HIT training frequency
An often misunderstood ingredient in a bodybuilder’s training program is the correct dose of exercise needed for optimal muscle growth. In other words, the question of the number of sets and repetitions and how often to train. The temptation is to follow the belief that more is better… if “x” number of sets and reps are working, then more will work better, right? The goal should be to find the optimal amount of training needed to get the best results in both muscle growth and conditioning.
There are two points to consider, the first is the training frequency for an individual muscle group and the overall rate of training and the effect it has on the CNS, the central nervous system.
If your program is based on the high volume approach, and you are a natural bodybuilder, a small muscle group such as your arms should be trained intensely once a week, with a more moderate session several days apart. This is due to the fact that your arms are involved in every upper body workout and get a lot of work done as a result. Larger muscle groups, such as the chest, legs, and back, can handle a much more rigorous workload due to their size. So they can train pretty hard twice a week with the high volume approach.
When using a high intensity HIT protocol, which is the type of training I specialize in, we need to change gears substantially. This method trains the muscles at maximum intensity most of the time. About the only time this isn’t the case is during intensity cycling, a period when sub-failure training is used to confuse the body and make max-intensity efforts more effective.
There are several stages of training, beginner, intermediate and advanced. During the initial stage, small muscle groups such as arms are trained with 3-4 total sets and large muscle groups such as chest, legs and back are trained with 4-5 total sets with training. of sub-fault. At this stage, it’s more important to learn proper form on all exercises and not worry about making gains.
As soon as the exercises are mastered, you move on to the intermediate stage, where the number of sets is reduced to 2-3 sets for small groups and 3-4 sets for large groups. The number of sets used depends on the student’s ability to generate maximum intensity. It is best to train harder with fewer sets. All sets are taken to the point of momentary muscular failure, that is, until no more full repetitions can be completed. In all exercises, use a smooth form without momentum.
After 4 to 6 months of training, you advance to the advanced program. Small muscle groups are trained with 1-2 sets, while large muscle groups are trained with 2-3 total sets.
All sets must be brought to the point of momentary muscular failure. After that, a high-intensity variable, such as forced reps, should be used every other set to push the effort beyond failure.
Now that we’ve established the outline for HIT progression, we’ll focus on the proper frequency of training. Since HIT is so taxing on the muscles and the central nervous system, it is often necessary to reduce the number of times each muscle group is trained.
The apprentice’s level of recovery must be taken into account since each person’s body has its own working capacity. Much depends on an individual’s conditioning and the intensity of effort expended during training. There will have to be some trial and error, but the general guidelines are to train each body part once every seven to ten days.
After resting your muscles for seven days, try another session. If you’re dragging a bit or the weights used during your exercises have decreased, try adding an extra 2-3 days between workouts. Since you will be training each group once every 7-10 days, your body should be able to fully recover. Depending on your training split, the whole body should be trained in 2-3 sessions over 7-10 days. This is enough to keep your conditioning high and your muscles growing and getting stronger.
Now, let’s look at some sample training programs. The first is a great leg program.
Leg Extensions, 1 set of 15-20 reps to failure
With no rest, hop on the leg press machine and do:
Leg press, 1 set of 12 reps to failure
Leg press negative only. Load the weight about 40% more than you normally use in this exercise. With the help of a partner or your own arms, press the plate to the point of full extension. Using only your left leg, lower the plate back to the starting position. Repeat this with your right leg and continue to alternate legs until you can no longer safely control the downward movement of the machine.
The following is a great arm routine:
Incline dumbbell curl, 1 set of 8-10 reps to failure
Without rest, grab a pair of dumbbells for the following exercise:
Standing Negative Only Dumbbell Curl, 1 set of 8 negative reps until you can’t control the downward movement. Use a set of bells heavy enough to allow you to get a maximum of 8 negatives. Have a partner lift the weights for you or cheat, then lower to a count of 8, repeat.
Cable Triceps Pushups, 1 set of 8-10 reps to failure.
Be sure to keep your elbows against your sides throughout the exercise to maintain tension on your triceps.
Close grip bench press, 1 set of 10 reps to failure. After completing all 10 reps, ask your partner to provide just enough assistance to allow you to complete an additional 3-4 reps. These are forced reps and give you the ability to push your set past the normal point of failure, which is a great way to jumpstart your triceps to new growth!
Seated Barbell or Dumbbell Wrist Curl, 1 set of 12-15 reps to failure, followed by 1 set of Reverse Wrist Curl, 12-15 reps.
You should have a real burn on your forearms after completing these two sets.
These workout routines are great examples of productive HIT programs and give an example of a typical scheme for a large muscle group and another for a small one. Other major muscle groups are the chest and back. They should follow similar routines to the ones you did for your legs, just insert the appropriate exercises for each one. Abdominals, lower back, traps, and neck are examples of small muscle groups and should have routines that are similar in structure to the arms program.
Planned training layoffs
After you’ve been training for months, it’s a great idea to take a training break to allow your body to fully recover from intense training. Many bodybuilders will tell you that you will lose strength and size, but in most cases you won’t. In fact, most if not all will gain some size and strength after a 1-2 week break. This is because many people are overtraining and need to rest their muscles to give them a chance to grow and recover. Another byproduct is that your body will no longer be used to intense training and will start to respond very positively once you resume training.
Your body is very efficient at adapting to the stresses placed on it and quickly gets used to training at maximum intensity. By taking a short break from his workouts, he disrupts the status quo and his body quickly adapts to his lack of training. Resting also allows your muscles to fully rebuild and recharge with glycogen, creatine, and other energy boosters.
After the break, when you resume hard training, your body will no longer be used to training and you will start making gains again, just like when you started training.
Change in volume and intensity
As mentioned above, your body gets used to high-intensity training quickly, usually within 4-6 months of constant training. When this happens, the gains in muscle size and strength will cease or at least decrease considerably.
To restart the gains, we must lower the intensity by bringing our sets to the point of sub-failure, in other words, finishing our sets one repetition before momentary muscular failure. We will also need to slightly increase our number of sets to reflect the lower intensity of effort.
An example of arm training is as follows:
Dumbbell curls: 1 set of 8 reps
superset with
Dumbbell Concentration Curl: 1 set of 12 reps
Do two full supersets
Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions: 1 set of 10 reps
superset with
Cable Kickbacks: 1 set of 8 reps
Do two full supersets
Do both supersets with no rest between exercises and take them to one rep before muscle failure.
Continue to train your arms with this program for 3-4 weeks and then cycle back to full intensity bringing the sets to failure.
In future articles, I’ll go into more detail on how to properly cycle intensity to stimulate new muscle growth after hitting a plateau or plateau. Until then, keep hitting the plank!