H.I.T. me!

brent · #1 August 18th, 2006, 02:55 PM

As some people who know me well will know, I've felt like I hit a plateau about 2 years ago. I tried changing my routine in all the traditional ways, and even switched to eating meat to easily get more protein into my diet. So now I'm trying High Intensity Training. It sounds pretty solid, and I think that the shorter workouts are much easier to fit into my hectic life (I think I missed too many workouts in the past when using traditional high volume training). I also like the fact that California's current governor couldn't handle the routines...

Mostly I'm wondering if anyone here has tried HIT, what they thought about it (ie. how was your progress), and what tips you would offer to someone like me who is new to HIT?

Any help, or encouraging words would be greatly appreciated.

hulkmuscle · #2 August 18th, 2006, 03:41 PM

Make sure you're getting enough protein and sleep. 1-2 warmup sets depending on the size of the bodypart, but don't go even close to failure. Make sure your first set is the maximum you can handle for the desired rep range...the idea is you don't build up to your maximum weight over several sets, you START with it. Keep your focus on compound moves with minimal isolation exercises. Some guys even cut direct arm work during these so they can make better inroads into the big 4: squat, dead, bench and pullup. That's what I remember off the top of my head.Good luck Brent!

brent · #3 August 19th, 2006, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hulkmuscle

Make sure you're getting enough protein and sleep. 1-2 warmup sets depending on the size of the bodypart, but don't go even close to failure.
...
Good luck Brent!

Well I've started eating meat a few months ago, so that I can get a LOT more protein. I also use a lot of whey protein & creatine.

I always like to do good warm-ups.

However, the thing with HIT that I've read ("The New High Intensity Training" by Ellington Darden Ph.D..) is that you want to fail durring your one set of each exercise. I can tell you that in the last 2 weeks of doing this, my little 20 minute workouts have been kicking my ass a lot more than my old 3 1/2 hour workouts!

Thank you for you input Greg!

TheMM · #4 August 19th, 2006, 12:54 PM

Stop trying to HIT me and HIT me! Sorry had to say it. From what I can tell, maybe after all of your workouts you can't go any farther. Go ahead and continue if you want but if nothing happens just know. Not that I'm saying you should, no don't at all. But the body eventually just says "NO MORE!" to some people. If nothing else maybe someone can make a pic\story\morph of you getting bigger to help push you along?

hulkmuscle · #5 August 19th, 2006, 02:20 PM

Brent,

If your goal is 10 reps on a given weight, you're SUPPOSED to struggle to get 10 (unless of course, it's one of your first workouts back after a layoff), and if you only get 8 or 9, that gives you your target for next time. You have to keep challenging your poundages, otherwise you're just soft-pedalling. I wasted years doing that.

Remember also, HIT is very similar to powerlifter routines: short and severe. Concentrate your effort into a brief(er) time, but total balls to the wall.

grywlf · #6 August 21st, 2006, 11:52 PM

i used to work out year round and was stuck lifting the same all the time
then for one reason or another ended up no being able to work out much for
2-3 month and belive or not it helped when i started up again i wouldn't be able to lift as much as before but after about a month i'd not only be able to
lift as heavy as before but even more maybe it becuase i push myself so hard i need a break once in awhile but its been working well for me i'm benching about 30lbs more now then i did before my break and most of my other lifts are up 15-25 lbs and i only started back up in june the time i took off was supposed to be a month but i really wasn't sure what i wanted to do and ended up taking more time to decided what i wanted to set for new goals
this time i tried to set higher ones at the time the seemed really good but now it started to seem that the may be too easy ect one of the goals i choose was to bench 235 in 6 months its been 2 months and i already can do 220 for 5 reps last year i could do sometimes 185 for 10 reps but was afraid to try more then 195 alone seems silly now but it was really hard to over come that mental block but now i can say by the time i tried 210 it felt
like 185 had before

brent · #7 August 22nd, 2006, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hulkmuscle

Brent,

If your goal is 10 reps on a given weight, you're SUPPOSED to struggle to get 10 (unless of course, it's one of your first workouts back after a layoff), and if you only get 8 or 9, that gives you your target for next time. You have to keep challenging your poundages, otherwise you're just soft-pedalling. I wasted years doing that.

Remember also, HIT is very similar to powerlifter routines: short and severe. Concentrate your effort into a brief(er) time, but total balls to the wall.

I too feel that I've wasted years soft pedaling, even though often the weights were very challenging. I feel that my 3 1/2 hour marathon workouts caused me to not have the energy to get the intensity high enough to make real progress. After just a couple weeks, lots of people are noticing my recent progress, and I've been making progress in EVERY WORKOUT (something I've never done except at the very beginning stages of working-out.) It's really amazing that workouts that are under 20 minutes can kick my ass in a way that nearly 4 hours can't, and this is a whole body workout, not just 2 parts. OF course HIT is very severe, but I can take nearly anything for 20 minutes, 2-3 times a week! Also, I love being able to see my friends & family more, resting more, and spending more time looking for a better job. It's been like a win, win, win situation, except for that cumulative hour where you really bust ass!

Grywlf,
I definitely agree that lay-offs are very good. Even in the book I've got my current work-outs out of, it suggests 2 lay-offs a year. I know that when I've taken lay-offs, I've done better after going back to the gym. However, 2-3 20 minute workouts each week leaves you lots of rest time during the week. As crazy as it sounds, a basis of HIT is to rest because they feel that you grow more when sleeping that you do in the gym, and that you should get at least 9 hours of sleep each night.

brent · #8 August 23rd, 2006, 06:09 PM

I feel that since atarting HIT, everything is going MUCH BETTER, so I thought I'd quickly post some links for anyone intrested.

Here: is the book I'm working off of right now to gain muscle.

Here: is a book I have on order for cutting. I should recieve it soon, and start cutting a couple weeks after recieving it (I like to read things a couple times, and be sure I understand everything before starting a new workout.

Lastly, here: is a good forum on Dr. Darden's work & ideas.

As always, please contribute to this thread in any way possible.

Thank you all!

glammaman2000 · #9 August 23rd, 2006, 06:29 PM

How is H.I.T. different fron "Heavy Duty"(i.e.,1 or 2 warm-up sets of 20 followed by 1 or 2 "balls-to-the-wall" sets of 6)?

brent · #10 August 23rd, 2006, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glammaman2000

How is H.I.T. different fron "Heavy Duty"(i.e.,1 or 2 warm-up sets of 20 followed by 1 or 2 "balls-to-the-wall" sets of 6)?

From my understanding, Heavy Duty was Mike Mentzer's interpretation of HIT, after he was fired from Nautilus. The only real difference was that Heavy Duty was even briefer, and could only really benefit an over-trained athlete. Of course at some point, I intend on reading Mike's work too. It's sad that Mike died at only 49 years old, and his brother Ray pasted away even younger. They both had beautiful bodies IMHO.