No. No. The consolidation routines A and B. 4 HIT exercises per workout!!
- Too Long (months). Then I discovered the previous version of this forum.
- Yes. Legs especially went up and up. Upper Body went up well relative to my previous numbers (Iāve never been in the super strong percentile). I have never touched those weights again.* The thing is, I barely looked like I worked out.
*I was in my mid-30s back then. Iām 58 now and have got so much more accomplished with lighter weights, more sets, and moderate frequency (2/wk).
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Appreciate the feedback. 
You conveyed that you are not a fan of full body routines and super slow cadence. Would you share what routine you do now? How often do you workout? If you do a split, how do you split? What rep range to do you do? Since you seem to be opposed to HIT, is there someone you follow now?
Thanks.
You conveyed that you are not a fan of full body routines and super slow cadence. Would you share what routine you do now?
Hey Steve ;
Thanks for the question.
I am a fan of HIT ā¦ which to me is low volume with a high level intensity. Some guys only see hard, productive training as one set to failure on 8-10 exercises twice a week using a full body routine. I certainly did that - for 15 years - and my āgurusā at the time were Darden and Leistner.
I found out that I can train the muscle groups even harder and more direct when I split the routine. One big reason for that is full body routines kicked my ass systematically and had a hard time recovering. More rest days , like training Mon, Fri and Wed made me weaker,
de-conditioned and lazy. Reducing the number of exercises was the only way to keep the intensity high. Like I said, I progressed to two workouts of three exercises that took about ten minutes each and left me unless afterwards.
Many years of running face first into a brick wall like this twice a week I decided to split my routine, and never looked back.
I donāt want to bore everyone here with my details of my routines as I have in the past on the other board , but to briefly answer your question, my split is back / biceps ; legs / abs and chest / shoulders / triceps. That is done every other day, then two days off .
, each muscle grouping worked directly and hard once a week.
I do two or tree exercises per muscle , two sets each movement but sometimes three. 8-10 reps for upper body and 12-15 for lower. The workouts typically take about 25-30 minutes and each muscle group is done in about ten minutes. Rest between sets of the same movement is 15-20 seconds and usually taken to failure. I guess between exercises is about a minute. To me that is hard, intense and infrequent training. I just adjusted things to suit myself more than the typical HIT routine ; I didnāt trash the idea of low volume /high intensity , just applied it differently.
I must mention I still look at everything Darden says but now realize there are more people than him and the late Dr. Ken that know what theyāre talking about concerning training. āBack in the dayā though, I didnāt want to hear a damn thing from anyone else ā¦ and thatās the worst thing I could have done.
After those two , the next guy who really woke me up was Brian Johnson and I utilize his techniques a lot. I also enjoy reading stuff by Christian Thibaudeau.
Thanks again for asking.
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Thanks for sharing. Appreciated.
cool thatās what I found too and for the same reasons. Full body was just too much at once. I also do best on PLP or sometimes ABA BAB setups depending on how heavy Iām training.
You mentioned Dardenās old board, what was your name on there?
Interestingā¦ Do you train at home, or in a commercial gym? Mostly machines or mostly free weights? Iām just thinking in terms of the logistics - how to get a decent variety of exercises, and moving quickly from exercise to exercise.
I was doing the three exercise consolidation routine (leg press, pulldown, and dips) every 10-14 days at one stretch back in the mid 90s. I was still eeking out some strength gains, but reached a wallā¦started to look worse and measure smaller. But letās face it; how could that little of training even be called āworking outā? Itās almost no different than moving some furniture for a few minutes. lol
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I like the idea of training Upper and Lower body together. I simply never take BIG exercises like Squats or DLs or Leg Press to total failure. Leg Ext or Leg Curls maybe, but not those. I prefer to split the body in two, for twice/week training:
A - Quads, Chest, Delts, Tris, Abs
B - Calves, Hams, Back, Rear Delt/Ext RC, Biceps, Forearms
Itās usually a mix of HIT and HDT, with a couple of 30/10/30s thrown in these days. Usually about 6-7 exercises per workout.
Another split I do for upper arm focus:
A - Heavier Squats or Leg Press, Biceps, Triceps
B - Calves, Hams, Chest, Back, Delts*
(*by putting Delts with the rest of the torso, I only hit the Shoulder Girdle 1/week, unlike Mikeās HDII splitā¦)
Stick to just reading CT. I find his routines far too high in volume and frequency for most trainees!
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I just finished reading Clarence Bassā Ripped 3. I like this book because it provides specific routines like Darden. He uses periodization. This book was written in the 1980s, so I do not know if periodization has been found to be unnecessary, unproductive, etc. Does anyone have an opinion about Bassā routines and periodization in general. It makes sense to me from a common sense perspective (general adaptation syndrome), but his routines are generally 4 days a week and are at a higher volume than I have trained in years. Does anyone have any books that they have read, which have routines that they have found helpful? Thanks.
I like the idea of Periodization, just not TOO planned out. Unless youāre going to compete in Powerlifting (or going for PRs in Olympic Lifting like Clarence), then it shouldnāt be that rigid. I believe your Life should determine the periods. Have to prepare a big presentation at work? Then back-off and do lighter weight and higher reps for a week or two. Summer vacation starting? Then ramp-up on a Specialization Routine or something like the 30/10/30 challenge.
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P.S. I cannot say how much his Volume and/or Olympic lifting contributed ā if at all ā but CB had to get a full hip replacement in the mid-00s (I think). Take that for whatever you want to read into itā¦
Agreed, it really depends on so many factors; your stress levels, sleep, well-being, mood, diet, etc. especially with someone who is not a professional.
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Oh yeah, sleep is a big one there! If your sleep has been deep and uninterrupted and fitful, then you may be ready to crank things up for a while.
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Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated.
NW-LIFTER ;
I went by āCrotalusā on the old board. I obviously was doing something wrong when signing in here as the old name would keep being thrown out so had to go with something else.
AL ;
I train at a fantastic gym but my first 15 years were at home on home made equipment with no heat or air conditioning ā¦ Iām spoiled rotten now.
I use barbells and machines ā¦ even using a kettle bell at home on my off days . I go with mostly barbells during the winter then mostly Hammer machines spring and summer when I use breakdowns a lot and with with the Performance Pins breakdowns become even better - absolutely NO time taken between drops in weight.
The Corona BS really screwed me up in that regard last spring. Had to pull out what I had left of my own equipment which was basically a Trap Bar, Dip Bars, one DB handle and a chain link fence post used as a Fat Bar and 400 pounds of plates.
I had just set that area up a a shop to work efficiently as I began putting down a laminate floor in my house when the pandemic hit and ended up with a shop / gym combo and making my cuts , etc while standing inside a trap bar, reaching over the dip bars and tripping over plates. I was so happy to get back to the gym !
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== Scott==
Sounds like my story but for the last 40 years and still no heat or air conditioning in my workout shed. It was about 20 degrees yesterday working out.
What are performance pins breakdowns?