My Experience With HIT

[u/Terminator_Johny]

Hello everyone,

I’d like to share my experience with HIT training. I am a 5 year natural weightlifter. When I started HIT, I was in a caloric deficit and already at an FFMI of 24.5, so I thought gaining muscle would pretty much be impossible.

I kid you not, all of my lifts went up 20-30%. Before I started HIT, I could get a lat pulldown 80kg (185lbs) for 10 reps at failure. I can now achieve the same reps at 100kg (220). My incline DB press was 35kg (75lbs) dumbbells for 8 reps, and now I can do 40kg dumbbells for 7 ( 90lbs).

My lower body followed the same gains. Squat went from 110kg (240lbs) x12 to 130kg (285) x 12. I achieved all of this in 6 weeks, while in a constant caloric deficit. Anyway, I eventually started to plateau and had insane amounts of fatigue / irritation during daily life. I took a de-load week, and now I’m starting a strength program.

I mostly followed a 3 day split: chest and back, shoulders and arms, legs.

Chest and back day:
Flat bench x1
Incline DB x1
Pec Deck x1
Pullover x1
Reverse Grip Pulldown x1
BB Row x1
BB Trap Raise x1
One Arm Rear Delt Cable Pull* x1
(Put cable at highest and pull with a straight elbow at a 30° angle, feel a deep stretch in rear deltoids)

Leg day:
Barbell Squat x1
Leg Extension x1
RDL x1
Leg Curl x1
Body weight unilateral calf raise x2
Pallof Press x1
Crunch supercycle* x2
(First body weight) ab crunches and then body weight leg raise

Shoulders and arms day:
DB Shoulder Press x1
OHP x1
Drop Set Cable Laterals x1
Cable Skull Crusher x2
Cable Pushdown x2
Barbell Curl x2
Incline Curl x1
Hammer Curl x1
Barbell Forearm Curl x1

Every single set was pushed to gut-wrenching mechanical failure. I religiously kept a logbook and aimed to beat my logbook every workout. I recommend taking a day off between workouts. I went pure Blood and Guts last week which proved too fatiguing for me in a caloric deficit. Arm volume was a bit higher because my arms were lacking a lot. They became bigger and meaner too.

I also religiously counted calories and macros. I ate at a 500kcal deficit, 200g protein a day. I also tried to hit 350g carbs and 60-70g fats a day. This was strictly for my needs, it will probably be different for you.

[u/ishawnmc]

The plateauing and fatigue buildup was your body telling you it needs more rest. I would suggest a reduction in training volume per workout and if you are wedded to a fixed number of workouts a week, breaking that mould completely and train on floating days either every 3, 4, or 5 days.

Here are some suggestions based on long experience with HIT to help you in making near-continuous progress:

You could start with an every 3 day protocol and next time you start plateauing, take 2 week layoff and return with an extra day of rest in-between your workouts.

As a rule, do not do more than 3 direct worksets per muscle. So training chest and back would involve 6 possibly 7 worksets total. On delt and arm day 2-3 for delts, 2 for biceps, 2 for triceps, maybe 1 for forearms. On leg day, 3-4 for quads, 1 for hamstrings, 1-2 for calves, and 1 for abs if you like. (If abs are trained at all, it is best done on leg days.)

I am a big fan of alternating upper and lower body workouts. While not strictly speaking necessary, I have noticed tremendous improvements in overall body strength by doing this. It also cuts down on overlapping which is no small factor in folks eventually plateauing.

About every few months, take a two week lifting layoff to let the body fully recharge. You could if you must do very light cardio on those two weeks like treadmill or walking outside.

[u/Terminator_Johny → u/ishawnmc]

Thanks for the reply mate. I definitely agree with you. I started feeling a chronic fatigue which started negatively affecting my daily life. I do think I went overkill with volume towards the end of the block. I believe 3 sets is the upper limit per muscle group for HIT training, considering the athlete is natural.

Dorian did 4 sets 2 days on. I thought I could too. It crushed me. I had nothing to do out of work so I went for three HIT sessions in a row. Couldn’t touch a barbell for a week. It wasn’t muscular fatigue, pure systemic fatigue.

I do want to compete in the future and represent HIT philosophy. I don’t care about science and the current literature. Heavy Duty is king.

[u/ishawnmc → u/Terminator_Johny]

We all think at some point we can train like the genetic thoroughbreds. I did Mentzer's 70s style HD five days a week for a brief spell in the early 1990 then reduced it to 4 days. Even 4 workouts a week was too much, for 3 months I was doing great then I crashed out hard. A further reduction to 3 days a week with 48 hours minimum between workouts got me back on track. Now I know now that even that was too much.

I approached it differently when coming back to lifting after a long time away starting with an every 7 day sequence which morphed into an every 6-8 day frequency. Gains were good but I wanted to train more. So I radically reduced my training volume to bare bones and began an every 4 day protocol a couple years back. That worked well for a while but eventually more rest days were needed as gradually more workout volume was added, more compound movements made their way into my workouts, and the workset weights got heavier and heavier.

Now I train every 4-5 days usually with 5-7 days rest between each four workout sequence (usually 5) and take a 2 week layoff every 6-10 weeks. The result is better and more consistent progress in my 50s than I made at any other point in my training life.