I briefly mentioned in a previous post that HIT, or High Intensity Training is a training method I followed for more than a year, ending not too long ago. It’s a very peculiar and in many circles a much-debated workout method. In this post, I simply want to go over what HIT is all about and share some of my experiences with it.
High Intensity Training: The Basics
I guess the main thing that sets it apart is the fact that when you are doing HIT, you only do one set per exercise, per week.
Yes, I’m serious. You do one set of, say, bench presses today and then don’t do any more bench presses until the same day next week.
The idea here is that with high intensity training, you put your muscles under absolutely extreme stress, creating a huge growth impulse, and then you give the muscles a loooot of time to recover and build.
How can you get such a strong growth impulse with just one set? High Intensity Training has two factors to it, that make it extremely intense:
- Perfect Execution
You do each repetition of an exercise with meticulously perfect form and you do the repetitions very slowly. This means: Absolutely no cheating or yanking the weights, no excessive tension in any body parts not directly involved in the lifting and lots and lots of pain in your muscles. - Going Beyond Failure
Following most training methods, repetitions are done to failure. I.e. you keep pushing until you just can’t move the weights anymore, no matter how hard you try. That is the point of muscle failure and the point where a set ends. In HIT, you go beyond that point.
That second one needs some extra explanation. After all, how can you go beyond failure?
Going Beyond Failure
There are several techniques used to help you go past failure in HIT. Here are some of them:
- Human Assistance
For some exercises, this is quite a simple option. Everyone knows the spotter can help out a little on that last rep, when you’re doing bench-presses. With HIT, the spotter will wait until you reach the point of failure and then ever so gently support you for another two to three reps. - Pyramid Training
Another method is to immediately lower the weights after failure is reached, and do a few more repetitions with the reduced weights. With machines, you can have a spotter who removes one or two plates for you and with free weights you can prepare one heavier and one lighter set and then switch between them as quickly as (safely) possible. - Very Short Breaks
This final one is a method you can even use on your own: Once you’ve reached the point of failure, go back into a neutral (non-tense) position, wait for five seconds and then have another go at completing as many sets as possible.
My Experience With High Intensity Training
Doing HIT training is a pleasant experience for about six and three quarters of the week and then an absolutely excruciating experience for the rest of the week, starting with the beginning of the workout and ending an hour or two after it’s finished.
I was surprised at how much strength I gained during my time doing High Intensity Training. I sort of assumed that doing only one set a week would have me stagnating, at best, but I made as much, if not more, progress as I did with volume training before. Another thing is that while the training itself is extremely intense, my body felt good and undamaged during the non-workout days of the week. With volume-training, I always feel some kind of an ache or pull, even during the rest-days.
The most interesting aspects of High Intensity Training are probably the psychological ones, though. For one thing, it’s simply extremely difficult to train as hard as is required. Without someone spotting for you, spurring you on, correcting you and shouting in your face to do one more rep and not be such a whiny little bitch about how much it hurts, I don’t think it’s even possible to get there. On the other hand, your attitude towards an exercise is quite different if you know that this is the one and only set you’re going to do all week. You always go in determined to “make this one count” – and you come out wondering why the hell you are doing this to yourself.
Bottom line for me: I think High Intensity Training is an interesting and effective method. At least to mix things up a little, I recommend anyone to give it a try.
