Jump to content

5 minute miracle workout


HIT Rob
 Share

Recommended Posts

This is crazy. I just did something similar, only doing two reps on each exercise, but concentration was put on the negative part of the movement. I used about 85%% of 1rm for leg press, reverse curls, dips and weighted sit ups. I focused on static holds throughout the negative portion of the lift in three areas; almost fully contracted, half way, and almost fully extended. This had me seriously exhausted in about 4 minutes!

 

About midway through the sit up rep, I realized this was going to be bad for the lower back, so I reduced the weight to about 60% and did another rep. Next time I am going to do the weighted sit up hanging upside down from a bar and have someone hand me the weight, so take strain off of the lower back.

 

These principles definitely work though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is why Mike Mentzer stated "it only takes a very small amount of the right type of exercise to stimulate best results"

 

Think of it like this, if you wanted to get a really great suntan, you must exposure your skin to intense UV radiation, the greater the intensity of the UV radiation, the less time you can expose yourself to it. If you expose yourself for too long and/or too often...the stimulus becomes toxic and counterproductive.

Yes, when it comes to suntanning, there are individuals whom can tolerate intense sunlight stress better than others, BUT, that does not contradict the fact that in EVERY case the presents of intense UV radiation is absolute requirement for the production of a tan. The same is true with strength training, Intense training being the stimulus, with over-exposure being toxic and counterproductive, and here again, there are indeed individuals that can tolerate intense physical stress better than others, but that does not contradict the fact the intense training is an absolute requirement for the production of best results.

 

Sit-Ups, oh man, i couldn't do those with my back. I no longer train my Abs directly, when i do Underhand Chins or Underhand Pulldowns, my abs fully engage, especially on the Underhand Pulldown were the thighs and hips are anchored down. At the top of the Chin i crunch forward and statically hold for a second or two. Btw, that's a nice set-up, a couple of basic compound movements along with a few specific iso movements per workout. Do you have a second or B workout a pull workout maybe?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Absolutely! The whole thing looks like this:

 

Monday: leg press, reverse curl, sit up, weighted dip

 

Tuesday: deadlift, reverse fly, weighted pull up, bent over row

 

Wednesday: seated row, 250 yard wind sprint

 

Thursday: Bench press, weighted side sit up on each side and 5 weighted burpees

 

Friday: squat, leg extension, leg curl seated calf raise

 

Saturday: cable fly, dumbbell curl (palms facing up; should work the other side of the bicep), shoulder shrug, military press (on smith machine for stability)

 

Sunday: off

w

I will be giving this routine a whirl for two weeks just to see what happens.

 

-EDIT-

after doing a bit more research, it seems the high intensity strength training principles would have me not do sprints at all! In order to adhere to these principles, I will not be doing wind sprints. Here is an excerpt from a point by point explanation of why HIT is more beneficial than aerobic activity in every way:

 

"Covert Bailey, author of Fit or Fat and advocate of "gentle aerobic exercise" now recommends wind sprints to those seeking to become maximally fit. Why wind sprints? Because sprinting is a much more intense muscular activity than jogging. Why not wind sprints? Because as with other running, the risk of injury is just too great! Pulled hamstrings, sprained ankles, and damaged knees are too high of a price for a marginal increase in fitness. Strength training greatly increases the intensity of muscular activity (much more so than sprinting) and greatly reduces the risk of injury!" - http://www.mikementzer.com/aerobic.html

 

Ironically, I just recovered from a strained groin (while doing wind sprints) that forced me to take a week off from squats!

 

A have a couple questions though. Traditionally, symptoms such as plateaus, losing weight and constant fatigue are present as a sign of overtraining. In the case of Mike Mentzer's beliefs, almost all of us are overtraining, all the time. He had clients only working out once per week and not touching weights for 5-7 days at a time??? So am I overtraining with all this work over several days? And how can you tell if you are only mildly overtraining?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your quite right TM, sprinting is "high force" high intensity exercise, were as strength training (preformed properly) is "low force" high intensity exercise. Actually, i work as a lab technician in a local hospital, just before xmas a colleague told me about one individual (a 22 yo male) who'd came into the ER with a serve compound fracture in his lower leg, he had been doing sprints on an inclined treadmill...Nasty.

 

Indeed, and this was Mikes biggest contribution, he released (and was the first to tackle the issue) that as you grow progressively stronger - so to do the stresses on our limited recovery ability. Mike experimented quite a bit with his clients volume and frequency, but it wasn't until Mike reduced his clients volume down to 2-5 sets per workout and their frequency down to just once every 4-7 days, did he (and they) see best results.

