Revisiting Heavy Density Lifting (HDL)

Bigger Stronger Leaner Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
1

Hey CT, Curious about your thoughts on this as you’ve now have a few years to look back on it.

I have a home gym now, so the idea of keeping things simple and getting by with minimal equipment appeals to me more than it did years ago. Having basically no machines means you gotta get creative with the main exercises some times.

How do you feel about HDL these days? I think we used to do “Hard 5’s” and 5/4/3/2/1 as the main variants. I’m thinking mainly in terms of Squats or Trap Bar Deads to add some “heavy volume”

Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated, thanks.

2

The 5/4/3/2/1 HDL works great for hypertrophy, but I would recommend only one set, after 2 warm-up/preparation sets.

The hard 5 is good too but you must be careful not to overdo it

3

Makes it sound like the Original layer system (ramp to 1/2/3 RM, clusters, HDL) might have been a bit much? I remember getting stronger for a few weeks then crashing pretty hard after that. Obviously didnt get weaker but the ability to display the strength fell off fast.

Thanks again CT

4

Which is why I always said that it is a program to be done for 4-6 weeks

5

I am not a smart man sometimes :wink: