There is no shortage of claims out there from people that swear that H.I.T (High Intensity Training) is the best way to train. I have always been a follower of the great body builders through out the years and one that stood out from group thinking mentally was Mike Mentzer. Mike was one of the first body builders to claim that training less not more was the only way to achieve steady process year in year out, his books on High Intensity Training have sold countless copies world wide. Personal I refer to his books as the “bible” and his “heavy duty” principles as pure gold. What I love about Mike is that he isn’t scared to tell it the way it is, while all other bodybuilders were training the same way Mike broke the mould by only spending a fraction of the time in the gym. Dorian Yates, 6 time Mr Olympia winner has credited his success to the advice and principles of “heavy duty” High Intensity training to Mike Menzter.
First thing first I am a strong believer of natural gains and staying away from drugs in order to build muscle and get ripped. The fact is that drugs are not required and should be avoid at all costs. The unfortunate truth when it comes to diet and training is that most guys and even women follow the advice given in magazines that are there promoting supplements and magic pills to get results. Their interests are to promote the latest and greatest supplements, I would strongly advise saying your money and time and stick to the A.B.C techniques to transform your body.
Now that’s out of the way let’s talk a little about H.I.T and my personal experience and results following the principles set out by Mike Menzter.
My Results With H.I.T
Many years ago I was training like almost every other guy in the gym, 4-5 days in the gym with a few days off in between to recover. Looking back I can safely say that those days took a huge physical toll on me as I was constantly tired, sore and always struggling to make consistent gains no matter how good my diet was or how much cardio I added or dropped from my work outs. Without sounding like a big shot I was definitely pleased with the physical transformation I achieved but the time and toll it took really did make me question whether training like everyone else was the answer. Enter Heavy Duty by Mike Menzter.
After reading Heavy Duty it felt as if alarm bells went off in my head, it really did. Mike’s approach made perfect sense to me and I designed my new training routine and program around his principles.
One of the hardest things about H.I.T is NOT going to the gym often! I loved going to the gym after work and catching up with friends and taking my daily frustration out on the weights. Common sense quickly hits you when you realize that all the hours and food your are eating is to provide RESULTS not how many gym sessions you can squeeze into a week.
To this day I am only training twice a week at most, some periods I am only in the gym once a week. I know that might sound hard to believe but there is no reason to be inside a gym 1 second longer than you need to be to stimulate muscle growth. Muscles grows in your down time (rest & eating) not the pumps or endorphines you feel during your training sessions.
I normally spend no more than 20 minutes in the gym per session, once I am in there I stick to business and leave the moment my training session is over.
H.I.T has given me results in both muscle gain and strength like I gained when I first started training and it seems that there is no slowing down. While building muscle and staying lean is a life long journey there is no greater way to get lean muscle while staying to stay lean as there is following the Mike Menzter principles.
When Mike says Heavy Duty he truly means it. The goal is to stimulate hypertrophy and getting the hell out of the gym, this means that you must only do a couple of sets PER body part instead of the 6,8,10+ sets that most trainees do every training session. The reason behind this is that every set you do after stimulating hypertrophy is essentially leading to overtraining and a huge toll on the central nervous system and recovery.
There is no doubt in my mind that a vast majority of trainees are simply overtraining and not allowing enough time for not only their muscles to recover but to allow for muscle growth. Every training session takes an enormous toll on our bodies and most guys are not seeing muscle gains as a result of too many sessions, too many sets and not enough High Intensity to stimulate muscle growth. Without going over the magical line to stimulate muscle growth you will quickly see that your training and diet is all in vain.
I highly recommend you check out Mike Mentzer’s books and see how his principles and philosophies on body building and training can help you get the results you are looking for.
Read More