It's been a while since I updated everyone on my High Intensity Training (HIT) program. Well, I fell off the program for some time over the winter. I was playing a lot of hockey. I might even be able to come up with more excuses given more time to think. When I did go to the gym, I fell back into the old habit of split training. To all the HIT advocates out there, I am ashamed. I guess I just did not become the hulk I assumed would be the natural outcome of the program and became a little unmotivated.
However, that leads to one very important finding from my experiment with HIT: while I did not become Arnold, I certainly did not lose any size or muscle. What this means to me is that it is probably not necessary to spend a lot of time in the gym to have an effective weight training program. In fact, I would take this one step further: most people doing weight training probably over train, and get little benefit from so much time spent lifting. I look back at the hours I used to spend at the gym and I think it probably just helped me get injured (torn rotator and hamstring to name just a couple injuries I've sustained at the gym).
Back For The Attack
Dr. Mike provided a nice comment here a week ago, recommending The New High Intensity Training: The Best Muscle-Building System You've Never Tried by Ell Darden. I went out and bought it, and if you are at all interested in HIT, you might do the same. I've read a few chapters and it is really good. One part of the book that struck me was a description of Arthur Jones supervising a set of arm curls. It was an epiphany. One aspect of a set in HIT is that you choose a resistance level such that you lift to failure within a limited number of repetitions. I realized that when I was doing the HIT program I developed, I was not really lifting to failure, at least not the way it was dramatically described in Ell's book!
So back to the gym this week to try again in earnest. Here's what I did: lifted to where I would stop before and then squeezed out a couple more reps, sacrificing a little form if necessary. I then quickly dropped the resistance by 25% or so and squeezed out two or three more reps. Let me tell you, I was be in agony after each set! I also understood for the first time why the HIT people suggest only two or three training sessions per week. I could still feel the effects of my Wednesday workout in my legs and biceps as I started my Friday workout!
So I'm back!
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Tags: arthur jones, ell darden, high inetnsity training, HIT
