Well, following the completion of my first week of HST I can honestly say I’m having a pretty sucky time. Doing 15 reps with maximal weight is too low, while building up to a 15 max is just disgraceful. I’ve never injured myself lifting heavy, yet I’m sitting here with an ice pack on my right shoulder due to what I beleive is a strained muscle. I attribute that to something I felt while doing dips. I have never bailed out of a program so early on, however I am considering doing so at this point. I have until Monday to plan things out. As I want to continue cutting up while maybe adding 3-5 lbs. I am considering switching over to Charles Staley’s EDT II protocol. Opinions definitely saught, and Trev, bro, I know you’d be cringing if you could only move your face (See Trev’s Get Well Support Group 5000 for details). Thanks Freques. Lata.
MBE: "Of all the fuckin', goddamnit, I mean come on, what the hell is that? This better heal by tomorrow. since 1933."
Rest, man I completely respect the sarcasm and know what you’re saying. I think I’m just uncomfy with using weight that low. Did you use the exact specified HST protocol or did you modify at all? Thanks.
MBE: "Not his happy charming monkey-ass self today since this morning."
MBE, at the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record I suggest you give Ian King’s 12 week to Super strength and Limping series a go. I had a sore shoulder for a short time (gee only about 6 months) that was starting to impact on my training and after about 4 weeks it all but went, as well as good strength gains. I am doing this combined with John Berardis don’t diet and cardio workouts, a great way to lean out.
Monkey: I’m a little unclear on how you started your HST program:
a)Did you calculate out your 15RM, work BACK by what ever poundage increments you were going to increase by with each workout, and start with that weight? OR
b)Figured your 15RM and attempted to push out as many reps as you could at whatever that weight was?
Damn, i typed a response earlier that somehow got lost.
Eric, i did modify it. I used weekly rep cycling so i theoreticaly use my RM’s once a week. It goes like this: 15,13,10,8,5,5 maxes,negatives, one week of each. The original HST was like this, but Bryan found that this might bre a little complicated for us dumb muscleheads so he simplified it. I don’t really have easy workouts but i never hit failure either untill week 6. If you need anything i’ll be very happy to help. Just quit it after one week.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Honestly I was not having the best morning yesterday and the shoulder thing just set me off edge. Mufasa, I would really have to go with “b” on that one. The week before I started I was sick as hell and couldn’t do the full strategic deconditioning protocol. Thanks again, my T-peeps.
MBE: “Cool. Calm. Collected. Traded. BE the first on your block to get 'em…since 1022.”
First time i found two of them and used a calculator to discover the rest. The problem with this aproach was that my 15 RM’s were off, probably due to the fact that i don’t usualy train in this rep range so i wasn’t as strong there as i was in the other ones. Now i just use my 10 RM, subtract a 5 kg (11 pounds) or a 2.5-3 kg (5-6 pounds) 8 times so i get the weights i’ll use in my first weeks. Then i’ll lower the weight’s a bit in the 8’s week and build it up from there till i hit my new 5RM, then either do negatives or decondicion.
Was that clear enough, english is my second language so sometimes it’s hard to express myself.
Here is an example: Let’s assume you have a 200 pounds 10 RM on wahtever exercice: 15’s week- 120,130,140 12’s week- 150,160,170 10’s week 180,190,200. 8’s week- 180,190,200 5’s week- 210,220,230 then continue increasing weight till you hit failure at 5 reps- 240,250,255(or whatever), then negatives or decondicion.
Decondicioning is a crucial aspect of HST, without it you won’t grow from the lighter weights. Also, if you find some workouts are too easy just do more reps and if you wan’t to avoid failure skip that last rep when necessary (ex: do 9 reps in the last workout of 10’s).
It’s probably advisable to read the HST articles in Bryan’s site.
Okay, sorry about the last message. I just couldn’t resist.
MBE, too bad about that shoulder. But hey, you’re young - it’ll heal itself soon.
Got to make a comment about your being “too sick to do the deconditioning properly”. I can’t think of much that would “decondition” you more than being sick… Know what I mean?
Finally, to restless, here’s proof of the pudding re: our disagreement a little while ago. HST obviously worked great for you. It didn’t for me. I will repeat for the benefit of anyone reading this thread: I firmly believe (and now there are others who’s experience is proving me right) that one’s training age, degree of overtraining, etc. will largely determine how much one gets out of HST (more so than with most programs). If you’re overtrained, by all means, try it. If you’re a newbie, go for it. But if you’ve got a good conditioning base and are not chronically overtrained, I believe that there are probably better programs out there. (And BTW, your English is fine!)
I agree with Char. I did three cycles of HST and I thought it was a good system and I was disappointed that Char was bad mouthing it on this forum. I tried the 2 week each 15,10,5,neg,SD and 1 week 15,12,10,8,5,5,neg,SD. I finally gave EDT a try. I have noticed so much more size and strength gain. My opinion on HST has changed.
Fair enough. But MBE one week experience is not enough to tell if it works or not for him, and there’s people with 20 years of training experience having good gains on the HST board.
I’ll keep using HST while results keep coming, but will eventualy try something else for a change. Probably will give EDT a shot.
In the end i guess i just disagree with you, but as long as we keep the respect and don’t start insulting each other like it seems to happen so often on this board all is cool.
Heya T-buds. My preemptive post the other day was mainly a concoction of anger over the shoulder (which has healed to about 99.5% in 3 days) and just a general bad mood that came over me one particular morning. I’ve decided to follow the 1-week-per-rep-scheme protocol posted by Restless and change up the exercises a bit. Char, I must tell you that as much as I love your input and respect you as the beautifully disgraceful T-Freque that you are, I am going to ride this HST thing out and determine (fairly) whether or not it works for me. Check this shit out, when I had a stomach virus two weeks ago I went from 174 to 165, sick, eh? Still, I began to spray Androsol while recovering and managed not to loose too much muscle mass. Lata.
MBE: “So…he does occasionally have bouts with human emotion…but most of the time he’s just completely out of his motherfuckin’ monkey mind. Since 1977.”
To MBE: Hey, ride it out bud. No problems with that at all. I’ll be interested to hear what happens after the fair trial, so keep us posted, primate.
To restless: No problem with the respect part. Anyone who’s picked up a second language the way you have gets the big R from me anyway!
About those guys on the HST board with 20+ years of training, though… Yeah, I can believe it. But the question is, what sort of training has it been? I asked for training age/backgrounds on the HST thread on this board, and very few people provided anything substantive. I haven’t seen much on the HST board either (although I can easily believe that, for example, Bryan H’s training has been both long and well-planned). So I don’t think that my point has necessarily taken a hit. You know, 20 years of doing the same thing over and over is really only one year’s experience 20 times. Not to say that everyone who’s gotten benefit out of HST was spinning their wheels beforehand, but you see what I’m saying…
