You don't knows *HIT

Pat Dale

This article will appeal to both the lazy and the sadomasochistic. The lazy will probably end up disappointed , the sadomasochistic may want to reconsider their position. Either way if you're time crunched, or like to think you're hardcore and train harder than most, this classic system of torture may lead you to huge gains in muscle mass in record time.

How many sets do you do per muscle group?

10? 8? 6? According to the late, great, Mike Mentzer, if you are doing more than 1, or a maximum of 2 sets per muscle group, you are seriously overtraining and undermining your potential for gaining Olympian size muscles. Mentzer should know - as one of the best bodybuilders never to be crowned Mr. Olympia, Mike is the only man, ever, to have scored a perfect 300 in the Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition.

Mentzer, now sadly deceased, was a dogmatic (same say quite mad!) proponent of high intensity training and according to mighty Mike and a number of experts (including Arthur Jones who was the giant brain behind Nautilus training equipment and Ellington Darden who was Jones’s number two), it is intensity and not volume that is responsible for muscle hypertrophy and, up to a point, I think they make a good case. In the words of Mentzer, it only takes one bullet from a gun to kill someone and it only takes one set of sufficient intensity to trigger muscle growth. While I’m not sure about the imagery, Mentzer did have a point about training volume and intensity and while you can train hard or you can train long, you can’t do both.

So many guys spend far too long doing every exercise known to man for a particular muscle group that their training intensity is so woefully low that they never get any stronger and/or bigger. Look around the gym and watch the skinny little guy, with no appreciable muscle mass, do barbell curls, dumbbell curls, preacher curls, concentration curls, cable curls and then maybe some reverse curls to finish off his “guns” (very small caliber guns at that). In his effort to train his biceps from every angle (don’t get me started on that idiotic idea) he has to use very light weights otherwise he’ll tire out too soon to do the 24 sets of triceps he’s going to do after his biceps workout. If volume training was all it was cracked up to be he’d be MASSIVE but instead he’s got arms like knots in cotton!

So what is HIT?

HIT is the common acronym of high intensity training. HIT is a system that has been adopted and adapted by many but is essentially a style of training that involves taking your work sets to absolute failure and only performing one or two exercises per body part. HIT proponents stress that, despite the very low volume of each workout, you must strive for ever increasing intensity by increasing your weights and/or reps every workout – or at least trying to. Mentzer stressed the need to develop a “gun to the head” mentality to make sure you always take your sets as far as possible. Mentzer’s own brand of HIT was called Heavy Duty and included the use of training systems such as pre-exhaust, supersets, negatives and drop sets although other HITters do not use these intensifying methods.

If you have doubts about the validity of HIT as a legitimate training method, shame on you for doubting me AND check out the Colorado experiment. Back in 1973, Arthur Jones took bodybuilder Casey Viator from a bodyweight of around 180lbs to 240lbs in four weeks using HIT. Admittedly Viator was coming back from injury and also was probably on a few daily drops of vitamin S (steroids you dumb ass) but the results of his transformation are jaw dropping, especially when you consider that Jones trained Viator a total of 14 times over the 28 day period of the experiment for an average of 33 minutes per training session. I actually spoke to Viator about 10 years ago about the Colorado experiment and he confirmed that the results were exactly as Jones published them. Take a look at http://www.musclenet.com/coloradoexperiment.htm for more info on the Colorado experiment.

So if HIT is so great, why doesn’t everyone do it?

Good question and I’m glad you asked. Followers of HIT are often referred to as Jedi. So strong is their belief in HIT that they will never stray from the HIT path and will often label the non-hitters of this world as idiots or, worse still in their minds, non-efficient exercisers! The thing is, HIT is hard and I mean REALLY hard. One set to failure might sound easy enough - it is just one measly set after all - but the reality is that it’s going to hurt and, next week, it’s going to hurt even more as you try to better your workout performance. Psychologically this can become very wearing. I remember doing a 20 rep HIT squat programme that, while it had me gaining strength and muscle quite visibly on a weekly basis, gave me nightmares. I’ve never been as scared about an upcoming workout as I was with HIT squats - you could literally small the fear…or maybe that was the cheap protein I bought? Too long ago to say for sure…anyway, my point is that there is only so long you can continue adding an extra rep or loading a little more weight on the bar before your forward momentum grinds to a halt and you hit a wall.

When’s a good time to HIT it?

