My First true HST cycle

K

Krieger

New Member
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After years of discovering the program and following the principles, I will try to stick to it now as closely as I can. I dropped the gym for 1 year while I was in Germany, lost about 10 kg (that is about 25 pounds) there - lots of fat (around 3 inches) but some muscle too. In Germany the food is crap.  
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Now I am about 84 kg (185 lbs), with some layer of fat to go.

Goal: fat loss, I want to have visible abs. I haven't measured my bodyfat but should be around 12-15%.
Workout approach: as in "Simplify and Win".

Workout A
Squat
Pull Ups
Dips
Mil. Press
abs

B
Squat
Deadlift
Bench Press
Mil. Press
abs

during 10's and beginning 5's I will do some arm isos

Diet approach: Intermitent Fasting on non workout days, carbs being only low carb fruits and vegetables, and on workout days only fruits and vegetables and after workout some fiber rich carb (oatmeal or full wheat bread).

I will do Cardio after workout, progressing every weak.
I will walk a lot on not workout days (around 3 hours).

That's it for now.
Yesterday's workout:
(22/10/09)


Squat
2x15x10kg

Pull Ups on gravitron machine
2x15x13 plates

Dips gravitron
2x15x13 plates

1 set of abs

20 min. cardio

PS: The weights are in Kilos. Don't look down my punny little weights, I am kinda week
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You are all welcome to come to my journal and comment !
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I have not been disciplined with diet on the past few days. I gotta keep it on track now.

Note: I am not counting the bar's weight, which should be 5-10kgs. I will be using the same bar through all the cycle.

Squats 1x15x15 kg
Deadlifts 1x15x20 kg
Bench Press 1x15x6 kg
Mil. Press 1x15xbar

abs
 
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(Krieger @ Oct. 27 2009,1:52)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Note: I am not counting the bar's weight, which should be 5-10kgs. I will be using the same bar through all the cycle.</div>
You should. It really helps if you workout somewhere else like a gym or if you ever change your bar. The calculation of RM %s and progression is also a little more precise. It is easy, weight yourself without holding the bar, again while holding the bar and subtract. You might want to do that two or three times to get an average.
 
Hey Krieger ,

If you are using an Oly bar it will most likely be 15kg or 20kg but there are other non-comp bars out there. Worth checking by throwing it on the scale. Like electric said, it's much better to know what you are actually lifting.

If you get really serious about your cut, it really is a good idea to log your cals once you get past the initial 'easy fat loss' period. Once your cal restriction is more severe you'll need to manage training volume and load more carefully than you do when you're hyper-caloric.

To help progress along, check out refeeds. Lyle MacDonald has a lot of useful info over at his site (http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/).

All the best.
 
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(Lol @ Oct. 27 2009,11:32)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">If you are using an Oly bar it will most likely be 15kg or 20kg but there are other non-comp bars out there. Worth checking by throwing it on the scale. Like electric said, it's much better to know what you are actually lifting.</div>
I just bought an iron bar online here in Brazil. It is a 1,8m bar and it weights 8,5Kg so your bar can go from 5Kg for a smaller thinner bar to 20Kg for a full standard olympic bar. That large of a difference will make affect your planning.
 
Hey Lol and eletric, thanks a lot for participating.
Contributors can help me a lot with the motivation... There is just too few distraction when you need the focus!

Lyle is great. He talks a little about Intermittent Fasting too. From what I have read, IF helps a lot with partioning, helping some people bulk with minimal fat gain (maybe some fat loss) and also optimal fat loss during cutting, as you can see here:
http://leangains.blogspot.com/2008/06/sure-fire-fat-loss.html

About the barbell weight... hmm... I actually never saw a barbell that weights heavier than 10 kg around here. I might have been around 5 gyms. Brazilians are just not too much into squats - the instructors say it is a advanced exercise for women.  
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And yeah, I will follow the wise HSTers advice and check the barbell's weight
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I would personally alternate squat with deadlifts instead of doing both squats and deadlifts in your B workout. Other option is to do Squats on Mondays and Fridays and Deadlifts on Wednesdays. Just for completeness I would add rows probably alternated with pull ups and I think you might be overworking your front delts. You are doing military presses every workout and doing bench presses every other workout. You could do military presses on the dips day and do something like upright rows or shrugs on the bench press day to keep things balanced.
 
Mon/Fri
Squat
Pull Ups
Dips
Mil. Press
bi's and tri's isos
abs

Wednesday

Deadlift - (makes sense to follow Max Stim on this one)
Bench Press
upright rows
bi's and tri's isos
abs

How does it look like now ?
I actually don't like the Upright Rows and hate shrugs. Since I don't want to be only 10 minutes in the gym, I will include upright rows. The Deadlifts Max Stim style will also be more exciting and time consuming to do.
 
You could add a BB Row alternated with the pull up. Pull-ups/Chin-ups work emphasises the lats and rows are a good way of working the rhomboids and posterior delt. It just might be too much upper/lower back work to deadlift and row on the same day so you could BB Row on Squat day and Pull up on deadlift day. On the squat day it might also be a good idea to row after dipping so your lower back can get some rest after the squat.
And BTW, these are only suggestions, they are not in any way the BEST way of organizing your routine. If you don't like upright rows, don't do them. If you still want to work the lateral delts you could do lateral raises instead.
 
