I used the follow Mike Mentzer HIT and got pretty good results physically, but the best improvement was mental. The mental toughness to push towards absolute failure, at the same time to learn patience and give the body sufficient time to recover and build muscle. Very thankful for the guy.
I've been doing hit or at least my own modified version for the last few months. One thing I noticed is that it does get you stronger. I've done the higher volume, 2-3 reps shy of failure and that doesn't build strength as fast as simply doing one set. Not necessarily once a week but one set and rest a day and hit that one set again. You're also avoiding overuse injuries that way.
Absolutely! Plus, the level of mental freedom we get by not having to workout every single day. Workout starts feeling like a hobby than obligation / duty.
Whatever others may say. Mike Mentzer should be praised for promoting HIT training during a time when volume training reigned supreme. Without pause, everyone merely followed the volume training. Even though he knew he would be mocked for it, he did provide an alternative method of building muscle. That guy deserves RESPECT 🙏🙌
He should be praised for being wrong? You know it's a myth that bodybuilders were actually training super volume back then? They trained normally, probably less than most people do these days actually
I've been using a lot of mentzers training techniques over the past few months and I've noticed a huge change! Mentzer was no joke! The extended rest is also extremely beneficial.
For natural bodybuilders it really isn't. Protein synthesis in the muscles of a natural bodybuilder or lifter doesn't stay that long. Only 48-72 hours at max.
@@robbertag808 Use your brain. Protein synthesis lasts for as long as the muscle needs repair. If you haven’t reached failure or damaged your muscles too deep, of course you wouldn’t need that much time to recover compared to someone who has really damaged those fibers. It’s like you get injured and your body only synthesizes protein for 2 days even tho the wound still needs healing. Doesn’t make no sense.
@@theiriscen It looks like you don't use your brain. You get far more protein synthesis if you use needles. It also goes on for a longer time. That's exactly why you grow harder when you use needles. And besides that, your protein synthesis doesn't lasts for as long as the muscle needs repair cause the goal of training is to make sure the muscle gets bigger, not back to the same. You're new to training maybe?
@@robbertag808As a natural lifter who wasted years on high volume training accomplishing hardly any progress and, subsequently, reached my goals with infrequent and short HIT trainings, I politely disagree with you.
Mentzer's heavy duty training completely changed my life. I was in the gym at least 6 days a week, usually 1.5-2 hours on weekdays and 2-3 hours on Saturday and Sundays, running a company and going to school for engineering. I needed the insane physical training to mellow me out and help me mentally, so much so that when i first heard Mike's talks I dismissed them immediately, but something about what he said wormed its way in my skull and I decided to try heavy duty. I think almost everyone on this channel understands how addicted you get to the gym time once you're acclimated to a few hours a day. It was very hard to stop going as much but I told myself I would only try it for a month (which in my prior experience, isn't even enough time to properly rate a training regimen). At the end of that much I was so much bigger and a little stronger (which, for a month with someone who is going regularly is still pretty good) I couldn't deny its effectiveness, much like you say in the video. If you're overtraining it's a godsend. The only problem was I got used to burning so many calories that I had to seriously recalculate my diet. And, of course - I miss the gym all the time. But I'm in better shape going for ~2 hours a week than I was going upwards of 10. I'll be forever indebted to Mike for his protocols. RIP
Well said. I feel very similar right now. My gym obsession is real. Definitely considering switching to the Mentzer routine. Did you do cardio in between to get that gym exposure or strict HIT?
Same. I train 3x a week. Back and chest, legs and shoulders and arms. I am more ripped than ever, muscle more dense than before. I feel more stronger and energetic
I owe my entire life to Mentzer. Never lifted weights until 6 months ago after learning about Mentzer's HIT training. Now I am a 3x rookie of the year bodybuiler...2x Mr Jersey title for 2023, and 4x Mr symmetry award...all within 1 year! I only train for 2 hours per week and eat mostly junk food. No steroids. Just Mentzer's training techniques is all I need!
I had good results from HIT training. I am built like a long distance runner and was a natural cross country runner. I started conventional and stopped making progress after two years. My goal was to get stronger, I switched to HIT training and it really worked for me. I can not argue with the results, I progressed for another 3 years. Besides, I hated spending all my free time in the gym. I had a life, a job and other interests.
Thats alot like saying I just run 10k's or shorter distances, do some interval runs but keep my mileage below 25miles/wk and no weekly long runs, I can't argue with the results since my 10k and half marathon times are way better than the average joe. I have a life and other interests and can't be spending so much time running.
Totally agree here. I just can't justify the amount of time it takes to put in a high volume training routine. HIT training has worked well for me. It's just a very efficient and result producing way to train. If high volume was the only thing that worked, I would have, out of necessity, abandoned training long ago.
It's funny, because I never aspired to be a body builder (I don't have the genetics), but when I went into the workforce full time, construction, that I had to give up HIT training because framing houses was very physical, and yet in my 30's, ten years after I quit training HIT, people still asked if I lift weights? I did not loose any muscle until I was in my late 40's. I wonder if that was because of HIT. I am a believer in HIT. I also did super slow on the negatives and found that very beneficial.@@stevesorensen9648
I agree, and it shows that despite the obvious fact that your slow-twitching muscles are predominant over the fast-twitching ones, HIT can still work for you. My goal isn't to participate in. a contest but to always look good and steadily better my body composition. I can achieve that with HIT, doing 4 days of weight-lifting for 40-60 mins, and 3 days of HIIT cardio of 20 mins. I change my HIT routine slightly with phases of 1 or 2 sets after warming up with 1-2, and full range of motion reps or partials. At the end of the day, I would always favor intensity over volume due to the return on time I get. I believe everybody has to learn his body and then go the route that benefits best his goals, period!
There's a lot to say about the mental fortitude long distance running forms and its applicability to HIT. On long distance runs, the mental fatigue to keep going really requires a lot of mental strength (I personally run ultra's and its always beyond failure for me during a race.) Take that mentality to HIT and your mind can really push you to true failure in your sets. I'm exactly the same story as you, except my mental strength beyond failure was really honed in during special operations selection, and HIT works EXCEPTIONALLY well for me. Its great to see other similar backgrounds find the same success
Finally someone who does not like HIT, but looks at it from profesional and objective perspective. I have been using it for last four months and it worked wonders for me. But I found few downsides and made few adjustments. You mentioned all of them plus more... Amazing video👑
People dont realize that Mentzer probably didn't do hit like he said he did lmao. He was trying to sell a program that seemed like a shortcut for quick results.
It should disappoint because Mike is wrong lol. Hit and high intensity low volume is how you should train; full body is garbage as is 2 and 3 rir total junk.
