My own personal HIT experiment...

[The Sickness]

I've been waiting to post this for a while now. Let me start by saying, I no longer follow the hit protocol, and you will see why later. I decided that I needed to see for myself what this whole deal is about. Nothing like first hand experience to cement an opinion about any given thing. I followed the hit protocol outlined in Elington Darden's book The New Hit for eight weeks. So without further adu, here we go...

The first week I was just getting used to going to absolute failure with my sets. Once I got the hang of it, I needed a partner to help me get those last couple. By the second week I was cruising, I had the hang of the routine and could finish in about 30-35 minutes. The basic excercises I used were, leg press, leg curl, leg extension, rest. Pullups (30 seconds up, 30 seconds down), bench press, OHP, rest. French press, curls, forearm curls, rest. Finish with abs.

I cruised until about the sixth week. I was adding weight and feeling that I was getting really intense. But then things started getting complicated. I realized I could increase the intensity by messing with rep speed. I also started to notice an annoying pain in my lower back. I thought that was weird because I was doing very little lower back work, more on this later...

Anyway, here are my results. I actually lost weight on this program, which sucked because I had worked to hard to put it on in the first place. I was definatel a bit more cut up, and my cardio seemed to improve on the mats, but I was noticably smaller according to my training partners. Was I stronger?? That's the problem with HIT, there's no real way of knowing. Like I said, I could mess with rep speed and increase the "intensity" so there was no tangible sense of getting stronger. Oh, and that pain in my lower back? Yeah, you'll notice there was no deadlifting right? I hypothesize that my ab strength had far eclipsed that of my lower back, and the pain developed.

I am now back on a three day a week power lifting routine, with one or two days of grip and neck, and HIIT for my endurance training. I won't say that my experiment was a failure or a waste, because it answered alot of questions I had, but I won't do it again, and wouldn't recommend it to anyone...

 

[Cmart]

You've sacrificed yourself to go where few rational athletes have traveled, in the name of science. Good info, sickness. Interesting that you lost weight (I'm assuming muscle mass) since the only legit use I've seen advertised for HIT was for bodybuilding. Interesting experiment. Hope you're making new progress now that you've gone back to a sensible workout.

 

[The Sickness]

Yes, thanks, I am. My back has almost stopped hurting, and I am trying to reattain my deadlift numbers. I'll get there soon I hope...

 

[Sean S]

I'll just save the HIT people some time and say:

-You weren't doing it right
-You were holding for too long
-You weren't holding long enough
-You didn't eat according to the HIT bible
-You read the wrong HIT routine
-You didn't stick with the routine for long enough
-You wanted it to fail, so it did
-The god of HIT deemed you unworthy of the power of HIT

 

[SKD]

Hey it sounds like you might have gotten stronger from it..... Your abs got a lot stronger and developed a strength imbalance between front and back, did you use HIT on your abs ?

 

[The Sickness]

Yes I did use HIT on the abs. But I think it had less to do with that and more to do with the fact that I wasn't deadlifting ever. Yeah Sean, I'm waiting for all that. But I actually did eat accordingly, and followed the recommended creating cycle, and offered human sacrifices to the HIT gods. So I think I covered most of the bases...

 

[graedy]

Good thread!

 

[Big Pam Queasy]

sickness,
I am glad to hear you tried a HIT routine. At least now you can make an informed comparison of training techniques. There is a training effect to be had with any system it is a matter of which system best suits your training needs.
Also to properly get results from a HIT routine one must sacrifice a small goat and wear leg warmers every workout. If you didn't do this how can you expect to get results?

 

[Espo]

That program was atrocious. Leg curl, leg extension no deadlift. Hit really sucks if they advocate machine exercises like those. Fuck Machines, that's what I always say. Sickness this is no knock on you, just that horrible workout plan. Props for trying something different anyway.

