how to up weight after first HST cycle

[paul allen]

Gonna start hst very soon. I've been reading over on website and think I'm gonna just use weekly cycling as opposed to 2 weeks.

So it'll be:
15 reps week 1, 12 reps week 2, 10 reps week 3, 8 reps week 4, 5 reps week 5.

I understand increasing weight by 10 lbs every workout til reach max on fridays, but what I don't understand is how the increments should increase after 1 cycle.
Do you add 10lbs to max so that every workout just shifts along one notch, or can you increase more than this.
This bit is really confusing me, please help, thanks.

 

[casualbb]

Use your judgment. Try to see how easy the maxes feel when you get to them and raise by an according amount for the second cycle. Be wary of raising them too much... it can muck things up. I'd say that for a given exercise, one increment is enough to raise it after a productive cycle.

 

[audiophyle]

So it'll be:
15 reps week 1, 12 reps week 2, 10 reps week 3, 8 reps week 4, 5 reps week 5

i would suggest against that. It sounds like it would be optimal but most people who've tried it on the hst board ended up overtraining.

 

[Lestat]

First off, its not neccsarily 10lbs every workout. It depends on the exercise. 10lbs isn't much to add to squats, deadlifts, or shrugs.. but its a lot to ad to dumbell curls, skull crushers, etc. You should try to up each lift by 5-10% of the previous workout. So for some lifts it would be far more then 10lbs, and usually the smallest increment you would ever up the weight by is 5lbs unless your gym has 1lbs plates then you could go 2lbs if need be.

Also, I'd suggest you reconsider altering the number of reps weekly, it will make things more difficult for you.

Let me explain.

You should start off by first finding your 15 rep max, 10 rep max, and 5 rep max.

Then you choose a decrement, 5-10% of the max weight and back into the 5 days before your max day.

So let me use an example (these weights are chosen for simplicity sake):

for bench:

15 rep max: 200lbs
10 rep max: 245lbs
5 rep max: 275lbs

Lets use a decrement of 5lbs, this is probably TOO low, but for bench I don't like going down to 150lbs for the 15 rep max.

So your first two weeks at 15 reps would be:

175, 180, 185, 190, 195, 200

then the next two weeks at 10 reps

220, 225, 230, 235, 240, 245

then the next two weeks at 5 reps

250, 255, 260, 265, 270, 275

So you will see that there are some big jumps from week to week.. at the end of week 2 you go from 200 to 220... that is fine if that is what your max lifts put you at. You can also have the opposite effect.. say you max at 15 reps is 200, at 10 reps its only 215, then 235 at 5 reps. You would have some workouts where your weight is actually less then it was the previous workout. This was tough for me at first, but it is fine and actually helps out sometimes to recover. You will still make good gains with a system below.

175, 180, 185, 190, 195, 200

190, 195, 200, 205, 210, 215

210, 215, 220, 225, 230, 235

I hope this helps

 

[paul allen]

Thanks lestat, I think thats helped, karma