What's HIT?

Mike asked this question...

"Nick, can you please describe HIT training in a posting, or can you redirect me to a posting you may have already done on it? Thanks!"

As some of you know I was doing HIT workouts recently in a bid to lose weight but maintain strength. In the past I have used HIT style training intermittently and have always found it a great change of pace in my training.

HIT is a HUGE subject and one that I am not going to delve into too deeply. My friend, Jay Trigg, could tell you much more about it's origins and who espoused it's use over the years but this is not a history lesson. This is my take in HIT.

The way I began doing HIT was from the writings of Dr. Ken Leistner. Dr. Ken, as he is fondly known, would write accounts of brutally hard workout in his articles in Hard Training, HIT Newsletter, The Steel Tip, MILO and Hardgainer. At the time I discovered Dr. Ken's training methods in 1990-91 I had already been training for 5 years. My routines were not great and I really knew very little. What I learned over the next few years was how to train truly hard. During this time I put together brief, intense routines of 4-8 exercises twice per week and trained - HARD! All that I knew back then was the harder the better. I pushed others through such ferocious training sessions too. Some stayed but many went. This is not a training method for the weak of mind or body.

Here's a quote from Dr. Ken from the 1994 edition of HIT Newsletter (Vol 5 No1+2),

"Training has to be purposeful to be effective. Every rep and every set has to count for something. I believe that one can make progress on almost any type of routine if he or she works hard at it, but training should be efficient, providing maximal gains in the briefest period of time."

I believe that HIT training is about getting the most bang for your buck. Read the quote above again and then simply pick the best compound movements you can to achieve the results you desire. Now go to the gym. Warm up with a light set of each exercise. Then start your workout. Go to failure on each exercises. If you can do a few forced reps or negatives. This will increase the intensity and the overall difficulty of the routine. Go through each exercise like this. Rest MINIMALLY. Ideally there should be no rest but this is hard, if not impossible, if you are not conditioned for it. It is better to take an adequate rest than to not have anything left in the tank to correctly and safely perform the next exercise(s).

One exercise you will find throughout the history of weight training and gym culture is the king of exercises, the squat. Indeed the squat has been written about time and time again and for good reason. It truly will make you into a better athlete no matter what your sport or goals. Dr. Ken writes about the squat so often and has performed the exercises even more often that you will find it in 99% of his routines. I am no different.

I recently was performing my exercises in superset fashion for two and occasionally three sets. I like to pick groups of exercises that either appose each other or compliment each other. For example, I may choose a squat and a leg curl and a calf raise to fry my legs with. Or, I may choose a bench press with an apposing muscle group exercise such as the dumbbell row. I would do these two or three exercises back to back with only the time it takes me to get from one exercise to the next. I would already have the dumbbell or bench or whatever I need ready.

The first workouts are extremely difficult. You may feel sick. You may  feel dizzy. Your muscles will cry with pain. You may even want to sleep as soon as you finish. So, why would you do this to yourself? It is nothing more than a challenge and a way of conditioning your body and mind to withstand extreme amounts of physical discomfort. I think the reason that HIT was so popular with training teams of players is because it forced them into nasty places they wouldn't normally go. The athlete will not want to give up in front of his peers or his coach and so he pushes himself to the limit. The workouts are usually over within 30-40 minutes too which is another bonus of this type of training. Again, go and read the quote above and you'll see just why HIT and this type of training is worth doing from time to time.

However, I also believe you can do too much HIT training. Due to the ball busting, mind numbing nature of HIT, you can and will get mentally and physically worn out if you do too much HIT. If you look back I did less than 3 weeks of HIT recently. I would have loved to have done more. My weight was dropping and I was getting better conditioned. However, I was also beginning to feel tired a lot. You must be careful of doing this too much, especially when you are a 37 year old trainee trying to lose weight and working long hours like I was during that period. 

For me HIT is exactly what Dr. Ken says in the quote above. It's not about exercises or machines verses barbells or one set to failure any other specific thing to do with training. HIT is about brief, intense and purposeful HARD WORK.

Nick

Comments

[Mike]

Nick, thanks a ton. So, what would an example workout look like? I know you mentioned 4-8 exercises, but how many sets of each of those exercises? Say I chose squats, leg curls, and calf presses (like you mentioned), how many times would I work thru each of those three exercises? Also, would I do HIT on back and chest one day, maybe legs another day, and arms and shoulders yet another day? Sorry for the plethora of questions, but I have gleaned a lot from your experience. I'm still looking for those rings the gymnasts use, though!

[Nick McKinless]

Mike,

Try two sets of each (with a warm up as well). So for squats, leg curls and calves you would do a set of each back to back, rest, then do another set of each.

Don't worry about body splits. This isn't bodybuilding. Pick 4-8 exercises for the WHOLE body. ie Squat, Leg curls, Bench Press, Chins, Shoulder Press, Curls, Abs.

For the rings...go here...http://www.torqueathletic.com/ts1/products.php?prod=MA13-1

Nick

[trigg]

Mike, if you can find online the old Nautilus Journal (#1) by Arthur Jones, it will give about as good an explanation as any of what HIT is/was supposed to be. It is not the final say on it, nor should it be considered all there is to HIT. But it definitely gives an idea of where the roots are, and although some of the info is dated, and even incorrect, the foundations of it are all there.

HIT is really kind of a strange brew of ideas and methodology. Some things "HIT" are really useless and ineffective, and other things HIT are now found assimilated, and further refined, into things like Westside. Over the last few years it has become very hard to separate wheat from chaff, as (unlike most "training systems), it is no longer being pushed and developed by a single person, or a small group of easily identifiable "leaders" (think Westside, again, or Crossfit), nor is it tied to a very specific standard of lifts or performance, such as Olympic lifting. Therefore, so many things called "HIT" today, really are not HIT at all.

Anyhow, probably just added more to the confusion, instead of mitigating it, but for the essence of it, Nick has it down well.

If you would like to just experiment with HIT, especially if you have never done it before, tryi doing something like using it for only one major muslce group. For a start, it might be best to utilize it for the arms and chest, such as a bench press. Try doing 2 sets to complete failure (with a spotter) every 4-5 days on bench press. Use a weight that takes you into the 8-10 rep range before you start needing that spotter, and failure hits you around rep 12 or so. Finish that up with some hi rep dips (just short of failure), and move onto another exercise for back or legs or whatever in your normal style. Only every 4-5 days, do that bench press work to complete failure for 2 sets. Once you take those two sets all the way to 12 reps, easily, and hit failure at around 15, bump the weight up 5-10 lb. See if it has a positive impact on your size or strength after two months. If it does, and you like it, begin to incorporate it into something like the squat, or a machine pullover, etc.

[trigg]

Correction, that would be "Nautilus Bulletin", not journal.

And I have found one online version, although many should exist.

http://www.timinvermont.com/fitness/b1c1.htm

[Nick McKinless]

I was hoping you'd come on board to clarify things Jay!

Nick

[Nick McKinless]

Check out this article from Drew Baye over at www.baye.com...http://www.baye.com/articles/high_intensity_training.php

Nick

[Mike]

Thanks guys!