My Current HIT Routine

Since this post was released, the most frequent question I’ve been asked is “what do you do!?”. Well, today Is the day I’m going to get into my current routine- but I do so with caution.

What I do is NOT necessarily what’s best for you, and certainly NOT what you should start with. If you are new to high intensity training and want a program to start with I highly recommend picking up Body by Science and performing the “big five” for 2-3 months about once a week.

It’s as simple as it gets- and it’s damn effective.

2 pulling exercises, 2 pushing, and a compound leg exercise. It works your entire body- even the muscles of the neck, abs, lower legs, and forearms indirectly.

However, I’m about 5 months into HIT and my routine has evolved based off of the abundant resources available on the subject that I’ve had the opportunity to read- and I know there are guys reading this who’ve been working out high intensity for months as well and are interested in learning about what I do at the moment.

So…let’s get into it.

For starters, I alternate- or do what’s called an “a/b” routine.

Routine A looks like the following

All machines used are MedX- essentially the Rolls Royce of exercise machines. All of them are nothing short of awesome- the pull over in particular is a hard piece to come across and is brutally effective for isolating the lats (and entire back). It is a movement that is NOT possible with free weights- not to this degree of isolation anyway.

The leg press is also really, really smooth. I love it, and recently learned how to “pin it”, or increase it’s resistance. Properly pinned it supposedly provides over 1,000 pounds of resistance- which is nice since I’ve been maxed out on other brands for a long time now.

My most recent workout on MedX equipment went as follows

• seated row- 280lb/98 seconds
• chest press- 330/84
• bicep curl- 120/64
• pull over- 170/65
• seated dip- 220/88
• leg press- 640/95

I’m really excited for my next workout (which will be on MedX). Ill be attempting 700 pounds on the leg press, by far the heaviest weight I’ve ever used.

The B of my “a/b” routine can be seen below

Nautilus Nitro equipment is used. Most of their machines are of great quality and provide correct (varying) resistance through the full range of motion. For those not in the loop, this is a major reason I use machines instead of free weights (for most exercises, not all). Free weights provide resistance based on gravity alone- meaning it is static throughout the entire movement.

The problem with this is that our muscles are a lot more complex than that- meaning your bicep is strongest in the middle of a bicep curl, not at the bottom, and not at the top.

Due to this, you often run into “mechanical sticking points” with free weights. You have strength to continue moving the weight, just not at a certain position.

Does this mean free weights are useless? Ha, hardly, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Back on point, my most recent B routine (6/3/09) workout went as follows

• overhead press- 155lbs/68 seconds
• lat pull down- 200/68
• chest press- 175/58
• barbell full squat- 155/53
• single leg dumbbell calf raises- 55/b L=57 R=53

And for some added perspective /w strength gains from high intensity training, as seen in this video, my lat pull down on the same machine was 185/57. That was about 2 months- or 9 work outs- ago. Again, not the most massive gain in history, but significant none the less considering it was a jump in both weight and time under load (a full rep at least).

On Frequency

My frequency has stayed at about once every 7 days. In a perfect world I would work out once every 6 days, but life thus far doesn’t work out that way very often. I’ve tried quicker frequencies- and improved- but I suspect long term I would slip into over training. At the very least I would never be “above the baseline” as Doug puts it and never get to enjoy/use an above average musculature- not to mention I would be chronically tired.

I’ve tried an 8 day interval once, and I don’t think there was anything wrong with it, but I can’t imagine my body needs THAT much recovery @ 20 years old with proper rest and nutrition. Just seems excessive.

On indirect and direct work

If you noticed, I do single leg calf raises on my B routine. You may wonder, do squats work the calves (like a leg press)? The answer is yes, but not to failure. Calves will almost never be the limiting factor in a compound leg movement. Will they grow despite this? Yes, but I don’t see a reason not to work them directly at this point.

I’m also going to incorporate a barbell wrist curl into my A routine to directly work my forearms.

I would love to add direct neck work as well, but I have not seen a neck machine since high school football =(.

Someday maybe.

And as for abs- I believe it to be completely unnecessary. I’m actually sitting here typing away with noticeably sore abs 1 day after the lat pull down and squat (used in both movements). Check Drew’s post for more info on building abs here.

Self Praise

I think a serious misconception that comes from these workout vids is that these exercises could be performed more intensely- to the point where I would scream and grimace (this is ingrained via Hollywood and muscle mag ideals anyway).

The reality is- aside from rapid breathing- the quieter someone is performing HIT, the more intensely they are working (or the higher their pain tolerance is)- and vice versa since that energy and focus goes to the movement once removed from grimacing/yelling.

It is very, very, hard not to yell and grimace while learning how to properly perform high intensity training. Over time- with focus- those bad habits will fade, but it takes weeks or even months at the very least.

Self control at it’s finest.

Self Improvement (and some criticism)

I’m definitely all ears for suggestions on my current routine, but regardless here are my current thoughts.

A- try removing the chest press from the B routine. It’s unnecessary IMO considering I use a MedX chest press and dip in my A routine, and the over head press works essentially the same muscles. If anything consolidating my routine even further will allow for a greater degree of intensity in following exercises (squat and calf raises in that instance).

B- I need to focus on slowing my negatives down. You are always significantly stronger with your negative movements than your positive. My positive movements are fine (usually 3-5 seconds), but my negative movements are only about the same when in fact they should be longer (well, IMO anyway). I’ve been working on this recently, but not as seriously as I should. From now on I’m going to write it down in my journal/log right before working out to make sure I do it.

Smaller details/equipment used

Some equipment I use for my workouts include…

1. Gun range cheap ear plugs from wal-mart. It’s about 2 dollars per dozen, and they last a long while. They are not perfect, but muffle everything to a great degree. I know it looks funny, but I can garuntee you if your gym is loud (or has any noise at all), these WILL help you focus during your work outs.
2. Hooks. Notice those black things I use on the lat pull down? Get some, seriously. If you don’t use them your forearms will almost always fail prematurely during a pull down like that- meaning your biceps and back will still have plenty of work left in them but you will be unable to use them.
3. Vibram five finger shoes. In short, if you use shoes for compound leg movements (squat/leg press for example), there are muscles not being used in your feet that should be taxed during those movements. This warrants a post in and of itself, but in short shoes act as a sort of cast, disabling a lot of smaller muscles that are meant to support the rest of your leg. Use your feet (and toes) the way they were meant to be. Go barefoot during those movements (be careful) or pickup the shoes @ your local outdoors store.

-Dream