Possible Modifications To The Standard Cycle...

eddy1983

New Member
Hi all,

I'm aware that I'm breaking with the convention but would it be unreasonable to alter my cycle in the following way:

Weeks 1-2 - 15s
Weeks 3-4 - 12s
Weeks 5-6 - 10s
Weeks 7-8 - 8s
Weeks 9-12 -5s
Weeks 13 SD

I'm extending the cycle by an extra month but I'm looking at getting some more high reps in as I'm really liking them after years of PL training, plus I'm confident my body can take it. I'm keen to hear any thoughts and please don't flame me....

Cheers,

Ed
 
You will be getting a lot of overlapping (zig zagging) but if that is how you want to set it up then that is not a problem as there are many on here that have altered HST to suit their own preferences, myself included!!
 
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I ma very new to HST, but i also modified it to 12,8,5. I got gains, especially in arms and vabck from the higher reps. Weight went up, belly down 1cm, same nutrition as in 5x5 so yeah pretty amazing....
I came from 5x5 and also just looooved the higher reps (monstruous pumps, yeah yeah they mean nothing i know).
 
Ok its talking about the way your weight selection should be handled and that just because the weight may be lower when you start another week at a lower rep doesn't mean your body isn't growing. I see this helping the CNS from not being over worked.

This is called zig-zag and is totally fine. The main thing here is that we want to be
progressing over the course of the cycle. Just because you lifted 77 kg for 2 sets of 15 reps
on Friday does not mean that 65 kg for 2 sets of 10 on Monday will be totally useless for
hypertrophy. The way that HST is setup, we are staying far enough ahead of the curve that
your muscles will not become conditioned to the loads so fast that this is a problem.
Additionally, this can be beneficial as a brief period of recovery after lifting your RM the
previous Friday.
 
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