Martinelli's HST Journal

[martinelli]

This thread sprouted from a joint thread between tweismann and myself entitled "partnered up for success; cutting fat and gaining lean mass." Upon seeing the information I posted in the "Partner Up" thread in the "Losing Fat" section of this site, tweismann noted the similarity in our stats and goals and messaged me proposing a partnership. This journal is an offshoot of our thread as well as a continuation of a previous journal I left for dead years ago. This first post will recount my history leading up to now and the reasoning behind my decision to follow the HST route this time.

During football season of high school, I fluctuated between 170 and 175 pounds. A shoulder dislocation (my third one) put me out before the first playoff game and for the rest of the season. Immediately post-season and when I was well enough from my RC injury, I cut down to 160-165 while maintaining my bench at 230. At the time, I was an upper body fanatic.

During the summer between my senior year of high school and freshman year at college, I bulked up to 210 pounds, bringing my bench up to a 300-lb single. During my second year at college, I brought up my deadlift to 405 lbs, my squat to 345, and my press to 180. While technically, my total for my bench, squat, and deadlift would be 1050 pounds, my all-time highs were achieved at different time periods, so sadly, I cannot claim such a total. Nothing nearly as impressive as other athletes, although on a personal level, I was ecstatic!

A fourth shoulder dislocation during a basketball game put me out of commission for another month or so. Since then, I have been wandering about aimlessly. My acceptance into the ACE certification program at UC Davis upon an application and interview helped to put me back on track, however basic the certification. It was through this program that I was also put into contact with professors specifically interested in research pertinent to our population, who understood the discrepancy between endurance athletes/cyclists and bodybuilders and drawing conclusions for our camp from results done on such a dissimilar group of trainees. I have since interfaced with these professors and have learned that they are intrigued by the egocentric goal of hypertrophy and may head future research solely using trained bodybuilders as opposed to untrained, fasted, obese, sedentary, or endurance-oriented individuals in order to derive more relevant conclusions.

Since high school, I have delved into the research literature as well as forums to derive both theoretical and practical approaches to training. This logically took me to examine a multitude of training protocols, including Rippetoe's template for novices, Bill Starr's 5x5, Chad Waterbury's 10x3, Bryan Haycock's Hypertrophy-Specific Training (HST), Dante Trudel's Doggcrapp Training (DC Training), German Volume Training (GVT), and Staley's Escalating Density Training (EDT).

For a good period of time, I subscribed to the ideologies of Mark Rippetoe and a user who went by the name of Madcow2 while he was still active in this forum. The basic tenet of their preaching was this: progressive load, compound lifts with minimal emphasis on the fluff, and a hypercaloric state will continually drive further hypertrophy. TUT/TUL and eccentric work was thrown to the side in favor of total work done.

And while all the stuff above holds true, there is a critical component left out that I cannot fault them for because it seemed to have been too recent at the time and the results were not yet there. From having dug up and read the posts of another, extremely intelligent user here who went by the name of slippy, as well as reading the articles of Bryan Haycock, it seems that while the body responds to progressive load (NOT volume, although minimum volume is still required) by inducing hypertrophy, it also induces hypertrophy in response to relative overload after a prolonged layoff. This is in line with research cited by Alan Aragon that hypertrophy was observed in the sedentary untrained even under a severe hypocaloric environment when put on a progressive loading scheme. And it would seem that HST is based on this ideology that the body will grow from using sub-maximal weights assuming that the poundage used is within minimum and maximum constraints and that a period of deconditioning is first completed, possibly to mimic the untrained state, during which it is universally accepted that gains come the fastest.

Do I dispute the very reputable Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore, as well as Madcow2, who is responsible for compiling the very helpful information regarding Bill Starr's 5x5 into a single website? Not at all. They were right on the money regarding progressive loads, heavy eating, and hypertrophy. The detail they could have never expected to address was that hypertrophy may be maximized without training at near-maximal (80-85% of 1RM) loads. In other words, hypertrophy can be maximized without strength having significantly increased. While strength serves as the upper ceiling for growth, the implication is that for any given strength level, hypertrophy can be maximized much further than we once knew before having to change the weight on the bar. And this is consistent with what I see in the gym.

Actually, there is one individual who frequents the gym, who loads the bar to 315 pounds and bench presses for several reps easily, but who is quite overweight and doesn't display impressive muscularity. Coincidence? Well, while this can be accounted for by genetics and training style, it should follow that for such (relatively) impressive strength (or more correctly, muscular endurance given the high number of reps he performed with the weight), some minimal muscle mass has to be there. But I've seen more muscular guys who don't move nearly the amount of weight he does in any of their exercises. I also know someone who pulls well over 4 plates on the deadlift, who is smaller than I am but obviously stronger. Impressive neural recruitment? These anecdotal observations have led me to believe that there is more to it than strength development, that perhaps those camps that preached isolation exercises were onto something, and that the other extreme camp that preached absolute strength and compound movements (the camp I was hung up on for several years) may have over-simplified it for the sake of beginners who just did too much in the gym. Both have their merits.

