BEST program for SIZE gains (personal experiences)?

[ceo]

What training "program" gave you you best SIZE gains? I'm talking about muscle building, not sitting on your ass eating all day to gain size! For example, HST, HIT, 5x5, Volume Training...bodypart 1x/wk - 2x/wk - 3x/wk???

Be as specific as you want to be. Post up!

For me, I'd say Volume training has given me the most gains. I did two HST cycles and basically just maintained. never did HIT. 5x5 put some great size and definition on my legs pretty quickly (squatting 3x's/wk!), but didn't do anything for my upper body. Granted, I ran it once for only 8 or 9 weeks. I haven't decided whether or not I am going to give that another go. I might just use that for legs and volume for upper body.

Ok...who's next?

 

[Guinness5.0]

The first time I ran 5x5 was a couple months after a cycle. I was able to get pretty close to the size I was at while 'on' with it (hit 262 on cycle, got in the mid 250's after my DF 5x5 was done). So that gets my vote.

I have also had good results from HST. I recomped by a decent amount on it (lost fat and gained muscle) which is pretty tough to do for someone who's been in the gym consistently for several years.

 

[ZGzaZ]

Intermediate 5x5.

 

[Jayhawk21]

Eating more food.

 

[samoth]

Metal Militia, hands down.

 

[perp69]

5x5 and eating

Perp

 

[RottenWillow]

I completed an HST cycle back in '03 and did gain a bit of size from it, but it was pretty demanding for my recovery system.

I've actually made my best gains ever during the last 5 months by training each muscle group just once every 7 days, two worksets sets per exercise with 1 to 4 rest/pause reps at the end of each set (larger muscles get more reps, smaller ones less). That's really equivilent to more than two work sets given the degree to which I fatique each muscle.

I've found that my muscles need 7 days to overcompensate from those workouts.