First HST cycle critique please

J

jjrock

New Member
I have been lifting for about 3 years and am currently
5'10 195 lbs and i'd say about 8-10% bodyfat. I have always lifted the old school bodybuilding way and am very excited to try HST. I'd like to put on mass and try to get to around 205-10lbs by March. I am wondering how my workout scheme looks as far as the right number of sets and the right exercises to accomplish my goal. Any feedback is greatly appreciated and if my routine looks totally screwed up, please help me. I will be sticking with the same number of sets for the 15's, 10's, 5's unless someone states otherwise.

M/W/F
Bench - 2 sets
Incline DB - 1 sets
JS Rows - 2 sets
Chins - 2 sets
Skull Crushers - 2 sets
Barbell Curls - 2 sets
Abs - 2 sets

T/Th/Sat
Squat - 2 sets
SLDL - 2 sets
Calves - 2 sets
Military Press - 2 sets
Lateral Raises - 1 set
Rear Delt - 1 set
 
For your first cycle this looks good :)

A couple of comments:

You're effectively hitting the shoulders 6x a week. The anteriors are used in pressing on M/W/F, and the posteriors are used in chins and rows on the same day.

I would consider moving shoulders to M/W/F, putting abs on the leg day, and doing a straight Upper-Lower split, 6 days a week.

Also, you'll find that you won't be able to increment your raises often - I'll assume your 5RM for raises isn't above 25kgs/50lbs. To compensate, I wouldn't start them until the 5s. Just add them in on the first workout of 5s, and increment up to your 5RM, just my opinion there.

Eat eat eat :)

It's difficult to get his right, the first time you do HST - at least several ppl seem to indicate this. Doing 6 times a week will mean your caloric needs are higher (increased activity, glycogen storing etc), so make sure you're eating enough.

Utilise the eating for size articles Bryan has put on the site, and use measurements and weight as your indicator for whether or not you're putting on mass :)
 
thanks for the reply. I will definietly take your advice on the shoulders. As far as eating i'll be trying to get at least 4000-5000 calories per day.
 
JJ

If you by any chance find your self struggling try going to the vanilla HST 3 x p/week, full body routine.

We tend to find this is the best way for HST Noobies to understand the principles and get a feel for the program.

You can do it the way you have shown, provided you keep the caloric needs up, if you start bloating, cut a bit and carry one till you find the balance, 5000 sounds like quite a bit, but I have not done the math.
laugh.gif
 
Oh and your workouts, particularly the lower body day will be quick.

The 15s can feel like cardio - get quite hot, out of breath type of feeling, might wanna puke if it's too hot in the gym
tounge.gif
....but other than that, the workouts shoudln't go for longer than 40mins or so.
 
If i were to go to the M/W/F routine how long would i be in the gym for? The reason i split it into 6 days is because i work and the AM/PM split wouldn't really be possible. I also wouldn't want to be in the gym for a very long time on M/W/F. I feel i would do better if i went in 6 days at my normal time.
 
If you train MWF with all those exercises itll probably take around an hour if your training alone. Which I dont think is too long. I had a lot of success in my first HST routine and I did the basic MWF routine.

Fausto: What is vanilla?

Joe G
 
Joe G - "vanilla" when used as a adjective (other than for ice cream and colour :P) means that it's the stock standard version of something. In terms of HST, this means 3x per week, full body sessions, 15s, 10s, 5s, negs/5RM, all at 2 weeks, without extras such as loaded stretches.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top