Dr. Darden,
when doing this extreme hit routine…when do you decide to add weight to the exercises, or is that of no concern…as the quality of the rep and the minimal rest between exercise appears to be the priority
Thx, dan
Work on perfecting your form and move quickly between exercises. Master those two concepts first. Then, you can increase the resistances.
Thats what I was thinking, thank you Sir
Fantastic Job Dr. Darden!
I am using your 10-30-10 to train my sons, 19 & 16, and myself, with great effect. We did a week of “orientation” and train-up so we could get our routine straight. We finished #7 workout today. Boys loving the training, we all are loving the results. Boys were no stranger to working out as I am a strength and conditioning coach, but this really has made observable and measurable results in 6 workouts.
I did bodybuilding in my early years, even competed some. I forgot how well I was able to contract a single muscle. So, boiling things down to “Muscle events” is brilliant!
It will be exciting for me to report the results for the 3 of us in two weeks and the after program results a couple weeks later.
Again, great job and thanks for distilling your 50years of experience into an excellent program.
Grove Higgins
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Thanks, Grove,
Did you get before measurements and photos of the three of you?
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Measurements, YES. Photos, NO as the boys were reluctant, just like the posing. I think they’d do them now though as they are very into their results.
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This is addressed to Al, as well as Mark and Dips-rule, and anyone else who is confident in their method of training. I have been using HIT workouts provided by Dr. Darden’s books for years. Based on his change in philosophy about training to failure, I feel I am at a cross road with my training and may want to experiment with more volume and frequency in training (to see if I may be missing out). Would you mind sharing with me with your workout regiments including frequency of days per week you workout, the rep ranges you use, and if you do split routines or full body? I would also appreciate it if you provide the rationale for your routine. Much appreciated.
Steve
Hard to give a detailed answer without getting longwinded.
First, I don’t really follow a rigidly defined method of training. I have, over the years, experimented with a variety of different approaches. I’ve found ways of training that I enjoy, and I tend to return to those. But I am constantly tweaking the details, and will cycle through different approaches for stretches of time, or do a hybrid program, combining a mixture of multiple set barbell work and single set machine stuff, as an example.
Second, you need to understand the context of my training: I train largely because I enjoy how it makes me feel, and as a side benefit, undoubtedly improves my health. I’ve never been a competitive bodybuilder, never had a spectacular physique, never been a strength sport athlete, and never been unusually strong. Also, I’m now getting up in years, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to make some changes to accommodate joint issues and diminished recovery.
Third, I have come to believe that there is no such a thing as “optimum” when it comes to strength training. Lots of things work, with pros and cons to every method. If I periodically work most of most of my muscles hard, at least once or twice a week, and do so in a way that avoids injury, I think I will get most of the benefits I can get from strength training. For what I’m after, all the other details are probably not that important, and I don’t worry so much about changing things up regularly due to whim or fancy or as an experiment.
As for the details:
On the issue of single set versus multiple sets: I see a lot of value in single set to failure training in terms of efficiency: good results for little time invested. If I had ready access to a full line of good machines, I would probably train a full body circuit, one set to failure at least part of the time. But I probably wouldn’t train that way exclusively, partly due to boredom, and partly due to my feeling that something is lost by only doing machine training. Plus, it just feels cool to pull a heavy bar off the floor, squat with a challenging weight, or push dumbbells overhead.
As for effectiveness: I think one set to failure works the best with isolation exercises on well designed machines. With compound machine exercises, I often will do a single set. But depending on how that set felt, I may drop the weight and do a second set to failure, just to work the muscle more thoroughly. Does it make any difference in terms of size or strength? Hard to say. With barbell or freeweight exercises, I tend to stop short of failure, and typically do more than one set. For me, with many free weight exercises, form or safety gets too compromised trying to take the set to hard failure or deep fatigue.
When it comes to hypertrophy, I’m one of those guys who doesn’t put on a lot of muscle regardless of what I do. But I have concluded that, at least for me, certain kinds of multiple set routines probably give a bit more thickness or size than I can get from just doing one set, no matter how intense that one set was. However, depending on the circumstances, I’m not always willing to invest the extra time for whatever little bit of extra size might be forthcoming.
When I do multiple sets, I don’t overdo it. Typically I will work in the 5-10 rep range, going close to failure, for up to 3 sets, using at least a couple of minutes rest between sets.
