RotatorCuff's HST journal

[RotatorCuff]

Weight: 173 lbs
Age: 21

Previous Maxes(All on same day, SLDL probably reduced back maxes, back fatigue likely reduced chest performance etc.) Maxes determined after two days rest from last HST cycle:
Front Squat(Ass to calves) 145X3
Bending Back Locked Kneecaps SLDL 135X8
Dumbell Row 80X2(Not all the way to the ground, just arm down, arm to stomach off of bench)
Dumbell Chest 55X6(feet in air)
Dumbell Shoulder Press 45X1(seated, no back support)
Decline sit ups 45X2
Shrugs 90X4
Parallel Chest(head down) Dips Bodyweight+15X4
Chin-ups Bodyweight+10X1(no leg cheating)

14 day strategic deconditioning(After this my skin still has not healed from holding the dumbels)

Started routine Monday February 2nd:
I lifted explosively and did an explosive negative as well to keep things interesting
Monday, Wednesday Routine
Two sets for all exercises
55, 65 Front Squat 15 reps
55, 65 SLDL "
30, 35 Dumbell Row
15, 20 Dumbell Chest
5, 10 Shoulder Press
30, 35 Shrugs
0, 5 Decline Sit Up15 reps first time, could only do five reps set one day two because it was too painful, then did eleven reps set two. I tried doing an explosively negative and it hurt like hell.

All exercises were pretty easy aside from the sit ups. I was deconditioned to the stretch of the SLDL. Torwards the end of the Front Squat and SLDL I started to slow down but with the other exercises the speed was pretty fast throughout the exercise.

[beinskinnysucks]

If they are easy them maybe you need more weight.

[Heisman]

This will be a good journal because lots of people want to try HST and can see how you do. The pressure is on. Just kidding. Lift hard and I'll be sure to watch you progress.

[RotatorCuff]

Friday, HST, Cycle 2, workout 3

I was amazed at how fast my hands heal after getting torn up by those weights. I was slightly slower today then the other two workouts. I had adapted again to the stretch of SLDL. I was the same speed in Dumbell Chest and Dumbell Shoulder Press, perhaps doing those exercises in a form that incorporates more stabilizers was a mistake. Shrugs were blazingly fast as usual. Dumbell Rows were only a little slower.

Reps all 15 aside from the first set of decline sit ups with which I could only stand 13 reps on the first set but did 15 reps set two.

Front Squat 75(I didn't feel it as much in the lower back going slower)
SLDL 75(ditto)
Dumbell Row 40(felt it more in my bicep than other times, starting around rep 12 or so)
Dumbell Chest 25
Dumbell Shoulder Press 15(felt a little loss in circulation in my left tricep but according to HST that can trigger the hypertrophic response)
Decline Sit Ups 10(Didn't feel it as much in my tibialis going slowly, I think I should try to minimize the pinning of my feet so I have to use my tibialis more)
Shrugs 40

Hopefully, after a two day break I'll have a faster rep speed.

[Younglifter14]

wow looks pretty interesting. GOod luck with It Ill be checking over this.

Young

[Jimineye]

Good luck, I'm interested in learning about this type of training, so keep us updated on what happens.

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 1 of Week 2, Monday

Weight:175

The two days off really helped me. For some reason I keep waking up after six hours of sleep. I feel like total crap. Water doesn't help. But once I put one tinsy bit of food in my mouth I start to feel better. I do manage to go to bed after I eat, but I'd like to get the full straight eight hours to get the maximum testosterone I can.

For the first five reps on every exercise, I felt like king of the world and I was just pushing those weights up but then the lactic acid started to set in. Except for shrugs, which I decided to just do super fast all the way through and had no problems. I had balance problems with squats and SLDL always around rep 3 for some reason but for the rest of the set I was dead on. All sets were 2 and all reps were 15 unless otherwise noted.

