HST for only one body part??
- Thread starter dempsey
- Start date
whistledixie
New Member
Starting Strength follows pretty much the same linear progression 3x a week formula as HST except it stays in the same rep range and doesn't have SD every 8 weeks. Are you just wanting to add calf raises to your starting strength program? And you want to do them in the 15/10/5 rep scheme? I guess you could, sure.
I wouldnt' recommend adding anything to Starting Strength, but I don't guess calf raises will make much of a difference on your recovery. If it does, stop doing it. And don't tell Rip you are changing his program, he gets a little snippy about that.
Starting Strength was just an example really as I thought most would have a rough idea of the layout already.
I like doing strength based routine's but have poor calves, I'm really just interested in training my calves to be bigger so I don't wan't to stop training them during a strength based routine.
As I'm not concerned with the strength (well a little bit) I was pondering wether it would actually be a viable method to train them for hypertrophy whilst traing the other lifts for strength.
I like doing strength based routine's but have poor calves, I'm really just interested in training my calves to be bigger so I don't wan't to stop training them during a strength based routine.
As I'm not concerned with the strength (well a little bit) I was pondering wether it would actually be a viable method to train them for hypertrophy whilst traing the other lifts for strength.
My 2¢:
You can only work with what you've got so don't expect miracles. It is a fact that, genetically, we are all blessed or cursed in one way or another. This applies to muscle tissue and our overall physiology. If you haven't been blessed with much muscle tissue in the calf department then you will most likely have a hard time growing them. I saw a girl walk past my house the other day with fabulous calf development; way better than mine after a zillion heavy calf-raises. (She probably hates it!) Completely different shape to the muscle bellies of her gastrocnemius and soleus muscles: longer and broader making them look much fuller. A lot of folks of African descent have 'high calf' muscles; that is, they have short gastrocnemius muscles. Doesn't matter how much they train 'em, they aint never gonna be BIG! If you can find pics, check out Tom Platz's calf development: insane!
I read a great anecdote once about Chris Dickerson who was training for the Mr. Olympia at the time. He was blasting his calves with a ton of sets of all kinds of calf exercises. Sure, he had great calf development—but so did his sister who never did a calf-raise in her life! Corollary: our old friend genetics is playing a key role again.
Calves are tough; you use them to carry your entire bodyweight around and often in a ballistic fashion eg. when running. They cope with some serious work on a daily basis. Try standing on your hands for even a few minutes and feel the strain that your static bodyweight alone places on your less sturdy arms and shoulders.
Even with SD, it is unlikely that you are ever going to be able to decondition your calf muscles much; so, If you want to increase strain on your muscle tissue in order to elicit a PS response then you will need to use loads in excess of what you would apply in everyday activities. That means using more than your b/w if you exercise both legs at once.
Take advantage of a good stretch to put more strain on the tissue. Don't be fooled into thinking that pumping the heck out of your calves with light weights is going to make them grow massively. I remember Jules (aka Vicious) used to recommend starting your HST cycle with 10s for calves and then working the loads up so that you end up using heavy loads for longer than you would for other muscle groups. He also had some advanced techniques to encourage further growth once you had been training heavy for several weeks: pulsed stretches etc. If you can find his Pimp My HST ebook, it's all in there. Just be careful. You are flesh and blood and it's very easy to tear muscles if you push them to extremes with heavy loads—I know, cos I've done it!
For an HST calf cycle, I would do something like:
2 weeks 10s: 3 x 10 reps
2 weeks 7/8s: 4 x 7/8 reps
2 weeks 5s: 6 x 5 reps plus metabolic burn set.
2 weeks 3s: 10 x 3 reps plus metabolic burn set.
3 or 4 sessions a week.
NB. If you are not used to heavy calf work then start off carefully or you will suffer the consequences of crazy awful DOMS rendering you unable to walk for several days! I've done this too!
In the last two weeks I would add stretched pulses at the end of each heavy triple—maybe, 5-10 pulses. To finish up after 5s and 3s I would do a lighter metabolic burn set. No need to pop your eyes out for these; just use a load that allows a you to get about 15-20 reps and a really good burn going on for some hypoxic stress goodness! As a side benefit, the burn (lactic acid build up) also helps with connective tissue repair through collagen rebuilding.
A standing calf-raise machine is pretty good for this. I use my Oly bar and plates, a rack, a platform and some lifting straps. I stand with the front of my feet on the raised platform with my heels free to drop lower down. I hold a heavy bar with straps at thigh level and with the bar just touching the upright posts of the rack (stops me falling forward), which makes it much easier to balance than if it was on my shoulders. With a bit of practice it is possible to use very heavy loads this way.
