Me CowPimp. Me Get Big.

[CowPimp]

Well. Here it is, my HST journal. Things are probably going to be a little weird the first cycle while I learn my 15, 10, and 5 rep maxes on certain exercises. Forgive me if I don't follow the protocol to the tee initially, but the second time around will be much better.

There's not much to say. As always, I want to get bigger and stronger. I eat a clean 4300 calories per day right now, and I cheat every few days on average.

Let the games begin.

 

[PreMier]

First Oh, and goodluck!

 

[Cold Iron]

GL pimp

 

[CowPimp]

Wednesday, February 23rd & Thursday, February 24th

Bodyweight
190

Warmup
5 minutes elliptical

Squats
65 x 10
115 x 5
145 x 15
145 x 15

SLDLs
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 15
225 x 15
225 x 15

Bent Rows
45 x 10
65 x 5
95 x 15
95 x 15

Chinups
-120 x 15
-120 x 15

Upright Rows
65 x 15

Bench Press
45 x 10
95 x 5
115 x 15
115 x 15

Decline Bench Press
115 x 15

Military Press
65 x 15
65 x 15

Decline Situps
50 x 15
50 x 15

Hyperextensions
75 x 15
75 x 15

Calf Raises
260 x 15
260 x 15

Cooldown
Full body stretching

Phew. What a workout. Full body routines are killer. I used a 1 minute rest interval for everything. A lot of this stuff was off. I went too heavy on some things, as I'm supposed to progress over the next 4 workouts proceeding this. The following will be adjusted next workout: squats, SLDLs, bent rows, bench press, hyperextensions, and calf raises. Now, I should've known the hyperextensions. The difference was that the machine at my new gym is different. I can move my torso almost an entire 45 degrees more past parallel to the floor. This is good, but it is quite a bit harder.

Another thing to note is that I am try to eliminate virtually all momentum and slight cheating from every movement. I want every repetition to be clean with a good mind muscle connection. I may possibly allow a little more slack when doing 5 repetitions, but not much.

Diet was good, and bodyweight remained the same on both days. I didn't workout on Thursday.

 

[CowPimp]

Thanks PreMier and Cold Iron.

 

[GoalGetter]

Hey CP! Good morning, and good luck!

 

[Rocco32]

Good luck and KILLER w/o!! How long'd it take you? On exercises like SLDL and BB Row, are you using straps?

 

[P-funk]

good workout. I love totaly body.

make sure that you aren't doing any rest pause sets to ensure that the weight you are using is as pure a 15RM or 10Rm or whatever as you can. For more info on that check out the density thread in the training forum where the quality of reps is being discussed.

 

[soxmuscle]

Awesome workout, best of luck on this new routine.

 

[crazy_enough]

Good luck with the new routine!! That workout would kick my arse in ways I can only imagine!! Phewwww

 

[Yanick]

GL CP, workout looks solid.

 

[Robboe]

Did you have the 7-9 days deconditioning phase?

 

[Yunier]

Good luck!

I've done HST in the past and loved the results I got, so I am doing it AGAIN. But I have several questions for you.

How are you running it? 3x a week?
If so, why so many sets of squat, SLDLs, Bench Press and bent over rows? Thats 12 sets just on squats weekly and a total of 24 sets for your leg. No need for so many.

Also the 7-9 days deconditioning phase after taking 3 seperate days to find your 15-10-5 maxes, as TCD, is very important.

 

[BulkMeUp]

Good luck CP!

 

[CowPimp]

Friday, February 25th

GoalGetter
Thanks for coming by again Ivonne. I appreciate the well wishing.

rock4832
I don't do straps. If I can't hold the weight, then I can't do the lift. That's my philosophy.

P-funk
Total body is the way to go! It feels like so much more of a workout. Of course, the slightly decreased rest interval makes a difference too.

My goal is definitely to make my 15RM as "pure" as possible. I'm also kind of going back to the basics, in that I want my form to be spotless on everything, and I want my ROM to remain full for every repetition.

If I end up failing before hitting 15 repetitions during my last workout of the 15 rep phase, then do you think I should rest pause the last repetitions out, or just fail at a slightly lower number of repetitions?

soxmuscle
Thanks mang.

crazy_enough
Thanks for stopping by. You should definitely give full body workouts a shot!