Ass to Calves Front Squat 85(For some reason I went a lot narrower than I normally do, that's why I had such balance problems, grunted a few times)
Bending Back Locked Kneecaps SLDL bar goes down to about ankle height 85(I've totally adapted to the stretch again and don't feel it anymore now)
Dumbell Row 45(I'm never quite sure when the negative portion of this exercis done, around 14 or 15 or so I felt close to failure but I felt confident that I wasn't near it because I know the lactic acid can be deceptive)
Dumbell Chest Press 30 each hand(I put my feet on the ground for this exercise instead of up in the air, also I switched from doing it to elbows at shoulder height to elbows at chest height and lowering the dumbells to the chest rather than to parallel)
Dumbell Shoulder Raise 20(I only did 12 reps the second set because I got distracted and feared failure, I felt a little loss of circulation in this exercise and dumbell chest in my left tricep, I used full back support, I really felt it in the levator scapulae and I arched my back. My ROM right now is dumbells to shoulders then up until the dumbells touch. I will change ROM if I feel it results in being able to use heavier poundage and thus having a longer cycle)
Decline Situps 15(I felt this in my abs, obliques, lower back, and even a little in my tibialis, I grunted every rep)
Shrugs 45(When I do this exercise, I count it as a bicep exercise too, because whenever you use forearms you use biceps because of the way it's attached and I have to do a bit of a curl to get the weight back on the rack, so basically I do 4 mini bicep curls whenever I do the routine)

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 2 of week 2, Wednesday

Normally, I breath in on the negative and out on the positive. But suddenly during front squats I just started breathing really fast. I didn't complete the sets on all exercises but it was due to being out of breath rather than hitting failure.

Front Squats 95 13 13
BBSLDL 95 15 15
Dumbell Row 50 15 15
Dumbell Chest 35s 12 12
Dumbell Shoulder Raise(Full Back Support, arched back) 25s 12 12
Shrugs 50s 15 15
Decline Sit Ups at lowest decline available 20 15 12

I actually got a pump in my biceps and triceps today. I haven't gotten a pump in any muscle since I stopped doing direct arm work. It may have been the first time I noticed though. The faster breathing definately had an impact. I didn't grunt but I didn't go as fast.

[RotatorCuff]

What a difference five pounds makes. Today was a lot harder. I found some stretch marks on my right bicep which is not surprising since it pumps so easily. Lifting practically anything will make it pump. I was definately a lot slower. My CNS wasn't as in charge as with lighter weight.

Front Squat 105 7(The weight leaned onto my right shoulder but I worked things out for the other sets) 10 10
SLDL 105 10 10 10(I improved speed every set and my breathing technique got better so I was much faster the third set than on the first)
Dumbell Row 55 10 10 9(Not failure, just started to slow down which according to HST you should stop)
Dumbell Chest Press 40 10 10 10(I decided to work on technique a bit. I got a pretty good arch going but I couldn't figure out to how incorporate leg drive)
Dumbell Shoulder Raise 30 10 10 8(Again not failure just suffered slow down)
Shrugs 55 15 15
Decline Sit ups 25 10 10 10

[Heisman]

Nice workouts. Keep working on the form. Concentrate hard on your breathing, because you do not want it to become a problem.

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 1 of Week 3

Weight: 175

I had to work out at twenty four fitness because of the holiday and they didn't have a good squat rack for front squatting. It was awkward putting the bar on my delts and I had to walk a few steps back to go deep. So, my deltoids got more isometric work than usual(tons of markings all over my deltoids) and thus the dumbell shoulder raise suffered.

Front Squat 115 5 7 10 7
BBSLDL 115 10 10 10(Favorite exercise)
Dumbell Row 60 6 6 6 6
Dumbell Chest 45 10 10 10(can't figure out how to incorporate leg drive at all)
Dumbell Shoulder Raise 35 5 5 5(ditto)
Decline Sit Ups(Second favorite exercise) 30 10 10 10
Shrugs 60 15 15

I'm taking biocell creatine right now and it took me about a month to notice a pump gain. I'm looking into taking HMB next cycle.

[Heisman]

You don't want leg drive for shoulder raises. On presses just make sure that you have a firm base under you and you should be fine. Nice job improving on SLDLs.

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 2 of Week 3

Well, I had to dump Shoulder Dumbell Raise because the last weight I lifted felt very heavy to my CNS. Hopefully, I'll be stronger when I return that exercise later in the cycle and hopefully the other exercises will make some of the muscles involved stronger so they'll be able to do the exercise. It was such a relief to return to a good squat rack and be able to place the barbell on a much more stable base.

