Let me begin by saying I'm fairly new to bodybuilding and this is my first time on a message board, so I'm a nube squared... oh, and I'm a bad speller, so I'll look especially dumb today...
Ok, I've been to thinkmuscle, love the site, and have tried to set up an HST system for myself and two others. From the get-go it's looked good (we'll begin after a week of SD - we just determined our maxes), and I think I understand the system, but here's where I have problems:
1. I assume strength is a linear equation since it was explained by the formula y= m(x) + b. This is a correct assumption, right? Strength isn't based on the Bell Curve or anything crazy like that, right?... cause if it is that will make the rest of these questions pointless...
2. To find our maxes we grabbed random weights and worked until failure; averaging the reps per set and ploting them with the 'reps' as the X value and 'weight' as the Y value. We did this with three different weights (because it's best to plot with three variables rather than two) and used a graphing calculator to find 'm' and 'b' (see above equation).
With this we found our maxes for 15, 10, 5 and 2 (and the math checked out in the gym), but the problem came when figuring out what we should do for the first week of HST. Because my 'm' value (rate of change in weight per rep) was the highest, it gave me a HUGE variance. For instance: in squats I'm to start with 103lbs the first session, and end with 623 for the final week, while my friend will start with 213 and end with 555!
I've realized that this is because the decremental weight is 5% of 5RM, and my 5RM is higher than my friend's.
Should this be? Has this direct relationship between variance and weight/strength been taken into account (because it becomes quite significant when it comes to legs)?
Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I hope someone can figure out what I'm trying to say...
Ok, I've been to thinkmuscle, love the site, and have tried to set up an HST system for myself and two others. From the get-go it's looked good (we'll begin after a week of SD - we just determined our maxes), and I think I understand the system, but here's where I have problems:
1. I assume strength is a linear equation since it was explained by the formula y= m(x) + b. This is a correct assumption, right? Strength isn't based on the Bell Curve or anything crazy like that, right?... cause if it is that will make the rest of these questions pointless...
2. To find our maxes we grabbed random weights and worked until failure; averaging the reps per set and ploting them with the 'reps' as the X value and 'weight' as the Y value. We did this with three different weights (because it's best to plot with three variables rather than two) and used a graphing calculator to find 'm' and 'b' (see above equation).
With this we found our maxes for 15, 10, 5 and 2 (and the math checked out in the gym), but the problem came when figuring out what we should do for the first week of HST. Because my 'm' value (rate of change in weight per rep) was the highest, it gave me a HUGE variance. For instance: in squats I'm to start with 103lbs the first session, and end with 623 for the final week, while my friend will start with 213 and end with 555!
I've realized that this is because the decremental weight is 5% of 5RM, and my 5RM is higher than my friend's.
Should this be? Has this direct relationship between variance and weight/strength been taken into account (because it becomes quite significant when it comes to legs)?
Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I hope someone can figure out what I'm trying to say...