If I’m understanding what I read in Dr. Darden’s hidden principles article, all these years in my attempt to reach my genetic potential for muscular size & strength, my focus should have less on increasing the intensity of each exercise (failure, forced reps, set extenders, etc.) and more on increasing the intensity of the workout itself (shorter rest periods, racing the clock), is that right? And if that’s the case, can we not assume that one way to increase the intensity of the workout is to increase volume of the workout? Possible to the point of trying to see how many sets & reps could be crammed into a specific time frame?
Which I think is the reason Brian Johnston’s Zone Training works so well .
I think the idea is more “density” training…more contractions per unit of time in order to “inroad”. This is more bodybuilding. Less about brutal failure and heavy weight.
Absolutely right … that’s just how he described it.
Have you done BJ’s jreps at all? If so,how were your results.
I have experimented with them and really like them. Adds a bit of variety.
A bit hesitant to lift BJ:s strategies here, since it’s Dr Darden’s forum - but - any more personal references re High Density Training is appreciated. Currently into his HDT book, but yet to reach into the practical detailed chapter (I’m allowing a slow read since his ideas are quite brilliant).
I will probably use Brian’s methods for one out of two workouts weekly (keep Darden’s regimes as my main workout). This for variation and to resist adaptation, which seems to be one of Brian’s specialities.
The question is how many (which) excercises/musclegroups fits in just one workout a week, following Brian Johnston’s procedure? He seems to advocate one musclegroup daily, in short workouts - which is impossible for me.
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I feel funny answering questions about BJ’s stuff here also but there’s no PM on this site.
But not ignore questions ;
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Yes, I’ve been using BJ’s stuff about ten years or so
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Only have the original book ( Zone Training ) and DVD . Love to get the other but don’t know where to get it ;
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I do two or three muscle groups per workout. Three workouts in a 3 way split , taking about thirty minutes each workout / 10 minutes per muscle group.
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Johnston’s stuff is very non-prescriptive because it really depends on the individual needs and preferences, ebb and flow. So everything he lists is pretty much an example.
However, I typically use a 3-way split (Mon - Legs, Wed - Back/Bis, Fri - Chest, delts, tri). Sometimes I alternate upper and lower body sessions, or group chest and legs while doing everything else in another session. I like to do two exercises per muscle group; pulldown and a row, chest press and sometimes a fly, etc. But other times I might only do one exercise, yet more sets.
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== Scott ==
Thus we waste a lot of peoples time talking about stuff that would be better said one to one.
Brian sells his stuff directly these days. You use PayPal and get PDF of the book(s) you want. [Mods dropped his e-mail from this message. I wish we could still send PMs in T-Nation!!]
LOGIC is part of Brian [BDJ] and I hope you’ll be surprised by the HOT results you get.
Members are free to post their e-mail, social media handles, etc. in the About Me section of their profile. But, no, the forum does not support PMs and we don’t permit posting e-mail addresses publicly in the forum.
There’s relatively little that truly needs to be a private one-on-one in terms of simple discussion. Talking about topics as a community and getting multiple perspectives isn’t a waste of time, it’s the entire point of a forum.
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It’s two sides of the same coin - doing the same amount of work in less time vs fitting more work into the same amount of time. Either approach can be used as a progression method and they challenge the body similarly.
“More work in same time” is at the core of Charles Staley’s EDT, for example. While Gironda’s old 8x8 “honest workout” works similar to the method Dr. Darden discussed in the article, with gradually shorter rest periods leading to the same amount of work done in less time.
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This is a chronically under rated method of improvement. I have a coach that told me that until I can get through the work within a time frame the weights stay as they are. I have to admit it was humbling at first but the results are pretty good. And not just for size / strength. For health. It keeps the heart rate up.
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Thanks tzabcan. The only reason I asked here is because Dr D has advocated his protocol is the past. Cheers.
Chris, last night I posted a new thread called the Scott Report and today I don’t see it? Did it get removed ?
Scott
Nope, it’s here:
It was moved to a more appropriate section of the forum. Presuming you’ll be sprinkling in some more of your training updates along with whatever else, Training Logs is the best spot for it. Otherwise, it can be moved to Off-Topic.
== Scott==
Hmmm? A lot of the stuff I post is for the guys who frequent the Darden Forum and I don’t know if they’ll ever see it under training logs? I never look there. I know this seems narrow minded but I never look at anything on here but Dardens stuff . Oh well …
I responded once to it while it was still here … I never go to these other places either ; just Darden’s and Christian’s.
I’ve discussed this in several other threads over the last few months, usually in similar circumstances when an unrelated thread was moved out of this coaching section and into the correct section, but there is no “Darden forum” anymore.
There’s the T Nation forum, and Dr. Darden’s coaching section has become one part of it… to have a Q&A area with Dr. Darden.
The guys who’ve migrated from the old site are doing yourself a giant disservice by trying to remain insulated from the rest of the community. It’s gotten so bad that a few members would rather not talk about training at all if they can’t have the same old insular group they’re used to. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face?!
You guys want to talk about your experiences with HIT? No prob. You want to talk about Mike Petrella recently trying to re-create the Colorado Experiment? No prob. You want to talk about any random non-training subject? No prob. But those threads don’t belong in this Coaching section.
As another quick example, how many times on “the old site” did you wish people would post some kind of progress pic to show they do more than just flap gums online?
We’ve had a regularly recurring Photo Check-In thread here, twice a year for the last 9 years, for that exact reason. And I was disappointed, but not totally surprised, that not a single member from the Darden site participated in it: Feb '21 Photo/Video Check-In
I get that change is tough, but this is the way things are (and have been for the last six months). You still have every opportunity to have threads talking about whatever, but it’s up to the members to actually participate in them. There’s certainly nothing wrong with choosing to only visit Dr. Darden’s Coaching forum. That’s entirely your decision. But that decision forfeits the right to complain about missing out on other conversations happening elsewhere on the site.
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== Scott==
The thing is pretty much everything I would talk about in the Scott Report is about HIT or some form of Darden training . In my first post I talked of 30 10 30. So you said at least 4 things above that don’t belong in his coaching column so tell me what does?