HST style routines and Cardio

I'm thinking of switching to a HST style routine working out 3 times per week. My goals being to improve strength over all but also to lose bodyfat... With this in mind I was thinking of doing Cardio on the days when I am not lifting, so the week would look something like this.

Monday - Weights

Tuesday - Cardio

Wednesday - Weights

Thursday - Cardio

Friday - Weights

Saturday - Rest and socialising

Sunday- Rest and socialising

I was just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this

The HST routine is great.

Maybe 3times/week is not enough, but you'll see

The plan looks good to me.

Cardio is always okay, when you got time to do it.

Good luck, and post your results here

I did it also and I loved it...but I ran out of wieghts!!!!

I did it for 4-5 days a week....

"HST"?

Loveliberate - HST is Hypertrophy Specific Training, for more details check out Daywalkers training Log.

Daywalker - I need to lose some bodyfat, so I might try that plan from next week and see how it goes, if I think I need more lifting days I will change it...

Thanks

Chris

I have an HST question.

When you are performing exercises that work smaller muscles, they obviously require lighter weights. One example would be lateral raises. If your rep max weight is 25 lbs or less, you obviously cannot take 5 lbs off 6 times, since you would be at negative weight.

Having said that, what would be the ideal weight increment? 1lb or 2lbs? Or, could sets with higher reps (20 or 25) be incorporate to compensate for this. If so, how?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Ophideus.

There are two answers to your question, choose which one you like better

First, HST doesn't work well with isolation exercises like lateral raises. The reason is that you're doing a whole body workout as often as possible. Usually you do something like squats, overhead press, dips, pull ups, rows, deadlift. When you do these everyday or 3-4 times per week, increase the weight steadily and get stronger, you'll GROW. There simply is a) no need for isolation work and b) it would lead to overtraining, and thus be detrimental to your gains.

Of course (second ), you might design a routine where you do lateral raises, biceps and triceps isolation (and gain on those, but you'd automatically crop your gains on the compound moves, and therefore you overall gains).

If you want to do that (i wouldn't recommend it), you need small increments, that's right. HST works with percentages. You increase the weight in steps of 5%, or 10. So, if your max for 15 reps is 25lbs, you start with 60% of that (15lbs) and increase by 5-10 (1-2lbs)% every workout, depending on how often you work out.

Thank you Daywalker.

Lateral raises were the only isolation exercise on the program (Which I simply got from the creator of HST on his site).

I will simply omit lateral raises since I already have overhead press and shrugs in the routine.

I'm currently doing exactly the same HST routine sydneyvegan is thinking about, and I'm finding myself a little bit unchallenged. I've previously done 3 sets of every exercise to exhaustion, so this progressive load-idea feels a little bit weird. Anyhow, I plan on buying a couple of weights and extending my training to 4-5 days a week, with 3 days in the gym.

Now here's the question: dumbbells or barbell? I don't have a lot of space, so dumbbells would come in handy, but with one barbell I could have more different weights for the same price (or so I was thinking). My current program consists of squats, rows alternating with chin-ups, dips alternating with bench press, deadlift, leg curl, french press, rear deltoids, biceps curl, calves and shoulder press.

mm,

I have been posting my current workout in the Training log section, I am finding that is is working well for me (I don't post the cardio days, as bike, treadmill etc don't really change)

I haven't been able to train properly in the last few weeks due to work and other stuff, but I am getting good results. I'm finding the compound movements are building areas that isolation work never hits.

I'll be taking a closer look at your work-out log. Can't say much about compound vs. isolation as I'm new to BB (10 months) and simply went by the advice my trainer gave me, namely to focus on free weights and compound. But concerning HST, I find the first week of every two-week-cycle a little bit "boring", feels like warming up and then going home. I now do at least three warm-up sets to make it a little bit more exhausting, reducing the warm-up as the weight increases. I don't know if this is clever, but I figured if I can still cope with the weight increase, why should it be bad?

Warm-up sets are ok, just so long as you are not causing muscle fatigue... I was surprised how I have gained strength and put on muscle without the DOMS that I normally get from a workout. I use the lighter stages to concentrate on my form... My benching has improved heaps... I am lifting more with good technique.