T Nation

My HIT Approach

Beginners
#1

Mike Mentzer’s HIT approach basically requires 6 or more days recovery between workouts:

  1. Chest and back
  2. Legs A
  3. Shoulders and arms
  4. Legs B

So the workout cycle would last 3-4 weeks. My goal is upper body development (I do however perform squats on Shoulder/Arm day). If I only do 1. and 3. alternating every 7 days, obviously this means less rest between working upper body. However after 7 days I feel 100%. Is this still good for growth or should I rest longer?

Additional info: I’m around 150lbs, taking protein (100-150g), fish oil and multivitamins daily.

Additional question :slight_smile: I know Mentzer stressed the importance on a balanced diet of LOW protein and high Carbs in one of his books… from those who tried HIT successfully do you think he could be wrong about this?

#2

Keep in mind that Mentzer’s HIT or Heavy Duty works great for those who previously trained with excessive volume. If you haven’t trained much before, this ain’t the best way to train.

#3

That’s new to me actually because Mentzer designed HIT for novices and intermediates as well as advanced. Or are you saying that there’s evidence to believe HIT doesn’t work for everyone, regardless of its design?

#4

at 150lbs your best gains would be most likely achieved by either TBW 3-4x/week or a upper/lower split

those advanced splits with 7 days rest for a muscle group are designed for very advanced lifters

#5

[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Keep in mind that Mentzer’s HIT or Heavy Duty works great for those who previously trained with excessive volume. If you haven’t trained much before, this ain’t the best way to train.[/quote]

as HIT perceives volume training as a bad move what you are saying appears to be that you need to train badly before training properly in order to benefit from training properly!

Anyway, anyone new to training needs to learn the exercises first and going to failure is a short path to injury so experience does count.

Also, i’m not sure about the need to go to failure - it hasnt borne out anecdotally for people, nor conclusively in studies, though it remains a favoured argument in forums!

Abreviated training, 2-3 times a week for 30-45 mins focussed on compound exercises, that does work.

A lucky few can recover still faster, an unlucky few need more time still.

#6

[quote]gswork wrote:
undeadlift wrote:
Keep in mind that Mentzer’s HIT or Heavy Duty works great for those who previously trained with excessive volume. If you haven’t trained much before, this ain’t the best way to train.

as HIT perceives volume training as a bad move what you are saying appears to be that you need to train badly before training properly in order to benefit from training properly!

Anyway, anyone new to training needs to learn the exercises first and going to failure is a short path to injury so experience does count.[/quote]

I didn’t say it doesn’t work for those who didn’t train yet. What I meant is that HIT got supporters from the excessive volume crowd because the parameters involved in HIT allowed them reduce the volume, get rest, and get results. Mentzer himself used to train like Arnold before going HIT.

Anyway, you’re right about needing experience before going to failure. Another thing is that beginners don’t really know that well what intensity is. They’ll achieve psychological failure first before actually going into muscular failure.

#7

I don’t see how it would be humanly possibly at your stage of development to be able to generate the sort of animalistic intensity and use the kind of back breaking weights it would require for you to take nearly a week off between training sessions.

When I first started training I probably could have trained every other day same body parts simply because you can’t(and don’t try to convince me how hardcore you are) push deep into into your recovery yet to require such an approach.

Something like an upper lower split done Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday focusing on 2 or so large exercises each body part would be much more beneficial.

#8

Hi guys the question I was asking was how much rest would be adequate, under Mentzer’s way of thinking, if I was to adjust his program, to suit my schedule/needs, as stated in my first post.

My experience: I have done the 3 days/week multiple sets for each muscle group several years ago just like most people. But didn’t train consistently and had long breaks. I have good form in all my exercises. I know what muscle failure is. I train without a spotter.

The promise of what HIT offers is the reason why I want to try HIT for at least a few more months. I appreciate responses received, anymore in regards to my original question would be nice.

#9

From what I understand, Mentzer was a freak that could lift back-breaking weights with great intensity for his desired amount of reps for HIT. And yes it probably took him 5-6 days between workouts to recover, but 70% of people on this site couldn’t come close to Mentzer’s/professional bodybuilder’s intensity.

Even when I train with negatives it still takes me less than 3 days to recover. I couldn’t possibly train enough to take that long to recover. Maybe in 5-10 yrs you could benefit from HIT, but I agree with scottiscool on the recommended training approach.

#10

[quote]gttommy wrote:
. Is this still good for growth or should I rest longer?

Additional info: I’m around 150lbs, taking protein (100-150g), fish oil and multivitamins daily.

Additional question :slight_smile: I know Mentzer stressed the importance on a balanced diet of LOW protein and high Carbs in one of his books… from those who tried HIT successfully do you think he could be wrong about this?[/quote]

To answer your questions…

No you shouldn’t rest longer, you should strive to train as frequently as your recovery will allow you.

and

Yes I think he could be wrong about this.

I could go into more detail but because my name isn’t Mentzer I’m not sure if you’ll listen.

#11

Hi guys the question I was asking was how much rest would be adequate, under Mentzer’s way of thinking, if I was to adjust his program, to suit my schedule/needs, as stated in my first post.

My experience: I have done the 3 days/week multiple sets for each muscle group several years ago just like most people. But didn’t train consistently and had long breaks. I have good form in all my exercises. I know what muscle failure is. I train without a spotter.

The promise of what HIT offers is the reason why I want to try HIT for at least a few more months. I appreciate responses received, anymore in regards to my original question would be nice.

#12

Sorry for the double (potentially triple) post. The thread doesn’t seem to get updated fast enough so I reposted.