Yanick
Thanks Yan. I definitely respect your opinion.

TCD
Nope. I didn't do that this time around. However, I do plan on taking a week off after I go through this cycle. I will probably stop at 6 weeks instead of 8, as I just did 6 weeks of WS prior to this. I kind of just wanted to get the feel for the routine and make sure I like it before I go through all that. I already like it though. I never work in the 15 rep range, and it's a good change of pace. Also, I love full body routines.

Yunier
Thanks. I'm performing this workout 3 times per week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I didn't perform 4 working sets of all those exercises. Only 2. The first 2 sets were merely warm-up sets. I typically do 1 warm-up set, and 1 acclimation set. So, I perform 18 sets per week for legs (Including calves), 15 sets for pull exercises, 15 sets for push exercises, 12 sets for my core.

I will definitely make sure I take some time off before I do my next cycle.

BulkMeUp
Thanks!

Warmup
5 minutes elliptical

Squats
65 x 10
95 x 5
135 x 15
135 x 15

SLDLs
135 x 10
185 x 5
205 x 15
205 x 15

Bent Rows
45 x 10
65 x 5
90 x 15
90 x 15

Chinups
-110 x 15
-110 x 15

Upright Rows
70 x 15

Bench Press
45 x 10
95 x 5
115 x 15
115 x 15

Decline Bench Press
125 x 15

Military Press
70 x 15
70 x 15

Decline Situps
55 x 15
55 x 15

Hyperextensions
70 x 15
70 x 15

Calf Raises
200 x 15
200 x 15

Cooldown
Full body stretching

This workout was definitely more on track in terms of incrementing the weight over the 3 workouts coming up next week. I lowered the weight on some exercises and incremented as normally on others. I also kept a couple of weights the same. This entire first cycle might be a little off while I determine the proper weights to use. I am pretty sure I want to go through with a full second cycle after this with everything down pat.

Olympic squats are especially surprising. It really does make a huge difference in terms of the weight I can move relative to PL style squats.

My diet was pretty good today, although I had one cheat meal. My calories still probably remained approximately the same. The cheat meal was spaghetti carbonara. WW pasta was used. The additional ingredients include peas, egg, onion, and a little bacon. Really, it's not all that bad of a cheat. The bacon isn't the healthiest choice, but I probably had 1 strip total in the entire bowl of pasta.

I forgot to weigh myself this morning, but I weighed myself a bit later in the day at 191. I am not going to count that as a gain of a pound though. Most likely that's food in my stomach or something.

 

[ChrisROCK]

good luck CP. Did you take a few days to figure our your 15,10,5 RMs....or did you wing it, and make adjustments?

 

[JerseyDevil]

Good luck on the new program CP!

 

[P-funk]

If I end up failing before hitting 15 repetitions during my last workout of the 15 rep phase, then do you think I should rest pause the last repetitions out, or just fail at a slightly lower number of repetitions?

I would just le myself fail.

Olympic squats are especially surprising. It really does make a huge difference in terms of the weight I can move relative to PL style squats.

yeah, squatting high bar is tough.



What is your rest interval for this??


nice workout.

 

[Yunier]

CowPimp ahh, I get it! You had me worried there for a second man lol. Good Stuff.

 

[CowPimp]

ChrisROCK
I'm just winging it for the time being. I plan on following up with a second cycle where I have all my 15, 10, and 5RMs down pat. Thanks for stopping by. It's always nice to see your signature.

JerseyDevil
Good looking out with the support JD. You da man!

P-funk
I'll just fail and try to hit 15 the next cycle around.

It seems to me like squatting olympic style requires more ab strength and less lower back strength. You are actually moving the bar with your erector spinae squatting PL style, but merely stabilizing it during olympic squats.

I'm using 60 second rest intervals, although I don't rest at all in between the warm-up and acclimation sets. Thanks Funkmaster Flex.

Yunier
Hehe, not to worry. I'm a big proponent of keeping volume to the medium/low side of the spectrum. Thanks for asking though.

 

[Yanick]

another nice workout CP.

I gotta agree with you on the olympic vs pl squats. weight drops down a bunch when switching from one to the other but PL squats will usually have you moving more weight after you give your CNS some time to adapt to the movement.

