Busy time of year. Wanted to try something to hopefully maintain.
Decided to give HIT another go. Going to for 6-ish weeks.
Feel like I am responding pretty well to it so far.
two way split. Chest Shoulders Triceps Quads and Back Biceps Hamstrings.
It’s been fast, refreshing, and kinda brutal.
I know soreness is not an indicator of a productive workout, but I have a pleasant level of soreness.
I’ve just added, now in my second workout with HIT, weighted stretches. This really adds a level of fun
Anyone else have either short or long term results with HIT training?
Anyone do “extreme” stretching? Shoulder stretch is a bit odd for me.
I did pretty well with DC training, which is a derivative of traditional HIT. I don’t think one could delineate between short or long term success, but I’d alternate between HIT and higher volume training methods every 3 months or so for better results.
Yeah, always feels strange. I’ve found the stretched position during dips to be good. Also like having a beam or something behind my shoulder and holding onto it with the opposite hand, with arm behind your back… helps to lean away from the beam. Still awkward though.
I’ve been doing classic DC training for a minute. Not only do I enjoy it, I’ve made excellent progress so it’s a hell of a lot better then a stop-gap maintenance program.
I do like a lot of what DC does,and may give that a go as written sometime soon.
I’m not feeling a lot of fatigue on rest pause, even using muscle failure. I’m not saying it is better, but I do full reps until I am certain that I only have 1 maybe 2 reps in reserve. At that point I switch to top half (in the case of presses) ROM reps for a few, then do the bottom 1/2 or whatever I have left in me for a few, holding at the sticking point on my last rep, yielding to a slow negative, and holding in the bottom stretch position for however long I can. Reps all along are done briskly on the concentric, where there is continuous max tension throughout. No inch of give on tension at all. I can only do 1 set like this.
The extreme stretching is a love/hate. Shoulders, as I mentioned, feels odd. I substituted 2 stretches for shoulders. 1st is a bar hang. It is mostly lats, I know, but pumped shoulders feel like they are getting stretched as well. 2nd is in the cable crossovers, left grabbing the right cable, right grabbing the left cable. Seems to allow me to get a decent stretch.
Switching my split, though. Chest and back, day off, lower body 1, day off, shoulders and arms, day off, lower body day 2 day off, repeat.
I feel I am responding. I should keep a better log book, not just mental.
Going to go three weeks more, then switch to something else. I think maybe, hear me out, Dan John’s easy strength, for 3 weeks.
I’ve been following the Jay Vincent routine for 3 months so far and am super happy with it. If not familiar with it, it’s basically 2 workouts a week splitting upper and lower body. One set or one pre-exhaust per body part.
Day 1
Pec-deck - machine press
Machine row - pull-down
Laterals - machine press
Curls
Push downs
Abs
Day 2
Leg extensions - leg press/squats
Leg curls
Calf raises
Key points though are super slow rep speed (5 seconds up and 5 seconds down) and try to move from exercise to exercise with minimal rest time. I’ve done Mentzer’s program a few times in the past, but didn’t get good results since I didn’t slow down my reps. Slow reps are a whole new stimulus and I’m getting great results in size. Even better is that I am not spending a ton of time working out. It is an ideal program for someone in their 50’s like me. I’ve realized that previously what I was really doing was working to exhibit strength instead of building muscle.