Train Hard, Recover Harder

[Achillesreborn]

Originally Posted by MslAdct83

I started just like you, but stumbled upon high intensity do to necessity. I still wanted to train hard and make good consistent gains, but I needed more time for school. I'm glad I made the switch. I used to get sick (as I said before), and gains in strength/mass were more difficult for me to come by as well. At 5'7" I've gone from 135lbs to 215. I've got about three more months before I start butting again and I'd like to be at least 225 before. I wouldn't say I keep myself tight, but I'm definitely not letting myself go. Last summer I would have competed somewhere around 180, by the way things are going I'm looking at 190. Should be awesome!

Congrats! That's my goal at 5'10"

[los705]

i agree with the article..i used to undertrain and had a mediocre body , now i have been training 6 days a week sometimes i go back for hit or tabata in the pm and ive never had better results. I plan on keeping this up just changing routines every 4-6 weeks

[REA_Greece]

I have training every morning, before job, Monday to Friday. Sometimes, I have additional training in the afternoon, but also in Saturday afternoon. During week-end, In the morning, I have cardio exercises. I never felt “overtrained”.
My best fried has training every day, Monday to Saturday 2 times per day. She has perfect body, like figure model, but also she has beautiful face. She has two children (twins) but her body is super.
I agree that “overtraining” is an excuse for lazy people…

[Achillesreborn]

Originally Posted by REA_Greece

I have training every morning, before job, Monday to Friday. Sometimes, I have additional training in the afternoon, but also in Saturday afternoon. During week-end, In the morning, I have cardio exercises. I never felt “overtrained”.
My best fried has training every day, Monday to Saturday 2 times per day. She has perfect body, like figure model, but also she has beautiful face. She has two children (twins) but her body is super.
I agree that “overtraining” is an excuse for lazy people…

"Overtraining" is a term that is thrown around loosely these days, and some do use it as an excuse but overtraining is defined as any training stimulus that has exceeded what is required. Many bodybuilders are overtrained but don't know it. Why do you think every training protocol created nowadays usually has the trainee take 4-7 days off before starting the routine and then another 4-7 days off after 4-8 weeks after the routine is over. The answer...overtraining will result if the routine is continued after this point.

From personal experience I have been overtrained before when I did the double-split system 6 days a week and I have over-average genetics for gaining muscle tissue. I reached a plateau and began losing strength, and also developed a severe cold that lasted nearly two months because I "worked through it." I think the theory that there is no such thing as "overtraining" is used by people who don't know what highly intense training is!

[klosey]

Originally Posted by Achillesreborn

I think the theory that there is no such thing as "overtraining" is used by people who don't know what highly intense training is!

i am happy to say it, 999999 out of 1000000 it is not how heavy or how intense people lift that makes them reach 'overtraining' its their diet, their rest and supplement use, bulgarian weightlifters for the 1990 commonwelth games spent 6 hours a day weightlifting one of their lifters ivan.. (cant remember last name will find it later) was in his 30's and followed this style for over a decade, they had teens training to this style who had no previous lifting experience and they are still around now, Ivan came out of his dressing room and lifted enough weight for the gold medal without a warm up. The coaches said it was due to the training which meant his body was so used to hard lifting and had adequate rest and calories to full it this guy can do 1rm straight from cold, where i do agree HIIT is hard and DC is just as hard i don't think the training is what ***ks most people up its a laziness to complete the cycle and ensure they eat and rest properly

[taylorryan]

Originally Posted by Achillesreborn

wow this guy has no idea what he is talking about...scary

Mike Mentzer.... Goodness gracious... Im sorry, not tryin to make waves, but Mentzer was WWAAAYYYY off at how much stress the body could handle and recover from. I do HIT myself, and i own two of his books, but dang.... Honestly, Im not too sure if he actually recognized the difference in overtraining and undertraining, truthfully...

I mean, two sets, once every eight days? WTF!?!?!? why even bother...

[taylorryan]

Originally Posted by Achillesreborn

"Overtraining" is a term that is thrown around loosely these days, and some do use it as an excuse but overtraining is defined as any training stimulus that has exceeded what is required. Many bodybuilders are overtrained but don't know it. Why do you think every training protocol created nowadays usually has the trainee take 4-7 days off before starting the routine and then another 4-7 days off after 4-8 weeks after the routine is over. The answer...overtraining will result if the routine is continued after this point.