 

[CowPimp]

Saturday, February 26th

Bodyweight
189

Callisthenics

Warm-up
100 Jumping Jacks
30 Seconds Rest

3 x Circuit - 30 Second RI

Situps
25
25
25

Pushups
25
25
25

Pullups
5
5
5

Fingertip Pushups
5
5
5

Squats
25
25
25

Cool-Down
30 Seconds Rest
25 Rock Climbers
50 Jumping Jacks
Full Body Stretching

My hamstrings are still kind of sore, but not excessively so. I didn't workout until like 10PM. I ended up getting 5 hours of sleep, then taking a 4 hour nap. That was nice. It's also why I ended up working out so late.

Diet was clean. No cheating at all. Down a pound, but I'll wait until the end of next week before I make changes to my diet, if necessary.

 

[ChrisROCK]

What does a typical clean 4300 cals look like for you CP, on a given day? i saw somewhere you were taking in approx 4300 cals. I'm trying to do the same, just having a hard time getting that much food down. Looking for some ideas... Thx!

 

[Rocco32]

Looking good in here Cow. I look forward to following along

 

[soxmuscle]

why would failing be the way to go about it? Failing at anything would not only hinder the rest of my workout, but it just sucks. So why would you want to fail, why not just pick it up and bust those extra reps out..

 

[Yunier]

Hey cowpimp I am following your journal closely aswell. Looks like we are both going to finish our cycle of HST almost at the same time. ;-).

Are you deconditioning next week?

 

[CowPimp]

ChrisROCK
Meal1:
1 egg, 4 whites, 1 cup flax cereal, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 cup apple/orange juice, 20G brewer's yeast, multivitamin, time release vitamin C

Meal2 - PWO:
1 cup oats, 2 scoops whey in water

Meal3:
2 slices WW bread, 1oz sunflower kernels, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 scoop whey, cucumber

Meal4 - Shake:
1 cup 2% milk, 1 scoop whey, 1 banana, 10G flax seed oil

Meal5:
1 can tuna, 2oz chicken breast, 2 TBSP safflower mayo, 1.5 slices WW pita, celery

Meal6:
1 tin sardines, 3oz chicken breast, 6oz sweet potato/brown rice/barley, 10G olive oil based dressing, 10G whole flax seeds, lettuce, tomato

Meal7 - Shake:
2 cups 2% milk, 2 scoops whey, cucumber

Meal8:
1 cup 2% cottage cheese, 2 TBSP PB

That's my typical diet, although I end up making little substitutions here and there all time time. As you can see, I drink a lot of milk and several scoops of whey. This definitely helps me in achieving the designated number of calories for the day. Sometimes I end up eating these meals only 1.5-2 hours apart if I wake up really late or something along those lines. I hope that gives you some ideas.

rock4832
Thanks rock. It's going to be a bumpy ride. (I have no idea what I meant by that, just take it for what it's worth)

soxmuscle
I might stop just short of failure, but doing rest-pause sets would be even more draining than simply hitting failure. That requires hitting failure, or very close to it, then hitting it again after only minimal rest. It's not that bad anyway, as you only peak one workout every 2 weeks on this routine. Every prior workout is using submaximal weights.

Yunier
Nah, I'm actually just going to give HST a 6 weeks run through (Without doing negatives or a second week of 5 repetitions). Following this preliminary cycle, I will decondition for a week, then proceed with full knowledge of my capabilities and perform the entire 8 week cycle. I usually end up doing this with routines. I start by perform a half-assed cycle where I kind of toy around with weights, find out how many reps I can do, tweak where necessary, etc. I then proceed with a regular cycle.

 

[sara]

Good luck C Pimp

 

[Yunier]

Yunier
Nah, I'm actually just going to give HST a 6 weeks run through (Without doing negatives or a second week of 5 repetitions). Following this preliminary cycle, I will decondition for a week, then proceed with full knowledge of my capabilities and perform the entire 8 week cycle. I usually end up doing this with routines. I start by perform a half-assed cycle where I kind of toy around with weights, find out how many reps I can do, tweak where necessary, etc. I then proceed with a regular cycle.

Actually that makes perfect sense. I might even start tomorrow with my 15 reps and go from there...Because since its been awhile I have lifted my lifts keeps getting higher and higher. Its going to actually take a few weeks of me lifting to find my "real" maxes. So perhaps I should do like you...thanks.

 

[Flex]

Good luck, PIMP