Mhm, i mentioned this trainign System some time ago in a post and one T-Nation reader asked me to explan it to him, so i wrote a text about it.
It has some aspects in common with EDT, so maybe you want to give your opinion about Cluster HST.
i hope you don’t mind if i just copy the text i sent this forum member.
======================
Actually it?s not very complicated.
You chose a few exercises that train the whole body and preferably provide a deep stretch. Don?t use too many, because it?ll take forever to complete one session.
Most guys use something like Back squats, Chins(close grip with palms facing your body), Dips and calf raises.
The meso cycle:
1 Determine your 1RM (sometimes 5RM for newbies).
2 Take 2 Weeks of, no training (this is meant to decondition your muscles and diminish the Repeated bout effect)
3 Then start training with 60% of your RM.
4 Increase weight each week by 5-10%.
5 In the sixth week you should use 90-100% of your RM.
6 repeat ?til hyyyyyyyoooooooooooge
It depends on your work capacity how much volume you can handle. Think most trainees start with 20-30 Reps and 3 sessions per week. Maybe you could start with more. You can increase reps and frequency as your body adapts to the volume. I heard of people that do 50++ Reps and train every day.
Don?t use too much volume or you?ll overtrain or get overuse injuries.
The Training Session :
1st of all, forget the word ?set?. The goal is to achieve a determined number of reps without experiencing failure no matter how you do the reps. Just do as many reps as you can do with good form in one cluster(aka mini set).
With 20 Reps this could be 5x6 or 6x5 or 15x2. Probably you will be able to do more reps in a given cluster in the first week than in the last week. In a training session the cluster size probably shrinks also as you get fatigued.
From time to time you can throw in some burn / drop sets to get some lactate which provides some additional (but not so important) metabolic growth stimulus and promote growth of non contractile tissue like bands tendons and so on, and loaded stretching. But be sure the exercises you choose for loaded stretching are not too heavy. If you do Dips / benches with 70% of your RM you should not do Flies with 80% because that would condition your chest to 80% tension and thus making training with less than 80% quite ineffective.
The stretch aspect is quite important for growth according to the HST theory (you can read tons of information on this on the original site hypertrophy-specific.com ? the cluster system takes these principles one step further as normal HST is still hooked to the conventional Rep schemes), so always use the greatest possible ROM. Do chins to the Dead Hang and so on.
It is recommended to do the exercises circle style to save time as the sessions could be quite long when reps or # of exercises increase (that?s why you should choose as few as possible to train your whole body).
Do like one cluster of squats, 1 cluster of chins one of dips and one of calf Raises with little rest. Then rest 1-2 minutes and start a new cycle. If you don?t want to block all 4 Stations you should superset just 2 exercises.
Wow, that was quite a lotta to write. I hope this is enough.
Btw, I guess you recognized that germans write nouns in capital letters, I am sure I did this accidently in the English so don?t expect to much correct spelling (also wrote this at 3 o?clock in the morning)
=========================
=========================[/quote]
Coach Staley, I got a question about EDT (again).
Exactly why does it make a muscle grow? Is it the frequency, the load, the compensatory acceleration, the progressive overload, all of these factors, or what?
And another question, is there a difference in progressing with reps vs. adding more weight for the principle of progressive overload? Will one have a greater effect on mass and the other a greater effect on strength, or will they both have the same outcome in the long run?
Just curiosities of mine, and I like to know WHY a program works instead of doing it blindly, so I figure I’d ask the first question. Thanks Coach!
Coach Staley,
In his new article, Alwyn Cosgrove said you shouldn’t touch a barbell squat unless you can do 8-10 one-leg squats. Now, I can squat 500lbs., but I suck at pistols. I think they would be a nice change of pace for me. Do you have any suggestions for a beginner at one-leg squats?
Sure. EDT is simply a quiver full of fatigue management techniques & strategies. Managing fatigue permits a greater work output. When you do more work, you build more muscle. Hope that helps.
[quote]GhostOfYourMind wrote:
Coach Staley, I got a question about EDT (again).
Exactly why does it make a muscle grow? Is it the frequency, the load, the compensatory acceleration, the progressive overload, all of these factors, or what?
And another question, is there a difference in progressing with reps vs. adding more weight for the principle of progressive overload? Will one have a greater effect on mass and the other a greater effect on strength, or will they both have the same outcome in the long run?
Just curiosities of mine, and I like to know WHY a program works instead of doing it blindly, so I figure I’d ask the first question. Thanks Coach![/quote]
Yeah, do them down to a bench or a box. make the box high enough so ytou can get at least 5 good reps per set. Once you can do say, 3x10, lower the box by one inch and start over. Great question, thanks!
[quote]general_lfl wrote:
Coach Staley,
In his new article, Alwyn Cosgrove said you shouldn’t touch a barbell squat unless you can do 8-10 one-leg squats. Now, I can squat 500lbs., but I suck at pistols. I think they would be a nice change of pace for me. Do you have any suggestions for a beginner at one-leg squats?[/quote]
Hey coach,
Knock 'em dead at the conference! Actually, some should live, otherwise you’d get no new clients.
Question:
Due to an injury a few months back I ended up with some uncorrected imbalances that lead to a tight sartorius and piriformis on one side. I received this revelation by front squating 3 times a week managing load to avoid over training, but to push the strength up. I’m getting some ART and massage done to fix it. In the meantime, I still have my number one goal as a higher squat, what would you recommend I focus on to avoid losing squat strength while I don’t squat? And how would you tackle getting back to squatting big a little later on?
I’m thinking after the ART to add stretching and single leg exercises for a time while deadlifting to maintain strength. After a while, start squatting again much like a beginner with less weight and higher reps (EDT for less than 15 min. perhaps).
Thanks coach,
Rolo.