Hypertrophy Specific Training (HST)
Musqle.com Team
Highlights:
-full-body workout
-short recovery periods
-deconditioning of the muscles for 9-14 days after the cycle
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Hypertrophy specific training has been introduced by Bryan Haycock in 2000. Haycock claimed his training system is based on scientific observations of muscle cells although he didn’t provide many specific details. Still, the method is based on a valid theory and it is definitely worth of consideration by a serious bodybuilder.
The basic theory of HST is based on the following premises:
- Resistance training will lead to muscle hypertrophy (well, this is pretty much a basic prerequisite of 95% training methods).
- Frequent stimulation is necessary. Muscle recovery is relatively fast – about 36 hours. Therefore the various muscle groups should be stimulated every 48 hours (OK, so here the HST differs from many other methods preaching more time for recovery).
- The resistance (load) must be increased with the time (during the 6 to 8 week HST training cycle). The stimulus will be effective only if the load will be increased faster than the recovery rate of the muscle. In HST you don’t increase the load during one training session but rather, you increase the weights and decrease the reps in every next session.
- After the 6 to 8 weeks training cycle, Strategic Deconditioning of 9 to 14 days must take place. Strategic Deconditioning refers to a break after the training which is not exactly meant to serve as a recovery period but rather should cause the body “forget” the increasing load. The reasoning goes like this: it is necessary to increase the load over the time to stimulate the growth. After you reach your maximum weights and there is no room for increases, your body needs to “forget” the stimulus which will not happen sooner than in those 9-14 days. Then you can start with a new cycle.
- Doing less sets more often. HST people claim that doing many sets of one exercise during one training session is not effective. In fact, they claim, no sets following the first effective set (not counting the warm-up sets) are effective. So if you would normally do 8 sets of bench-press a week (4 Monday and 4 Thursday), those 8 sets would be spread into 1-2 set blocks every other day.
So how does a typical HST training plan look like? It’s nothing else than doing a full-body training every other day, with 14 different exercises and about 20-24 sets.
This is a total of about 6 to 12 sets per muscle group per week. And yes, it’s supposed to work very well – provided you have sufficient protein intake.
HST plan example:
Weeks 1 & 2
Day 1:
Shoulder
Shoulder Press - 1 set x 15 reps
Lateral Raise - 1 set x 15 reps
Rear Delt - 1 set x 15 reps
Biceps
DB Curls - 2 sets x 15 reps
Back
Chins - 2 sets x 15 reps
Rows - 2 sets x 15 reps
Traps
Shrugs - 1 set x 15 reps
Triceps
Tricep Ext. - 2 sets x 15 reps
Calves
Calf Raise - 2 sets x 15 reps
Abs
Crunches - 2 sets x 15 reps
Legs
Squat - 1 set x 15 reps
Stiff Leg Dead Lift - 2 sets x 15 reps
Chest
Incline Bench - 2 sets x 15 reps
Dips - 1 set x 15 reps
Day 2:
REST
Weeks 3 & 4
Day 1:
Shoulder
Shoulder Press - 1 set x 10 reps
Lateral Raise - 1 set x 10 reps
Rear Delt - 1 set x 10 reps
Biceps
DB Curls - 2 sets x 10 reps
Back
Chins - 2 sets x 10 reps
Rows - 2 sets x 10 reps
Traps
Shrugs - 1 set x 10 reps
Triceps
Tricep Ext. - 2 sets x 10 reps
Calves
Calf Raise - 2 sets x 10 reps
Abs
Crunches - 2 sets x 10 reps
Legs
Squat - 1 set x 10 reps
Stiff Leg Dead Lift - 2 sets x 10 reps
Chest
Incline Bench - 2 sets x 10 reps
Dips - 1 set x 10 reps
Day 2:
REST
Weeks 5 & 6
Day 1:
Shoulder
Shoulder Press - 1 set x 5 reps
Lateral Raise - 1 set x 5 reps
Rear Delt - 1 set x 5 reps
Biceps
DB Curls - 2 sets x 5 reps
Back
Chins - 2 sets x 5 reps
Rows - 2 sets x 5 reps
Traps
Shrugs - 1 set x 5 reps
Triceps
Tricep Ext. - 2 sets x 5 reps
Calves
Calf Raise - 2 sets x 5 reps
Abs
Crunches - 2 sets x 5 reps
Legs
Squat - 1 set x 5 reps
Stiff Leg Deads - 2 sets x 5 reps
Chest
Incline Bench - 2 sets x 5 reps
Dips - 1 set x 5 reps
Day 2:
REST
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