Some say there is no one system that can make the masses grow. I disagree. Training does not affect people remarkably differently in a biological sense. If we were all so different the science and use of medicine would be useless. An aspirin for example works for almost everyone that takes it; there are exceptions of course. Some take one aspirin and their headache goes, others need two. This is similar to the philosophy of sets, but the actual method, the pain killing effect, works for the majority and that is what this training method does. You may respond fantastically (like most) or you may respond mildly but I guarantee you will grow faster than any other system, save maybe the 20 rep squat.

Of course some respond to training methods better than others. Many a huge bodybuilder has been built without using methods, which Mentzer, and other HIT proponents advocate. But I feel that even these bodybuilders would have achieved their results faster by training more scientifically.

They used to say 10 years to get your body to superman proportions. Maybe with conventional methods of high sets, high volume training, but with HIT you could halve that. You can also transform yourself from normal (skinny, fat) to looking like a bodybuilder in mere months when combined with the A9 recommendations for nutrition and supplementation and yes that is drug free. Combined with effective nutrition changing to these methods of training will undoubtedly be the most productive thing you could do with your bodybuilding this year.

Muscle grows ridiculously fast for short periods of time. People can climb up the scale by 14lbs (1 stone) in as many days. It is happening and those I train will attest to that. Of course these levels of gains are not sustainable otherwise we would all be 300lbs but muscle grows super fast when nutrition is scientific and training is low duration/high intensity. Then a lay off is recommended, during which time you can save up for the next 2month mass cycle and give your bodies hormonal system a much earned break. Lay offs are needed and you will not loose the muscle you have gained, unless you fail to eat for the whole lay off and are lazy in the gym. One method to supercharge your gains into orbit is pre-exhaust.

Pre-exhaust was originally advocated en mass by Robert Kennedy to train muscles effectively whilst being short of time and was popularized by Arthur Jones and Mike Mentzer. It has proven to add more muscle, when combined with other factors such as correct sets and reps than any other system, again save the 20 rep Squat programme (also in this issue). It was what made Dorian Yates the most massive bodybuilder of his time and gave him multiple Sandow trophies.

The reason why it is not as popular as it should be is that it is hard work and most gym rats’ train with their ego aiming to lift the heaviest weight possible. Bodybuilding is not about who can lift the most weight -that’s power lifting. It’s about who can go through the pain barrier. Who can push themselves to places few people go. That special plane where the massive muscles are built and few can tolerate.

What’s wrong with lifting heavy all of the time? Because  it limits your growth potential in several ways. The first is because lifting heavy only hits certain muscle fibers. You have seven muscle fibers made up of two types, fast and slow twitch. Imagine one really big one and one tiny one and in the middle they reduce in size accordingly. When you lift heavy using conventional methods you hit the first few fibers, say for arguments sake four. Then you rest, have a chat, do another set and hit four again. The first four are what make you stronger. Everyone will probably agree that your strength increases far more than muscle growth when you first start training and strength usually continues improving when your muscles stop growing. Now you know why. With HIT style training you hit four, then hit five and all the way up to seven. You do not have to be strong to get big, that’s s false premise. Power lifters of certain weight classes make every effort not to add any size because they want to stay in their respective weight class, but they still push up their strength up and beyond those far bigger than they are. Some power lifers are tiny compared to even a beginner bodybuilder. If strength were so interconnected with muscle size every power lifter would be massive – full stop.

Also standard strength exercises are compound exercises. This means that they use a number of muscles to get the weight moving. Let’s take the bench press as an example. When you lift weight in the bench press your triceps or deltoids often give in way before your chest is worked. The same with pull downs, your biceps are the weak link. Result? You get bench pressers with large front deltoids and not much chest development. This is because the smaller, weaker muscles are stopping the compound movements from being productive. Pre-exhaust solves this problem. You do an exercise to pre-exhaust, or pre-fatigue the larger muscle group. So with chest you would do an isolation movement such as flyes first and then move onto the bench press. This way your chest is already tired, but the delts and triceps are fresh and the bench press therefore can be used to build chest muscle. Yes you will lift less in the compound movements for sure, but again we want big muscles don’t we and strength will come when you keep at it. Compound movements when lifting heavy often involve technique and momentum which robs the pure movement needed for ultimate growth. An isolation movement involves raw power -a different purer kind of strength. Pre-exhaust also acts as a protective measure. It limits what you can lift in the compound movement and therefore you work with a weight that is more manageable. People who train HIT rarely get injuries because the pre-exhaust works as an excellent warm up.

Let us walk through through a sample chest workout. The one I did the other day will illustrate things perfectly.