@@analogcrunch4716how is hit and full body excluding each other 😂😂😂 mike mentzer had you do deadlifts aka a lower body movement after chest press and pulldowns, and its a great combo
@@analogcrunch4716 He's objectively right. We know from plenty of scientific studies that your muscles can recover quickly and you do not need the amount of rest Mike Mentzer believed. You're leaving gains on the table by not doing more volume. Mike and his subjects were roided out of their mind so anything they did was going to promote tons of growth. Interesting how they never were the absolute best though... Can you even name a single major bodybuilder that trains like Mentzer prescribed? Dr. Mike knows far more than Mentzer ever did.
I've been following Mentzer's base routine for 8 weeks now and I'm seeing good results. I'm putting on some size and my strength has shot up. I find the mentality required is the best part. He goes into this a lot in his book. You're not going to the gym to do 3 sets of this, 3 sets of that... you're going to war against your mind and the weights. You're absolutely right on the set quality; you get hyper focused on making sure you squeeze every last rep out in good form because you know you don't get another set or revisit that movement for a while.
this. I love combining a hyper aware focus on RP style lifting technique, with Mentzer/Yate failure, forced reps, etc. I'll do 3-4 working sets, staying 1-3 RIR and then have a last, all-out set to failure with clean form, and then roughly 1/3 of the time, I'll strip for another all-outer. That mental war absolutely translates to other areas of our lives. Constantly leaving 2 RIR just makes me feel anxious. I've got to know I beastmoded. I might only be there for 30-45 minutes with my volume, but I'm gaining rapidly now that I'm dialing in diet.
Let's consider something important here. When Mentzer wrote his books and hatched his version of HIT training, it was the early 80's, over 40 years ago. There really wasn't a whole lot of "sports science" as we have today and certainly he didn't have the information we have today available to inform his theories. Mentzer was generally an incredibly logical and rational thinker and based on the ideas of the time, he asked the right questions about what was considered "conventional" training at that time: If forming a workout routine from scratch, where do you start? You don't start at 12 sets. You'd start at 1 and if that wasn't adequate you go to 2. Etc. He wasn't as dogmatic as you think because toward the end of his life and after hundreds of clients and observations, he'd revised some of his ideas based on that. He admitted that genetics play a role in how quickly people recover and admitted he had clients that insisted on working out daily and showed good progress. I'm sure that if he were alive today, knowing the things we know now, he'd probably be on board with Mike and the predominant theories used based on decades of scientific research. So we need to consider context when thinking about what he was saying in 1982. That said, there are valuable methods that people CAN use in terms of switching up routines and shocking muscle groups doing things you may not normally do. There is value in what he was teaching and talking about but even he admitted towards the end, there is no "one size fits all" routine. But the spirit of what he was trying to do shouldn't be lost. You do what is most logical, rational and what science suggests.
I've done HIT for the past 3 months over winter in Australia. I have noticed around me in the gym many are spending a lot of time doing random junk sets with no intensity with the rest of their time on their phones. I'm 52 and have found having more time in the week to do other fitness related activities beneficial.
Similar experience. I'm 50 years old and have been doing HIT for a year and a half. Two full on HIT sessions a week is about all my body can recover from, so it is pointless doing more. The sessions are short, so I can fit them into my day. They are brutal, which is fun as I really get to find out what I am capable of. All up It works very well for an older guy.
I'm 51 and use Mentzer's ideas - with some tweaks. I cut out junk volume, have more rest days. Whenever people criticize Arthur Jones, they always end up criticizing Mentzer - who offered "Heavy Duty", not really "HIT"... Mentzer emphasized warmup sets then an intense working set to failure. It works for me. I wish people would stop lumping Mentzer with Arthur Jones.
@@kaihuizing5970 After 30 years training and 22 years working in gyms I think I can work out what's superior over another. The average modern way of training looking at phones for 5 minutes between sets and doing 8 chest exercises is inferior....
Hey, I’m 28, and noticed the same thing since I started HIT. People are in the gym hanging out, no effort, no sweat, they lift the weights with blank expressions, hit the 8 10 12 whatever reps they’re sets require, drop it and get on their phones. It’s bizarre.
100%, I got injured and doc said I could start back but just go easy. I told him "I don't know what that is, I'll just wait and heal a little longer"😂 the intensity is what makes it fun!
I will add though that making progress is a big factor in 'fun' as well so you can't simply go full bro. Luckily with lifting, there are usually enough options to limit what you dislike and incorporate movements you do.
Best way I've come across so far. Have never grown in size or strength so fast, while at the same time experiencing none of the chronic fatigue or joint pain I was with volume 5-6 days per week.
@@mecommenting Same. Even almost 2 weeks rest after last session I notice differences in my physique and I feel bigger. It's crazy how important rest is for a natty and the 2 sides of the coin.
Ah yes, mike mentzer. The guy with one of the thickest midsections of his time, apparently had the best physique in history. I can't believe the way people worship this guy. He didn't even build his physique with hit. He switched to that after training with volume for years and already being a competitive bodybuilder, then started hit after eventually plateauing, which will happen to everyone who trains for any measurable length of time.
@@jimjim5245 I didn't say he didn't have an impressive physique. Just not the best in history like the comments i was replying to. It all comes down to opinion, just like when judging a competition. I'd almost kill a squirrel to have mikes physique. But arm size is only a portion, and arnolds arms, at least prior to 80, were almost 20 inches. Though they lied and said they were almost 23 lol.
Mentzer's HIT training is the best ever. In 6 months, I gained 80 pounds of muscle, won 3 NPC titles, got a 50% raise at my job, and my cancer is now gone! Mentzer is easily a 12 out of 10.
It suits my mentality and that has a massive impact on results. One training principle may be superior over the other in terms of science, but doing something you enjoy brings probably better long term results.
It depends, on the goals and specificity, but also kinda yes, we have studies on this. Consistency, sustainability, mental wellbeing are a plus, and we know that placebo, belief, faith, does impact results. But, if your goals are not in line with your training methodology not necessarily you will get better results over time. Is your goal hyperthrohpy for general fitness, aestetics or bodybuilding. Or is it related to health or mental health. Does it have time constraints (Ex, competition, medical exams, social events)? In the end it depends on what you want now and in the future. your training doesn't have to be an either/or choice, sometimes combining approaches can have a synergistic effect.
@@Eustresif the goal is just to build muscle, then Dorian Yates proved it's possible. For me, I love cycling also and it gives me rest days to go out and ride at zone 2 cardio. I personally feel with hit the recovery is key and it's difficult for most to back off. Our concept of success is work, to work harder. So to suggest doing less is contrary to everything we've been taught. In saying that, I know it's not for everyone, for the reasons above mentioned and flipped opposite.
@@zerog4261 Possible for Dorian Yates though, doesn't necessarily mean for everyone. Dr. Mike has had interviews with researchers on volume, and in a few studies they found for some people, they got the same stimulus from low volume as high volume, and others seemed to benefit more from the higher volume. There's so many factors here, involving your own body, individual muscles, are you beginner or been lifting for many years, are you on gear or not, how much sleep do you get, etc. I think the main thing with all of this is try not to be dogmatic. Try different stuff and see what works for you and also don't assume that if it works for you it'll work the same for everyone.
