Fitness 101 - Must read! (HIT)

[Mblaster]

get your normal 8 hours of rest, because you don't gain strength in the gym, you gain strength by resting...

If that's the case I should be muscle man by now (I'm not, 5ft7 and 60kg ), get on average 10-12 hours sleep and spend most of the rest of the day resting (in my computer chair). Maybe it doesn't work so well when you completly miss out the exercising part

Joking aside, this looks like an interesting exercise technicique, especially since I'm very lazy, exercising once a week apeals to me Although, I think I need to get my fitness (cardio) up first as this seems to be purely a muscle building technicique, as apposed to general fitness.

[BigGlenn]

Ok, maybe my last post didn't quite come across as intended but when you talk about 2 completely different timeframes you will get people wondering how long they could have to work before seeing this level of change

On another note though you quote -

Remember that heat restricts your muscle efficiency... stay cool during workout... you will sweat, and be hot, of course, but minimize it as much as possible by wearing loose clothing and drinking plenty of cold water. (ie, don't do "warm-ups", they inhibit you for strength training, and stretching also won't make a difference for strength training)

Yet I have taken these quotes from a website (talking specifically about HIT) that seems to be the complete opposite of what you have quoted...

It is irresponsible and useless to even attempt to train in HIT fashion with maximal weight to absolute highest levels of intensity without a thorough and prior warm-up first.

If you jump straight into heavy duty style reps of training far beyond failure without giving prior due care to fully warming up your musculature then you risk serious injury. Never underestimate the damage that can be caused by poor form or a lack of warm-up on even the lightest sets, let alone critically hard post failure training such as rest pause and heavy negatives.

And I would never even comtemplate exercising or playing any sport without warming up first as you cannot expect 'cold' muscles to immediately work to fatigue without any injury risk

[Robscure]

find some exercise you like doing, and you'll never have to work at it again

for me: surfing, rock climbing, hiking, and used to be bmx when I was a kid.

Wonderful advice. That's great if someone is looking to just stay fit, while having fun. But if someone wants to perform better and increase their strength, and maintain a healthy physique and level of fitness throughout their lives, then HIT is a good way to accomplish that, and it can be done on the side while still surfing/etc...

Why is this? I do weight training and believe in free-weights, yes machines are easier to use. They also assist your body a lot more. Free allow more muscles to be used at one time also improves your balance and control.

Great, I'm glad somebody asked me this question. Unfortunately, it requires a long answer, so here we go (note: these answers are not my own, but excerpts from a book written by Martin Dunitz, titled "Full Strength"):


'Barbells allow greater freedom of movement'
Fale, in fact the opposite is true. Gravity dictates the precise course of a movement with a barbell. If you doubt this, try bench-press exercises lifting a barbell along a plane other than one vertical to the Earth's axis. Machines also dictate the course of the movement. However; in this case the movement does not necessarily follow gravity, rather it corresponds to the physiological needs of the muscle.

'Barbells also work those muscles not directly involved'
True, they do work these muscles but the load is below the stimulus threshold; training tires them but the stimulus is absent. To reach the required stimulus threshold you must exercise individual muscles directly.

'The advantages of strength machines.'

1) Accurate control of the tension through the entire range of motion, it is not random. The muscle exceeds its stimulus threshold throughout its range, from full extension to full contraction. This prevents or corrects intra-muscular imbalance.

2) It guides (two-dimensional) movements. "Incorrect" movements are (almost) impossible reducing the risk of injury to near zero.

3) The pad, supports and restraints, which form part of the machine, ensure that individual muscles are isolated. This facilitates cross-sectional stimuli.

4) Machine training does not require coordination skills. You do not have to "learn" and so training is productive from the start.

5) The gain with machine-based training is pure strength; the gain is not a mixture of strength and coordinate.


note: "Stimulus threshold" is what needs to be reached in order to improve strength. If you don't train your muscles to failure, you've wasted your exercise because you won't improve your strength unless you reach the threshold (which is muscle failure, or that "last" repetition... the final seconds of your exercise... you have to push yourself in order for your muscles to reach the threshold... being lazy--or quitting at the very end--won't gain you muscles.)

The stimulus threshold is exceeded when muscle tension reaches a certain level. The result is an increase in strength. However, if you exceed the threshold more than once during the same session, the result is not more growth but an unnecessary strain on the nervous system. Although this is something highlighted in considerable research dating back more than 30 years, almost all trainers still advocate so-called "multiple sets". If you do an exercise properly, then you cannot repeat it immediately afterwards!

I hope this has helped.

[Robscure]

...Joking aside, this looks like an interesting exercise technicique, especially since I'm very lazy, exercising once a week apeals to me Although, I think I need to get my fitness (cardio) up first as this seems to be purely a muscle building technicique, as apposed to general fitness.

That's the beauty of it though, you'll definitely be working your cardio! When you train your muscles, blood needs to be supplied to them, your heart rate will increase, and you will breath heavier... This is building cardio. Of course, running will be more efficient, but you will not be lacking in cardio, you will be improving it at the same time you gain strength.

I would recommend that if your cardio is very bad that you don't ever over-do yourself... you can start working out, but jog once in a while, and stretch before jogging because it is an endurance work-out.

Ok, maybe my last post didn't quite come across as intended but when you talk about 2 completely different timeframes you will get people wondering how long they could have to work before seeing this level of change

On another note though you quote -



Yet I have taken these quotes from a website (talking specifically about HIT) that seems to be the complete opposite of what you have quoted...

"It is irresponsible and useless to even attempt to train in HIT fashion with maximal weight to absolute highest levels of intensity without a thorough and prior warm-up first.

If you jump straight into heavy duty style reps of training far beyond failure without giving prior due care to fully warming up your musculature then you risk serious injury. Never underestimate the damage that can be caused by poor form or a lack of warm-up on even the lightest sets, let alone critically hard post failure training such as rest pause and heavy negatives."

And I would never even comtemplate exercising or playing any sport without warming up first as you cannot expect 'cold' muscles to immediately work to fatigue without any injury risk

Yep, they do seem to conflict, but here's why. See what I put in bold on their quote?

They're referring to your maximum... They're also probably unaware of the 4-2-4 rule, and are thinking of people who would be pumping 90-100% of their maximum weight as fast and hard as they can... this in itself is a bad idea, with or without warm-up.

If you go into the gym, and do the HIT that I've thoroughly explained, using 4-2-4, and getting 6 repeitions (as your ideal maximum, no more and no less) in 60 seconds, then you should be using a weight that is--and I'm speculating because it varies--between 50-70% of your maximum...

For example. If you can lift 95 Kilograms 1 time, because it is your maximum, you cannot lift it twice... one time and you struggle, because 100 is your maximum... then you should be using ~60 kilograms, 4-2-4, 6 reps, 60 seconds... and then you're done for the week for that exercise.

If you use 95 kilograms, for starters, you won't be able to lift it for 60 seconds. You won't be able to lift it slowly, and you won't lift it 6 times.

Do you see?

I don't even recommend you do that sort of training.

Note: I don't know where you got that from, but it seems to me that they may have the right idea of HIT... They're saying "its USELESS" to do that work out, it's pointless for you to do maximal weight... Because if you're doing HIT, as I already explained, you cannot use maximal weights... if you do, you're not doing HIT any more... you're doing something else... Do you see?