And so, I have landed on HST. DC also sounds to be a great alternative, but I don't have the money to be taken under Dante's wing and my competitiveness may be compromised given my numerous RC injuries. But the progressive scheme, minimal volume, and reasonable frequency (3x in 2 week) that DC calls for and that have worked so well for his trainees (they are all beefed to the bone) only serve to further affirm the same ideologies laid out in HST: that progressive load is important, that volume need only be minimal, that isolation work is indeed legitimate, heavy eating is a must, and high frequency of training is critical. I think of HST as a scaled-down version of DC training. Indeed, slippy voiced the same thing as well.

And so, this is it. In order to improve my visual appeal, and due to the fact that the limiting factor in training for absolute strength is that lingering fear of another dislocation, I have opted for HST. The reading and results are there. Let me know what you think.

I started my SD (strategic deconditioning) this past Tuesday and won't train again until this coming Thursday. In the meantime, some light morning and evening cardio on the treadmill, coupled with dieting that will still help me to achieve a day-to-day deficit, is all I do. Protein intake is always at least 1 gram per pound of bodyweight and occasionally more. The other macronutrient percentages are variable (usually less carbs due to the fact that I am on EC) but are still such that I have a deficit at the end of the day.

Supplementation includes:
- Multivitamin
- Oranges (last resort is a Vitamin C pill)
- EC during the week except for the carb-up day
- Creatine monohydrate (for the single weekly carb-up; this is less for its ergogenic benefit and more for the fact that research suggests that it benefits myonuclei number and satellite cell donation, meaning possibly augmented hypertrophy); right now, I am using Anabolic Halo (it was for sale at the time), but I typically stick to EAS Phosphagen Elite
- Green tea
- Decaf coffee
- Lovaza (high-quality prescription fish oil)
- CoQ10
- Metamucil (if my daily fiber is on the low side; I only take this in the evening by itself as it cakes up and may pull any supplements concurrently taken through the small intestine without them having ever been absorbed - decreased bioavailability. Plus, it improves my bowel movements the next morning)
- Xtend (I just wanted to test the hype)
- NO (just for the hype)
- Gakic (just to test the expensive hype)
- Vitamin B complex
- Citracal (I drink milk too, but what the heck)

Until Thursday!

[martinelli]

Monday, April 20 (Happy 4/20, everyone!)

Nothing special. Still sick. Few more days until SD is over and I get to train again. Not training sucks.

[martinelli]

Wednesday, April 22 - One more day!

I'm feeling a lot better today. I should be nearly well by tomorrow. Can't wait!

-martinelli

[martinelli]

Thursday, April 23, end of SD

Total protein for the day: 182g
Current weight: 180 (from 188 last week, likely due to my sickness for the past week)

Notes
*Had my scoop of EAS Phosphagen Elite creatine, and then went to the gym.
**Unless specified otherwise, all exercises were done for 1x15, as is the standard recommendation for the HST protocol.
***Working with weights this light doesn't feel right...
****Weight is in lbs
*****Cadence was 2-3 seconds on the eccentric, and an explosive concentric.

Squats: 85
Press: Bar
BB Curls: 30
Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown: 50
DB Bench Press: 30
DB Lateral Raises: 12
Lying DB Rear Raises: 5
Glute Machine: No weight
Incline Bench: 55
DB Overhead French Press: 25
Hyperextensions: BW
Standing Machine Calf Raises: 20
Hanging Leg Raises: BWx5
Tabata Squats: 20
Deadlifts: 135x15
Treadmill: 15 mins at 4.0 MPH

Felt pretty good easing back into training. I was having withdrawals.

[martinelli]

Saturday

Notes
*Protein intake today was only 141g. Need to consciously work on bringing that up. More chicken!
**Our personal training group underwent a fitness assessment on Friday. Good thing my schedule this week was Thurs-Sat.
- I had a RHR of 96 BPM, but I was sick and was also on EC (not a smart choice).
- My BF% is 18.
- My BP was 117/60
- My weight on the clinical weight scale read 178, but I'm actually around 185 right now.