I've found that alternating a DC training block, then a RP block works like magic. I also enjoy being out of the gym in 30 minutes and unable to walk for days afterwards.
Same here, as well. I'm 47 and I am now resting 7 days between body part groups. I'm using a "Heavy Duty" style of warm up then going to a basically all out, very heavy set at the end to positive momentary muscle failure. I train one "body part group" per day, weekdays only, Saturday and Sunday off. I've found that the longer rest time (I'm a "natty" using therapeutic Test within physiological ranges) has really caused me to swell up. Plus, the 30 minutes (more or less) in the gym is a valued feature of HIT/ Heavy Duty/ Blood and Guts. However, I intend on adding more volume over the Winter and then paring down my excess weight (currently, 5' 6" at 211# trying to get to ~230-240# before drawing down) in preparation for Summer Training.
The key take away here for me, find your maximal recoverable volume. My pecs fatigue after 6 sets! I’ll do 2/3 sets on a press, 2/3 on some form of pec deck and it’s done. My back however can tolerate a lot more. HIT is unbelievable in my opinion, as it does really make you understand how important recovery actually is. However the fatigue to stimulus ratio is huge which Mike mentioned. It’s finding that sweet balance. Then accumulate your volume over that week and see how well you recover.
If it takes 6 sets to fatigue you’re not using heavy enough weight. Figure out your max, go down 10 lbs and rep it as many times as you can for one set. You would literally see more results from that than 6 low intensity sets.
@@Yungknown you really need to work that muscle, not just move weight around. For me personally, going all out for 2 - 3 working sets / exercise, for 2 exercises / body part, worked well. That includes, of course, intensity techniques, like isometric holds, slow negatives, long lenght partials and drop/down-sets. Talking about reps, I usually go for 7 - 9 hard reps and then 4 - 6 more for the drop/down-sets.
Honestly I thought you were one of the Mike Mentzer haters, but you were far more well-rounded than I ever gave you credit for initially. And that’s my bad. This was a very methodical articulate and humble video. You talked about the Inbetweeners people who don’t necessarily fit one narrative or the other but within the gray area. That’s amazing just subscribed, notifications bell on!!!
Exactly this dude said Dorian did 14 sets. Nah he didn't. Exactly like you said. Ronnie Coleman didn't do much sets either. 45 min also, and these dudes and mentzer were huge and never in gym longer than 45 min
I used HIT as a catalyst to add more quality volume in my programmes. With limited sets I could focus on my technique and my intensity. Now I’ve established a base, I’ve added more sets to each lift and only really going to actual failure on the final set. So far so good.
Late response but I really like this approach. It’s in line with mountain dog training by John meadows. I think John walked the line perfectly between hit training and high volume. His programmes were very challenging but weirdly never left me feeling completely destroyed. Hit did that to me and RP doesn’t seem to give me any soreness!
I’ve been doing this for three weeks, first two weeks I did 2 reps of 185 benching and I somehow just did 4 this third week. Whether you’re doing 1 set or 3 sets I believe intensity is a huge factor for success, and I do think that the amount of rest needed depends on the individual. If you’re somebody that lives in the gym and wants more free time it’s worth a try, you can make gains doing this. If anything, forcing the emphasis on quality sets and recovery, you’ll learn more about yourself and probably adjust yourself closer to your optimal training style
I literally trained my calves 12 days ago following my own HIT workout…. Added 0.25 inches by letting them rest… I do push, pull, legs, 4 days off between workouts - 1 set to failure per exercise…. It literally works far better than anything else I’ve ever done…
@johnnytopside1437 because most people don't workout like this. You see them doing calves and they are on their phone just half assing it. When you truly train as Mentzer prescribes, you're doing a raise and slowly lowering over 5 seconds or so and doing that until momentary muscular failure. I've been doing this myself the past few weeks and got the best results of my life tbh. It just works for some people just like a lot of volume works for others.😊
I think a valid takeaway from this is that there is a lot of research and metaanalysis which suggest a ideal route for a majority of people, but that is to an extent, juxtaposed by your individual and nuanced experiences due to your own body's ability to recover and grow. Ideally, you treat resistance training as a life long journey that grows and evolves as you do, and you collect data and experiment with yourself as more information becomes available to you.
When I started training I was trying to work each muscle group 2-3 times per week and it was consistently burning me out and I was not recovering. I have always had pretty severe DOMS so when I tried HIT it worked SOO much better for me. Hitting PRs pretty much every week. I am still early in my training so I will adjust as needed but so far HIT really fits myself training, recovery and lifestyle. I can see that certain muscle groups are not always getting or staying sore for as long as they should IE biceps and triceps so I am probably going to adjust the volume up on those. Love Dr. Mike's videos on training they are always informative. The ultimate take away is always put in the maximum effort, track your progress, and do what is right for your body so that you keep progressing.
Perspective from someone just getting back into the gym in his upper 30s and realizing how poorly educated I was back in high school on weight lifting, I appreciate the crap out of this channel and others that help put some good perspective on the different philosophies. I've seen a bunch of Mentzer's clips and much of what he said makes sense, but felt incomplete. Your explanation of more purposefully targeting certain muscle groups to their respective recovery points helps hone in on the nuance I felt was missing from those videos. Good stuff, thanks man.
I'm pretty happy that I've came to the same conclusion as Mike have, this video just confirmed what I though was correct; listen to your body, adjust accordingly, safety and form is king, slow and controlled movement, and make the workout fit to your own lifestyle - not the opposite. Edit: Dr. Doug McGuff is a great teacher about HIT, learned it all from him. Really recommend his book "Body by science".
McGuff and Little taught a quality superslow program in "Body by Science." 21-year-old me ran to the mailbox way back in 2009 when it came out. I really wish I hadn't, though. They really messed me up on volume and recovery. The target audience of their workout routine should be 65-year-olds who have no interest in training but want more overall health and biomarker improvements. It'll do that. But once a week for 5 total sets to a superslow failure? No way. I never got anywhere with that, and never saw anyone else get anywhere, either. It's not enough for sizable hypertrophy gains, and then a McGuff will say "well, the other guys who are doing RP-style workouts or are olympic athletes have just self-selected for what they are good at." I get tired of that cop-out shit from the newer HIT advocates. It's just not an ideal way to workout or live. You get sore as dogshit from the superslow with no muscle gains. I can ride a bike for that.
Probably one of the most fair critiques I've seen so far. I liked HIT but I haven't done strict HIT in years but I still carry some of the principles with me. Mainly, less sets per bodypart and recovery. You're right about the fatigue. That's ultimately why I stopped. I did about 2-3 cycles of it (no gear) and I'm grateful for it. I like that you introduce the idea that it's up to the individual. A novel concept, I know, but missing in a lot of these "critiques". Also, the "how do I do it better" vs the lie that it's "nonsense" is much more useful than the bashing.
