Hi all,
This is my post HIT training log which I′ve started to detail my progress since stopping HD/HIT. I′m not here to offend anyone who is doing Heavy Duty but I wasn′t satisfied with my progress of late so I′ve decided to try something new. I hope that we can all gain something and have open and rational discussions. I will be brutally honest about my progress and if the new routine doesn′t work I wont try to lie about it. I will also be posting before/after pics in a few months for all to see!
Training history
Ok, I′m 26, 6ft tall and currently weighing 196lbs and around 16%bf. I′m not sure what body type I am but I would say I have reasonable genetics based on the fact that my late father weighed some 210lbs at 6ft lean at my age when he was on the army boxing team and my late brother who sadly passed away some years ago weighed around 215-220lbs at 6ft1, fairly lean, natural with volume training! I have pretty even development with calves being my best bodypart and delts my weakest.
I started weight training early 2004 at around 160lbs, quite lean and quite skinny. I had weighed 180 a year previous to this while working as a labourer but was a fair bit fatter! At the time that I was 160 I didn′t have a car and was cycling everywhere so I was quite fit at the time although skinny!
This is a list of my bodyweight gains on the various routines I have tried over the last couple of years.
15 or so months on bodybuilding magazine style volume training: 160lbs – 174lbs with zero bodyfat gains due to the fact that I was still cycling everywhere and running quite a bit! At one point I was training for 2 hours at a time 4days on 2off! I went as high as 184 while on creatine but i′m not counting that as it was mostly water retention. When I finished this style of training I was off the stuff and 174lbs.
HD Ideal routine May 05 – August 05: 174lbs – 171lbs! I actually lost 3lbs while doing this although I did experience good strength gains.
HD Consolidation/Athletes routine Sept 05 – March 06: 171lbs – 182lbs mostly muscle although a little bodfat came with it maybe 80% muscle. I started on 3sets every 7 days and regulated volume and frequency down to the point where I was training 2sets every 12days. At this point I got fed up of hardly training at all, 2 sets every 12 days and zero cardio made me feel pretty lethargic and unfit. It occured to me when playing frisbee with my Girlfriend got me breathing quite hard, a far cry from my old 10k runs (where I would sprint the last 1k with ease) and 20k bike rides which were quite easy at the time!
Max Contraction Training March 06 – May 06: 182 – 187lbs over 6 weeks. An intersting experiment training 11sets every 7 days, I gained about 60/40 muscle to fat at this time. I gave up on this because I got fed up of being looked at like an alien every time I hit my ′contractions′ in the gym and it is a vastly impractical routine. I also hurt my knee doing one legged leg extensions with the whole stack!
End of May 06 – Last week: 187-196lbs 80/20 muscle to fat ratio. 2 whole body workouts per week, mostly compound movements, 3 working sets per excercise as many as 25sets per workout.
So my gains look broken down look like this:
Blind Volume: 14lbs
HD/HIT: 8lbs
MCT: 5lbs
Whole Body NTF (Further ′Volume′): 9lbs
TOTAL: 36lbs
If you group the HD and MCT together Hit variations have given me 13lbs and Volume variations have given me 23lbs, most of the fat gain has come during the Hit style workouts so lean tissue gained is about double with the volume variations.
The New Routine:
So here is my new routine, it′s from Mark Rippetoe′s book ′Starting Strength′. I found the routine outlined on bb.com and I plan to buy the book from Amazon at the end of the month. It is made up of two workouts and I will be training 3 days per week. I have added a couple of accessory movements to each workout but haven′t tampered with anything else. All of the compound movements except deads are done 3sets of 5 reps with the same weight, once you hit the 3×5 with a weight it is increased the next workout. The other excercises will be 2 sets of 8 reps again with the same weight. This doesn′t include warm up sets. I will not be using any machines for the compound movements, all will be done with barbells.
Workout A:
Squats 3×5
Bench Press 3×5
Deadlift 1×5
(I may increase to 2 working sets as I progress)
Calf-Raise 2×8
Grip work
Workout B:
Squats 3×5
Bent Over Rows 3×5
Standind Overhead Press 3×5
Sit-ups 2×8
L-Fly 2×8
(this is to work on my rotator cuff strength to protect my shoulders from injury with all the pressing)
I have the option in the program of adding 2×8 dips to workout A and 2×8 pull-ups to workout B but I will wait and see how I fair before doing so.
The only other modification I may make is to add 2×8 curls and 2×8 tricep-ext if my arms don′t develop as well as the rest of my body but before I do this I will try the dips and chins first to see if this helps.
My weeks will then look like this:
Week 1:
Wed: Workout A
Fri: Workout B
Sun: Workout A
Week 2:
Wed: Workout B
Fri: Workout A
Sun: Workout B
Return to week 1
I will be taking measurments and posting them before my first workout which is in 2 days and I will also be posting my progress in the main 5 lifts.
My current PR′s are:
Bench: 137.5lbs x 5reps
Squat: 143lbs x 5reps (I′ve only recently taken up squatting so I′m still working on form and haven′t pushed myself yet, my best Leg Press was 374 x 12reps)
Deadlift: 253lbs x 5 reps
Bent Row: Haven′t done these before
Overhead Press: 88lbs x 5 reps (New to these too I haven′t pushed myself on these)
I′ll be starting with slightly lighter weights and pushing on and hopefully setting pr′s on some lifts into the 3rd week. If I stall on a lift at any point I plan to reset to a lighter weight and build back up hopefully pushing past my previous best.
I hope to run this program for at least 3 months then move on to Madcow′s linear intermediate 5×5 then Madcow′s Dual Factor Advanced 5×5.
Diet
I will be starting on 3500cals and adding progressively to keep the gains coming. A typical day of eating looks something like this:
Breakfast: Large serving of Cereal & Milk, Bannana
Mid Morning: Yoghurt and Fruit
Lunch: 2 x Tuna Sandwich and Fruit
Early Afternoon: 1 x Tuna Sandwich
Late Afternoon: Milk blended with some skim milk powder and a bannana or ice cream
Evening meal: Turkey, Pork,Steak or a cheese omelette with potatoes and veg or salad. Sometimes followed by Yoghurt and a small bit of chocolate (gotta have something sweet!)
Just before bed: A Glass of milk
Total: 3500 cals
When I increase calls I′ll be adding minced beef, whole milk and calorie dense cards such as pasta/rice. I′ll also be using my blender to get extra cals as needed.
So there it is, any advice, comments or questions are welcome from all members just please don′t be rude or insulting as this is an honest genuine experiment on my part.
Best Wishes,
David