Thread: HIT training split help! (one for all you HIT'ers out there!)

okay I've done a lot of reading and i've decided to give HIT a shot, personally i feel i'm not fully recovering enough on my high volume high intense 4-day split right now and I think it might really benefit me to lower the volume and give me CNS a break for a bit

its either try HIT or a week off, and seeing that i'm so into my training right now and motivation is sky-high i will go with the former (and save the week off for xmas)

okay these are the basic principles that my workout will revolve around...
1-2 sets to absolute failiure on each exercise
only 2-5 sets per bodypart
use only compound lifts
no overlapping on lifts in same week
TUT of 402 (currently its about 202, so i'll be lowering the weights twice as slowly as before)
use of rest-pause and drop-sets once i get into the swing of things and begin to up things a notch

basically i'm not saying volume dosen't work for me, i'm just feeling a bit run-down, progress is laughable (i've kept a log since about april this year and lifts have barely gone up! same story with my weight! went up before the summer then back down again!?? i'm pretty fed up with busting my ass for hours in the gym for nothing right now!)

1 thing i'm unsure about is what split i should use, i've read 2 very good different articles about low-volume training (not pure HIT, but they preach the benefits of low volume HIT principles) and I'm stuck between these 2 routines...

3 Day Split: (each work-out performed ONCE over a weekly period)
1 - PUSH
2 - LEGS
3 - PULL

2 Day Split: (each work-out performed TWICE over a weekly period)
1 - PUSH (including legs)
2 - PULL

those both look good to me, like I said I was doing 4 days a week before and I don't want to cut back on the frequency too much, but rather cut down on the volume and see what happens, I was thinking of starting out with the 3 day split then maybe trying the 4 day split if I feel like i'm recovering too fast, alternatively if I feel I need more recovery I might use the 2 day split just once over the weekly period

anyway any advice would be appriciated, i plan to cycle this with volume training in an attempt to get the best of both worlds (i.e. when progress starts to slow from 1 swtich up to the other and vice versa)

1 last question how many warm-up sets when doing HIT? 1 article says 1 warm-up set per exercise, another says 3, another says warm-up fully one the first exercise then your good to go... what do you recommend

thanks

Originally Posted by CowPimp

In general, I don't warmup a bodypart once it is already warm. If I just finished maxing out on deadlifts, which was preceeded by a proper warmup sequence, then I find it pointless to warmup on straight leg deadlifts.

of course, just wondering if I should do extra warm-ups before my first single set to failiure? or is that against HIT rules?

also what are your views on those 2 programs above, reckon they might work for me? which 1 should I go with (or which 1 should I try 1st)?