Building a high intensity workout routine
As a high intensity training coach for strength athletes, I often, and sometimes on a daily basis, receive questions about how to create an exercise routine, how to advance in an exercise routine, or what is the next step in reaching individual potential. I always keep it simple and stupid using basic HIT theory.
I wish I could say that it’s only experience that allows me to answer these questions, but it’s really a combination of critical thinking, experience, and understanding of how the people around us, athletes included, differ … based on their genetic makeup. . What I’m saying is that although high intensity strength training is probably the most effective training of all time, due to its efficiency and the way our bodies are designed, we all have different genetic fingerprints and applying the theory of high intensity training correctly, is the key to the puzzle.
It’s no secret that we are all genetically different, from our fingerprints to the individual differences that make us up. If you look at the color, we have Albinos at one end of the spectrum and Blacks at the other. This difference is also directly related to tolerance to sunlight, where an albino can tolerate very little volume of sunlight, while a black man can tolerate much more. This is genetics! The same applies to muscles, height, IQ, and a list of others.
The same can be said for exercise tolerance, although physiologically we are the same, we are genetically different. This is why when I create an exercise routine I customize it for the person using it. There is no one size fits all!
When saying that there is no one size fits all, there are exercises that are very effective and that activate the growth mechanism of the whole body. These exercises are what I call the big exercises like deadlifts, squats, rows, high pulls, dips, bench presses and their alternatives. When building any workout, I cross-plot these exercises, based on the person’s goals, and augment them with other effective but less stressful exercises. Using the volume and frequency thermometer for short, infrequent workouts, I ask a series of questions to get a reading of what your genetic makeup might be. This can include:
o What they feel are their weaknesses
o What has been your rate of progress during the last 3 months
o What are your energy levels at the moment
o What is your current training frequency
o What level of intensity are they applying?
o How is their diet and what they usually eat
o What is your body fat percentage right now?
o How long have you been training
o What training have they been starting; high volume or high intensity
o Do they include aerobic or cardiovascular exercises and why
These are just a few. By asking these questions, I am painting a picture of who they are genetically and the path they have traveled to get to where they are today. If you are looking for an exercise routine and find me, in most cases the way you have approached your goals has not been successful. What I find in many cases is that they are reeling. Months and years have passed without significant progress due to two things.
1- Do not cooperate with your genetics
2- Not correctly applying the High Intensity Training Theory, which simply said that exercise should be intense, brief and infrequent.
It’s no secret that you can train hard or for a long time, but you can’t train hard and for a long time. HIT theory simply states this …
1- You must stimulate muscle growth with an intense contraction, that is, going to failure or beyond …
2- Your training should be brief in terms of
3- Allow the body not only to compensate but to overcompensate or adapt to that stimulation.
Did you know that you can increase your strength beyond 300%, however, your recovery capacity can increase by 50%?
The body only requires you to stimulate an adaptive response once, not again and again and because more than what is minimally required takes away from the growth and recovery process and since the body recovers systemically, then what is left over goes to overcompensation. muscle down … then your workout should be brief and infrequent. And this all depends on one thing … genetics!
Meeting …
A properly designed program, including one for bodybuilders, is really a strength program because muscle and strength are relative.
This means that you only need to do the minimum necessary to stimulate an increase. More than what is minimally required is overtraining! This means only one set per exercise … remember, you don’t have to stimulate a response over and over again. Your goal is not to do more work, leave it to the long-distance runners!
There is also no reason to go through a series of sets and alter the rep range, each rep to the last near-impossible rep performed that turns on the body’s growth mechanism is nothing more than a warm-up.
The higher the rep range, the less stressful due to the weight being used.
Big core exercises, as mentioned above, should be the core of your workout routine, supplemented by smaller exercises like curls, laterals, pulls, triceps extension, etc. if required.
It is not necessary to perform all the big basic exercises in each workout, rather, performing just one or sometimes two per workout is sufficient along with one or two smaller exercises.
In a split routine, you can have up to 4 or more split workouts with days off between each while experiencing incredible progress. You will not lose size, but you will gain!
Rest days in general vary most effectively between 4 days and 14 days, depending on the genetics and level of the learner. A very advanced learner who can generate very intense contractions, so the strength may require more than 7 days of rest, as does a less experienced learner who has a low tolerance for heavy exercise. They will both advance, but at different rates.
Advanced athletes require more intense contractions to advance, along with longer rest times. Higher intensity stress techniques are required and work very well in all exercises if handled correctly.
Beginning and advanced athletes alike require large core exercises to activate the body’s systemic growth process.
Keeping track of progress means keeping track of your strength gains. You will gain reps or strength or both, resulting at a future point as an increase in muscular body weight.
Diet plays an important role in performance, progress, and recovery. There must be quality cement to build the house. The manipulation of macro-nutrients in many cases is very beneficial, as it allows the natural systems of the body to be used in the most efficient way. Everything processed must be limited.
Remember, you grow outside of the gym, not in it! It is an end for a means. Use these factors as you create your HIT exercise routine and watch it quickly progress to its genetic potential.