Anyone familiar with the Colorado experiment? I would like to hear some thoughts on it.
It sounds crazy, but the '70’s were pretty nuts.
Having been born in May of '72, in the months leading up to the experiment I actually more than doubled my body weight. I credit a GOMAD type diet, a disproportionately large head to lug around and rides in a GTO to put me to sleep when I was cranky.
It was a marketing scam by Arthur Jones (creater of nautilus equipment ).
To prove that training on his equipment for like 15 minutes a day, would increase muscle mass more than conventional training.
He used Casey Viator a genetic freak who apperently put on 60 pounds of muscle and lost 20 pounds of fat in one month using only his machines.
The px90 of the day ,except you probably dont have to hear the word core every 15 seconds .
Anyway i do miss his nautilus pullover machines, i ll get one for dream gym.
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Casey Viator went from 166 pounds to 212 pounds doing 14 full body HIT workouts in 28 days.
People are… let’s use the word skeptical… and say the progress was due to Viator sneaking off to do extra training, steroids muscle memory, that he simply didn’t gain as much as was reported, or a variety of other possible explanations.
This is a pretty in-depth article from a guy who knew Viator and Arthur Jones and complied the actual notes after the experiment.
The physical results reported, gaining that much actual muscle tissue in that little time, is something that science says basically shouldn’t be possible. So there’s that. But the general concept of the ultimate bulking routine being “train a lot, eat a lot, grow” is kinda basic and accepted. Put a genetic freak like Viator through a plan like that and I could kinda-almost see how something crazy could happen.
Its no magic bullet and def not a long term approach. Saying that one thing that can be gleaned from it is that an HIT program in short bursts say 4-6 weeks a couple times a year can be very benficial.
Ive heard in his era he was one of the strongest bodybuilders, i heard he squated 6 plates very easy for reps.
Ellington Darden wrote an article on this site 6/13/16. He was a close, personal friend of Arthur Jones. Search for it as I can’t link it using my mobile.
Thanks for the input and knowledge. I tried the training routine on the t nation article provided above. I got some interesting results. I got sognificantly leaner without changing my bodyweight. The workouts were intense and sometimes difficult to recover from. I feel I didn’t gain to much weight because at the time I was carb cycling. Has anyone else tried the training routine?
Arthur Jones was great at selling stuff, and a big fan of the no true scotsman.
“Hey Arthur, how come no one else can replicate the results of the Colorado experiment?”
“Because they weren’t using HIT. If they were using REAL HIT, it would have worked. You can tell it wasn’t HIT because it didn’t work.”
All that being said, pretty much everything works. HIT will work, but if it’s the only thing you do all the time, you’ll probably stall.
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@ig10
I followed the Colorado experiment for approximately 21 days. I don’t remember taking a day off, however. The first couple days, I would’ve sworn I stumbled on the perfect program. It seemed like I grew substantially every session. Whether it was my intensity that waned or the novelty of the stimulus wearing off, the second half of sessions were considerably less effective. Looking back, maybe I should’ve taken days off 
@believer423. I also noticed that my recovery got worse as I got deeper into the program. At the end of it all this whole program served me as a body recomposotion
Its pretty hard not to take the article The Colorado Experiment: Fact or Fiction with a grain of salt when the Arthur is pretty bias … considering he has financial stakes in promoting that type of training.
Doggcrap generally gets the best results if want to try HIT again. Dorian Yates 4 day routine minus the intensity/failure techniques is good also
@RampantBadger. Are you talking about the DC training that’s provided in the article on this site? The thing is i increased my calories in order to bring up my arms because they’re lagging. Would D.C. Training allow me to bring them up?
Yeah talking about DC.
Actually DC usually makes arms slightly laggin in proportion to gains in torso
(it can be great for overall mass) Heresy to some but for triceps I would sub 2 out of 3 tricep sessions with light high volume work just focusing on the pump as below and only the third doing intended close grip bench for a record etc
This would be best for bringing up lagging arms
@RampantBadger. Thanks for the arm routines much appreciated. I’ll be giving these a try and hopefully I’ll make some improvements. Maybe I’ll post some before and after pictures
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Cool, good luck