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What Is High Intensity Training?
by Tony D'Amato
All strength training programs are based upon three variables: intensity, volume, and frequency. The goal of strength training is progression - an increase in either strength or the amount of time spent under a specific load. An almost infinite number of strength training programs exist, all based on different combinations of intensity, volume, and frequency. Is there one combination of those three variables which works best for all people? Well, yes and no.
Insofar as a strength training program is concerned - a specific exercise prescription - there is no one workout which will work equally well for everyone, nor will there ever be. Each individual has a different tolerance to exercise and a different ability to recover from exercise. Therefore, it is literally impossible for a program to work across the board.
However, there is a PHILOSOPHY, or a set of principles, which will work for everyone provided that the variables are adjusted to suit their tolerance and recovery ability. By using the basic principles of proper exercise - which are based on both logic and observation - and designing a program which is specific to the individual, astounding results can be obtained in a relatively short amount of time. This philosophy is called high intensity training, or HIT.
The first principle - the foundation for proper exercise - is a HIGH INTENSITY OF EFFORT. The goal of strength training is to stimulate your body into making an adaptive change; in this case the adaptation is an increase in strength and muscle mass. However, your body is very reluctant to undergo any adaptive changes because those changes use up a great deal of your body's resources - change is metabolically expensive. Because the body is resistent to change, you must actually force it to adapt. This can be accomplished through extremely high intensity exercise. Training in this fashion will make the body think that it is in a life-and-death struggle, and that adaptation is the only means of survival. Anything less than a complete and total effort will be percieved as a suggestion rather than a demand, and the adaptations will be mediocre at best and nonexistent at worst.
A high intensity of effort is characterized by performing each exercise to the point of momentary muscular failure, or MMF. MMF occurs when the athlete attempts a repetition and is unable to complete it despite an all out effort to do so. It depends as much on the motivation of the trainee as it does on the strength of one's muscles, and for this reason I feel that MMF is a very vague concept. My advice is simply to train as hard as humanly possible within the set. If you are training as hard as humanly possible, you will reach true MMF - as opposed to percieved MMF - and you will have provided an adequate stimulus for an increase in muscular strength and size.
The second principle of HIT is LOW VOLUME. Because it is necessary to train with an extreme level of intensity, it is not possible to utilize a high volume of sets and exercises. The goal is to perform only the precise amount of exercise necessary to bring about the largest strength increase - no more, no less. Invariably, the amount of sets necessary to bring about the best result will be low. In almost all cases, one per exercise is sufficient provided that the intensity is high enough. The number of exercises performed in a session can fall anywhere between three to fifteen. As a general rule, though, I suggest that each trainee perform one to three exercises for each major muscle group - the hips and thighs, the upper body pulling muscles, the upper body pressing muscles, the neck and trapezius, the forearms and hands, and the trunk. The precise number of exercises performed for each muscle group is an individual issue which must be tetermined through critical thinking and analyzation of training data.
The final principle of proper exercise is LOW FREQUENCY. It is very important to determine the rate of occurance of strength training sessions which allows you to move forward as rapidly as possible. Again, because of the intense nature of the work being performed, the body needs ample time to restore itself to normal and to make the adaptations. Usually it takes an athlete at least three days of rest before another productive session, and I have found in my experience that once every four or five days is even better. Some may progress well training once every four days, but may make even better progress training only once a week. Like volume, frequency of training is a highly individual matter that must be determined through analyzation, trial and error, and critical thinking. It is your job to determine what's best for you.
So there you have it. There is no perfect exercise program, so there is no use in trying to find it. However, I have presented the philosophy of high intensity training, which is the most productive and efficient philosophy of strength training known to man. Given the fundamentals of this philosophy, you can now determine the specifics of volume and frequency, and design a program which will undoubtedly give better results than anything else you have ever done in the past, provided that you apply the principles correctly and train as hard as humanly possible.
