w8pedia:Training:High Intensity Training

High Intensity Training (HIT) is a form of strength training popularized in the 1970s (first by Arthur Jones of Nautilus and Medx fame) and presented as the super-efficient antithesis of the current 'volume' approach to bodybuilding.

Its principles are progression (the trainer adds more weight to the bar/machine session each session as they attain greater strength), and overload (where the muscles are forced to hypertrophy or thicken by being exposed to above-normal levels of stress).

More weight/repetitions are added to the bar/machine in consecutive workouts as the trainer adapts. It may be summed up with the philosophy of 'intense, brief, and infrequent'.

• Intense: Each set of repetitions of an exercise is taken to the point where another repetition is not physically possible (known as "training to failure").
• Brief: Most workout sessions are limited to under 45 minutes or less, as intensity is inverse to volume, and muscle growth is stimulated via intensity.
• Infrequent: High intensity training has such a stressful affect on the body (needed to force the body to grow muscle and so adapt) that training sessions are usually limited to two or even one workout per week.

In HIT, each exercise would be conducted in a smooth manner with no jerking of movement. If the prescribed number of repetitions is achieved for an exercise in a workout, then for the next workout the weight for that exercise is increased by a very small increment in order to expose the muscle to new stress and keep the body growing. If in doubt, number of rest days between workouts is increased. The workout serves to stimulate muscle growth(not grow muscle). The body needs time to recuperate and adapt and grow after a workout.

Writers on HIT

• Rob Spector: The HIT FAQ (www.hardtraining.com)
• Stuart McRobert: Beyond Brawn
• Mike Mentzer: Heavy Duty 2 and High Intensity Training the MM Way.
• Matt Brzycki: A practical approach to strength training
• Brian D. Johnston: Higher Intelligence Training (www.IARTonline.ca).

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