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(HIT) High Intensity Training

Concreteguy

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Mar 12, 2013
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Pa
BIO mentioned in another thread how he feels were concentrating to much on gear and lost focus of what's really at work making us grow.

Guess what......:lightbulb:. He's dead on point here. I have mentioned many, many times how important it is to truly fail a muscle at the end of each set, but I'm just another swinging dick with an opinion. So is he for that matter (sorry BIO)lol. I think it's time we talked this one out.

You just saw those incredible video's on Dorian Yates that were posted<---- Thank you BIO. Dorian was the poster child for HIT training guys. Blood and guts was one of his video's showing his training style.

How many of you guys have trained this way? Do you still train HIT?
How did it effect you and your experience doing it?

We jump all over the tren thread and the "What cycle are you on" Thread. But guys no one here would be talking about shit if we didn't train. Right? Is HIT the best? Lets talk about it.

More importantly, is there a way to adapt it to us older dowgs in the sport and not rip are selves to pieces? Every one here should have a word on this. Who's first?

[ame]https://youtu.be/SA7Os__O7D8[/ame]
 
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koolio

Registered User
Feb 26, 2017
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Been doing HIT since 1977 when in college and on the varsity swim team I was introduced to Nautilus...in a short time I gained 15 pounds of muscle and was doing the stack on most machines...as I progressed I started developing some hybrid HIT...I know I gave myself 2 small brain aneurysm from leg extension/leg press supersets to beyond failure with assisted reps...I am now 58 and still utilize this method of training...my joints are now pretty much shot...I suffered a complete quad tendon rupture in 2002 and tricep tendon rupture in 2007 both requiring major surgery...I was able to bench 450 at 220 when I was 41 and was ranked 21st in the country that year per PLUSA rankings...today I now train 2x a week...and still utilize my hybrid HIT which is similar to Yates or Labrada...
 

*Bio*

Super Moderator
Oct 30, 2012
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It all depends on the person but once the body starts accumulating injuries, it's probably better to move to the volume side and not just maximum weight. If I had a time machine! LOL!!

I have no problem discussing gear at all but it's always the focal point. ANYBODY can take 5 grams, 10 grams, 20 grams, whatever you can afford, ANYBODY can do that...there's nothing special about that BUT how many people can train with the intensity that Platz and Dorian trained with? How many people can eat the amount of food it takes, 7+ times a day? A lot of people think they do but they don't!

When I started working out in the 80's, gear was discussed but most people were training like animals. It was a different era and the gyms were very different than they are now. Things have changed and fitness has taken over...abs throughout the year are over rated...hahahaha! Training and food have to be dialed in to get the most out of any cycle. Like Tom Platz said, when you think there's nothing left, you have 5 more reps and when those five are done, there's still five more! Try training like that...it takes a lot of will power to put yourself through that kind of pain!!
 
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lycan Venom

AnaSCI VET / Donating Member
Nov 22, 2013
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HIT stresses intensity over repetition. Many*weightlifters*will use a HIT routine to help break a 'plateau' - meaning they will use HIT temporarily when another routine stops giving desired results. Different strength training authors from*Ellington Darden*and*Mike Mentzer*to*Dorian Yates*and*Gordon LaVelle*have called their system HIT, with each individual having credited Arthur Jones for the formulation of its basic tenet principles. However, there has never been a clear and consistent guideline on how to utilize HIT. Darden advocated full body routines, while Yates recommended to split the workouts into four different sessions a week. Mentzer believed that no more than one set to muscular failure per body part was all that was required,*yet Yates and LaVelle believed that more than one exercise per body part is necessary to get complete development as a bodybuilder.

This was some of the stuff that I got out of magazines at 12yrs old and using when I was 12-14 before getting into German Volume Training and Pyramid Training. I got hooked onto the 3x5's increasing weight each set... but over the years I mentally kept note of what technique worked best for each body part and now incorporate a mixed style of circuit training.

This is the type of conversation I missed. Old school bodybuilding techniques and ideology being shared. You dont read this kind of stuff in magazines anymore. Now it's all just hyped up marketing.

Lets get more threads like this going. I love reading what all the 80's & 90's guys have to say.
 

Concreteguy

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Mar 12, 2013
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Koolio, Welcome to AnaSci brother!! Sounds like your going to fit in here snug as a bug buddy. When you find out how many guys like yourself reside here at AnaSci it will blow your mind.
Keep on posting those stories brother..........
 

Concreteguy

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Mar 12, 2013
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It all depends on the person but once the body starts accumulating injuries, it's probably better to move to the volume side and not just maximum weight. If I had a time machine! LOL!!

I have no problem discussing gear at all but it's always the focal point. ANYBODY can take 5 grams, 10 grams, 20 grams, whatever you can afford, ANYBODY can do that...there's nothing special about that BUT how many people can train with the intensity that Platz and Dorian trained with? How many people can eat the amount of food it takes, 7+ times a day? A lot of people think they do but they don't!

