Crazy workout concept?

"Brad and Mia" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:%szQd.403315$Xk.241502@pd7tw3no...

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Hey all. Long time lurker, occassional poster...

First me: 36, 5'10", 200lbs, 17% (or so) BF.

I've been lifting seriously for about 6 years.

When I started way back when, I hit each "body part" once a week, with
anything between 8 and 10 sets for compounds, and 6 to 8 sets for singles.

I

Quoted message said:

weighed about 175.

As you can guess, I made decent gains but they stopped. So for the last

few

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years I've been doing HST-"type" workouts: progessively heavier weights

with

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less sets over the weeks, always full body, 3 times a week or so. Basic
stuff.

It went okay for a long time but the last year or so, due to personal
reasons, I can't workout much more than at lunch. One hour just isn't long
enough and I find myself rushing to and from the gym, etc. And I have been
finding that doing, say, pullups, after squats, and then trying to bench

is

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just about killing me. The first exercises go well, the last ones, not so
well.

Anyway, I want max results for my efforts for obvious reasons, and the

time

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crunch too. Switching up the order of exercise helps, but today, I came

up

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with a "better" idea. Tell me what you think.

I propose that instead of full body workouts, I just do upper or lower

body

Quoted message said:

on any given *week*. That is my proposed split. Do, say squats and deads
for a week. Say 3 - 4 times a week, 4 sets or so each day. That will give

me

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12 to 16 sets a week and should, hopefully, push me into new growth after
years of HST. THEN, the next week, just do the same thing but only with
bench and pullups, no legs. First week round, do sets of 10 reps. Next
week, sets of 8 then sets of 6. That will be a total of 3 weeks, (times
upper and lower body) for a grand total of 6 weeks. Then two weeks of
strength training, for a total of 8 weeks, and then some time off.

I figure this routine will take the best of HST (multiple workouts per

week,

Quoted message said:

lower sets each workout to ensure maximum poundage throughout all reps,

and

Quoted message said:

progessively heavier weights ) and yet at the same time get the benefits

of

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mucho volume. Then, after my muscles are toast, they get to rest for a

week

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as I change upper/lower body. Then, back to blasting them.

What'd y'all think? I just might try this, unless anyone can tell me it's
all wrong???

You'll probably get some benefit - but less than optimal. I think you're
going to detrain a bit too much during the off weeks.

"Brad and Mia" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:%szQd.403315$Xk.241502@pd7tw3no...

Quoted message said:

Hey all. Long time lurker, occassional poster...

First me: 36, 5'10", 200lbs, 17% (or so) BF.

I've been lifting seriously for about 6 years.

When I started way back when, I hit each "body part" once a week, with
anything between 8 and 10 sets for compounds, and 6 to 8 sets for
singles. I weighed about 175.

As you can guess, I made decent gains but they stopped. So for the
last few years I've been doing HST-"type" workouts: progessively
heavier weights with less sets over the weeks, always full body, 3
times a week or so. Basic stuff.

It went okay for a long time but the last year or so, due to personal
reasons, I can't workout much more than at lunch. One hour just isn't
long enough and I find myself rushing to and from the gym, etc. And I
have been finding that doing, say, pullups, after squats, and then
trying to bench is just about killing me. The first exercises go well,
the last ones, not so well.

Anyway, I want max results for my efforts for obvious reasons, and the
time crunch too. Switching up the order of exercise helps, but today,
I came up with a "better" idea. Tell me what you think.

I propose that instead of full body workouts, I just do upper or lower
body on any given *week*. That is my proposed split. Do, say squats
and deads for a week. Say 3 - 4 times a week, 4 sets or so each day.
That will give me 12 to 16 sets a week and should, hopefully, push me
into new growth after years of HST. THEN, the next week, just do the
same thing but only with bench and pullups, no legs. First week
round, do sets of 10 reps. Next week, sets of 8 then sets of 6. That
will be a total of 3 weeks, (times upper and lower body) for a grand
total of 6 weeks. Then two weeks of strength training, for a total of
8 weeks, and then some time off.

I figure this routine will take the best of HST (multiple workouts per
week, lower sets each workout to ensure maximum poundage throughout
all reps, and progessively heavier weights ) and yet at the same time
get the benefits of mucho volume. Then, after my muscles are toast,
they get to rest for a week as I change upper/lower body. Then, back
to blasting them.

What'd y'all think? I just might try this, unless anyone can tell me
it's all wrong???

Thanks for any advice guys!

I'd try two-week cycles. From what I've read, it takes that long for
training adaptation to start to happen and one-week cycles might just
end up leaving the situation confused and you not making much progress.
I'd also consider, during the second week of each cycle, adding some
light work for the 'other half', effectively giving you overlapping
four-week cycles, with one off week, one easy week, and two hard weeks.
Because of your concerns about time and overtraining, make the
easy/overlap work very easy, but I'm guessing you'll benefit from it
more than taking two weeks completely off.

Four-week cycles that include a week off or easy seem to work for a lot
of people, and overlapping cycles work just fine, too, as long you don't
have a meet date to deal with. You might find the extra down time is
just what you need to start making progress again. There's a nice
article about four-week cycling by Jack Reape I just read recently but I
can't find the link again - wait, here it is:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=546953

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

Brad and Mia said:

I propose that instead of full body workouts, I just do upper or lower body
on any given *week*.

Don't do that, it's silly. Just alternate upper and lower -body
workouts every session.

-Adam

Adam Fahy <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:6JJQd.32210$t46.4217@trndny04:

Quoted message said:

Brad and Mia said:

I propose that instead of full body workouts, I just do upper or lower
body on any given *week*.

Don't do that, it's silly. Just alternate upper and lower -body
workouts every session.

-Adam

Cuts the load in half. Any reason not to split each HST session in two,
upper body/lower body, and work out 5/6 days a week? Each session would be
half as long and you'd still get 48 hours before hitting the same area, but
you wouldn't have to drop the volume.

Hugh

--
Run like hell and let the clowns deal with the bull.