HST For Dummies

**hepennypacker52** · 06-01-2004, 07:42 PM

Ok, so a lot of people are talking and asking questions about HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), so I'm going to try to wrap it up as short and as quick as possible, so everyone can get going with their routines. We'll do this in steps.

First off, HST is not just for size, but it's not a strength program from a muscle mag that will add 50lbs to your bench in 8 weeks (did add 10lbs to mine in 4 weeks though). You will gain both size and strength, but with the principles of the program, the size will outweigh the strength. A lot of this also depends on you, and how you respond.

Second off, you need to have a good diet, HST won't add inches to you if you follow a crappy diet, everyone knows this. You would obviously add more size if you were bulking, but some people want to take the fat off, and HST is great for cutting also.

Now, for the do-it-yourself routine creating. Follow these steps:

1) Choose what rep range you want to do. For your first HST cycle I would suggest just the standard 15, 10, and 5 (you'll know what I'm talking about later).

2) Choose 8-12 exercises for your full body that you would like to perform. I myself use only 8, which makes for a nice compact routine. Here is an example of my exercises:

Squat
Bench Press
Stiff Legged Deadlift
Bent Over BB Rows
Seated Shoulder Press
EZ Bar Curls
Lying Tricep Extensions
Standing Calf Raise
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3) We'll just assume that you are using 15, 10, and 5 rep weight "blocks". You would take a week to find each of your maxes for every exercise and every rep range. For example, on Monday you would find your 15 rep max for every exercise, Wednesday you would do the 10s, and Friday the 5s.
4) After you figure out your maxes, take 9-14 days off from any training. This is called Strategic Deconditioning (SD). This is taken from the HST website:
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"At this point, it is necessary to either increase the load (Progressive load), or decrease the degree of conditioning to the load (Strategic Deconditioning). The muscle is sensitive not only to the absolute load, but also to the change in load (up or down). Therefore, you can get a hypertrophic effect from increasing the load from a previous load, even if the absolute load is not maximum, assuming conditioning (resistance to exercise induced micro-damage) is not to extensive. There is a limit to the number of increments you can add to increase the load. You simply reach your maximum voluntary strength eventually. This is why Strategic Deconditioning is required for continued growth once growth has stopped (all things remaining equal). "
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Okay, so you've figured out all of your maxes and are ready to start working out this Monday. Now here's a sum-up of how the routine will go. Each rep range (block) (15, 10, and 5) will each be given 2 weeks of training. It doesn't have to be 2 weeks, but we'll assume this is your first HST "experience" and you are just going to do the standard. Training will be 3 times a week, once a day (we'll use M/W/F for this cycle). Again, some people train 6 days a week or some people do an AM and PM split. Each rep range will get 6 workouts over 2 weeks. Now here's where the weird part comes in (well, against what you probably normally do), you will only train to failure once every 2 weeks (until weeks 7+8, which I'll get to later). Workout #6 will be your routine with all of your maxes.
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So what do you do with workouts 1-5? You take your max, and gradually decrease it over the 6 workouts. The amount you increase each workout could be varied, generally 5-20lbs, with bigger bodyparts and compound movements having the bigger increment. I'm not a real strong guy, so for the Squat, Bench Press, and SLDL I increase the weight 10lbs, and for everything else I increase it by 5lbs. This can also be done percent wise (5-10% increments) So, for example, we'll say your 15 rep max for bench press is 100lbs, and you are using increments of 10lbs. This would be what your weights would look like for bench press:

Workout 1 (Week 1, Monday)-50lbs
Workout 2 (Week 1, Wednesday)-60lbs
Workout 3 (Week 1, Friday)-70lbs
Workout 4 (Week 2, Monday)-80lbs
Workout 5 (Week 2, Wednesday)-90lbs
Workout 6 (Week 2, Friday)- 100lbs
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*Set up your HST routine here:HST Calculator*
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Ok, so now (hopefully) you know what to do for 6 weeks. Now your at your last workout of the 5s (your maxes for everything). Now it's time for weeks 7 + 8. There are a few ways you can do these weeks. One way is to do negatives with your 2RM for 2 weeks (need a training partner). Another way is to use drop sets. And another way (the way I am using, and probably the simplest), is to repeat workout #6 of the 5s for 2 weeks (M/W/F). Now your cycle will have looked like this

Weeks 1-2: 15s
Weeks 3-4: 10s
Weeks 5-6: 5s
Weeks 7-8: continuation of 5RM
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Sets: The amount of sets you use for each workout, like everything else, can be vaired. You can fix you sets, so say you do 2 sets of squats and 1 set of curls, you would do that many sets the whole routine. Another way to do this is to progress the sets. The going trend to do this is 1x15, 2x10, and 3x5. So for the 15s, every exercise would be done with one set, for the 10s everything would be done for 2 sets, and so on. This does NOT include warming up, which should also be a BIG part of your workouts.
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*See the warming up FAQ:FAQ
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Now you have completed your HST cycle right? Wrong. Time for some more SD for 9-14 days. After that you can either:

1) Do whatever kind of training you want or

2) Start another HST cycle because it has worked so well for you. You would generally increase all of your weights 5-10%, depending on the excercise, or you can just re-test your maxes.
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You can change the rep ranges, exercises, workouts, and scheduling however you want. Use your first cycle to figure out what you can do better for the next cycle.
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*Another note: Some people think that they must do all they can to prevent zig-zagging (repeating the same weights in different rep ranges). I zig-zagged plenty in my first cycle and had great results, so you don't have to worry about it*
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Well thats HST, as short as I can sum it up. I hope this helps a lot of people, and convinces them to start the best training method I have ever used. Feel free to add things or change things, or ask questions.

**Quantum_Man** · 06-01-2004, 07:51 PM

Very very good compilation of HST stuff. This could probably even be made a sticky. Nice job hpp52.

**hyp3r3xt3nsion** · 06-01-2004, 07:53 PM

i don' tunderstand why people have such a hard time w/ HST....read Bryan's 3page introduction to it, look at the same chart, and it's all laid out word-for-word

**milo34** · 06-01-2004, 08:57 PM

good post hepennypacker52

hst is a great program and this should clear up any confusion.

**BeingBrandon** · 06-01-2004, 09:37 PM

Quantum,

Do you use an HIT or HST program personally?

**Brimstone** · 06-02-2004, 02:42 AM

Thanks for the post!
I was planning on looking into HST after reading some very positive feedback on some of the posts and journals.
It's nice to have such a condensed, straight-foward guide.
Great job.

**hepennypacker52** · 06-02-2004, 05:56 AM

Forgot to add these couple helpful links:

www.hypertrophy-specific.com - The official HST site.

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_calc.html - The HST calculator, just plug in your maxes and incriments and it gives all of the weights for each workout.

Thanks for all the feedback.

And to hyp3r3xt3nsion, yes it is all laid out on the Bryan's site, but I still see posts where people say they read the site and they still don't get how things are done. Plus it's right here for the people in the forum to just look and say "What's HST?", and then read and learn a great way of training.

**Nick666** · 06-02-2004, 06:02 AM

Great job hepennypacker52!!

Make it a STICKY PLEASE!!!!!

**littlun** · 06-02-2004, 08:06 AM

How do I use that calculator? Like where do I put my max's in at? because when I put them in for the 6th workout and hit calulate, it takes that number and goes all the way across the workouts with it.

And one more question. I'll use ur exampe for bench. You said the 15rm on bench was 100lbs and you showed what weight you would use on all the workouts, my question is, would you complete 15 reps with all those weights?

**littlun** · 06-02-2004, 08:09 AM

Disregard my question about the calculator. I was just a dummie and wasn't thinking when I first used it. But I've got it now.

**hepennypacker52** · 06-02-2004, 08:12 AM

Originally posted by littlun

And one more question. I'll use ur exampe for bench. You said the 15rm on bench was 100lbs and you showed what weight you would use on all the workouts, my question is, would you complete 15 reps with all those weights?

Yes.

**hepennypacker52** · 06-02-2004, 08:17 AM

I made an edit to the original post and added some guidelines dealing with sets, forgot to put that in there.

**Younglifter14** · 06-02-2004, 12:15 PM

nice post.

Also: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ridgely1.htm

Young

**MisterT** · 06-02-2004, 12:26 PM

Great post, but I still have one question. It appears as if each work out you increase the poundage by 5lb-10lbs. I just started Monday and so today (Wednesday) I increase the weight already for my 15 rep max? It seems like it would be hard for your body to be able to cope with the extra weight each workout session. Some one on another post told me to stick to the same weight each 2 week session (i.e. Curls 50 lbs. x 15 reps for the whole two weeks, then when you go to the 10 rep range, you go up in poundage since you are doing less reps). Can you clarify this one thing? Every thing else is straight forward. Thanks!

**MisterT** · 06-02-2004, 12:29 PM

Originally posted by hepennypacker52
Forgot to add these couple helpful links:

[url]

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_calc.html - The HST calculator, just plug in your maxes and incriments and it gives all of the weights for each workout.

