HST and Overtraining

**mattrag** · March 10th, 2012, 10:42 PM

I have been training for around 10 years and 4 of them have been reasonably serious lol.

I have always followed the body building exercises in the mags (4-5day splits) until recently where I did a 5x5 and gained INSANE strength. I have kinda peaked and went through some old papers I have and found HST. Since I like being strong but I think I need to maintain size through this cut I was wondering what your thoughts were on a 3 day split of HST with HIIT in the form of sprints, and oly lifts? I know HST taxes the CNS quite a bit because of full body workouts every other day, if I add in something like a dynamic clean/pull day I would be taxing it even further.
Does anyone have any experience with running this type of training protocol?

**swollen87** · March 10th, 2012, 10:50 PM

ive run it each spring for the last 3 yrs... it does wonders for cutting.... overtraining is overstated- you can do it for at least 3-4 weeks before you need a deload...

look at broz gym, they squat every day.... sometimes for hours.

the first few days doing hst, i was smoked. but after some time, i adapted.

still curious why they call it "hypertrophy" specific... when i never gained a lb of lbm.... even in a caloric surplus.

**mattrag** · March 10th, 2012, 11:29 PM

Originally Posted by swollen87

ive run it each spring for the last 3 yrs... it does wonders for cutting.... overtraining is overstated- you can do it for at least 3-4 weeks before you need a deload...

look at broz gym, they squat every day.... sometimes for hours.

the first few days doing hst, i was smoked. but after some time, i adapted.

still curious why they call it "hypertrophy" specific... when i never gained a lb of lbm.... even in a caloric surplus.

Really? Hmm. I will use it to cut this time around. I guess it could be because the caloric use on such a muscle intensive workout is so high.

Actually! I just jumped on the scale after 3.5 weeks on vacation using HST (I modded it to a 3 week protocol 15,10,5 each week) and I didnt gain a kg... I ate close to 5k cals a day. I did IF (ate only from 12-8 on MOST days lol) but I ate 4-5k a day. Hell I was on vacation. I got PRs, but looks like I didnt gain an ounce...

As far as hypertrophy, what has worked for you?

**swollen87** · March 11th, 2012, 04:35 AM

for growth, steroids work great

.... i think i may be at that point where i cant gain much more natty.... 5x5s and 5-3-1s help me with strength... volume based programs help hypertrophy...

**mattrag** · March 11th, 2012, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by swollen87

for growth, steroids work great

.... i think i may be at that point where i cant gain much more natty.... 5x5s and 5-3-1s help me with strength... volume based programs help hypertrophy...

Heheh, I know. If I could pin I would (being in Japan and having family makes it difficult). But I have several PH cycles under my belt. Volume is best for growth for you eh? I find I have to lower the volume and go for High weight slower negs to get the most out of my growth. So I tend to use 5x5 or something for growing. Well who knows really as I started off as a fatty so I have pretty much only been cutting most of my lifting carrier.... THanks for your help man!

**steinkill** · March 24th, 2012, 03:09 AM

Originally Posted by swollen87

ive run it each spring for the last 3 yrs... it does wonders for cutting.... overtraining is overstated- you can do it for at least 3-4 weeks before you need a deload...

look at broz gym, they squat every day.... sometimes for hours.

the first few days doing hst, i was smoked. but after some time, i adapted.

still curious why they call it "hypertrophy" specific... when i never gained a lb of lbm.... even in a caloric surplus.

Seriously? I remember getting nasty stretch marks on my chest and arms from all the mass I gained, and the workouts were taxing as hell for me. After finishing legs, chest and back I had to lay down and hold from puking. I did superset antagonist parts though as the workouts were getting longer than an hour. Shiz was insane for hypertrophy.

**mattrag** · March 24th, 2012, 06:18 AM

Originally Posted by steinkill

Seriously? I remember getting nasty stretch marks on my chest and arms from all the mass I gained, and the workouts were taxing as hell for me. After finishing legs, chest and back I had to lay down and hold from puking. I did superset antagonist parts though as the workouts were getting longer than an hour. Shiz was insane for hypertrophy.

This is what I am doing now... on a cut. I had a MEAN crash though. yesterday and today I couldn't even eat... just stayed in bed thinking about puking whenever I moved... I think I am going to need to at least eat at maintenance to keep this up... hopefully I lose some fat though...

**swollen87** · March 26th, 2012, 01:48 AM

Originally Posted by steinkill

Seriously? I remember getting nasty stretch marks on my chest and arms from all the mass I gained, and the workouts were taxing as hell for me. After finishing legs, chest and back I had to lay down and hold from puking. I did superset antagonist parts though as the workouts were getting longer than an hour. Shiz was insane for hypertrophy.

if you grew like that, you were using steroids, or nowhere near your genetic potential........

jus saying.....

Also, for hypertrophy, the goal is to use at 75% of your 1RM for 3-4 sets (or in HST till failure) with 30-45sec breaks. If a person benches 400lbs, deadlifts 600, and squats 500, its just not practical. Personally, i can deadlift 400lbs for 15 reps. If i was doing HST, i wouldnt be able to finish the workout. If i DID finish it, it wouldnt cause any "extra" hypertrophy. TBH i think it would be counterproductive because of the additional workload beyond extreme fatigue. Even if it was just one set of deadlifts, its too much for your CNS to handle ONCE per week...

**mattrag** · March 26th, 2012, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by swollen87

if you grew like that, you were using steroids, or nowhere near your genetic potential........

jus saying.....

Also, for hypertrophy, the goal is to use at 75% of your 1RM for 3-4 sets (or in HST till failure) with 30-45sec breaks. If a person benches 400lbs, deadlifts 600, and squats 500, its just not practical. Personally, i can deadlift 400lbs for 15 reps. If i was doing HST, i wouldnt be able to finish the workout. If i DID finish it, it wouldnt cause any "extra" hypertrophy. TBH i think it would be counterproductive because of the additional workload beyond extreme fatigue. Even if it was just one set of deadlifts, its too much for your CNS to handle ONCE per week...

Good point. I honestly think this program only works if you don't really care about numbers... I can bench 225X15 pretty easily, but that's pretty much nothing compared to benching 400 for 15. The progressive overload feature is what is the golden egg to take away from this style though. And to make programs that will incorporate this. Instead of hitting new PRs, I think it's more like just getting more done. Like how in a strength workout you can fail a lift, in HST you program so you NEVER fail a lift.