A decent video. Most guys are looking to put on a bit of muscle and maintain a good physique. We are not aspiring IFBB pros, we are not "enhanced" gym rats. We have jobs and wives and kids and hobbies. The advice of 3 sets of quads 2x per week (and similar for all other body parts) is absolutely off the table. I am not lifting every day. I am not going to center my life on recovering from that kind of frequency/volume. I have things to do. Lifting is one of many different activities that I engage in on a weekly basis. I loosely follow HIT training, as described by Mentzer. I do not look like a bodybuilder. I do not want to look like a body builder. I have a masculine physique that is good enough. I achieve this with 3 twenty minute lifting sessions a week. I look better and healthier than the vast majority of men my age. Good enough for me. For all the guys who are wondering what they should do, be it 3x10 twice a week or whatever, carefully consider your personal goals against the goals of someone who makes a living off of fitness advice or who really centers their life on the gym. Do you make your living off of selling fitness advice? No? Are you now or aspiring to be an IFBB pro? No? Do you want to manage a career, family and the like? Yes? Then don't worry about what is maximally effective. Figure out what is good enough for you and do that. It probably will be some variation of HIT / Mentzer training.
Same here. I'm just a regular guy trying to stay fit. If I can accomplish that with less time in the gym, that leaves more time for everything else in my life.
Speak for yourself I just wanna get massive lmao. Wouldn't be watching science based shit if I didn't want to train as close to optimally as possible. That would be a waste of time
Got to say, Mentzer's approach gave me the best results by far. It also helped when I became busy with business, and family, since it also meant less time in the gym was necessary.
It seems like as a community we need to evolve from thinking in terms of training styles and recognize that using the volume intensity or frequency that gives the individual the right feedback and best results is the best way to train. It doesn’t need attachment to titles like HIT, high volume, etc or a camp in which one is emotionally invested.
I love that HIT workouts are so short. I feel I'm able to be more consistent when I know my workout is going to be sub 30 mins long. Longer than that and it becomes too hard to schedule into my life.
I liked your take on this whole training style. I've been trying to wrap my head around why this HIT thing has worked so well for me the past few months, and honestly I've been enjoying the fuck out of it, but also kinda tried to find excuses for why it's not optimal. I've done the high volume stuff for the longest time, and I genuinely think that people who are newer to the gym, and can't train with as much intensity as more experienced lifters, the higher volume approach is fine, because you won't need as much recovery. For me though, it completely stagnated my progress after like 3-4 years of lifting, just minimal gains, wasn't getting stronger, all that stuff. Now I've jumped on the HIT bandwagon and every fucking session is a PR day. It's crazy. And it's not small amounts of increases either, we're talking 30-50% rep gains, and upwards of 10-15% weight gains. I've personally found my ideal style of training, and it leaves me so much more time to do other things and achieve other physical goals.
It def works it’s why there are so many videos trying so hard to pick it apart so they can sell what they are selling . If you over train you will plateau , it’s when you first start training anything is when you get results so this is why it works you don’t plateau . Look for an example if you drink alcohol too much does it get better or you plateau sort to Speak where it no longers does what it first started out doing.
So glad that you did this video, couldn't have come at a better time. I've recently discovered Mike Mentzer and have been considering trying HIT and will be keeping your pros/cons in mind.
At 61 years old I've tried it all. I've also trained others off and on during this time. I consider myself a "HIT" advocate only because I've done the experimenting Dr. Mike talks about in the video. Try high volume if you think that will work better for you. Log the workouts, how you feel during and after the workouts. Are you increasing the weight or reps in each exercise. If your log book shows negative or dismal results, try higher intensity training. Again log your workouts, and how you feel during those workouts. See if things start moving in the right direction for "you". Currently I do a set to failure followed by a back off set at 90% of my top set, again to failure. I rest 3 minutes before I hit that back off set to be sure I can give it my all. I don't go to failure every workout though. I build up to it over a period of 3 weeks. I then follow that failure week up with a deload before moving into my next mesocycle which would include another run at the same workout with heavier weights and less reps for another 3 weeks plus a deload week. I follow that up with another run at the same workout with heavier weights again. So my training which I've developed over many years is more of a hybrid approach. I took the best of both philosophies and tested them on myself and others. I do well with HIT. But you've got to be willing to experiment to see where your best gains take place. Log your workouts, modify and adjust according to what the logbook dictates. I encourage people to think for themselves. Now get after it!
I'm so glad to see someone talking about Mike Mentzer. When I first started getting into lifting, I was reading a lot of Mentzer's stuff, and it got me at a formative moment. It's been really hard to shake.
I've trained HIT over 30 years, even through my competitive days in my 20's. My experience was splitting my body into 2-3 workouts, training every other day, was when my results exploded, on only 2-4 working sets per body part. The day off between each session is critical. You really need time for systemic recovery, between every workout. I also think this is THE way to train for natural athletes, such as myself, or for those with no intention of ever competing. Nattys do not have the benefit of being reckless with their recovery, as enhanced athletes do. Plus, don't you want a life outside the gym. Most people don't want to look like Ronnie Coleman. They just want to be in good shape, and afford themselves time to enjoy other things in life. HIT is the most viable form of training for those that want these things.
@@tomwaitsfornoone1182 what he was actually saying, "try low frequency, which will be 95% or more effective than any other training, so why do more?" ... but you didn't that - every antihitter since the dawn of amoebas
how old are you now? my side.. I'm 47, train Chest+Quads, 3-4 days later Back+Biceps+Calves, and 3-4 days later Shoulders+Triceps+Hamstrings+Calves - I do 2-6 sets per bodypart every 10 days. Shoulder press 100lbs dumbbells for 12 reps + 2 forced reps, row 300lbs. Example - Quads is 1 set of squats till I fail on the pins, and then straight to 1 set of leg extension, then rest, and another 1 set of leg extensions, that's it. Hamstrings is 1 set of stiff leg deadlifts and 2 sets of standing leg-curl. That's it.
Tons of videos of HIT lately especially with Mike Menzter...plus Dorian is on record he went to 1 (occasionally 2) very intense working set and did 2-3 "warm up sets". Also Tom Platz is on record saying when he trained with Arnold Schwarzenegger he followed their diet and workouts and got weaker and smaller. Met with Mike Menzter and changed his approach (not to the exact approach as Mike's) and well he was successful. Lastly Mike did mention in HIT you are absolutely indirectly training the same muscles in multiple workouts...just the focus of the workout is not a specific muscle etc. Anyway good video and thanks for sharing
@@joelacey4804 tbf Mentzer also said a small general warmup followed by 2 warmup sets of 50% and 70% (6-12 reps each) then one all out set. He's always said this so it seems most "criticism" is from people who don't really know what MM was espousing 🤷
The most important part of Mike Mentzers philosophy is this; The stronger you get, the less you should train. People tend to increase their workloads never decrease it as it seems counter intuitive. If you listen to your body it becomes obvious, you can work much harder than you can recover. The mechanisms for growth become stubborn the more advanced you are. You must convince the body it has the freedom to grow, by maintaining the parasympathetic nervous system.
