Hey guys , so of late I've had people asking me about High Intensity / Heavy Duty type training and if it actually works and if it's a waste of time , generally followed by things like Jeff Nippard said this ir Mike Israetel said that. So I thought I'd put a post up here , and people can have a look at my interpretation of it.
I'm not authority on the matter , there's plenty of literature written by Arthur Jones on the subject also Mike Mentzer and quite a bit of footage from Mike Mentzer , Boyer Coe, Dorian Yates on the subject and what that looks like. Best point to start would be there, but I will do my best to summarise the philosophy without a 50,000 word essay and a monotone dialogue.
In short , there are 3 muscle fibres layers, type 1, type 2a and type 2b or Slow Oxidative, Fast Oxidative and Fast Glycolynic. These have different degrees of force production and different levels of fatigue. Without going into the individual fibres and breaking that down , the Heavy Duty or HIT philosophy targets the Fast Glycolynic, Type 2b fibres. These fibres fatigue quickly, they are the last to be recruited, have the highest force production and have the highest potential for hypertrophy. These fibres are literally the last to be recruited, due to the fatigue ratio, they are only engaged when truly needed to be , when the load is too much or not enough force production can be produced via engagement of type 1 and type 2a fibres , only then are type 2b fibres actually recruited. Once engaged however, they produce a tremendous amount of force production , but will fatigue very quickly, hence the advocation of heavy mechanical loads and low volume.
There are caveats to this, technically you've got to be good , at least 3 second eccentrics, with a two second static hold at bottom , explosive concentric into a 2 second static at top in fully contracted position, tempo is critically important , it not only adds to intensity , but maximises time under tension. This is important , as lower volume is being applied , you don't have 20 reps to " find your groove " , you have 8 - 12 make em count. Time under tension here, is generated through technical application , not sheer amount of reps. Technique and form has to be good, if watching Mike Mentzer , for example , look at his range of motion and tempo , it's like a textbook , perfect technique, this needs to be emulated as closely as possible to avoid injuries and get the desired level of stimulus.
There are genetic caveats to this also, without an Adeniosene Triphosphate Scan , most people wont know for sure, if you have more red or white fibres , more slow or fast twitch , generally speaking , most people have a fairly even distribution of these , some people have more white, some more red, if someone has more fast twitch fibres , this will be advantageous here applying this philosophy , if someone has heavy concentration of slow twitch fibres , then this may not be as effective for them , but in saying that , again , most people with everyday genetics have a pretty even distribution. In that sense I guess this style of training for most , will hit fibres they are unlikely hitting otherwise, which is a win.
Does it work , of course it does, volume vs load , both work , all be it through different pathways , but what works best is whatever you can stick to. We cant let perfect be the enemy of good, so rather than thinking volume is best , getting the pump is the best etc or this is the best , try to think if it like a tool box in your workshop. Different tools , do different things, so.etimes , different t tools do the same thing a different way and thats what this is. Heavy Duty training is a tool in your toolbox , to get out and apply at your discretion. Its not the only tool you have, its just one of many. So when people argue between the whole volume vs load bs , truth is , you should be training both.
Go through phases and give it a crack all ways, one thing with HIT training, don't stop when it is hard, don't pull up stumps when it burns, push through with forced reps or partials and you will find out where failure actually is sooner rather than later. Many people think they train close to failure, but the truth is they probably have at least another 5 maybe even 7 reps left in them, thats not even close to local failure, thats too light. You should be hitting forced reps by rep 5 if you're attempting to go to 8 and if getting to 8 you should ve shooting fir 10, you will find failure pretty quickly. Also important is , its local failure that you're shooting for not systemic failure, you shouldn't be out there trying to fry your CNS 4 times a week, if doing lat pull downs for example , its complete failure of the lats that you're searching for, I would not apply this to something like a 3 day full body program where you're squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, shoulder pressing, barbell curling etc all in the same session, 3 times a week, you wont be thrilled with the result.
