Thread: HIT routines

I've been doing HIT for a while, it works great for me. My journal link is in my sig and I have 3 months worth of HIT logged in there. The past two weeks aren't HIT though just so you know. I do mine a little different sometimes like for legs I usually do

squats 1 set
front squats work up to a 1rm max
leg press 1 set

I just kinda messed around with it til I figured out what worked well for me. I usually do 2 sets for upper body exercises though, I just don't get as tired doing pull ups to failure as I do with some heavy deadlifts you know?

yh ive had a good look through your journals, great progress by the way. i dont no much about HIT at all, for example amount of sets and reps

Look up Mike Mentzer' HIT. He has a few books that cover specific routines and his science & philosophies as to why he does it.

Some people just do 1-3 sets per work out. I tend to do 3 or 4 working sets for each muscle group. I got the best results in my legs and feel the most exhausted after leg work outs. I like to add weight when I get more than 10 reps but if you can get 11+ get 11+ and add more next time. Google HIT and read some of the stuff people say. Some people say you only need to train once a week but I found best results FOR ME hitting every body part twice a week. I'm 21 and sleep 9+ hours a day too though. I was doing an upper lower split too. Upper I think I would do about 9 working sets. I wasn't doing direct arm work for a while and then I started doing drop sets at the end of my work outs for arms, worked pretty good.

so for an example if your doing an upper lower HIT atypical day you would do 3 or 4 exercises and go to failure on each exercise, choosing a weight which wont allow you to go past 10 reps, when you can increase the weight.

and only 1 set per exercise

I know some people argue its not technically HIT, but i always thought Dorian YATES'S HIT routine off blood and guts looks great fun. The videos for each workout are on youtube and on here somewhere.

day 1 - chest/biceps
day 2 - legs/calve
day 4 - back/rear delts
day 5 - shoulder/traps/triceps

2 warm-up sets with a weight you can get between 10-12 and then a really heavy working set aiming for 8-10. But you could choose your own exercises, these are just the ones he uses.

Chest:
Bench Press (he prefers a slight decline)
Incline Smith Machine Bench Press
Dumbbell Flyes / Cable Crossover (alternate each workout)

Back:
Wide-Grip Pull-ups
Reverse-Grip (underhand grip) Barbell Row
Seated Cable Row
One Arm Dumb-bell Row
Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldowns

Legs: (i know he doesnt do squats!!!)
Leg Press
Leg Extension
Lying Leg Curl
Semi-stiff Legged Deadlift (slight bend in the knees)
Standing and Seated Calf Raise

Delts:
Smith Machine Press-Behind-Neck
Dumbell Side Laterals
Rear Laterals, lying facedown on a bench
Machine Shrugs

Biceps:
Dumbbell Concentration Curl (seated with arm over inside thigh)
Barbell Curl

Triceps:
Lying EZ-Bar Extensions
Machine Pressdown

Abs:
Cable Crunch
Hanging Leg Raise
--

Hope that helps!!

Originally Posted by dsc123

so for an example if your doing an upper lower HIT atypical day you would do 3 or 4 exercises and go to failure on each exercise, choosing a weight which wont allow you to go past 10 reps, when you can increase the weight.

Ya, for legs I do about 3-4 sets. But since you can't really work every muscle in the upper body with 1 lift I usually do a vertical pull, horizontal pull, over head press, and a flat press, and maybe an isolation movement for arms. I do 2 sets normally for upper cause I just don't get the same exhaustion from upper body movements as I do with legs. I guess my lower body work outs are HIT and my upper body is just low volume. I'm sure I would get bitched at by some HIT disciples for saying 9-10 sets a workout was HIT. Although when I was splitting up the upper body it looks more like HIT. At first I was doing:

chest shoulders tri's
Legs (squats and and leg press)
rest
back bi's
rest
legs (deadlifts good mornings)
rest

and when I did it like that I was doing 3-6 sets per work out. I just seemed to get the best results from legs so I started doing upper body twice a week too. Just hard to workout the whole upper body in 4 sets I find.

Originally Posted by davegmb

I know some people argue its not technically HIT, but i always thought Dorian YATES'S HIT routine off blood and guts looks great fun. The videos for each workout are on youtube and on here somewhere.

day 1 - chest/biceps
day 2 - legs/calve
day 4 - back/rear delts
day 5 - shoulder/traps/triceps

2 warm-up sets with a weight you can get between 10-12 and then a really heavy working set aiming for 8-10. But you could choose your own exercises, these are just the ones he uses.

Chest:
Bench Press (he prefers a slight decline)
Incline Smith Machine Bench Press
Dumbbell Flyes / Cable Crossover (alternate each workout)

Back:
Wide-Grip Pull-ups
Reverse-Grip (underhand grip) Barbell Row
Seated Cable Row
One Arm Dumb-bell Row
Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldowns

Legs: (i know he doesnt do squats!!!)
Leg Press
Leg Extension
Lying Leg Curl
Semi-stiff Legged Deadlift (slight bend in the knees)
Standing and Seated Calf Raise

Delts:
Smith Machine Press-Behind-Neck
Dumbell Side Laterals
Rear Laterals, lying facedown on a bench
Machine Shrugs

Biceps:
Dumbbell Concentration Curl (seated with arm over inside thigh)
Barbell Curl

Triceps:
Lying EZ-Bar Extensions
Machine Pressdown

Abs:
Cable Crunch
Hanging Leg Raise
--

Hope that helps!!

^x2 Gotta go with dave on this one, Dozzer HIT is IMO superior to mentzer HIT but that maybe due to my love affair with volume, But a good Dorian workout never fails to make one grow.
although i remeber the Routines i've seen being different in blood and guts but we may be talking different blood and guts. For me the fundamental key with HIT is taking the heavy set beyonf failure, i believe Dorian himself states that you should be physically and mentally uncapabale of doing another set after your heavy set. He was also a stickler for rigid form and boy oh boy was he strong with it!