First of all let me give you a little background of what high intensity training or HIT is. Don’t mix up HIT with high intensity interval training(HIIT). They are both different.
HIT is all out hardwork on each set. Each workout will be only last about 25 min excluding the warm up. You are to perform 10 to 12 exercise, each exercise will be a set to total failure. Every rep is a control movement 3 second up and 3 second down. If you are able to hit 12 reps or more you need to increase the weight. you should hit failure about 8 reps then get your buddy to help you up on the positive and you try to hold as long on the negative as possible.
True failure.
How do we define true failure, my take on this. You only hit true failure when your friend tells you to do another rep and you can’t get it up. There is a difference between telling yourself and getting a command from a third party. Unless your mind is so program to this kind of extreme pain, you won’t be able to reach your maximum potential. because our human body is so smart, they will try to prevent us from killing ourself.
The failing mind.
How do you determine a true failure? Does your body fail before your mind or mind before your body? Alot of us would say it’s mind over body. However you body will try to prevent you from killing yourself as that is our body is naturally born for survival. So it’s gonna be near impossible to kill yourself.
You need a Training partner.
Only someone who knows your plan know how to kill you. Only when you get a command from the other party there will be a chance that your mind will go for the 10 reps.
I tried killing myself several times (in the gym) however the pain I get after the 6 rep is that bad that I had to stop on 8. I tried various ways like rest pause where I pause for 5 to 10 sec then continue another 3 reps but that doesn’t bring me to the true failure that I am looking for. Always ended up doing around 20 reps instead of 12.
My way of doing it with a partner will be 3 sec up 3 sec down for the first 6 reps followed by slight spotting from your partner to continue another 4 reps in 3 up 3 down and end off with 2 reps of negative maximum hold for negative. When you failed, that is normally not your true failure. So go for one more rep, you are still alive at this moment. The workout should be of an intensity that you will not be able to stand up or talk properly for a while.
So the 12 exercise will include everything. It’s a full body workout. Here is a example.
1. Leg press
2. Leg extension
3. Leg curl
4. pull up 30 sec up 30 sec down 1 set.
5. Lats pulldown
6. Dips 30 sec up 30 sec down
7. Dumbbell flyes
8. Bench press
9. Barbell military press
10. Bicep curl
11. Tricep pull down
12. calves raises
We will repeat this 3 times a week. Monday, wed and Friday. Sat sunday rest and continue training back on Monday.
Here is a photo of me 2 weeks back. Let’s see how much gains I can make.