Squats: 85 --> 95
Press: Bar --> 55
BB Curls: 30 --> 35
Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown: 50 --> 60
DB Bench Press: 30 --> 35
DB Lateral Raises: 12 --> 15
Lying DB Rear Raises: 5 --> 8
Glute Machine: No weight --> 5
Incline Bench: 55 --> 60
DB Overhead French Press: 25 --> 30
Hyperextensions: BW --> 5
Standing Machine Calf Raises: 25 --> 40
Hanging Leg Raises: BWx5 --> BWx6
Tabata Squats: 20 --> 30
Deadlifts: 135x15
Treadmill: 15 mins at 4.0 MPH

For tomorrow's off day
Morning and evening cardio on the treadmill for conditioning. My off days are lower in carbs, higher in fats, and I supplement with EC. On training days, I take creatine monohydrate. Constant weight fluctuation is expected.

Addendum
I forgot that I also did seated cable rows with 40 lbs for 15 reps on Thursday.

Erratum
I actually used 25, not 20, for the standing machine calf raises on Thursday.

Random Thought of the Day
Has anyone ever held a door open for someone out of courtesy but gotten angry upon realizing that the person didn't acknowledge you with maybe a nod or a smile? Just makes you wonder... these things are meant to be done without any expectation of reward, but some people feel entitled to it anyway.

[martinelli]

Sunday
Off Day - MetCon + EC

Notes
*Total protein today was 190g.
**The metcon work below consists of 1 total set per exercise.
***Bought 2 new tubs of protein for a total of $23.
- EAS Soy Protein
- Body Fortress Whey Protein (not the best brand, but I'm shooting for total protein, and this one gives a lot per scoop, is high in leucine, and actually comes with creatine monohydrate and taurine, too)

Morning Session
A scaled-down version of the normal HST sessions

Tabata Squats: 35
Press: 30lbs x 50
BB Curls: 20lbs x 50
Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown: 30 x 70
DB Bench: 15lbs x 50
DB Laterals: 5lbs x 40
Lying DB Rear Raises: 2.5lbs x 50
Glute Machine: No weight x 20
Incline Bench: Bar x 40
DB Overhead French Press: 15lbs x 50
Hyperextensions: BW x 20
Standing Machine Calf Raises: 25lbs x 50
Hanging Leg Raises: BW x 10
Deadlifts: 135lbs x 16
Treadmill: 15 minutes at 4.1 MPH

Evening
Treadmill: 30 minutes at 4.1 MPH

Erratum
My BP was actually 117/70.

Random Thought of the Day
Today, I tried out a new recipe for chicken, and it was amazing. Garlic peppered chicken breast tenderloins with cauliflower, tomatoes, topped with 2 slices of Swiss cheese and soy sauce (okay, lots of sodium, but I drank a lot of water). A whopping 98g of protein and 685 calories. Yum!

[AutumnPanda]

Subbed, good job so far, best of luck to you.

[martinelli]

Monday
2-27-09

Originally Posted by AutumnPanda

Subbed, good job so far, best of luck to you.

Thanks, AutumnPanda.

Notes
*After reading the research, I've dropped the post-workout cardio. Not that it's high-impact anyway, but I do feel too exhausted to continue it for too long. I'll save it for another day.

Squats: 85 --> 95 --> 105
Press: Bar --> 55 --> 65
BB Curls: 30 --> 35 --> 40
Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown: 50 --> 60 --> 70
DB Bench Press: 30 --> 35 --> 40
DB Lateral Raises: 12 --> 15 --> 17.5
Lying DB Rear Raises: 5 --> 8 --> 10
Glute Machine: No weight --> 5 --> 10
Incline Bench: 55 --> 60 --> 65
DB Overhead French Press: 25 --> 30 --> 35
Hyperextensions: BW --> 5 --> 10
Standing Machine Calf Raises: 25 --> 40 --> 55
Hanging Leg Raises: BWx5 --> BWx6 --> BWx7
Tabata Squats: 20 --> 30 --> 35
Deadlifts: 135x15 --> 135x16
Treadmill: 15 mins at 4.1 MPH

Random Thought of the Day
Our professor discussed the benefits of cocoa and dark chocolate on health today, so in addition to the red wine that I drink on most evenings, I bought Land Lakes brand semi-dark cocoa powder to mix with my morning protein shakes. Both chocolate and wine contain resveratrol, which explains the French Paradox.

[martinelli]

Wednesday
Off Day - MetCon + EC + Creatine

Notes
*Total protein for the day was 170g.
**Didn't go on the treadmill today.

