HST Observation--From an Old-Schooler

[Atomic Punk]

I would hate to think that I'm not open to different methods of training, even though I am a straight-setter, and heavy-basic guy, for the most part. I have to say though, that after reading a little about this HST Training Routine, that to me, it looks like what I used to consider as a "maintenance routine". In other words, instead of breaking up muscles into specific days, in order to focus a larger routine on them, you are instead doing a couple of sets for each muscle group, each routine, a few times per week.

Tell me how my thinking is wrong please. How is this not a simple maintenance routine?

 

[Backlash]

Due to the progressive load. You increase the weight every workout.

 

[Atomic Punk]

Due to the progressive load. You increase the weight every workout.

Gotcha. Are there any experienced lifters here using it, and finding decent results in the process?

 

[lavi]

casualbb seems to advocate it, but you might consider him to be just a casual bodybuilder

 

[Debaser]

I would hate to think that I'm not open to different methods of training, even though I am a straight-setter, and heavy-basic guy, for the most part. I have to say though, that after reading a little about this HST Training Routine, that to me, it looks like what I used to consider as a "maintenance routine". In other words, instead of breaking up muscles into specific days, in order to focus a larger routine on them, you are instead doing a couple of sets for each muscle group, each routine, a few times per week.

Tell me how my thinking is wrong please. How is this not a simple maintenance routine?

The key to muscle growth is progressive load, not exercising it into oblivion until it "feels" trashed. HST uses this, coupled with the fact that most muscle adaptation (growth) ceases by 48 hours time, to come up with the theoretical fastest way to grow. In other words, they're hitting each muscle group 3 times as often as you are (or anyone doing a once a week routine) and thus should grow nearly 3 times as fast.

 

[majutsu]

My wife does it. And several law enforcement and college track types like it. I think it's great for non power-lifting, non-competing women. And it's very good for those who want the benefits of weight but have other physical responsibilities.

Also, in addition to your understanding, there are also the two week phases of 15-reps, 10-reps, and 5-reps. So there's a rep cycle. Also, say your last 10-reps bench max was 135, then you would shoot for say 140 for 10-reps on your last workout day of the 10s period. Your bench would start at a sub-maximal weight on the first day of 10s, so that you can increase the weight by 5 lbs every workout, to peak at 140 on that last day. So there are also weight cycles in each rep phase. So there are rep cycles, and weight cycles, as well as whole body 3x a week.

I like to keep the rep and weight cycles, break the whole body in two Arnold style, workout every day, but HST style in rep and weight cycles. I call it hybrid HST

I'm doing Westside now. But it's surprising how much HST can teach you about what really works and really is necessary for muscle growth.

 

[wend]

(I dig it, btw. I'm seeing considerable progress.)

On a side note, my first round I sort of skipped that 15-rep two-week cycle. I'd been doing about 13 reps for most of my exercises (with a typical bb split), and 5x5 for the military press and bench (which I really wanted strength gains in, fast), so I thought it'd be okay to start off with 10 reps. Well, it turns out that those two weeks are key to the overal success...they're for lactic-acid production, to toughen up the tendons so they can handle the rapid increase in resistance later on. I ended up with tendonitis from shoulder to thumb in my right arm. (Ouch!) I had to take my two-week deconditioning period a week early.

Now I'm nearing the end of my first week of 15 reps. My muscles are sore in a way they haven't been in a while...not like they've been injured, just like they've been really used. I miss feeling like a strong chick in the gym, but I know that in a month or so I'm going to be able to lift even heavier, this time without injury.

 

[casualbb]

Most people write off HST because they're too lazy or entrenched in their ways to understand it. I'm not saying anyone here is guilty of that; rather, that's what I tend to run into when people are seeing the program for the first time. It's so radically different from most of what else exists that people go "3x/week? Sub-failure? BULLSHIT!"

HST is based on the way muscles have been observed to grow.

Think to most programs you've seen. Most of them throw around some science-y terms to make it sound legitimate, but have you ever seen any references to peer-reviewed experiments in medical journals? Have you seen references at all?

Back when bodybuilding was in its infancy, we didn't know enough to create a medically correct program. Science just wasn't there yet. So bodybuilders just did whatever and used steroids to get big. Now we DO know, but people have been doing the same thing for so long that they don't want to hear it. There are two types of people who generally do HST: those new to the game, because they haven't invested their time and sweat into sub-par routines, or extreme-old timers, because they're frustrated and want more drug-free growth.

Anyway, that's my spiel. The keys to understanding the program are in the sticky post.

 

[wend]

Sometimes in the gym I get the feeling that one or two of the bodybuilders there (who look like they've been doing it for a long time) are thinking I must be an idiot. I mean, benching and squatting on the same day?

But I figure the results will speak for themselves.

 

[c3bodybuilding]

This type of routine seemed to work wonders for Steve Reeves (who was clean. last comp. was 49), and Reg Park. They did brief, 3x a week full body training. It was a lot like HST. Then again, they only won a few titles here and there....

Seriously though, it WORKS. Believe it or not, a lot of those once a week, 'bombing' routines are just crap spread from the magazines. Everyone used to hit things at least twice a week up until Flex started saying otherwise around 95 or so. Somehow it became a twisted fact that you could only make progress that way. But if you were to look back, it was always about brief, frequent training. Guys like Park, and even Arnold (he recommends brief 3 days a wk in the gym, full body workouts in his education of a bodybuilder) thrived on them. The mags have always added or made crap up that confuses people. Read a board like Robby Robinson's or Ironage.us. They will tell you how Joe would come into the gym and make up bullshit stories about their routines, how they would do 30 sets a body part, 2 hours in the gym twice daily, etc. Now he does the same things, only he claims once a week is now the way to go. Anway, I've rambled on long enough lol just read up on the old school routines, hst, dc, etc and you will see it all really WORKS.