If you’ve been training traditionally for a few years and fancy a change, maybe it’s worth considering HIT. If you are finding it hard to get to the gym for as long or as often as you’d like, maybe HIT could be the answer. Perhaps you just fancy seeing if HIT is all it’s cracked up to be. Regardless, HIT workouts are short, tough and fun – especially if you define fun as seeing just how much pain you can tolerate while you work out! You’ll probably experience some notable gains in both strength and size because HIT is the polar opposite of high volume training and, often, a dramatic change in training style can result in some new spurt of progress. Is HIT training the one true way that the HIT Jedi proclaim it to be? Is it bollocks! But, like any good training system it has its value in a well rounded periodized training plan. It’ll challenge your muscles in a new way and the extremely brief workouts are over in 30 minutes or less. In fact, because I love to see you suffer, I’ve provided you with a six week SHIT (super high intensity) programme you can use to bridge the gap to your next, more traditional, workout.

I challenge you….

In fact, I double challenge you to do this programme for six weeks. It’s not just the workouts that are going to be hard, it’s also going to be tough for you to turn up, do your workout and then be on your way home while your buddies are still on their first set of bench presses. Don’t worry, have confidence in the programme and strive to do as many reps as possible - don’t just stop because you reach your usual rep cut off point…do as many reps as you can and then try to get one more. If you feel like doing more than the prescribed exercises…don’t! Treat this as your very own Colorado experiment. If you want to include some cardio over the next few weeks try performing Tabata sprints (20 seconds of maximum effort work/10 seconds of recovery for 8 to 10 sets) on the days in between your strength workouts. Don’t be surprised if you feel more energetic than usual - the shorter workouts mean that you’ll have a lot more energy for non-gym related activities. Don’t tell the wife though or she’ll have you mowing the lawn every other day!

Workout A – Upper Body

1 Bench press

2 Chin ups

3 Seated dumbbell press

4 Chest supported row

5 Parallel bar dips

6 EZ barbell curls

To warm up, perform 5 minutes of light cardio and one or two sets of bench press and lat pull downs. Make sure you have a spotter handy as you’ll be training to failure and I don’t want you getting squished by a weight. For chins and dips, feel free to add weight by hanging a dumbbell around your waist if your reps are going above 15. As a general rule, work in the 8 to 12 rep range but don’t worry if you go outside of this range – focus on maximum intensity rather than some randomly selected number.

Workout B – Lower Body & Core

1 Squats (alternated with deadlifts each workout)

2 Leg extensions (drop set)

3 Leg curls (drop set)

4 Standing calf raises

5 a) Stability ball plank, b) Stability ball crunches c) Cable Russian Twists

This workout requires that you alternate squats and dead lifts on a workout by workout basis. The squats and dead lifts are going to be performed as 20 rep sets. I want you to perform a single set of 20 reps of each exercise (after your warm up of course) using the heaviest weight you can manage. Keep the rep count at 20 but add a little more weight to the bar every week. Use rest/pause technique to complete the set and don’t worry if you need to lie down after the set is completed - this is quite normal although if you need more than 10 minutes I suggest you need to work on your cardio. I also want you to perform drop sets after leg extensions and leg curls - two or three drops will be sufficient. The core work is a one set to failure tri-set. Hold the plank for as long as possible before rolling over and banging out as many crunches as you can and then finishing up with a set of cable Russian twists to the left and right. Job done!

Your six week workout plan should look like this…

editors note - Pat had taken the trouble to lay out a lovely table explaining when to do what here. However, its 1) bloody simple and 2) easier to hold a single arm handstand for 20 minutes while drinking a glass of water than it is to put a table on our site, so we will explain simply...you train Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You simply alternate the two workouts, so one week you will do two upper body, one week you will do two lower body workouts. If you did squats in your last lower body workout, you do deadlifts in your next one. If that doesn't make sense then I can't help you.

Is HIT for everyone? Is it the only true path to muscle and might that Mentzer said it was? Are the HIT Jedi's body building’s chosen people? No, no and no. However, for a change of pace, HIT is effective and a great plateau buster and, if nothing else, it’ll teach you to train with balls-out intensity which is something many gym goers are clearly incapable of.

About the Author

Pat and this magazine were made for each other. Pat writes a blog - NoFrillsFitness, trains his ass off and loves what we call ‘proper fitness’. He is a highly experienced fitness lecturer, running solar-fitness in Cyprus. What a place to go to qualify as a personal trainer! Pat will use this mag to let off a little steam – to talk fitness without the need to hold back or be polite. If you don’t like it….don’t use the squat rack for Bicep Curls! His site Solar-Fitness.com

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