Tabata Squats: 35 --> 40
Press: 30lbs x 50 --> 30lbs x 55
BB Curls: 20lbs x 50 --> 20lbs x 55
Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown: 30lbs x 70 --> 40lbs x 50
DB Bench: 15lbs x 50 --> 20lbs x 50
DB Laterals: 5lbs x 40 --> 5lbs x 45
Lying DB Rear Raises: 2.5lbs x 50 --> 2.5lbs x 55
Glute Machine: No weight x 20 --> No weight x 25
Incline Bench: Bar x 40 --> Bar x 45
DB Overhead French Press: 15lbs x 50 --> 15lbs x 55
Behind-the-Back Seated Cable Pulldowns: 30lbs x 50
DB Shrugs: 40lbs x 50
Hyperextensions: BW x 20 --> BW x 25
Standing Machine Calf Raises: 25lbs x 50 --> 25lbs x 55 (burned so bad)
Hanging Leg Raises: BW x 10 --> BW x 11
Deadlifts: 135lbs x 16 --> 135lbs x 17

Addendum
From now on, I will be doing shrugs and behind-the-back seated cable pulldowns for all subsequent MetCon sessions.

Random Thought of the Day
I'm buzzin' offa red wine. Finally done updating my last 2 workouts. Time to hit the hay.

[martinelli]

Thursday

Notes
*Total protein for the day was 183g.

Squats: 85 --> 95 --> 105 --> 115
Press: Bar --> 55 --> 65 --> 75
BB Curls: 30 --> 35 --> 40 --> 45
Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown: 50 --> 60 --> 70 --> 80
DB Bench Press: 30 --> 35 --> 40 --> 45
DB Lateral Raises: 12 --> 15 --> 17.5 --> 20
Lying DB Rear Raises: 5 --> 8 --> 10 --> 12
Glute Machine: No weight --> 5 --> 10
Incline Bench: 55 --> 60 --> 65 --> 70
DB Overhead French Press: 25 --> 30 --> 35 --> 40
Hyperextensions: BW --> 5 --> 10 --> 15
Standing Machine Calf Raises: 25 --> 40 --> 55 --> 70
Hanging Leg Raises: BWx5 --> BWx6 --> BWx7 --> BWx8
Seated Row: 50
DB Shrugs: 40
Behind-the-Neck Pulldowns: 40
Tabata Squats: 20 --> 30 --> 35 --> 40
Deadlifts: 135x15 --> 135x16 --> 135x17

Random Thought of the Night
Our house is having a social with a sorority tonight, and it's going on as we speak. It was nice meeting the girls, but I was a square and passed on the shots. I had just gotten back from the gym and opted for my post-workout shake instead. Not like you can only have fun when you're intoxicated, right? Time to jump back in there.

[martinelli]

Friday, 5-1-09
Off Day - MetCon + EC

Notes
*Due to a hectic Friday schedule, the entirety of the day's calories came from 3 near-identical blends of protein powder, cocoa powder, and strawberries thrown into 8 oz. of milk, amounting to a meager 90g of protein and a grand total of ~1000 calories. Did I feel hungry? Not with the EC. Would I want to do this regularly? Of course not. Good thing today was only a MetCon workout, which doesn't cause too much protein breakdown due to the lightness of the loads used.
**I believe I read somewhere that even after short-term atrophy, myonuclei number within the muscle fiber actually stays the same. Could this explain the phenomenon of "muscle memory"?

Tabata Squats: 35 --> 40 --> 45
Press: 30lbs x 50 --> 30lbs x 55 --> 35lbs x 50
BB Curls: 20lbs x 50 --> 20lbs x 55 --> 20lbs x 60
Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown: 30lbs x 70 --> 40lbs x 50 --> 40lbs x 55
DB Bench: 15lbs x 50 --> 20lbs x 50 --> 20lbs x 55
DB Laterals: 5lbs x 40 --> 5lbs x 45 --> 5lbs x 50
Lying DB Rear Raises: 2.5lbs x 50 --> 2.5lbs x 55 --> 2.5lbs x 60
Glute Machine: No weight x 20 --> No weight x 25 --> No weight x 30
Incline Bench: Bar x 40 --> Bar x 45 --> Bar x 50
DB Overhead French Press: 15lbs x 50 --> 15lbs x 55 --> 20lbs x 50
Behind-the-Back Seated Cable Pulldowns: 30lbs x 50 --> 30lbs x 55
DB Shrugs: 40lbs x 50 --> 40lbs x 55
Hyperextensions: BW x 20 --> BW x 25 --> Didn't do 'em
Standing Machine Calf Raises: 25lbs x 50 --> 25lbs x 55 --> 25lbs x 60
Hanging Leg Raises: BW x 10 --> BW x 11 --> BW x 12
Deadlifts: 135lbs x 16 --> 135lbs x 17 --> 135lbs x 18

Random Thought of the Night
Got a lot of compliments in the gym today about how skinny I got. What a load of hullabaloo; 2 weeks ago my BF was measured at 18.1%, so I know they're lying.