I hate seated calf-raise machines with a passion: got stuck in one once when I tore my calf. Couldn't get out of the darn thing! Not nice. If you are going to use one, don't go too heavy or you may get stuck too.
Have fun with this but don't go mad.
Ok, that was more like 3¢!
You can only work with what you've got so don't expect miracles. It is a fact that, genetically, we are all blessed or cursed in one way or another. This applies to muscle tissue and our overall physiology. If you haven't been blessed with much muscle tissue in the calf department then you will most likely have a hard time growing them. I saw a girl walk past my house the other day with fabulous calf development; way better than mine after a zillion heavy calf-raises. (She probably hates it!) Completely different shape to the muscle bellies of her gastrocnemius and soleus muscles: longer and broader making them look much fuller. A lot of folks of African descent have 'high calf' muscles; that is, they have short gastrocnemius muscles. Doesn't matter how much they train 'em, they aint never gonna be BIG! If you can find pics, check out Tom Platz's calf development: insane!
I read a great anecdote once about Chris Dickerson who was training for the Mr. Olympia at the time. He was blasting his calves with a ton of sets of all kinds of calf exercises. Sure, he had great calf development—but so did his sister who never did a calf-raise in her life! Corollary: our old friend genetics is playing a key role again.
Calves are tough; you use them to carry your entire bodyweight around and often in a ballistic fashion eg. when running. They cope with some serious work on a daily basis. Try standing on your hands for even a few minutes and feel the strain that your static bodyweight alone places on your less sturdy arms and shoulders.
Even with SD, it is unlikely that you are ever going to be able to decondition your calf muscles much; so, If you want to increase strain on your muscle tissue in order to elicit a PS response then you will need to use loads in excess of what you would apply in everyday activities. That means using more than your b/w if you exercise both legs at once.
Take advantage of a good stretch to put more strain on the tissue. Don't be fooled into thinking that pumping the heck out of your calves with light weights is going to make them grow massively. I remember Jules (aka Vicious) used to recommend starting your HST cycle with 10s for calves and then working the loads up so that you end up using heavy loads for longer than you would for other muscle groups. He also had some advanced techniques to encourage further growth once you had been training heavy for several weeks: pulsed stretches etc. If you can find his Pimp My HST ebook, it's all in there. Just be careful. You are flesh and blood and it's very easy to tear muscles if you push them to extremes with heavy loads—I know, cos I've done it!
For an HST calf cycle, I would do something like:
2 weeks 10s: 3 x 10 reps
2 weeks 7/8s: 4 x 7/8 reps
2 weeks 5s: 6 x 5 reps plus metabolic burn set.
2 weeks 3s: 10 x 3 reps plus metabolic burn set.
3 or 4 sessions a week.
NB. If you are not used to heavy calf work then start off carefully or you will suffer the consequences of crazy awful DOMS rendering you unable to walk for several days! I've done this too!
In the last two weeks I would add stretched pulses at the end of each heavy triple—maybe, 5-10 pulses. To finish up after 5s and 3s I would do a lighter metabolic burn set. No need to pop your eyes out for these; just use a load that allows a you to get about 15-20 reps and a really good burn going on for some hypoxic stress goodness! As a side benefit, the burn (lactic acid build up) also helps with connective tissue repair through collagen rebuilding.
A standing calf-raise machine is pretty good for this. I use my Oly bar and plates, a rack, a platform and some lifting straps. I stand with the front of my feet on the raised platform with my heels free to drop lower down. I hold a heavy bar with straps at thigh level and with the bar just touching the upright posts of the rack (stops me falling forward), which makes it much easier to balance than if it was on my shoulders. With a bit of practice it is possible to use very heavy loads this way.
I hate seated calf-raise machines with a passion: got stuck in one once when I tore my calf. Couldn't get out of the darn thing! Not nice. If you are going to use one, don't go too heavy or you may get stuck too.
Have fun with this but don't go mad.
Ok, that was more like 3¢!
I know what you mean about genetics my sister complains about having big calves and shoulders from doing a lot gymnastics as a teenager!
Thats interesting that you have a routine working from 10 reps downwards, usually when someone is trying to build calves a higher rep approach is suggested. I think I recall some routines for calf muscles by Charles Poliquin that advocated 50 to 100 rep sets!
So the 'burn sets' would'nt be suitable for the 15 and 10 rep cycles? Maybe just continue with bodyweight??
Thats interesting that you have a routine working from 10 reps downwards, usually when someone is trying to build calves a higher rep approach is suggested. I think I recall some routines for calf muscles by Charles Poliquin that advocated 50 to 100 rep sets!
So the 'burn sets' would'nt be suitable for the 15 and 10 rep cycles? Maybe just continue with bodyweight??