You probably been in the situation or seen it a million times. A pencil
neck in your gym trying desperately to transform himself from a gaunt, thin
weakling into a mountain of muscle. He pumps away at the bench press and
with curls but with hardly any change then one day another member of the gym
walks in and he is transfixed. The man has pecs that look like mounds of
granite, sinewy pipe-like arms, tree trunk legs, a back who's width and
thickness evokes something between a dinosaur and an eagle with its wings
spread...so the pencil neck walks up to him, asks him how he got so big and
proceeds to follow the man's training to a tee, hoping beyond hope to attain
the physique of his dreams. The big guy if he has any wits about him) will
give advice to his apprentice but will advise him that he should find what
works best for him...
The situation above is not uncommon in the gyms on the globe. People in
search of muscular gains look to others who have the desired look. While this
practice can be viable, we are all individuals who will respond to various
agents differently. What works for the big guy in the gym with the perfect
body parts and mounds of muscle will necessarily work for the pencil neck. The
agents in bodybuilding include training, nutrition, and supplementation. Your
response to these agents will be individual and what really matters in the
end is what works best for you.
In this article, I will explore the multi-factorial agent of training:
various methodologies and those who practice them, the possible pros and cons
they offer.
H.I.T aka Heavy Duty Training
H.I.T, an acronym for High Intensity Training, or the Heavy Duty method
was popularized by (late and great) Mike Mentzer in the early 1980s and as
continued its acclaim through the present. The basic premise of this style is
based on training as intensely as possible while limiting the sets to 2-5 per
muscle group.
Mike Mentzer, was an extremely intelligent man, well read and studied in
the areas of sociology, philosophy, science and metaphysical studies. He
insisted that the Heavy Duty method was the most productive training method
and that it was the only one founded on logic. Whether the controversial
Mentzer was right or not, the Heavy Duty method does have some distinct
advantages and disadvantages.
WHAT?
The system has a heavy reliance on intensity boosting techniques such as
Rest Pause, Negative reps, Pre-Exhaustion and Supersets, and Forced Reps.
Mentzer believed that other training styles which used higher volumes caused
individuals to overstrain, hampering recovery abilities and delaying gains in
muscle mass and strength. According to Big Mike, the most productive way to
train was heavy and intensely, briefly and infrequently.
Here are some sample workouts Mentzer used:
Back
Chest
-Nautilus Pullover Machine 2 sets of 6-8reps
-Machine Flyes
2 sets of 6-8 using forced reps
Superset with
-Incline Barbell or Incline Machine Press 1 set to failure
-Lat Pulldown 2 sets of 6-8reps getting 6
reps then 3 rest-pause reps,2 forced reps,
-Weighted Hyperextension 1 sets of 8-12 and finally
either some negatives or a drop set.
PROS:
In many ways he was right; many people are over zealous interns of
training and end up overloading their systems without a thought to recovery.
He felt that using intensify techniques and low training volumes was the best
way to stimulate the muscles while not dipping into energy reserves needed
for recovery. By training in the H.I.T style one can insure that they are
gonna give their muscles a reason to grow. Employing such techniques is a
sure fire way to stimulate the muscle groups albeit with negative aspects.
CONS:
Since the Heavy Duty method relies on only a few sets, it is often
necessary to use the heaviest poundage's which can increase the risk of
injury. Many bodybuilders who train this way fail to warm-up the muscle and
connective tissue, since Menzter preached minimal warmups as he felt they
wasted energy that would be needed for working sets.
H.I.T's Offspring:
Some training styles mirror the Heavy Duty method in in that they make
use of intesnity techniques but with slightly higher volume. Dorian Yates
trained very much like this. He might complete only 2 wroking sets to failure
but precedes these with sets that he takes just short of failure. Here is a
sample back workout:
| Exercise Sets | Poundage |
| Hammer Strength pulldowns 1* 15 | 135 lbs |
| 1* 12 | 220 lbs |
| 1 8-10 | 285 lbs |
| or (alternated each workout) | |
| Nautilus pullovers 1* 15 | 220 lbs |
| 1* 12 | 320 lbs |
| 1 8-10 | 440 lbs |
| Barbell rows 1* 12 | 285 lbs |
| 1 8-10reps | 375 lbs |
| Hammer Strength one-arm rows 1 8-10 | 245 lbs |
| Cable rows (overhand grip) 1 8-10 | 200 lbs |
| Hammer Strength rear-delt machine 1 8-10 | 2x55lbs |
| Bent-over dumbbell raises 1 8-10 | 2x95 |
| Hyperextensions 1 10-12 | |
| Deadlifts 1* 8 310 | |
| 1 8 | 405 lbs |
* Warm-up set
With every exercise Dorian performs a warm-up set although in this case
the warm-up is enough to get his blood going-- he stops a few reps short of
failure on these earlier sets. Many other bodybuilders have trained like this
including Lee Labrada in the 1980s, Team Universe Champ Skip Lacour and
bodybuilders like Jay Cutler and Aaron Maddron.
Moderate-to High Volume Approach
A very large majority of bodybuilders train with moderate volume (no
less than 12 and usually no more than 20 working sets per muscle) hitting
their muscle groups with 3-4 exercises each for 3-5 sets and completing
anywhere from 6-20 reps (the norm is 8-12 reps). There is often times quite a
bit a variety with how this approach is structured in terms of reps and
exercises but most will concentrate on heavy compound free weight (sometimes
machine driven ) exercises for low reps and heavy weight and then they will
progress to detailing and or finishing movements. Take for example a Chest
Routine that Mr. Olympia contender Chris Cormier might use.
Incline Barbell Presses 20 reps with 205, 15reps with 315 and then 5
pyramided sets of 6-10 reps (Chris can go as heavy as 525 for 6-8 reps on his
last set.)
- Machine Decline Presses 4-5sets of 8-12 using around 360lbs
- Wide Grip Bench Press Machine for another 4 sets of 8-12
- Pec-Dec 3 sets of 12-15reps
Current Mr. Olympia Champ Ronnie Coleman would use a similar arrangement
of exercises put prefers to keep is repetition moderately high at 10-15
reps.....AS YOU CAN SEE, IT IS IMPORTANT TO DO WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU!
Blitz and Burn-- Ultra High Volume Training
For some bodybuilders the concept of a full day's work is taken to heart.
High sets in the range of 20 or more have been used in bodybuilding ever
since the 1950s with Reg Park and its devotees have continued through the
ages; Sergio Olivia and Arnold both used high volume, in fact Arnold admitted
to doing as many as 60 sets to bring up is legs, 35 sets for his pecs and as
many as 50 sets for his shoulder workout. Other modern trainees use high
volume including 1980s Mr. America John DeFendis and contemporary
bodybuilders like Lee Priest, Melvin Anthony and Marcus Ruhl.
High Volume training does have its good points. Hammering your muscles
set after set will definitely give you a killer pump and induce overload on
the muscle fibers forcing them to grow. In a workout in which say, Lee Priest
complete 25 sets for his chest, his pecs are contracting thousands of times.
All of these contractions (over time) cause amazing adaptation and the
definition and striations are more prevalent-- this is why many bodybuilders
train with higher volume as they get closer to a contest.
Joe
Prsoar@aol.com
Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!
Back To Joe Corleone's Main Page
Back To The Articles Main Page.
Related Articles
The All Body Workout
How To Structure A Kettlebell Workout For Size And Strength!
Think You're Tuff: A Circuit Training Challenge!
