Tokon,
Strength wise, nothing special on free weights.
Being a HIT advocate for so long I have trained a lot of my life on machines like Nautilus and Medx.
On machines my lower body was very strong and I could stack out most Nautilus (including the large stack duo squat) and Medx machines. along with quite a few upper body machines.
I competed in bodybuilding shows in my teens with both good and bad results, depending on the quality of the contest. I stopped competing when I realised that almost everyone else I was competing against were using drugs, which I was not willing to do.
In 2006 , after letting myself get further out of shape than i liked, i set myself the goal for 2007 of getting into better shape at 42 , than I was at 22.
To cut a long story short I ended up returning to competitive bodybuilding within the growing Natural (drug free) Bodybuilding scene.
I was pretty successful and consistant, but never achieved the level of conditioning (leanness) until 2012 when I won the BNBF British Masters Overall title, and gained a Pro Card (which is essentially the elite level where you compete for cash prizes, rather than it being something you do for a living).
In my Pro debut at the DFAC World Finals in Miami I placed 3rd in the Masters (in a class of 12) .
Since then lifeās events have taken over and I have not competed since (I have though judged at contests on more than several occasions, including British Finals) .
It should be noted that when competing I was not training pure HIT , but my training was always abbreviated either in terms of volume and/or duration , always hard , and I probably trained on average no more than 3 times a week with a large majority of my sets taken to muscular failure.
In recent years i have my own home gym and have not written off a return to the stage .
My current goal is to reach a level of development on a par with my competive best with far less training than before , whilst of course fighting the battle against age with all the problems that brings.
I apologise if the answer is a bit long winded (it could have been even longer !! 
) , but I do believe that your questions deserved a full answer.
My best stage weight was a very lean 191 pounds at a height of 5-10
Regards
Mark
Hi Mark
Thank you very much for an interesting and informative reply. Very impressive achievements.
Regards
Thank you for sharing your story. Very interesting
Very interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
From the routine you posted earlier, it looks like your home gym is mostly free weight stuff.
After years of training on nice machines, what has the transition to free weights been like? Have the different characteristics of free weights forced you to change anything about you approach?
I also wonder about doing slow reps and failing eccentrics with free weights. Seems like those would be better suited to machines?
Al,
some good questions there.
The transition to free weights began before I started competing again , with me combining my favourite free weight movements with machines (quite often Hammer Strength).
But having a home gym meant that I had to take it a step further and start including movements I had not done for many years which can be quite humbling in regards the poundages used .
It also meant that I was limited in the choices available for exercises , which on occasion can make exercise selection difficult if my knees or elbows for example are feeling a bit sore.
In general I will use a slightly faster cadence with free weights, but much depends on the exercise and the protocol I am using.
As for failing eccentrics, I have a power rack with safety bars.
The only exercise I cannot reach failure on (for safety reasons) is the hip belt squat where I use the dip bars to stand on and elevate myself (I have a bench very close by I initially elevate the weight from.
Mark Iām just curious, when you were competing you said you werenāt doing pure HIT. What else were you doing at the time?
JT,
thatās a fair question.
Firstly I consider HIT in the context of this page as being whole body training .
In the 6/7 years I was training for contests I would say that around 85% of my training involved using split routines (either 2 way or 3 way splits) and I was training mainly 3 to 4 times per week , with occasions where I would cycle down to twice a week.
I do think there is merit in using split routines for ācompetitiveā bodybuilders and so I donāt regret utilising them (the improvement in my physique in this period partly validates this) . But the gym I was using was also a factor in putting less emphasis on whole body training. It was a great hard-core bodybuilding gym, but the machines were not of the calibre that many HIT trainers utilised. If I for example were at the fantastic Mainline Fitness when Roger Schwab had it , with all the X-Force, Medx, Nautilus and Super Slow machines in its midst I would have used whole body routines far more often at that time.
Most of my training volume was similar to Mike Mentzerās late 70s programmes (4 - 6 sets a bodypart) , but on occasion I would do less volume (DC training being an example), and other times I would do more (so called Volume/Density/Cumulative Fatigue training which involved several sets of one exercise with short rest periods where you reach failure on the last set). But even those longer workouts usually only lasted 45/50 minutes.
Another thing to remember is in that period I was single and had the time to commit to such routines.
Thatās very insightful I appreciate the detailed response. Iām new to HIT and come from a 5/3/1 background. But, HIT is very intriguing so Iām going to give it an honest effort and see where it takes me.
Jt,
I wish you the best of luck on your journey.
You are certainly in the right place to learn about HIT as Dr Dardenās history and knowledge of it is unsurpassed.
The best advice I can give is to train harder than you have ever done before (you only do one set per exercise, so make it count !) , train stricter than you have ever done before (again you are only doing single sets, so they have to be of the highest quality), and read everything you can get your hands on both from and about Arthur Jones !
Mark
So I just finished up with my first HIT workout, I ended up doing the HIT A/B Foundational routine out of the book since I donāt have the equipment at the moment to do dips and my home gym isnāt quite ready, and boy was it humbling. I did one warm up set prior to the one set to failure because I had no idea what I would need to use for weight. My reps ranged in the 10-13 area. I was gassed by the third exercise and have never worked that hard in a long time. I was done in a little less than 30 min and I did 8 exercises. Iām going to take 3 days off and then start doing 2 days a week I think instead of starting with 3.
Mark:
Obviously the personal training information you have do kindly provided proves that is not your own interpretation of HIT. However, that is still an unnecessarily narrow - and outdated - definition of HIT, even within the context of this particular forum!
Tokon,
it wasnāt meant to be a definition of HIT, but one example (I mentioned some others) of why a lot of my training in my opinion (and thatās all I have) at that time fell outside of it in its purest sense . Perhaps I should have said Classic HIT instead.
Irrespective of that , whether one called it HIT or not was of no importance to me (my focus at the time were contests) . What I did was productive for me, just not typical of the routines that Dr Darden promotes, albeit in the main they were hard ,brief and intense .
I have no issue with anybody who views HIT differently.
Personally I like the term Abbreviated Training, with HIT and Heavy Duty being 2 of the many applications of it.
But that it is just my interpretation.
Hahaha, no problem Mark! Definition/interpretation/example itās just semantics. I tried to preface my statement to clarify that I know itās not āyour definitionā (your varied training routines prove that) and would have preferred to PMād you if this site allowed it! From your preferred terminology, I suspect thereās is more than a touch of āHardgainerā influence?
Yes, a āHard Gainerā influence with that term.
I do like something like that as an umbrella term as we āHittersā (in the broader sense) spend so much time debating (and at times even arguing) the small details, that we forget we are pretty much in agreement over most things training related.
Apologies if this is not where this question should be asked. Reading recent T Nation article posted 9/29 by Dr. Darden. Gold school tricepsā¦
In discussing the 30/10/30 close grip bench press. Routine calls for 8 to 12 reps. Is that saying 8-12 of the 30/10/30 (each of of these a rep)? Or 30/8-12/30?
My understanding it means that after you do the first 30 second negative you would do the 10 regular style reps. You want to shoot for anywhere between 8-12 on the regular reps, 10 being ideal, before starting the final 30 second negative. Make sense?
It does. Thank you!
30/8-12/30 would be a more detailed way of writing. But even then, the final 30 could be written 20-30.
Got it. Thanks much!!
For anybody living in the UK , who wants to delve into 30-10-30 then check out Amazon UK who have the hardcover edition of Dr Dardenās āKilling Fatā book for only Ā£5.69 at the moment (I already had it on kindle, but couldnāt resist getting it in printed format for that price).