@@stevegaspar He has also said to workout every 4-7 days a different muscle group each time.... which would mean hitting a muscle again every 3 weeks.... His training is too extreme. He diagnosed the issue of BB during his time, 3+ hours in the gym 7 days a week wasnt the way. But his ideas and methods just go to the opposite end of the spectrum
@@fox20rps94 directly yes but indirect hitting same muscles multiple times. For instance close grip lat pull downs for the back was his "favorite" biceps exercise. Dips for chest and triceps too...list goes on and on. It's effective for many but not many want to train less... identity is in the gym and smashing high reps and big weights...great for Instagram and bro's
I've just started my competition rebound phase. Won the Masters Classic 40+ two weeks ago. Using RP mesocycles with a Push, Pull, Legs, off, Push, Pull, off rotation. Logging every workout. Absolutely loving it! Staying full, pumped, and recovery is right on time. I've never done this style before but I really like it now. Coach has added more food this week which is helping. Less volume and more frequency is fun. I get in, hit it hard, and leave. Most excited I've been to train in years.
Whats your insta id.. i would like to follow u on insta if yoy have an insta account..bcoz i am hitting 40 nxt yr and would like to make some strength training..
@@WtbgoldBlogspot thanks! My goal was top 3 in those divisions and I accomplished it. Both divisions had over 10 guys so there was good competition. I took 3rd Masters Bodybuilding 40+. The two guys that beat me have been to nationals twice and took second place. They were qualifying for November nationals. Judges said I need more arms and shoulders and I'm good to go. Working on that now so we'll see where I'm at for next year.
I started Mike's HIIT Training 7 weeks ago and it's been the best thing I could have ever done. I'm getting stronger than before, better gains and longer pumps. Not only that, I feel way better. Perhaps it's because I'm 57 but HIIT works much better. Stop overtraining.
I like it and have seen it work. I think there are too many people caught in the semantics of “good vs better” and turn it into “works or doesn’t work” I’m not a bodybuilder I’m an electrician so just lifting in the weekend works for me. I track progress and i look forward to training. That’s good enough for me.
Once again, superb content! Been adopting your content for years. Am a natural lifter. Your advice about prioritising technique, and moving from 3 or 4 rir in the first week, towards 1 rir in the last weeks, and then some failure sets before delaoding, gave me the best gains of my life. Thanks mate
Dr Mike, Your discussion contained many accurate points regarding H.I.T., especially between 2:00-5:00! Thank you for making the same point I've made in my videos by mentioning how the studies are "short term" @11:58. Overall, a pretty great, unbiased sounding evaluation of H.I.T. with you mentioning your personal 8 year run using it.
For a moment I thought you were going to discredit HIT Method but in reality you vouched for it, as long as you make the right adjustments to improve. I've always wanted to learn how periodization works so I got to the right place... definitely subscribed.
Your balanced presentation is so refreshing compared to other channels. Amazing work, yet again. Production note, your style of delivery and rate of speech makes it fun and easy to listen to this material. Couldn't ask for more, thx for all the hard work.
I recently started going climbing twice a week. My forearms are getting amazing results (even better than the results from the training on lonely friday nights!) However im lost with how i should adapt my Back hypertrophy training to not overwork the good old pulling muscles. Thank you dr. mike!
@@DarkoFitCoachbeen doing it for 1 month and added 5 to 25 kg on my lifts yes i changed machines but neurological adaptations obviously taper off on machines taper off soon. I did high volume for a while and only made that much progress as a beginner , actually been training for 1 yr. Im not a one set guy but 4 sets a week per muscle plus myo reps on some sets lol.
I used to train medium to high volume. I use Dorian Yates program now and the gains have been fantastic. I use to be a skeptic and now I am a believer. It flat out works.
I finally took my HIT training to the extreme and reduced my weekly sets to 0. I must say the results speak for themselves, and my muscles finally have adequate time for rest and recovery. Thank you Mike Mentzer! 😎
I’ve been training off an on for 30 years. I’m in the best shape of my life NOW doing HIT training. The only difference is I only rest 2-2.5 minutes between sets. Best thing I’ve ever done! 💪🏾
amen to the extra rest. Was doing bro 60-second rests in between. Looked myself in the mirror and said "you're a single dad trying to get laid on Tinder. Rest and grow, bro."
@@DuBstep115 right, I understood him. But I was buying into the concept of timed rest periods, and then you have to stress about watching the clock, and then if you rest too long you feel like that extra rep wasn't "real," and then you're mentally masturbating when you should be deadlifting. Or whatever.
@@rileyraspberries Luckily my PE teacher was a HIT guy and he told us when we were 15 about the rest periods. I have never clocked my rests. God bless Jouko, best teacher ever.
@@DuBstep115 makes sense, man. Lucky with your teacher, too! My dad had the Ellington Darden books laying around when I was a kid and that's how I picked up HIT.
Ellington Dardin, who has written multiple books on HIT and worked with Jones for years, prescribes whole body routines, taken to or beyond failure, 3x per week for beginners, with 10-12 sets or exercises total. The sets and number of workouts per week drop off progressively as you get stronger. It’s a well thought out approach and will definitely work. I can’t do whole body routines and I don’t train to failure anymore because I’m not a professional athlete of any kind and I just workout for fun and general health and fitness. No need to get so sore and exhausted I’m worthless the next day. For me anyway.
Mentzer is changing the world of workout way more today than ever before. People want to work smarter and they listen to people like Yates and co and wanna do it without PEDs and the HIT is the one method to work the natural way. Mentzer was a genius and the people who are paid by the muscle business hate him even more today. RIP Master Mentzer, the world is a better because of people like him and Dorian Yates.
Wdym he wasn’t endorsed he literally publicly endorsed the whole Arthur jones Colorado experiment scam just to sell nautilus equipment (and apparently didn’t even do HIT to get where he was it’s something he came up with later on in life) I fw him but the more you research the guy the more you realise lots of shit was total bs (in fact even yates did a different version of it, made more sense that way tbh) still respect the guy but too much bs too
According to mike, hit is Taylor made for naturals, because the major advantage for ped. is recover time. HIT, give maximum recover time. That's usually 7 days for achieving over-compensation as a natural. ped on the other hand allows you to do high volume training, and still achieve over- compensation. ITS so simple to figure out. If you are stronger every time you hit that muscle, you are doing something RIGHT. If not, you need to adjust your routines.
Even if HIT was made popular for the sole purpose of capitalizing on marketing, I would rather spend 30 minutes in the gym two to three times per week and gain 8 pounds of muscle in a year (intermediate or advanced trainee) than spend two hours in the gym five times per week and gain 10 pounds of muscle....Life has so much more to offer...I do believe HIT produces better results though. Another thing is the studies do not show how hard the people using HIT trained. I've made good gains on both volume and Hit. The people who made good gains doing squats every day would not have been able to do so for long. Mentzer never said training with volume did not work in the short term. In fact, he said quite the opposite. The whole reason Arthur Jones came up with low volume training in the first place is because high volume training eventually leads to over training and not being able to recover. These guys never said you cannot make progress for a while on high volume training.