I start of with a light set, 20 reps with the last five starting to hurt. I only need one warm up set, you may need more. Warm ups are one of the personalized aspects of training. Some people do not need a warm up; others need three, four, six sets. Do what you need to feel you are ready for action. The average warm up would be around 2 sets for most people aiming to simply do what the name implies and get the blood moving, the body temperature up and the joints ready. Then it’s onto the first step of all out war on my chest. It will grow or be damned.

Flyes again. This time I grind out a massive 76 reps. Why I hear you ask. Is this voodoo bodybuilding creeping in? No way. Pure science. 76 reps is the proven number needed to start protein synthesis in the muscles. That’s growth in layman’s terms. If we start the process with the first set, we cannot fail. Now these 76 reps will be hard. You will want to quit on the 50^th rep, maybe sooner but keep at it. You can do it. It’s more of a power of the mind exercise than that of the body.  I make each movement pure, trying to make each rep as perfect as the last. Sometimes I succeed, other times I fail but it helps to think of each rep as (in Mentzers words) a ‘Unique event’. Keep the weight moving the same speed on the way up and down. Nice and slow aiming for perfect form. 3 seconds down, 3 up is what works for me. This stops momentum from taking over which is a bodybuilders’ worst enemy for form. 76 reps are done and I feel like my chest has one of those little buggers from Alien in it trying to escape from it! Now without any rest I pick up a heavier weight and do 12 reps. immediately I drop the weight and pick up another  lighter dumbbell and grind out 10 reps. I want to quit now but the wars only just beginning and failure at this stage is not an option. The weight is dropped again and I pick up another dumbbell and do 8 reps. My whole body is shaking trying to do the movement. These are drop sets, meaning you drop the weight when you hit you target number of reps (but do more reps if you find it easier than expected until you fail) and then drop the weight, pick up another (or change weight of the stack) and do another set. As it is done in succession I class this as one set because there is absolutely no rest in between.

So that’s the second set done (the first was the 76 reps, what I call the high rep set) and now it’s onto the compound movement, the incline bench press. It is important here that you get to the bench press within 30 seconds and start the next set, otherwise those fibers have valuable time to recruit and ruin your assault. Rest in between body parts, not during them.

I do just one heavy set of 8 – 10 reps. You can do drop sets again on the compound movement but on my last chest workout I simply did one all out heavy set as this was all I felt I needed. Learning to do what your body needs from workout to workout is better than always following a pre-set number of exercises and reps. Instinctive training I think it’s called. Common sense is another word. I hit 15 reps with a weight I could only do 8 with the previous workout, but I was psyched proving that much of what we think we can do is based on what we believe we can do not what is written in our training log as done on the last workout. The number of reps is not too important, if on one day you can do 14, great, next time up the weight slightly to level out the reps at 8 – 10. Each set must, without question be carried to failure. The common mistake bodybuilder’s make is to ‘save up’ for their last set. Treat every set like your last and treat every last rep, as ‘I’ll do one more,’ and see the difference!

My chest is pumped to the max from the top to the bottom, from side to side and my triceps are hanging. If you do this right you’ll hit all muscle fibers and train the upper, outer, middle and lower chest in equal measures, but there may still be some fibers left standing and I promised all out war so I finish of the day with another high rep set, this time a gut busting 30 reps (just a number that works for me). This ensures all fibers are hit and also flushes nutrient, amino rich blood into the working area and flushes toxins out of the area.  That’s why I call this the ‘flush set’. That’s it, chest is done. I didn’t slow roast it with lots of exercises for an hour; I micro waved it in 18 minutes flat so it was red-hot right down to the center.

Recap:

Exercise: Dumbbell Flyes

High rep Set 1 – 76 reps

Working Set 2 – Drop set x 3 20, 1, 8

Exercise: Bench Press

Heavy working set: 8 – 10 reps

Drop set x 3 20, 10, 8 (Optional)

Flush set

Exercise: Dumbbell Flyes 30 reps

You can work this structure for any body part. The pre-exhaust exercise would be the exercise you also do for the flush set.

This style of training is like nothing you have ever experienced and recovery time from workout to workout must be adjusted to account for this. Some may find that they cannot hit their body parts again for as much as 10 days! This is fine, your muscles won’t shrink. I am working with people who are training a body part once a month (see article in this issue) and are currently outgrowing everyone in the gym. The number of days to recover is, again, a personal matter but as a rule of thumb leave at least three days before hitting the muscle again and of course if you are still sore after 10 days make sure the nutrition and sleep is on the button and if not pull back a bit and slightly under train the next workout and learn to judge what works for you.

Can't wait for more awesome articles read Manifesto of Mass 4 and get growing like never before!

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