When I started working out in the 80's, gear was discussed but most people were training like animals. It was a different era and the gyms were very different than they are now. Things have changed and fitness has taken over...abs throughout the year are over rated...hahahaha! Training and food have to be dialed in to get the most out of any cycle. Like Tom Platz said, when you think there's nothing left, you have five more reps and when those five are done, there's still five more! Try training like that...it takes a lot of will power to put yourself through that kind of pain!!


Where have you been keeping these stories buddy?? I love hearing this stuff. Your a fucking time capsule.
 
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Massive G

AnaSCI VIP
Apr 3, 2016
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I love threads like these.
I will try to post about my progression to HIT after about 10 years of training conventionally.

I don't train in a commercial gym.

I have 3 sets of Ironmaster Dumbells that go up to 120
and Ironmaster 1000 with all the attachments tons of weights and bars and racks even a damn tbar row attachment and seated calf machine - so I Train at home and work has a mini sized commercial gym that nobody goes too that I train at on most days after work.

I grew up in a small town and started working out in the late 80's the biggest gym was a health spa that a guy had converted to a hardcore gym.
I was shocked and battered and bruised ego when I got around those guys, had been training at the school gym and a shed outside my parents house.

Guys were puking everywhere and there were dark stains all around the squat rack, I soon found out why guys would squat till they spit up blood no shit...and they were puking from super sets giant sets ...powder from chalk was so thick it was like a white haze everywhere.

I chuckle every time I go in a commercial gym and the wipes and sanitizers and no chalk etc.

Everyone looks the same in these gyms all wearing the unde armour shirts and shorts "that wick sweat away" and do the same exercises ...the bench presses and squat racks never get used.

I'll write more later, but I sometimes wonder how big would I have been if I took a hardcore cycle these days and threw it on me when I was training and eating like a beast with the youthful 20 something metabolism.
Maybe I woulda got lazy and backed off ..who knows?? LOL
 

koolio

Registered User
Feb 26, 2017
108
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O.K.concreteguy...thanks for the props...here is an amusing story about HIT...back in the 80s I was competing in bb comps in the Cleveland area...I was a good local bb but my legs just weren't big enough...so I started this routine where I would do leg extension/hack squat/sissy squat tri sets until I would puke on myself...then and only then would I begin my 20 rep squats...this was done at 3 am!...a friend would squat until he would shit on himself!...on new years Eve 1989 we entered the gym at 11 pm and did 100 sets of squats for a total of 1000 reps...afterward we welcomed the new year by pinning 6 CC's of T then drank a case of Duke dark beer and ate a dozen scrambled eggs each...those were the best times of my life...lest you think we were dumbbells we both earned masters degrees by that time...he now has 2 artificial knees and is going in for a shoulder in April.......kvh
 

pharmahgh

Registered User
May 15, 2017
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I got lazy and stopped training hard. I started relying more on the gear Higher and higher doses, HGH and insulin. Yea I blew up and looked big in a T-shirt but looked like shit with it off. I ended up accumulating a lot of intra muscular fat. so when it came time to lean out and get hard all I did was get smaller.
I took this year and re dedicated myself to old school hard ass work. No more talking in the gym. I worked harder than I have in years. the results were unbelievable . I used less gear than I have in years, most of the year a mere 500mg test and 50mg of mast EOD. Thats really it. For 4 of those months I only did a trt dose of test. In 10 months I put on 9lbs of muscle. 1 inch on my arms, 3 inches on my lat,chest measurement, 3 inches on my shoulder width 1 inch on legs and bf down to 7% from 12% weight went from off season 270 to 250 but look way bigger way leaner and much harder. This is the best condition I have been in since i was in my 20s Im 46 now. we used calipers fat could be off and measurements were taken when I was on cycle as apposed to when we originally took them when I was basically off. but before and after measurements were taken at a weight of 250. My point is they may not be 100% but I feel damn good about the way I look and it was nothing more than good old fashioned hard work and training with intensity
 

d2r2ddd

AnaSCI VET
Apr 27, 2013
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www.anasci.org
HIT was the very first system i got addicted to in the 80s.
Collected every books by ellington dardens. Followed those program to a T.
Unfortunately gains was miserable.
Currently, gaining nicely on Mountain dog's style of training.:headbang:
 

*Bio*

Super Moderator
Oct 30, 2012
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Hey guys, in our Member's Log section, check out our member psych. He's a WPF Champion. We're lucky to have him here sharing his lifestyle with us! His training is intense!!
 

Sully

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Dec 3, 2012
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I always have shard time with these threads, and I think it’s mostly due to terminology. Lots of people SAY they do HIT training. But what they actually do in the gym can be polar opposites. There’s no good definition for what HIT style training actually means. For some it just means “I lift as hard as I can”. For others it means “I lift till I puke”. For others it’s lifting with minimal rest between sets.