That's true, but that's kind of the opposite side of the coin. Like Dr. Mike has videos on volume where he specifically calls out the "squat every day" stuff as being unsustainable. His general opinion is that after a deload you are pretty sensitized to training and so you go down to something like 2 sets of 3 reps-in-reserve and maybe quads are twice a week while arms are 3 times a week. Then every session you add weight or reps or sets depending on how well you recovered from last time and you naturally end up closer to failure as the weeks go by. Then by the end of the cycle (say 5 or 6 weeks) you deload again and start a new cycle. You may end up going close to failure with a bunch of sets in the last week, but then you recover during the deload. And especially for the bigger muscles, you may find you don't need more volume and so you end up still with 2-3 sets by the end, while side delts you may have a bunch of sets near the end.
You hit the nail on the head at 12:18 Mike. If my body feels good to go at day 2-3 of recovery, I’m fine with my next workout. I’ve actually gotten to a point where I wait until an hour before to decide whether my body is recovered enough😂 but I’ve found this to work.👍🏻
@TOMReefer Try writing down your numbers (with the time it takes you to do your workout) And then tell me if after 2 - 3 days if your numbers keep going up. Remember progressive overload...
The downsides weren't really downsides 🤷♂️ and the good thing was is that you didn't even un-promote it and just hit on basically listen to your body in terms of recovery. Thank you Mike! I really appreciated what you had to say. I'm new at lifting and discovering HIT before discovering High Volume...so I don't know any different but I chose HIT because I still wanted to make lifting fun but even more so I wanted to focus on avoiding injuries that could really affect my quality of life
Not reaching as good of MRP and gaining noticeably higher amounts of fatigue ARE downsides. They might not be for you, or I mean as significant, but they are downsides. Just like many of those upsides may not necessarily be upsides so much for everyone, because people are different
For me (as a not so young buck)- hitting a group of muscles more often really has diminishing returns. It seems like the extended recovery time is great for me.
Mentzer was 100 correct! I use High Intensity at 54 years old and get great results! How many reps is enough? Do your warm-up and then go to failure! There is nothing past failure. Set it and forget it!
I just get a kick out of people who think Mentzer didn’t train “normally” a lot as well. He had books to sell. That’s why he was so adamant publicly about his training style.
HIT has been doing incredible things for my progress, but I did notice that my forearms are being burnt out 3/4 into my workouts and ive noticed my muscles heal at different speeds. As someone who's vert skeptical of HIT critics, this was a fantastic video. Gave it credit and constructive criticisms. Wish Mike Mentzer was still alive. I bet he'd adjust his theories based on the new evidence.
From what I have felt from trying the HIT style, with the rep tempo to failure, isometric hold at peak contraction, and lowering weight only technique shown by Mentzer is that muscle building is a function of both tension, time under tension, and recovery. Mentzer seems to pay a lot of attention to time under tension and rest, and holds tension as more of a constant through mind muscle connection. Furthermore I have found his system to work especially well for people just getting into fitness since he says to only workout in total once a week and it takes a month to hit the whole body. This combination of time under tension and recovery is nice as not only a way to ease into more frequent workout, but also develop mind muscle connection, and allow for more muscle recovery. Which in turn builds adherence to fitness protocols. Personally I find it nice as a technique with only warm up set weight for deload.
I confess that although I have only been training six months; I still feel we could all agree that our bodies will speak to us. If I feel like I am recovered for a muscle group I will train it again.
Been using HIT for years. MM and AJ literally have unlocked the key to building muscle. At 73 I have found hit to work! You do have to tune the program to your needs. When followed you will gain muscle. spend less time in the gym, and your chances of injury are almost nonexistent. 4-2-4 takes some time to get used to, it works. And I am currently on a 5 day off cycle, am seldom tired and you will be fully recouped when you return to the gym. In MM's words, " it is magical." Try it for 6 months and I guarantee you will see improvements. Who says so, Dorian Yates and others who MM has trained.
I would reccomend every experienced lifter should train the HIT style some time. If you dont like the style or find better results with more volume or reps, less recovery, whatever. The change in mentality will help you massively. Find a gymbro to push you beyond what you think you can do. In my opinion that is the most important part of the HIT style and mentality, exertion beyond failure, implement that effectively
It's important to note Mentzer did distinguish between Natural vs. Enhanced and that the same HIT routine can't be applied to both. If anything hit was designed for the average Natural person who didn't have much time and recuperative ability. Great video, a shame Mentzer isn't around and able to keep up with the latest science as he was 100% for evolving his ideas and philosophy and would jave agreed with much of this video. P.S. Arthur Jones was just a greasy saleman and a catalyst for Mentzer. Dorian adapted it specifically to Enhanced body types.
@@ClassicTormarginally more at best. Same warmup and maybe 1 or 2 sets more then mentzer. Same exact principles and yates recovered bit better with hgh and insulin
Always a fan of Mentzers, but what people often fail to notice is that Mike gained most of his muscle mass before he was even introduced to HIT via Casey Viator to Arthur Jones. Look at pictures of Mike even in his teens, a number of years before he discovered HIT, he was already close to his maximum size (albeit not conditioning). But as I say, big fan still.
So was Dorian Yates but got better and bigger (his exact words) after meeting Mike and instilled a 1 balls out set. Again tons of DY explicitly stating this and said if high volume worked for him he would have still been doing it 🤷
Simply doing what Dorian talks about -- pausing at the end of the set for fifteen seconds and lowering it slowly, and prioritizing recovery is going to do a ton. Overtraining is a real thing. Think about energy systems. You can do aerobics for hours and days, but only about 45 minutes close to the aerobic threshhold (tempo runs). Alternately, you can do 2 -3 ish minutes of all out effort, but the longer/harder they go the more tired you'll be before the next explosion. Finally, you can go really all out for about 10 seconds. The more you redline your body the more you'll force adaptation, but equally, you'll need more recovery. Stimulus/fatigue ratio, no shit. HIT isn't the only game in town, but it's got a bunch of enlightening points.
Dorian,viator,mentzer all did volume routines and ALL were pumping grams of shit...... absolutely irrelevant how they trained... . If you take grams of shit u could do push ups and get jacked
Glad to see Dr. Mike covering the training style Mike and Dorian incorporated, Mike Mentzer was a intellectual he did change his approach somewhat at the end of his life to incorporate more volume as well, I believe he did well on HIT, just as many will who don't do well on high volume. Most people write the idea off entirely as their bias clearly shows, big names as well. No one has to agree with everything, but being openminded is the greatest trait of an true intellectual, so I am happy to see HIT dissected pro's and cons in a logical manner. thanks for the video, very much enjoyed it.
"he did change his approach somewhat at the end of his life to incorporate more volume" Really? I recall he went the opposite direction, cutting his clients back to just one set once per week, or less.
