update on fitness
Today was my first "high intensity" session after reading up on Mike Mentzer's articles, watching some vids from youtube and reading an e-book from him. To be honest, i haven't known the exact HIT (high intensity training) yet, but i'm eager to find out soon. Well what I need is to read up more books on HIT written by him and perhaps a DVD on HIT produced by his friends.
To sum up in one word: killer. I've never done sets that intense before, even as this time i did not have an assitant to help me on forced reps. I did supersetted several times, focused on static and negative motion for all my workouts. And it kills man.
Basically Mike Mentzer's HIT focuses on high intensity training to be done in a short period of time (20-45 mins), stimulating muscle growth and coupled with nutrition, to build muscle. It's a training method which sent "shockwaves through the bodybuilding world", by Mike Mentzer, inspired by Arther Jones. HIT focuses on placing maximum intensity, using supersets, forced reps, focussing on negative (releasing the weight), static (holding the weight at peak muscular contraction) which are neglected most of the time, and combines it in a technique to work a muscle so intensely that the particular muscle group will be worked to failure. Unlike many other styles of gyming, each muscle group is targetted with one or two sets, but done to maximum intensity, and not touched on until 7-14 days later. This allow time for muscle recovery, preventing muscular atrophy brought by overtraining.
Well, I worked on the middle back (back is my fav. body part), biceps and triceps today, workout completed in 30 minutes, inclusive of warmups is 40 mins. (that's half the time i normally spend in gym!) This is my chronology of sets:
1&2) Lat pulldowns x 2 set (2240 motion (which means, 2 counts of positive motion, 2 counts of static contraction, 4 counts of negative motion, and 0 count of muscle fully stretched))
3) Barbell rows x 1 set (2240), with no rest do 1 arm dumbell rows (2020)
4) Barbell rows x 1 set (2240), with no rest do barbell curls (2240), with no rest do hammer curls (2020)
5) Close grup lat pulldown half set (2240), with no rest do lie-on-the-bench triceps extensions (2240), with no rest do dips.
2 sets on lats, 2 sets on rhomboids, 1 set on biceps, 1 set on triceps.
By the first set I already feel so burnt by the intensity. Craving for more pain, I went on to do the rest of the session with higher intensity. By the third set, my body is worked so much that i can't control my muscles properly, by the 4th set, i can't feel my rhomboids contracting so i ended up decreasing weight from 130 to 90 pounds. And needless to say, at the end of the workout, because of the high intensity my muscle spasms increased slightly. After the workout, i packed up and left the gym, carring my laptop with me, and the moment i lifted it, I felt as if there was nothing in the laptop case!
But surely i can't call it high intensity yet because firstly my knowledge on HIT isn't complete, and as much as I know, i don't have a partner there to force reps for me, and that decreases the intensity. Thank God the gym is deserted, that i can groan in pain and stuff. I hope recovery will be good in sleep, and thank God again that my sleep is improving.
anyway, here's an update on my cutting regime:
mass: 56kg (cut 2kg),
Body Stats: 35-26.5-29
Diet: increase 2 serving of fruits a day, Decrease fat intake, decrease carb intake, increase meal frequency.
Ratios: i can't post anything now cos this is the 1st visit to the gym in 4 weeks!
oh, and i also felt my stomach fat decreasing. very convincing to the touch too. Maybe it's now that i do much more ab workout, but primarly i think it's cos of more exercise and proper diet.
Anyway, some more to go, and it's not complete. So that's all for the update.
Oh and i urge all non-beginner bodybuilders (those who do it more than 1 year).
Labels: christian-bboy