Mike actually had a few clients train just once every 10 days with as little as 2 working sets (sets to failure and beyond that is), of course these were individuals who had a poor tolerance to intense physical stress or individuals that had reached the upper limits of their genetic potential, and thus were more prone to overtraining, but average was 4-7 days.

 

From what I've experienced with my own training, and from what I've witnessed in the individuals I've trained using HIT, none required any more than 1-2 workouts per week (with 3-5 working sets per workout). I currently have my wife and sister-in-law training just once a week, performing 3 compound movements with two smaller isolation movements per workout. My wife (who's not vegan) has lost 15lbs of fat and greatly increased her strength in the last 6 weeks. My sister-in-law on the other hand has not lost as much (due to not consuming enough calories below her maintenance level, bit like myself lol), but she has gotten stronger in leaps and bounds over the last 6 weeks and feels a whole lot better for it.

 

Looking at that set up above, there's a bit too much frequency overlapping within that program, for example i wouldn't recommend performing heavy leg pressing then heavy deadlifts the very next day. Remember that recovery (full systemic recovery) proceeds growth. A routine such as the one above doesn't allow for full systemic recovery, there for results will be compromised. If training in HIT style, i would recommend training no more than twice a week, with 3-5 working sets per workout. Anymore than that would most likely result in diminishing return unless your using with "low stress" high intensity techniques such as pre-exhaustion.

 

Take a look at these two guys, they did something called the Boise Experiment, they followed the advice from one of Mikes books (HIT the MM way) for 60 days to the letter and documented everything, the results speak for themselves, http://boiseexperiment.com/HeavyDuty/

If you read the comment sections, Ronnie talks about how the guys both saw best results training just 2-3 per month. Of course due to ignorance this goes against everything we've been told by the fitness and bodybuilding industry over the years, but for the most part, their primary interest is financial gain...not science.

 

Hope this helps

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeez... this is so against everything that I have been taught that I would literally find it hard to stop training as much as I normally do! I mean we are talking about a maximum of ten working sets PER WEEK. I'm used to doing more than that in just one day!

 

I work at a gym, which makes this even tougher. It's so easy to get a workout in that this would be a real struggle to resist the temptation to train... Breaking tradition couldn't be any harder for me.

 

I'm scared to try it honestly, but it would be downright stubborn of me to not try it!

 

So I need to compress this workout into a smaller amount of lifts... like this?

 

Monday

Week One: squat, reverse curl, weighted sit up, weighted dip, seated calf raise

Week Two: leg press, Dumbbell curl, weighted side ups, standing calf raise

 

Tuesday: off

 

Wednesday

Week One: weighted dip, weighted pull up, deadlift

Week Two: Triceps pull down, lat pull down, stiff leg dead lift

 

Thursday: off

 

Friday:

Week One: peck deck, military press (on smith machine for stability), bent over rows, leg curl

Week Two: Cable fly, military press, seated row, leg curl

 

Saturday: off

 

Sunday: off

 

For the sake of variety, I decided to make a two week schedule in rotation. Is this still too much?

 

Also, am I going to see pure strength gains with this type of regimen, or will I gain any mass at all? I am guessing that one can only be sure to gain strength with such a workout, but please correct me if I'm wrong!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It will be difficult TM, not just because your in the gym, but also because your peers will make fun of you. Mike himself was bullied and pick on quite a few times in Golds Gym Venice were he trained his clients (by some big name pro bodybuilders and onlookers), he was even physically attack on a couple of occasions. I've had people make fun of me too. (despite the fact i was making progress) Think of it like this, most people used to think that the world was flat, of course nature and science proved them wrong! The body does not adapt because of an individuals wimm to train x number of times per week, it happens because of BIOLOGICAL NECESSITY. As Francis Bacon once stated "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed".

 

Looking at the routine mods, its better as it more condense, if in doubt, K.I.S.S TM...

 

if you prefer a 3 way split, here's a modified consolidated version or Mikes Heavy Duty One program, i made good gains on this (though i didn't squat or DL for reason's mentioned previously, i used LP and weighted back extension instead)...