For frequency, I prefer 2x’s per week. 3x’s was too much for me, even when younger. I can get away with 1x per week, but feel like it is more manageable to spread the exercises that I want to do over 2 sessions, and that does seem to reduce post workout DOMS.
As for workout structure: I’ve always done full body. Perhaps that is because I’ve always trained just once or twice a week, and that just doesn’t lend itself as well to a split routine (which are often 4 to 6 days per week). I structure my workout around the 6 major movement patterns as described by Dan John: hip hinge, leg push, horizontal upper body push/pull, vertical upper body push/pull. I try to hit each major movement pattern at least once a week.
So one workout might be a dead lift variation, chest press, and rows. The other workout would then be squats or a leg press, overhead presses, and pull-ups or pull-downs. Depending on the equipment, and what I am experimenting with at the moment, these could be for a single set, or with a drop set, or with 3 sets just short of failure. I typically throw in a few accessory exercises at the end of each workout.
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Thank you very much for your very thoughtful response. I really appreciate it.
Steve
Maybe i missed it if it’s been asked before. I understand substituting exercises based on available equipment. If i had a pullover i’d do that for back! But any particular reason youve changed the order of exercises?
Congratulations on finishing the project!! This has been an outstanding effort! Please don’t take this the wrong way and maybe it’s just my eyesight but I’ve been going back and forth between before and after pictures and to be perfectly honest I can hardly tell the difference ? I think 
prefer the before look? If you doubled your muscle I can’t tell where it is? Either way thanks for doing this , you are an inspiration to us all.
Scott
Post moved to “Free Weight Pullover vs Machine?” at the suggestion of average_al.
I just completed my last workout in the 30-10-30 protocol and I have a few notes before I post the results.
I had to change a few of the exercises because of my home gym and I opted out of a few others. I have squatted ever since I started working out and have the hiatal hernia to prove it. When I turned 50 that was one exercise I decided to no longer do and bought a sissy squat machine so I could squat but not load my spine. In addition, at about the halfway point of the program I woke up one morning and my lower back had a shooting pain from sleeping wrong. Decline sit-ups, bent over rows and standing curls really hurt and I wasn’t able to do sit ups again until today. I decided to do the curls chest down on an incline bench and did dumbbell rows the same way instead of bent over rows. Also, I did sissy squats in place of leg presses.
My diet was the same and I continued to do 21 miles a week on my Cubii desk elliptical (I’m actually doing it now), boxed ten rounds on Saturday but I also started using a BOA Power Twister Chest exerciser each day (10 reps 5 Sets) while teleworking from home the last two weeks of the program (I like fitness gadgets). Lastly, I’ve always done grip training, and for the last 6 months it’s just been a grip ball that allows you to work extenders three days a week and sat in my sauna 3 times a week for a half hour at a time.
Here are my results:
3/3/2021
6’2” 50 years old 191.8 lbs, 14% BF (Renpho Scale)
Neck 15.5”, Chest 42.25”, Arms 15.5”, Waist 37”, Thigh 24.25”, Calves 14”
Although there wasn’t much of a change, I gained in some places and lost in others but this could very well be a discrepancy in how I measured.
I will say, for the first time in a very long time I wasn’t nursing an injury caused by training. I have a bad shoulder from when I boxed as an amateur and always warm up my shoulders before exercising. I’ve not had any shoulder pain while on this program.
I am going to continue this program but modify some of the exercises. Reverse curls are out and doing lateral raises like this is torturous so they are going away as well.
Also, I will be changing the exercise order because moving from one exercise to the next in the order prescribed in the program was sometimes time consuming because of how my home gym is set up. Doing bench press then spinning the bench around for shoulder press just to move the bench again for the next exercise just took extra time so I’ll try to bundle exercises for the least amount of set up time.
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Your modifications sound good. Keep us informed.
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Very nice, I didn’t add my collection of Nautilus books because they are lying near my machines all the time .
Scott
I also have the Nautilus Bulletin books, Mentzers books, Gary Bannisters books, Casey Viators book, Francos nutrition book and Arnold’s bodybuilding book
I love to read, 
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How is Casey’s book. Never seen it before
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I’ve wondered this too. It’s still available on his website, but you’re supposed to address the payment to him directly. So I’m assuming that no one has updated his site since his death
Casey's books are typical BB books, however he does talk about the Colorado experiment, negative training, HIT, nutrition, contest prep....and different routines....i enjoy them