ATC Front Squat 125 7 7 7
Bar to ankles Locked Kneecap SLDL 125 10 10 10
One Arm Dumbell Row 65 10 10(starting to use body rotation)
Dumbell Chest Press 50 8 6 5(messed up on the last two sets and the dumbells went too low beneath the chest, that's why the last two sets aren't eight)
Dumbell Shrugs 65's 10 10 10
Decline Sit Ups 35 10 10 10

[Heisman]

Good workout. It is always easier when you feel safe. I'm not sure, but I believe that it is bad to have completely straight legs for SLDL, and I also don't think you are supposed to go down that far. But I may be wrong.

[RotatorCuff]

Wokrout 3 of week 3

Front Squat 135 5X5
SLDL 135 5X5
Dumbell Row 70 5X5
Dumbell Chest 55 3X1(apparently feet up in the air makes it easier)
Shrugs 75 3X5
Decline Sit-ups 45 5X5

[Heisman]

So you are going with a 5x5 scheme? What happened to HST?

[RotatorCuff]

This is HST, I'm just trying to maintain roughly the same amount of volume. This amount of volume just works out to be 5X5(around 30 reps). I'm not doing zig zagging at all because I'd rather just decondition during that time.

[Heisman]

Okay. I don't really understand HST, so I might be asking you a few questions on it.

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 1 of Week 4

Weight: 178

Front Squat 145 4X5
BBSLDL 145 4X5
One Arm Dubell Row 75 3X3
Underhanded Chinups Bodyweight 2 1 1
Dips Bodyweight 4X5
Dumbell Shoulder Press 40 3 1 5 5 5
Decline Sit Ups 55 4X5

Will do shrugs tomorrow.

[RotatorCuff]

Special Tuesday Shrugfest

Shrugs 80 4X5

[Heisman]

Good workout. Your front squat and sldl each went up ten pounds.

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 2 of Week 4

Full Front Squat 155 5 5 5 5(last rep of each set was pretty slow, on last rep of last set knees went in)
BB SLDL 155 5 5 5 5(I was playing to do negatives by deadlifting the weight up and then SLDLing it the way down but for some reason deadlifting the weight off the block is harder than SLDL)

Took a two-three hour break

One Arm Dumbell Row 80 4X(2+3 negs) (negatives were performed by using both arms to bring weight to stomach and then lowering the weight until the floor)
Weighted underhanded chin ups 10 5 negs(negatives performed by setting the assisted pull up machine to 20 using it to go up and then bending my legs and lowering myself down)
Weighted Dips 10 5 5 3(the stretch in my chest started to get a little too painful)
Dumbell Shoulder Raise 45 1+4negs 1+2negs(people didn't help me out in the positive as much as I would've liked, tommorrow I'll go in and experiment with negative methods that don't require a spotter)
Weighted Decline Sit ups 65 5 5 3(I hardly got any rest between sets one and two because some students were filming something for their class and I thought it would be cool to be in the film, so I cut short my rest so they could see me doing the sit ups, unfortunately I hit failure on the last set)

[RotatorCuff]

Misc. day

Dumbell Shrugs 85 4X5

Starting next cycle Tuesday and Thursday are going to be misc dayds where I do neck machine forward and backward, seated calf raises, cable tibialis work, cable subscapularis work, cable gleteus medius and minimus, dumbell wrist curls, and cable hip adductor. A lot of these exercises I won't be able to increment very much because I will have to use such low weight. Thus, the increments I will have to use are more suited to two times per week. Also, if I did these exercises on the regular days I would be in there for three hours. In addition, not a lot of people don't work muscles like the subscapularis, so I can think to myself yeah he's bigger than me but I have a bigger subscapularis. At the end of this cycle I'll get my maxes for these exercises.