@@martinw245 Yeah, Mike was advocating for one workout per week towards the end I believe and far less exercises than ever before. I think it's called his condolidation program.
I am in no way an expert but the way I look at high intensity training is by breaking down the fundamentals. Training is the initial stimulus for growth. The thing that is going to cause adaptation in our bodies and encourage a growth response. Nutrition is fuel for the adaptation Recovery and rest is where muscle is truly built. With that in mind I find that a low volume but highly intense approach is going to get that stimulus with more time to recover. On top of that volume is more fatiguing than intensity and we are always looking to minimize fatigue
Personal experience with HIT and Mike mentzer: did a chest and back workout he outlined. Waited 6 days to train them again (sore for that long) and had gains in weight lifted from 0 to 60%. I am lifting weights levels I never did before going to the gym 4 days a week and hitting the same body part every four days. I’m 52 and this works for me in terms of strength and also gym burnout
HIT seems like a good thing to try for a couple of mesacycles just because of the focus on recovery and the mental experience gained of beyond failure training. Not something I would want to keep doing for seasons or even years on end, though
mentzer did speak AGAINST drop sets because he considered them counterproductive and not an increase in intensity (because you are dropping weight=less intensity), but he recomended negatives after failure
How is dropping weights and doing more reps after you physically couldn't do any more with the last weight less intense? It is classified as a high-intensity method
@@zjljlzll4568It is a high intensity technique, however in practice drop sets just don’t feel that hard or brutal. Whereas a rest pause set DC style is so taxing!
@@NewDarkKnightUnlike negatives? Or any other intensity method? lol. You must be misquoting, the whole idea of Mike's system was to destroy the muscle fully so that it would NEED all those days of recovery.
I find that as I get older (50) I cannot recover as quickly anymore between workouts. I've seen progress with both training systems volume and HIT. One thing for sure is that the stronger you get, the better you get at destroying your muscle tissue and hence longer recovery is the more logical response. These days I incorporate both systems into my training with some sort of periodization, normally starting with volume and progressing to HIT, then rinse and repeat.
Me too currently. 3 RIR at the start of a cycle, then total and absolute "I couldn't lift that weight again if you threatened to shoot me" failure at the end.
@@RenaissancePeriodization Yup. One of those lessons some of us have to learn the hard way. Being kinder to your body is a definite necessity for us old gits, but boy, admitting it SUCKS"
Less volume and less muscular/ joint trauma is a great thing when you're older. I'd suggest superslow rep speeds to minimize injury risk as you don't need heavy loads to make that work. I went from benching 150lb dumbbells to 90s at most this way There is no need to go past failure or do more than a couple of sets per bodypart max. I look exactly the same as when I did higher volume, but I'm not broken up all the time now.
I have never subscribed to any "one size fits all" prescription for training. I like that Dr. Mike gives his insights but pretty much tells you to experiment and see what works best for your body. What works for one may not work for all. Every body is a little different and responds differently to training.
Last year, I started experimenting with Mentzer-style HIT training after almost 2 years of a following a very old-school high volume approach. I got decent results with the high volume but felt constantly tired and in retrospect was probably severely overtrained. After getting blasted with Mentzer shorts on RU-vid, I decided to give it a try. I didn't follow his precise Heavy Duty routine or exercise menu, but implemented the key HIT principles, such as single working sets to failure, sufficient rest and recovery, perfect technique, etc. After following these principles for close to a year, I've been getting the best results of my life. I've enjoyed this style of training immensely. That being said, after watching lots of Dr. Mike and Menno Henselmans videos, it's clear that I'm leaving some potential gains on the table. This video is a great reminder not to get dogmatic and experiment with adding some modern amendments to the HIT formula. I'll definitely experiment with adding a few sets here and there, increasing frequency on some body parts and perhaps even leaving some reps in reserve.
Pretty much. Most people who swear HIT is magic were blindly doing 4x12 on a million exercises at rpe 5. For months and months without bothering to switch anything up. They then watch some Mike mentzer clips, clean up their technique, get real about their intensity and become more efficient. They reactively add work based on feel instead of blindly doing tons of volume. They then mistake it for HIT being the holy grail, and that they were “lied to”. Dude, you just finally started proper training lmao
Yeah, most likely this. 1 rir isn't EASY either, just much more recoverable. To failure means the next set gets maybe 70% of the reps, and that's crazy. Really burning out your neurons to the muscles and you need to rebuild all those neurotransmitters and such
I saw my best gains after dropping my volume from ~12-18 sets to 2-8 depending on muscle group. I am currently slowly increasing my volume again and finding my MRV. I recently overreached a bit and got some injuries. Now I'm reducing it again, I think I just have a low volume tolerance. I will keep doing heavy low volume training for now :). (1-2 sets to failure 2x a week for most muscle groups)
@@DarkoFitCoach My results have been pretty good so far, I am happy with the rate I'm increasing in size and strength. When I increased my workload, I made worse progress than when I kept it more minimal. Also, I hurt my shoulder and elbow :/.
While the 1 set protocol might be a bit advanced and overhyped, the concept of trying to just hit that top set with max intensity in as few sets as it takes is an extremely logical protocol. It will open your eyes to just how much junk volume you did in your 20s.
Whatever you believe, the silver lining is that what triggers the growth stimulus is intensity. Instead of doing after set, you can incorporate slower eccentrics, holds and rest pause reps after initial failure. Creating more anabolic overloaded reps vs junk volume. The first several reps in any set, don’t do anything for growth stimulus. Even if you do more than 1 set, exchange volume for intensity reps and you’ll get more growth. That’s why pro’s do rest -pause and half reps after initial failure.
I trained volume with bodyparts 3 times per week, lost weight. Then went to slightly lower volume with bodyparts twice per week, no gains. Read an article in Ironman Magazine by Mike Mentzer. This blew my mind so much that I rang his personal training number printed in the magazine.. no shit. After talking to this facinating man for an hour, I changed to his Heavy Duty program and started to gain weight consistently for many years. 58 now, still jacked. Still a HIT proponent, but I understand that some people respond better to volume.
Something to consider: losing weight might be because of insufficient calorie intake. Perhaps by eating more food and training at higher volumes, you might be able to gain even more muscle than with eating less and training less? - Dr. Mike
61 now and trained HIT most of my 35 years of weight training. Recovered from a huge accident at the beginning of the year. Great form pushing to failure is my special place. However we get stuck in a training rut if we’re not willing to challenge ourselves with other methods. So I train regular sets 1-2 from failure and do long sets 20- 50 reps too push myself beyond my norms. Variety consistency and listening closely to your body is the spice of life. Periodisation is king
@@RenaissancePeriodization You may be correct. Mentzer underestimated the importance of high protein and calorie intake. I remember Bertil Fox saying he just ate when he was hungry. He never had scheduled meals every 2 or 3 hours like modern bodybuilders. Can you imagine how big this dude would have been under Chad Nicholls.