From personal experience I have been overtrained before when I did the double-split system 6 days a week and I have over-average genetics for gaining muscle tissue. I reached a plateau and began losing strength, and also developed a severe cold that lasted nearly two months because I "worked through it." I think the theory that there is no such thing as "overtraining" is used by people who don't know what highly intense training is!

a double split, 6 day program... Of course you were overtrained. You probably COULDN"T train hard enough anyways. I coudln't when i did that.

Naw, G, back before i 'knew about' HIT officially, i gravitated toward it myself. I went from training each muscle once a week for like sixteen sets, to about three supersets, twice a week. Just listening to my body. Thing is though, instinctively i increased the intensity of each ss so high, i wonder if i was even strong enough to stimulate anything the third ss. Either way, thats what i did. I went from about 165 to 185 in probably, oh, 6 weeks. I ate like a freakin horse, though...

Then, when i found out about HIT, i tried doing twice a week, full body routines, 8 sets total. Wanna know what happened? it took me about two months to gain three pounds. sigh...

Wanna know what i do now? i still do FB routines (fell in love) but i do two sets of 12 exercises. or 24 sets total, three times a week. Cardio on off days. Thats enough to make a typical full body guy FLIP THE F OUT!!!!!!!!

My point was, my growth wasn't slowed by overtraining.. Quite the opposite actually.

[Achillesreborn]

Originally Posted by taylorryan

a double split, 6 day program... Of course you were overtrained. You probably COULDN"T train hard enough anyways. I coudln't when i did that.

Naw, G, back before i 'knew about' HIT officially, i gravitated toward it myself. I went from training each muscle once a week for like sixteen sets, to about three supersets, twice a week. Just listening to my body. Thing is though, instinctively i increased the intensity of each ss so high, i wonder if i was even strong enough to stimulate anything the third ss. Either way, thats what i did. I went from about 165 to 185 in probably, oh, 6 weeks. I ate like a freakin horse, though...

Then, when i found out about HIT, i tried doing twice a week, full body routines, 8 sets total. Wanna know what happened? it took me about two months to gain three pounds. sigh...

Wanna know what i do now? i still do FB routines (fell in love) but i do two sets of 12 exercises. or 24 sets total, three times a week. Cardio on off days. Thats enough to make a typical full body guy FLIP THE F OUT!!!!!!!!

My point was, my growth wasn't slowed by overtraining.. Quite the opposite actually.

Out of curiosity, do you find you cant work all your muscles to their maximum when doing a FB routine? The reason I ask is because it occurred to me that a type of pre-exhaust would be used in such a routine...although that might stimulate more fibers.

[taylorryan]

Originally Posted by Achillesreborn

Out of curiosity, do you find you cant work all your muscles to their maximum when doing a FB routine? The reason I ask is because it occurred to me that a type of pre-exhaust would be used in such a routine...although that might stimulate more fibers.

Um, honestly at first i couldn't. I would be done legs and back and wanna freakin die...

I have to do pre-exhaust, to hit the low volume like i do (i meant per body part not total) or ill have to train more.

ok ok this is what i do.... remember i do two sets of everything

Leg press ss
squats

SLDL

Calf raise (one leg is my favorite cuz of the forced reps you can do)

Stiff Arm PUlldowns ss
Chin ups, alternating with close grip rows

DB flys ss
Dips, alternating with SMith incline presses

Laterals ss
Push press, alternating with upright rows

EZ curls alternating with hammer curls
Skull crushers alternating with reverse grip pulldowns

I don't do direct ab work. Believe it or not, my abs are still kinda bulky, and everytime i do train abs, i get stretch marks. From one workout.

This routine takes about an hour. Little less usually...

[Achillesreborn]

Originally Posted by taylorryan

Um, honestly at first i couldn't. I would be done legs and back and wanna freakin die...

I have to do pre-exhaust, to hit the low volume like i do (i meant per body part not total) or ill have to train more.

ok ok this is what i do.... remember i do two sets of everything

Leg press ss
squats

SLDL

Calf raise (one leg is my favorite cuz of the forced reps you can do)

Stiff Arm PUlldowns ss
Chin ups, alternating with close grip rows

DB flys ss
Dips, alternating with SMith incline presses

Laterals ss
Push press, alternating with upright rows

EZ curls alternating with hammer curls
Skull crushers alternating with reverse grip pulldowns

I don't do direct ab work. Believe it or not, my abs are still kinda bulky, and everytime i do train abs, i get stretch marks. From one workout.

This routine takes about an hour. Little less usually...

So almost like a form of HD?