29/10/09

Squat 1x15x24kg (the bar weights around 4 kg)
Chins 1x15x11 plates
Dips  1x15x11 plates
Military Press 1x15xbar
2 sets of abs
30 minutes of cardio

Dips and Chins burned like hell... Squats were not too easy.

I cheated a lot today. It was just difficult these days to keep calouries down when my appetite is one of a lion. My mother bought some typical brazilian cakes and they taste awesome... in more than one year I didn't had one of these. I will try a way to keep a distance from all the temptations.
 
After reading some posts about how important is to know your RMs, I decided to take this week to take my 10RM and 5RM. So next week I will jump right into my 10's with some calourie reduction. From what I have heard the 15's are not really important for cutting, and I did already one week.

In Tuesday I tested my Routine A maxes:

SQUAT
10 RM - 50 kg
5 RM - 60 kg

PULL UPS &amp; DIPS gravitron machine
10 RM - 7 plates
5 RM - 4 plates

MILITARY PRESS
10 RM - 26 kg
5 RM - 30 kg

The 5RM at the Squat was (low) estimated. After this workout I got winded, and I would not try to failure. I would rather stop 1 or 2 reps short of.

I am going to test the maxes of my &quot;B&quot; routine now.
 
Here are today tested RMs, weight including bar (as it is on previous post):

Deadlift
12 RM - 60 kg
10 RM - 66 kg
8 RM - 70 kg

Bench Press
10 RM - 44 kg
5 RM - 54 kg

Upright Rows
10 RM - 30 kg
5 RM - 40 KG

weak... for now !
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Next week the cutting cycle will begin with 10's, counting calouries in fitday!
 
november 10th '09

Squat 2x10x 30 kg
Pull Ups / Dips 2x10x 10 plates
Military Press 2x10x 20kg

20 minutes Cardio
 
November 13th

Deadlift
20 M Reps @ 50kg

Bench Press
2x10x 35 kg

Upright Rows
2x10x 25 kg

The Upright Rows felt heavy, almost into 10 RM. I must have got something wrong in the RM testing. I will drop 5 kg of it.

November 17th

Squats
2x10x 35 kg

Pull ups and Dips in the gravitron machine
2x10x9 plates

Military Press
2x8x25

Military Press felt very heavy. I am going to drop 5 kg as well.
 
November 22th

Deadlift
20 x 60 kg (MS reps)

Bench Press
1x10x44 kg
1x7x44kg (fellt heavy)

Upright Rows
2x10x26 kg

Being too busy, having difficulty keeping the frequency of the cycle.
 
* New Start *


After a looong SD, I will follow the advice of the wise guys to up my strength and mass, taking for granted that I am slim enough but not strong enough.

I am currently reading Starting Strength and I will do the Practical Programming Novice Program:

Day A/off/Day B/off/Day A/off/etc...

Day A/B:
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench press / Press (Alternating)
Chin-ups: 3 sets to failure or add weight if completing more than 15 reps / Deadlifts 1x5

Here's today workout
december 28, 2009 (11 PM)

Squat 3x5x30 (speed: fast)
Bench Press 3x5x30 (speed: fast)
Chin Ups: BWx1x5, BWx1x3, - *

* I did some ladders with chin ups early in the morning (about 6 AM), like 1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 (stalled, 1x3...


It seems weird that the initial squat weight and the initial  bench weight are the same, but one must keep in mind that the progressive load on Squat is at least double as fast. And I am really currently weak at squats and deads anyway.

Current Weight: 85 kg
 
* a Note on Diet *

I won't count calories, and I am aiming to a gallon of milk (4 liters to be exact) in two weeks PLUS 10 eggs a day. This week I am for two liters (half a gallon) and 10 eggs a day, and it is hard enough. Rippetoe recommends the gallon of milk for novices, so I will bloody do it !
 
today:
wednesday 30th november 2009

Squats
3x5x34 kg (easy/fast)
Press
3x5x20 kg (easy)
Deadlift
1x5x40 kg (easy)

The gym's trainee/instructor came to me during my Squats, interrupted and said to hold the bar on the Trapezius, as opposed as I had it on my upper back/shoulders. He said the bar and weights would fall if I wouldn't hold it on the trapezius...  
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what a joke !
Unfortunately, most gyms in Brazil (99%) focus on &quot;magazines&quot; hypertrophy training - that is - arm isolations, leg presses, machines, machines, machines... The guys study, graduate and know nothing about squats and deadlifts - some even try to teach what they don't know. How sad.
 
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(Krieger @ Dec. 30 2009,1:23)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Unfortunately, most gyms in Brazil (99%) focus on &quot;magazines&quot; hypertrophy training - that is - arm isolations, leg presses, machines, machines, machines... The guys study, graduate and know nothing about squats and deadlifts - some even try to teach what they don't know. How sad.</div>
So true
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They often complain if you are bench pressing with the bar touching the chest and don't even try to full squat (ATG squat) as they will tell you it is wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME.
 
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