Great site to calculate weight. Thanks! Helps take out the guess work.

**Quantum_Man** · 06-02-2004, 12:31 PM

Originally posted by MisterT
Great post, but I still have one question. It appears as if each work out you increase the poundage by 5lb-10lbs. I just started Monday and so today (Wednesday) I increase the weight already for my 15 rep max? It seems like it would be hard for your body to be able to cope with the extra weight each workout session. Some one on another post told me to stick to the same weight each 2 week session (i.e. Curls 50 lbs. x 15 reps for the whole two weeks, then when you go to the 10 rep range, you go up in poundage since you are doing less reps). Can you clarify this one thing? Every thing else is straight forward. Thanks!

You subtract 5-10 lbs or whatever increment you are using from the 15RM, all the way back to the first workout. So if your 15RM is 50lbs, then your first workout Monday would be with 20lbs, then Wednesday would be 25lbs and so forth until you get to the 2nd week on Friday, where you do the 50lbs.

**MisterT** · 06-02-2004, 12:37 PM

That makes more sense, but why not stick to one weight instead of starting out lighter than your max before reaching it at the end of the two week cycle?

**hepennypacker52** · 06-02-2004, 12:41 PM

Originally posted by MisterT
That makes more sense, but why not stick to one weight instead of starting out lighter than your max before reaching it at the end of the two week cycle?

Because the goal of the program is hypertrophy, and you don't need to always use heavy weights for hypertrophy.

**Younglifter14** · 06-02-2004, 04:00 PM

Originally posted by MisterT
That makes more sense, but why not stick to one weight instead of starting out lighter than your max before reaching it at the end of the two week cycle?

progressive load!

Young

**AcuDoc** · 06-02-2004, 04:05 PM

Originally posted by Nick666
Great job hepennypacker52!!

Make it a STICKY PLEASE!!!!!

bump

**bebop** · 06-02-2004, 04:44 PM

ooh, i have one. can you switch exercises somewhat from week to week. Like if I have regular bench for 2 weeks, can I switch to incline for the next 2? or does it not matter? or should i not?

**littlun** · 06-02-2004, 05:11 PM

What should your tempo be on all of the exercises? And how much rest in between sets?

**hepennypacker52** · 06-02-2004, 05:20 PM

Originally posted by bebop
ooh, i have one. can you switch exercises somewhat from week to week. Like if I have regular bench for 2 weeks, can I switch to incline for the next 2? or does it not matter? or should i not?

Don't switch exercises from week to week. Instead you can alternate some between workouts. Like, Monday would be regular bench, Wednesday would be incline bench, and Friday would be regular bench. The following Monday would start with incline bench. The example workout on the HST site does this.

**hepennypacker52** · 06-02-2004, 05:24 PM

Originally posted by littlun
What should your tempo be on all of the exercises? And how much rest in between sets?

Controlled, just because you're using really light weights doesn't mean you should rocket through the reps. A nice, slow, and controlled tempo is fine.

The amount of rest depends on what your body can take. Obviously during the really light workouts you won't need much rest at all between sets, but when it gets harder you'll need more rest. When you feel that you're ready for the next set, go for it. I usually take about 1:30 between the moderate intensity sets, and about 2-2:30 during really heavy sets (5RM for example).

**bebop** · 06-02-2004, 05:49 PM

how can you alternate between incline and flat bench during the week, since your max at incline and flat should differ? wouldnt your progression get messed up?

**hepennypacker52** · 06-02-2004, 06:07 PM

Originally posted by bebop
how can you alternate between incline and flat bench during the week, since your max at incline and flat should differ? wouldnt your progression get messed up?

You would have to just progress in both at the same time. That's why I don't do it though.

**VaginaHairFan** · 06-02-2004, 06:29 PM

Thanks HP52 for your contribution to this thread. I just came over to this site and this is the first time I've ever been exposed to HST. Alot of people sure do rant in favor of it. Thanks, again.

**hepennypacker52** · 06-02-2004, 07:08 PM

Originally posted by VaginaHairFan
Thanks HP52 for your contribution to this thread. I just came over to this site and this is the first time I've ever been exposed to HST. Alot of people sure do rant in favor of it. Thanks, again.

Glad to see another learn about HST, although you name is quite disturbing in a sick/funny way...more towards sick tho lol.

**hepennypacker52** · 06-03-2004, 10:55 AM

Sherrrr-bump

**hepennypacker52** · 06-03-2004, 06:48 PM

another bump for the night crowd, and those on the west coast

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