This is a guest post by Nilatak, speaker at the 2007 Under 21 Convention. While I don't practice everything he details 100%, hes walked me through it first hand and it was an amazing workout. Literally, changed my perspective on fitness, and my current workout routine (I now use many of the principles he details here). If you'd like to contact him for further info you can PM him on the forum at www.under21convention.com/forum.
(Before I start I want to say I am not a personal trainer or a physician. This information is my own routine that I came up with based on books I have read. This routine is what I personally use. I am in no way, shape, or form responsible for the risks you encounter if you decided to use this workout plan. This is written purely for entertainment purposes.)
First of all let me start out by saying that this routine is not for the faint of heart. If you have never gone to the gym, I do NOT recommend jumping into this right away. This routine is to be used by people already going to the gym who are looking for more bulk as well as fat loss. The reason for this is that if your body is not used to the gym, this routine is going to put you out of commission for about a week…seriously. You will ache all over and won’t be able to move (if you do it right).
The premise from this routine comes from Author Jones who believed intensity and time under intensity as well as working to failure were the keys to massive growth. If you look at the traditional workout you do 3 sets of 10 reps or 4 sets of 8 or what have you. Author Jones believed that this was a waste of time and so do I.
Let’s look at why. When you are doing 4 sets of 8 reps you may or may not be putting strain on your muscle and as any layman knows, MUSCLES THAT AREN’T STRESSED DON’T GROW. Another thing to consider is that the time under intensity for each rep is relatively low (maybe 4 seconds total…2 up, 2 down). Well the KEY principles behind the HITT workout is INTENSITY, hence the name HIGH INTENSITY WORKOUT. I could go on and on about it, but I will simply highlight the principles behind the workout and why they work.
1. 1. You should only have to do ONE SET of around 10 reps. You can do a warm up set if you want, but it’s not necessary as long as you warmed up (jogging for 5 minutes or doing some other form of warm up and stretching). This contradicts everything you’ve been taught, but it doesn’t matter how many sets you do, it’s all about the INTENSITY. So remember ONE SET with HIGH INTENSITY. Another reason you only do one is because the INTENSITY is so great, you’ll only be able to do around 12 sets your whole workout.
----------It is MASSIVELY important that you time each repetition you are doing. I bough a cheap cooking timer to make sure I don’t cheat. Perform every repetition with a 7/7 cadence (7seconds up, 7 seconds down) to eliminate momentum and ensure constant load. So if you are doing bicep curls (have Dream tell you about these ; ) Then you should make sure you start at the bottom and take a FULL 7 seconds to reach the contracted position at the top. THIS MEANS A UNIFORM MOVEMENT. It doesn’t mean jerk the weight half way up in 1 second and then use the other 6 seconds for the rest of the movement…it means start at the same speed, continue at the same speed, and finish at the same speed throughout the motion. When you get to the top lower the weight at the same speed. Everything is uniform and your muscles are under a constant load (stressor). So move slowly, change direction slowly, and start and stop gradually.
3. 3. Work the whole body using routines that focus on the bigger muscles. When you work the whole body, each workout will elicit a maximal hormonal (testosterone, growth hormone + IGF-1) response. If you want to get jacked you won’t look very big just working one muscle at a time. Muscle specific exercise are used to sculpt the definition you already have. If you are puny, then work the big muscles. Start with legs; you want to work the largest muscles first. Start with hips and thighs and work the big muscle groups from there. So you want to do back before shoulders and chest and your upper arms before forearms.
4. 4. Focus on no more than 8-11 multi-joint exercises (leg press, trap bar deadlift, overhead press, Yates bent row, dips, incline machine benchpress, etc.) I will give you some examples of what your workouts should look like in the second instalment.
5. 5. Do not rest more than 20 seconds between sets of the same muscle group. So if you are doing legs, don’t take a break after each set you do. You will only take your break after LEGs are worked, until then, you are to jump from one machine to the next. It helps if you set them up ahead of time so all you have to do is walk from one to the other. You will literally pee your pants after legs and will barely be able to walk. Lets say you have finished the leg workout and want to move to the back workout then take 2-3 minutes to rest (time it).
6. 6. Make sure you do ALL the reps, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT HURTS!!! So let me walk you through an example, my favorite, the biceps curl. You will put a weight you think you can do 15 MAX reps on, so it should be moderate, not too heavy. You’re going to grasp the bar underhand and stand erect with your elbows on the sides, look forward and begin the reps. Start slow and take (7 seconds to bring it up, then lower it down slowly for 7 seconds) You’re aiming for slow reps. You will do around 6 reps and feel pain, keep going and do the 7 with the pain. Then loosen your form just slightly by moving your elbows out and backward and you can swing forward, just get the weight up, but lower it slowly again. Now after that loosen your form a little more and continue doing it. Your lower back should be hurting now (I HIGHLY recommend warming it up and stretching before you start the biceps). Your legs should also be in pain. You should be feeling like you are about to explode, keep trying to get it up, then hold the bar when you feel you can’t do more and SLOWLY lower it using the full 10 second count! FINISH 10 reps! You are going beyond failure, here…some people call the sets under HITT, “death sets” and that makes sense. Even though you are loosening form you should still try to keep your sets as close to perfect as possible, but sometimes in order to pump out a few more you’ll have to loosen form.
8 7. Rest between exercises of the same group of muscles should be no more than 20 seconds. Rest in-between different muscle groups should be 2-3 minutes. So you will do legs (3 exercises than 3 min break), then back (three exercises then 3 min break) then chest (2 exercises than 3 minut break) then shoulders (2 exercises than 3 minute break) then arms (2 exercises than go home).
9 8. You should be getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night on this workout plan in order to see the gains.
10. 9. You should also rest 2 days after your workout, ideally 3 days.
11. 10. You should be eating at least 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight you have. So 175 lbs equals 175 grams of protein.
12. 11. Each workout you should either try to increase the time under intensity or the weight.
13. 12. WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN AND KEEP TRACK.
14. 13. TIME all your exercises and don’t cheat yourself, stay with the PAIN.
Some signs you are doing this workout right.
*You will feel woozy. I am not a DOCTOR, so if you feel REALLY woozy take a breather and rest, but if you did the sets right it will feel like you are about to throw up. Just chill a second take a seat, drink some water and catch your breath. The first time you do it you might not be able to get through the whole thing. You may only be able to do 5 or 6 exercises. Try to do all of them, but if you feel really dizzy pause and rest.
*You notice massive results after just two workouts. Like literally you will feel jacked after the rest period.
*You feel a good pump in your muscles, like your skin can’t expand to compensate for the muscle growth.
*You feel EXCRUTIATING PAIN when you do your sets. Some exercises will feel like your muscles are being shocked with electricity and will start tingling with pain. PAIN, PAIN, PAIN!
That’s it for now, I’m going to come up with some workouts in a few days.
-Nilatak
