HST routine --- NEED HELP PLEASE

[meb019]

Hey everyone,

For the past couple weeks I've been training with HST principles -- i.e. full body workouts, Mon/Wed/Fri, compound exercises, 1/2 sets per exercise, experimenting with different rep ranges, etc. I've read a lot of different articles from different sources on HST, but I still have a few questions/ concerns.

The system I devised for myself looks like this -- I will lift using HST for a 2 month, 8 week per. Every two weeks will start a new HST cycle. I took my relative maxes for every major compound exercise and decreased them to fit a period of 6 workouts. Workout 1 will focus on 15 reps per set, workout 2, 12, then 10, 8, 6 and 4.

But even tho I have the basic idea down I still need some help devising my workouts, establishing the number of exercises/ sets I will do per workout, etc.

As of now, my basic exercise pattern looks like this:

Squats
SLDL
Bench Press (flat or incline)
Weighted Dips or Declines
Weighted pull-ups
Weighted pendlay rows, wide and close grip
barbell shrugs
dumbbell shoulder press
lat raises
barbell curls
close grip bench
standing calf raises
abs

Yesterday, for my first workout on this plan, I concentrated on getting my 15 rep max with each exercise. I only did one set per exercise for 15 reps, because I read somewhere that for the 15 rep workout only one set should be enough.

I don't know if that's enough though. My recovery is fine, I'm not the least bit sore after my lift, but I'm wondering if I should do more. I wanted to increase the number of sets I do per exercise for my other workouts, so I'm wondering if it's best just to do the same number of sets each workout.

My other thought is to progressively load sets each workout, but with the 6 workout rep range I've chosen that might be too much of an overload.

Another issue I have concerns the length of each HST workout. Should HST workouts generally be shorter or is it common for them to exceed an hr in length? Even though it's not overtraining, I'm worried about being in the gym for too long. My HST lifts have been lasting around an hr 10 mins.

If anyone has any experience using HST, any advice would greatly be appreciated. I'd like to devise a good system to follow. I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks

 

[precious_roy]

CDB is a great resource on this board. Maybe he will chime in.

I use an HST-esque routine so I'll give you a few suggestions related to your comments.

1) Its not uncommon NOT to be sore. Usually I only have DOMS the first one or two workouts of a cycle. You shouldn't be that sore otherwise how would you complete the same workout the next day?

2) Too many exercises in my opinion. There was a thread called 'customizing HST' on the HST board a while back. I have attached the pdf of that thread. Read the section about exercise selection.

3) Number of sets / reps is personal preference depending on what you can handle. My routine is a cluster type, so I set a specific rep count and work up to it using as many sets as necessary. I believe that the HST guide recommends using the same number of sets throught the 15s, 10s and 5s (?)

4) HST routines can be as long or as short as you want. As I said before you seem to be using too many exercises. I would drop shrugs and lat raises off the bat. I would pick a particular area (maybe one you feel is lagging) and concentrate on that. If it is triceps, drop the barbell curl and one of the chest exercises. Etc.

Good luck with your HST ventures.

 

[meb019]

Thanks a lot for you help, I really appreciate your input.
The PDF file was helpful.

In the end, this is just a trial and error experience for me. I want to break a few plateaus and make some gains, so hopefully HST will help me in that regard. But I'm really just testing out new programs to see what works best for me.

I adjusted my exercise scheme a bit. I'm going to take your advice and ditch the shrugs and lat raises, and a set of calf raises, cause I realize that they're really not necessary on a program such as this. To replace them, I'm doing more tricep and chest work, which should work out nicely.

I'm also going to follow a three week cycle approach in a tentative 10, 6, 4 rep range, and see how that works.

I guess what I'm looking at is more of a hybrid between high intensity and HST principles. For the first week I'll concentrate on my 10 rep maxes each workout, the next week my 6, then 4. Then following the third week I'll either do a refresher week of a 4 day HIT workout, with some high weight negatives in the mix as well.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[precious_roy]

Thanks a lot for you help, I really appreciate your input.
The PDF file was helpful.

In the end, this is just a trial and error experience for me. I want to break a few plateaus and make some gains, so hopefully HST will help me in that regard. But I'm really just testing out new programs to see what works best for me.

I adjusted my exercise scheme a bit. I'm going to take your advice and ditch the shrugs and lat raises, and a set of calf raises, cause I realize that they're really not necessary on a program such as this. To replace them, I'm doing more tricep and chest work, which should work out nicely.

I'm also going to follow a three week cycle approach in a tentative 10, 6, 4 rep range, and see how that works.

I guess what I'm looking at is more of a hybrid between high intensity and HST principles. For the first week I'll concentrate on my 10 rep maxes each workout, the next week my 6, then 4. Then following the third week I'll either do a refresher week of a 4 day HIT workout, with some high weight negatives in the mix as well.

Thanks again for your help.

Sounds like a good plan.

In that pdf I attached above there is a section (on page 24) about creating an HST / Max-OT hybrid program. I use something like this method myself (on the last workout of a week, working sets to failure) and it works well for me.

Just remember that according to HST principles you should keep the frequency constant (or raise it) in order to sustain hypertrophy. Thus lifting every-other-day for the 10s, 6s and 4s, then dropping to every 4th day for HIT is not advisable. A better solution is to let the HST cycle run its full course until you cannot add any more load, then strategic decondition, then run an HIT cycle, decondition, HST, repeat.