I don’t know if I do HIT training because I don’t know what it means to do HIT training. My routine is based on periodisation techniques, and incorporates different techniques for breaking through plateaus like super sets, rest pause sets, failure sets, forced negatives, etc. Does that mean I do HIT? Fuck if I know.

99% of the time I train solo and don’t have anyone to spot me or to help get those last few assisted reps. I’m sure that limits my intensity on some exercises. It also limits the weight I use on certain exercises as well. I’m not going to load up a bunch of weight on the bench press and do singles or even triples, because I know that if I don’t get it there’s no one there to lift it off of me.
 

Steelex

Registered User
Feb 8, 2018
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Go read what Dante wrote. Go watch Dorian train. Or that bloke Jordon Peters.

Shit, go watch a video of the late Dallas Mccarver training, he was strong as a fucking bull dozer and went HARD in the paint.

This is just my opinion but there isn't a substitute for just getting brutally strong in bodybuilding rep ranges while keeping good form. Yes it does break the body down but everything else is just a substitute method to avoid injury or go less hard.

I don't know that it has to be done in a single set to all out failure, or that everyone even has the ability to truly push that hard, but I do believe to get the best results you need to go hard as fuck with shitheavy weight for you. Nothing else seems as effective (although probably safer).
 

pesty4077

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Jun 20, 2008
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CALIFORNIA
It all depends on the person but once the body starts accumulating injuries, it's probably better to move to the volume side and not just maximum weight. If I had a time machine! LOL!!

I have no problem discussing gear at all but it's always the focal point. ANYBODY can take 5 grams, 10 grams, 20 grams, whatever you can afford, ANYBODY can do that...there's nothing special about that BUT how many people can train with the intensity that Platz and Dorian trained with? How many people can eat the amount of food it takes, 7+ times a day? A lot of people think they do but they don't!

When I started working out in the 80's, gear was discussed but most people were training like animals. It was a different era and the gyms were very different than they are now. Things have changed and fitness has taken over...abs throughout the year are over rated...hahahaha! Training and food have to be dialed in to get the most out of any cycle. Like Tom Platz said, when you think there's nothing left, you have 5 more reps and when those five are done, there's still five more! Try training like that...it takes a lot of will power to put yourself through that kind of pain!!


Being from that era, I can vouch for that. ;)
 

Concreteguy

Super Moderator
Mar 12, 2013
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Go read what Dante wrote. Go watch Dorian train. Or that bloke Jordon Peters.

Shit, go watch a video of the late Dallas Mccarver training, he was strong as a fucking bull dozer and went HARD in the paint.

This is just my opinion but there isn't a substitute for just getting brutally strong in bodybuilding rep ranges while keeping good form. Yes it does break the body down but everything else is just a substitute method to avoid injury or go less hard.

I don't know that it has to be done in a single set to all out failure, or that everyone even has the ability to truly push that hard, but I do believe to get the best results you need to go hard as fuck with shitheavy weight for you. Nothing else seems as effective (although probably safer).

Lol, one thing Dante said that stuck like glue to me was "Gaining strength is an undeniable barometer of making muscle". Such a pure statement and so true. If your getting stronger it's more muscle thats moving the weight. Period. I say this because HIT is known for creating strength fast. Too me that means "muscle fast".
 
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koolio

Registered User
Feb 26, 2017
108
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Lol, one thing Dante said that stuck like glue to me was "Gaining strength is an undeniable barometer of making muscle". Such a pure statement and so true. If your getting stronger it's more muscle that moving the weight. Period. I say this because HIT is known for creating strength fast. Too me that means "muscle fast".

I agree...the stronger I got the bigger I got...I tried training for the "pump" and got nowhere...we are all different and respond differently to training styles......kvh
 

kevin666

Donating Member
Feb 11, 2018
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When I was younger I would use the Mike Mentzer 1 rep per set to try to break through sticking points. Largely using leverage equipment though or a power rack. Just like getting your bodyweight to a new homeostasis that you can maintain... it seemed that once I could push that weight even once I could drop back down and get more reps at my previous max (maybe it was all in my head)

Haven't done single reps in years now and stick to DC style.

I can still train heavy, but it takes me much much longer to warm up.

i think it was Jerry Rice who said something to the effect of ... at 40 years old I can do everything I could do at 20 but it takes me 3x as long to warm up.
 

Steelex

Registered User
Feb 8, 2018
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0
Lol, one thing Dante said that stuck like glue to me was "Gaining strength is an undeniable barometer of making muscle". Such a pure statement and so true. If your getting stronger it's more muscle thats moving the weight. Period. I say this because HIT is known for creating strength fast. Too me that means "muscle fast".

To me it's the only way that makes sense.

I've never seen a guy repping 405 for 3 sets of 20 who didn't have tree trunk legs.
 

*Bio*

Super Moderator
Oct 30, 2012
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Tom Platz - The Story of The QUADFATHER!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBMUwbXa3X0