Not sure if he comented it in the video, but making the intensity higher in that set is not only based on making high intensity techniques like rest-pause. Also, the tempo of every rep should be something like 3 or 4 seconds of concentric phase, 2 seconds of maintaining the weigh in max contraction and 3 or 4 secs of excentric phase, doing 2 more reps with help so you can do more excentric reps. Depending on your level, you can do an analytic excercise like leg extensions and a legpress or a squat in the smith machine with no rest in between. This is an example for quads. The thing is that i've been doing it for nearly 2 months, training legs resting 10 days or more, never training 2 days in a row and i've never progressed this fast in weighs and reps. Lifting 30 more kilos in leg extension, same reps, and 25 kilos in squat, and I've been training for like 4 years.
Also, what Mentzer defended, was not that you can't progress training a muscle every 2 days. Is that letting your nervous system repair a body part before training another one is more efficient than training every day. Think about when you stop training for a week. When you come back at the gym, you are usually stronger. More than when you don't stop training. Maybe you needed more resting than you think, also needeng less volume and more intensity.
HIT has given me truly outstanding results for more than 35 years and has allowed me to continue training all that time without suffering many of the inevitable severe bodybuilding-related injuries (observe the number of life-long hardcore bodybuilders who have to get the shoulder joints replaced, who tear pecs or biceps, or who have numerous operations to "repair" their spines).* It's also allow me to keep training all that time without the mental burnout that comes with being in the gym 10+ hours per week. HIT works. It works great. *I never would have beaten Ronnie Coleman in a bodybuilding contest, but at least I can walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
I had Mentzer train me in the early 90's at Gold's Venice for a few months. The workouts were super intense, and really infrequent. I got into the worst shape of my life since I had started lifting. I kind of look back and equate it to the body's response to say, friction on your hands. Do it frequently without overdoing it and you get calluses, do it briefly, but super intense, and you get blisters. I do way better now working either whole body workouts, or upper/lower splits 4 days a week.
@@charbelwakim7663 spot on. Stopped Heavy duty and went to upper/lower body split, and immediately got into great shape, and have used that workout for decades, and still look pretty good at 58
@@olderthanyoucali8512 the only people I know that it works for are on steroids, so to me, that doesn't count. I crack up that Mentzer himself showed up chubby and smoking a cigarette to our first meeting, claiming he "doesn't have time" to train anymore.
I just started HIT for the past 2 months and I definitely agree it is amazing for certain muscle groups. My chest is a weak point and it has been amazing for that specifically, but for accessory lifts I have been doing a more standard 3 sets with the final set to complete failure. Just felt those needed more volume and listened to my body.
I think pre exhaustion with isolation exercises followed up with a compound movement for full exhaustion with your bigger muscles is amazing. I noticed some smaller muscles he would just use one isolation exercise. Larger muscles, would use 1 isolation and 2 compound movements, and medium muscles would use 1 isolation and 1 compound. The orientation of only permitting exercise variety with the muscles that are bigger, is genuis. I'm not gonna list set and reps, only the workout structure of a heavy duty program, take a look at the structure and it's very different to high volume and modern training. Appreciate the structure and proportion of the exercise selection and placement and how it contributes to proportion and symmetry. Leg Day: Quads- Leg Extension; Leg Press; Hack Squat Hams- Leg Curl; RDL Calves- Calve Raise Chest: Pec Dec Fly; Incline Press Back: Lats- Pullover; Pulldown; T Bar Row Lower Back- Back extension Rack Pull Shoulders: Delts- Side Raise; Shoulder Press Rear Delts- Reverse Pec Dec Traps- Shrugs Arms- Triceps- Triceps Pushdown Dips Biceps- Curls Insert your own volume and frequency preference. The way they organized the workout to get the most out of the HIT principles is the most genius thing about the model of training over the actual HIT. It's unique and I have yet to see someone use the structure with higher volume or frequency
I've started doing the HIT method this week. The added weight made me feel younger although I'm pushing 60. This method is new to me, and I'm practicing it 2 to 3 sets (6 reps each) not one set one rep. It is really making my chest muscles sore. These upper chest muscles are underdeveloped and refuse to grow whatever I do. They told me its genetics, but I don't believe that. Every problem has a solution. I will continue with this method every day or every other day and see if anything changes.
Dr Mike, could you please make a video on minimalist type training? The way HIT training condenses sessions to take less in time, it’d be interesting to see a video on the best approaches to take on limited time with like 2x/week Full Body sessions and how you should structure that. Maybe prioritize some muscle groups and alternate through them? Use supersets? What about strength? Or like
I’m gonna subscribe to not miss that video!!! Exactly today I was redesigning my routine to something like that: full body, two times a week, around 1hour each session, 2-0 RIR each set. What a great coincidence 🙌 Ps: Dr. Mike this video was a banger!
In all seriousness, doing HIT damn near killed me in 2018. After a year of training I had a really hard workout that resulted in Rhabdomyolysis. Never heard of the condition prior to the experience. I watched a year of gains literally melt away over 5 days of hospitalization. Please listen to this man and don't mess around with your health.
Mike has a great sense of humor’ I’ve learned a lot from him’ I’m a old guy 67 ‘started lifting year ago’ I do 1 set to failure in all the compound exercises twice a week ‘ I feel excellent since I started doing this ‘. By no means would I class it as HIT ‘ but for my age it’s a great workout‘I used to do a lot of cardio ‘ cut it back to 20 mins from nearly a hour’ and focused more on lifting ‘ which made a huge difference ‘ as Mike was saying we don’t have to kill ourselves with cardio’ and as you get older we need our muscle mass
Yea its amazing really how what you are doing works, and requires so little time. So many older men could lead a higher quality of life , but most still think working out requires going to the gym 5 days a week doing high volume, so they don't bother. You are nailing it. Less cardio and more muscle mass IS whats required from middle age on.
I did high volume as a beginner. After 2 years of consistent training, I’m now using low volume; training to failure approx 8-10 sets per muscle group every 4 days with progressive overload🔥
I'm in the same boat but I'm basically doing the program from High Intensity the Mike Mentzer Way and seeing really good progress. Only 3-5 sets every 4 days. The systemic fatigue is collosal.
I do 3-5 sets to failure per muscle group. I think 8-10 is just too much. It's 1 rep to failure for each exercise so I don't know how many exercises you are doing or how many sets of an exercise you are taking to failure.
See I did the opposite, low volume high intensity. Worked great till i plateaued. Then switched to volume and my arms grew like never before. Like mentioned in other comments. It’s important to periodize.
I train to failure in every workout (last 2 sets of an exercise) but lately have scaled back going beyond failure. I personally think every trainee should strive for failure in at least the last set of an exercise, but if your goal is to shake like Tom Platz from the first set, I think you'll find you will feel a bit sick shortly into your session. The benefit from a solid workout full of quality sets is definitely greater than doing 1 or 2 over the top sets and being drained to do any quality isolation/assistance work.