 

Workout A Chest / Shoulders / Triceps

1. BB, D-B or Machine Incline Press

2. D-B or Machine Lateral Raise

3. Weighted Dips

 

Workout B Pull

1. Underhand Weighted Chins or Pulldowns

2. Machine, BB or D-B Row

3. D-B or Machine Bicep Curl

 

Second cycle do

1. DL

2. Rows

3. Underhand Chin or Pulldown

 

Workout C

1. Squat or Leg Press

2. Calf Iso work (seated, standing or calf press on the leg press) -use seated or calf presses on the week you squat

3. Static AB Crunch (watch 26 minutes in) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekJtCzRnD7E. (This will engage the Abs to a greater level than the Weighted Sit-Ups

4. Grip /forearm iso work (optional)

 

*On the week/cycle you perform DL's, use the leg press in w/o c, and on the week/cycle you squat, use the curl in w/o b. This is so your the low back isn't being over worked.

 

if you want to train 3 days a week on such a program, do not employ set extenders or high stress techniques, just perform one one set to failure (after a low rep warm-up set or two), and in the case of the Squat and DL, train to just before failure for safely reason's.

 

1. The workouts above are abbreviated, this will allow you to maximize the intensity of effort.

2. Keep a training journal, and focus on increasing moving up in weight, reps or both on every movement of every workout (while still maintaining good form and rep cadence. IF YOU DON'T MAKE PROGRESS IN LEAPS AND BOUNDS IN THIS WAY RIGHT OF THE BAT, YOUR OVERTRAINING, remember i said Mike had to reduce the volume and frequency of certain clients to just 2-3 sets once every 7-10 days before they made ANY progress in term's of strength and size increase.

3. When your progress does begin to slow up with the above routine (this could take weeks or moths), take a week or two off training.

4. On your return to the gym, begin to insert an extra rest day or two between workouts. (you'll see you'll begin making progress in leaps and bounds again)

5. When your progress slow's down again (again this could take weeks or months), take another one to two week layoff, and on your return begin training just once every 4-7 days, however its here you can begin to sparingly insert deep inroading "high stress" techniques such as rest pause and static holds.

 

Other than that, adjust your calories to a relevant amount based on what your trying to achieve, and there's no need to supplement your diet with additional "recovery enhancers", they will make minimal difference.

 

Let me know what you think:)

Best

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Holy cow! I'm only supposed to squat and deadlift once every other week??

 

I'm thinking of doing Workout A on Tuesdays, Workout B1 or B2 on Thursdays and Workout C on Saturdays. Since I messed up and did workouts on Monday and Tuesday this week, I took three days off and will return to the gym today. Ill finish up with an abbreviated version of the routine I made (to aviod more overtrainig), and then start this modified workout you gave me on Tuesday. I'm feeling 110% today, let's see what I can do!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing with the squat and DL is, there's a lot of overlapping going on with those movements, especially with the low back and hips. If you did want to include squats and DL's more frequently, then i'd recommend something like Mike's consolidation routine, ie Squats, Underhand Chins/Pulldowns, and Weighted Dips one workout and DL's, Shoulder Press (back supported), Calf iso the next. But i'd recommend at least 4-5 days between workouts. Remember, it HIT, your not bouncing and lifting explosively, your accentuating the negative, lifting in an non-explosive style, the inroad into the body is deeper.

 

Anyho, what ever you go with, give it your all:)

 

To your success:)

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
Quick update: t's been three weeks and I have gone up on all my lifts... gained an inch in my quads too, which is pretty freaky! Results seem unreal... Maybe my body just needed the extra recovery time from before? Either way, I'm pretty convinced this HIT has merrit to it.

 

Awesome stuff TM, your most likely right about how your new gains have came about, long may it continue

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quick update: t's been three weeks and I have gone up on all my lifts... gained an inch in my quads too, which is pretty freaky! Results seem unreal... Maybe my body just needed the extra recovery time from before? Either way, I'm pretty convinced this HIT has merrit to it.

 

 

welcome to the wonderful world of HIT

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

So I messed up. I could not resist the temptation to keep training with people at my gym. I went back to training with volume and have seen ZERO improvement for the last three weeks. I feel like an idiot. Heavy duty training is clearly doing things for me that nothing else has ever done, so it's back to HIT for me... I will update in three more weeks. If I see more gains, I will be sticking to the heavy duty principles for the rest of my life!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I messed up. I could not resist the temptation to keep training with people at my gym. I went back to training with volume and have seen ZERO improvement for the last three weeks. I feel like an idiot. Heavy duty training is clearly doing things for me that nothing else has ever done, so it's back to HIT for me... I will update in three more weeks. If I see more gains, I will be sticking to the heavy duty principles for the rest of my life!

 

I did the same when switching from a volume approach to HIT, but the more you educated yourself on the matter, the more of a relaxed understand you'll develop. Keep up the good work:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...