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 3 of Week 4

Front Squat 165 3 2 3 3 3
BBSLDL 165 5 5 5 5
One Arm Dumbell Row 85 20 negatives(could only control negative a little, probably two second lowering time)
Underhanded Chinup's Bodyweight + 20 10 negatives(could hardly control negative at all, probably one second lowering time)
Head down Dips Body + 20 3 5 5 5 2
Dumbell Shoulder Raise 50 20 negatives(negatives performed by putting dumbell in one hand and setting it in position with the help of the other)
Decline Sit Ups 75 20 negatives(negatives performed by holding a 35 and 40 pound dumbell in my hands and then lowering back to the pad. Then I put the dumbells on my legs and did a sit up up and returned the dumbells to position)

[Heisman]

Nice workouts. You shouldn't do negatives too often, I believe, because it taxes your CNS a lot.

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 1 of Week 5

Weight: 179
Front Squat 175 2 2 3 3 3 3 1 and 1/2(failure! Doh!)
Bending Back Locked Kneecaps 175 5 5 5 5(Weight gotten up by deadlifting it off the block)
One Arm Dumbell Rows 90 10 negatives
Underhanded Chinups body+30 20 negatives (They have a machine at the gym that makes it really easy to do negatives on this)
Head Down Dips +30 20 negatives("")
Decline Situps +80 8 negatives(I altered the decline because I couldn't really feel it going down, well I felt it a lot at five knobs down)
Dumbell Shoulder Raise 55 3 negatives

HST cycle will end on Wednesday, will got the maxes for the new misc exercises on Tuesday

[RotatorCuff]

Study new exercises for next cycle day

Shrugs(w/gloves) 95 2X10
Neck machine forward(machines suck)
weight 10-reps 5
Weight 20-reps 2-failure-(I guess, again machines are hard to use)
Neck machine backward
weight 10-5
20-10
25-10
30-6(failure)
Subscapularis exrx cable exercise(definatly felt it in a muscle that could be the subscapularis
10-5
20-12(failure)
Gleteus medius, minimus exrx cable exercise
20-4(failure)
Tibialis
30-4(you had to strap the weight around the waist, if you grabbed onto anything I didn't feel the weight anymore, so balance was definately a factor)
Calf
100-1(see comments for tibialis)

[RotatorCuff]

Workout 2 of Week 5, Wednesday

Ass to Calves Front Squat 185 5X1
Bending Back Locked Kneecaps lower to about ankle height SLDL 185 5 5 4 4(Deadlifting it off the rack(at block height) and into position was really hard)
Weighted Chins 40 20negatives
Weighted Dips 40 20negatives
Dumbell Row 95 10negatives per arm
Dumbell Shoulder Raise 60 3negatives per arm
Weighted Decline Situps three holes down 90 10negatives

End HST cycle 2, I'll provide weight updates and other bumps throughout the 14 or 16 day decondition.

[Heisman]

Nice workouts. So the negatives are part of the program?

[RotatorCuff]

SD Length: 14 days(suboptimal, had to walk around and walk up and down stairs, also had to wear a backpack light with no books)
Poundage Change: -4lbs(possibly because I was eating so much food during the last cycle and there was some glycogen supercompensation, I ate less food and all the walking around depleted glycogen stores)

HST Cycle 3, Wednesday(quick positives and negatives)

ATC Front Squat 65 15 15(felt as cardio, in quads and hips)
BB SLDL 65 15 15(Felt as cardio, and in hamstrings)
Decline Sit Ups 0 15 15(changed the decline from lowest possible to third hole setting)
Decline Dumbell Chest 20 15 15(Felt it in chest a little, lowest possible decline)
One Arm Dumbell Row 35 15 15(Tried to get as much stretch as possible)
Dumbell Shoulder Press 5 15 15(Didn't feel it at all)
Incline Dumbell Curls 5 15 15(easy)
Decline Dumbell Skullcrushers 5 15 15(ditto)
45 degree sidebends 0 15 15(felt the lactic acid build up torwards the end)
Standing Calf Raises 0 15 15(Difficult to keep balance, if I grabbed onto something the weight was taking off the calves, even with all the balancing I still got the lactic acid build up, worked to get as much of a stretch as possible)
Reverse Standing Calf Raises 0 15 15(" ")

I decided I'm going to work more avant garde muscles this cycle, to burn calories and to get to spend more time in the gym. I used to feel that they were boring and impossible to do correctly but now I look at them as a challenge. I'm not going to work neck because neck machines are crap, I'm going to do rack pulls and then some shrug sets and that'll hit neck.