Mr. Hypertrophy

I spent some time going through Bryan Haycock’s website, where he outlines in detail a typical 6 to 8 week hypertrophy routine.

While the concept of a total body routine seems appealing, the fact that you are using submaximal weights for most of the two-week microcycles troubles me a bit in terms of getting results. Any thoughts?

Mike,

Bryan writes in the third page about hitting your max each week by using smaller increments and therefore changing the reps weekly

Mike, assuming that you’re using relatively small incriments, you’re still using more than enough weight each workout to stimulate a muscle.

For example, generally speaking most people seem to be using 5 pounds increases per workout for their upper body, and about 10 for lower. So, if you predetermine your max at 100 lbs, and it takes you six training sessions to reach that max, adding 5 lbs each time, then your first workout, which is the easiest in terms of weight...would still have you lifting roughly 70% of your max.

Of course, for the purposes of my argument, using a nice round number like 100 makes things easier, but my point is that the weight increases are usually kept small enough so that, even starting out, you're close enough to your 15, 12, 10, 8, or 5 rep max to cause microtrauma each workout.

You will have to fool with the weights a little to determine how your body will best respond, especially with small muscles. For example, I have to use 1.25 lb increases for side or front raises, or I would be starting with 0 and ending with 30. Good luck with the program, and read the previous HST threads, both here, at thinkmuscle and the HST site. Hope this helps.

So what kind of results have you guys gotten from HST? I’d like to hear some success stories here.

15 pounds in two and a half months. 2,5 being fat.

Started at 162 at 8%. Currently 186 and 7%. Three full cycles of HST. I used mag ten during the second one and went from 168 to 191…three days later after I stopped retaining the water I was 187, but at 12%. During this cycle I only gained about a pound of lean mass, but I lost a considerable amount of fat. Plus I had a surgery to contend with. All in all, I’d say HST works.

Thanks for the feedback, folks.

Trev, congrats on your great success. Since Mag-10 is recommended to be taken on a 2 on / 4 off type cycle, maybe it's a good idea to do the 10 rep microcycle, the 5 rep microcycle, and then add Mag-10 for the 5 rep / negatives microcycle? What do you think?

Also, one last question. Did you do one set per bodypart or two? Since you had such great results, I figured I'd ask you. Tks!

Mike, thanks for the congrats. I used Mag-10 during the second week of fives and first week of negatives, much as you suggest. I seemed to have good progress, so I would suggest that.

As far as sets per body part, I worked out in a circuit fashion. I went through it once, then did a second circuit with only very important movements: bench, squat, SLDL, pull-up, etc.

Actually, we had an entire HST Support Group thread going, I bumped it up a few days ago. We have a lot of information on it; give it a read. If it's off the board I'll bump it up again for you. Hope this helps.