 

[The Sickness]

sickness,
I am glad to hear you tried a HIT routine. At least now you can make an informed comparison of training techniques. There is a training effect to be had with any system it is a matter of which system best suits your training needs.
Also to properly get results from a HIT routine one must sacrifice a small goat and wear leg warmers every workout. If you didn't do this how can you expect to get results?

Yeah, I think where I went wrong was using human sacrifices instead. But hey, you live you learn. A strange side effect that I haven't been able to explain yet is my cardio. My cardio really improved during the experiment. What do y'all think of that??

 

[groo]

I'm not sure where you people get your information. I have read about HIT before and it was just a simple way of thinking. Lift until you couldn't for that movement, Rest [rest days] until you are recovered and do it again. Using compound movements.

Like: Squat, deadlift, benchpress/dips, chins, rows

I think the only main drawback is that it burns people out, not that you don't get stronger or bigger. That stuff about rep timing and other BS is only by a few people but not some major component of HIT.

HIT is basically:

Do compound movements.
Get enough recovery.
Do one set.
Eat.

The difference between it and powerlifting is that powerlifters cycle their intensity in order to not burn out. And use more sets.

This is just what I have read before on a popular HIT website. That was 5 years ago or so. Maybe there is a HIT[tm] being marketed that is crap. I dunno.

 

[Big Pam Queasy]

sickness,
When you perform a total body HIT routine there is a great effect on your cardio especially if you limit your rest. It is probably the best overall workout from a total systemic standpoint. My highest recorded heart rates have always been while lifting in this manner.

 

[The Sickness]

sickness,
When you perform a total body HIT routine there is a great effect on your cardio especially if you limit your rest. It is probably the best overall workout from a total systemic standpoint. My highest recorded heart rates have always been while lifting in this manner.

Makes sense man, I was a terror on the mats during the experiment. And to the other guy, I got this routine and the cycle that I used from the book I mentioned. It was written by one of Arthur Jones' main students and employees...

 

[Big Pam Queasy]

sickness,
Good to hear man. I feel that HIT really teaches you how to go all out and not to back down. It gets you to not be afraid to commit to giving 100% no matter what you are doing. Why did you quit the routine? It sounds like you got some positive things from it. I have always said that HIT will get you into great overall condition.

 

[The Sickness]

Well, the main reason I quit the routine is because of the back pain. I never had that pain when I was deadlifting really heavy. I was also alarmed by the weight loss, but getting more cut was pretty cool. It started as an experiment, and I got really into it. But that lower back pain was just too much. I also found it difficult to continually measure progress, because like I said, I could change the intensity by simply changing speed, or rest, or by pre-exhaustion. That was frustrating because by my old (and current) standards, I could simply measure progress by increased poundages...

 

[Big Pam Queasy]

sickness,
WHy wouldn't you just add deadlifts to your HIT routine. HIT doesn't mean just machines or just one set or just certain exercises. It just means Hard, High Intensity work. YOU can do any exercise you want.

 

[Big Pam Queasy]

I would also try to standardize rep speed then measuring progress is easy. Just settle on a rep cadence and then try to incorporate double progression whenever possible. I always try to make each exercise as intense as possible. The goal is to make the exercise as intense as possible therefore making it most effective.

 

[The Sickness]

The only reason I didn't add deads was because I was following a very specific routine, and I didn't want to hurt the results by deviating from that. I don't like going over six reps on deads for the most part, and I figured that doing deads in HIT fashion would take me well above and beyond that point...

 

[Big Pam Queasy]

sickness,
Fair enough!

 

[Madmick]

I'll just save the HIT people some time and say:

-You weren't doing it right
-You were holding for too long
-You weren't holding long enough
-You didn't eat according to the HIT bible
-You read the wrong HIT routine
-You didn't stick with the routine for long enough
-You wanted it to fail, so it did
-The god of HIT deemed you unworthy of the power of HIT

LOL.

HIT will get you injured. It always does.