HST: Last cycle question

[RusPA81]

I have a question about that last cycle in HST. In the last stage of HST where you have a choice to do either another 2 weeks of 5's or do 2 weeks or 2RM with negatives, for those of you who have tried both, which worked better and what kind of results did you see from each?

 

[guldukat]

I have a question about that last cycle in HST. In the last stage of HST where you have a choice to do either another 2 weeks of 5's or do 2 weeks or 2RM with negatives, for those of you who have tried both, which worked better and what kind of results did you see from each?

I'd say theoretically the latter should work better. I only know of one guy who did the negatives, and he raved about it. But I don't think he did the 5's long enough to make a comparison between the two, you know?

 

[Toozee]

After the initial 2 weeks of 5's, I did a second 2 wks of 5's for 4 total wks....but.....the 3rd wk, I tried to add 5lbs or so to everything...and then 5 more or a second set the last week.

All in all I think that worked well. Haven't done the negatives personally, so I can't speak on that.

 

[RusPA81]

After the initial 2 weeks of 5's, I did a second 2 wks of 5's for 4 total wks....but.....the 3rd wk, I tried to add 5lbs or so to everything...and then 5 more or a second set the last week.

All in all I think that worked well. Haven't done the negatives personally, so I can't speak on that.

Thats what I was thinking of doing too, but I wanted see if anyone had any experience with the negatives. My lifting partner is trying it this week and seems pretty intense.

 

[RusPA81]

. Oh, and with the negatives... don't just jump straight to the 2RM, keep incrementing the weight.

What exactly do you mean by this?

 

[casualbb]

The consensus is that if you can do negatives, do them. Oh, and with the negatives... don't just jump straight to the 2RM, keep incrementing the weight. I've never done them personally though. A lot of guys rave about them.

 

[RusPA81]

I hit my 5RM day, for instance. Next time I'll up the weight again and try to get all 5. If I can't, I have the spotter help me. I'll just keep upping the weight until eventually most of the reps are negatives with spotter help.

Oh, ok. My lifting partner, BLKWS6 is adding 10-15% to his 5 RM and is trying to do it that way. He is getting between 1-3 reps on his own this way. Is this the correct way, or should just add like 5-10 pounds?

 

[casualbb]

I hit my 5RM day, for instance. Next time I'll up the weight again and try to get all 5. If I can't, I have the spotter help me. I'll just keep upping the weight until eventually most of the reps are negatives with spotter help.

 

[casualbb]

Oh, you train with BLKWS6? That's cool, he rules.

I just keep raising the weight by the increment I was using. Also I usually start repeating each weight once when I get to the negatives if I haven't already.

 

[RusPA81]

Oh, you train with BLKWS6? That's cool, he rules.

I just keep raising the weight by the increment I was using. Also I usually start repeating each weight once when I get to the negatives if I haven't already.

Yeah, he's pretty cool. We are pretty close in the weights we lift so the competition is pretty motivating. Anyways thanks for the tips.

 

[BlkWS6]

Yeah I took what casual said (always good with giving help thx once again bro!) and then I also went over to the HST forum and read up on what some people were doing for the negative training over there. The consensus I got was that the weight was to stay constant and that the first 2 reps or so should be completed by oneself and then the remaining 3 reps (give or take) should be performed as negatives. I did this method on Monday and I must say I really enjoyed it. The weights were skewed in both directions on some lifts, but that will be taken care of. Since the 2RM is not really tested in the beginning of HST like the 15's, 10's, and 5's I saw someone post up a percentage of the 5RM on the HST forums and I gave it a go.
The guy recommended taking 120% of the 5RM (Im normally not too fond of these percentage things in terms of finding a max but in this case my choices were limited) and taking that as the 2RM. It was a little on the heavy side for me on some lifts, but on others it was just about right. Anyways, I really think this is the "icing on the cake" for an HST cycle. I did the continuation of the 5RM my first cycle around and it was good, but this added intensity of the negatives really has me amped. However, I will look forward to SD and the 15's after these next brutal 2 weeks.

Side Note: I urge anyone who is on the fence about HST to give it a try. I honestly couldn't be any happier with a program at this point in time. If you can accept low volume/high frequency mentally I strongly recommend it.

 

[Toozee]

Yeah..next time I do an HST cycle, I'll have to find a partner so I can add some negatives. I really believe those would be a great end of the cycle addition.

 

[Backlash]

Let me know sometime dude - I live in Dallas (Plano actually). I'll probbaly be doing HST sometime again later this fall or winter.