HIT Workout Or Pre-Exhaustion Training

HIT workout is the precursor of the well-known Blood and Guts training program created by Dorian Yates, the legendary champion respected around the world for his knowledge of training and nutrition. But the HIT or pre-exhaustion training traveled a difficult path towards official recognition and worldwide application.

Arthur Jones appeared in the 1970s making claims regarding the training regime of bodybuilders, all the while trying to create what would later be called HIT training. Being an entrepreneur and ex-filmmaker, he apparently had no business affirming such bold statements. But these claims became his business, as more and more people began to apply his training principles following the results they experienced.

He started out by stating that typical bodybuilding training is ineffective and has many inconsistencies when analyzing muscular strength and size increases. The muscle gains, he said, should improve continuously when you train longer - but that wasn't the case.

HIT Nautilus Machines

Arthur Jones discovered how a reduction in training volume and frequency led to the best muscular growth he ever analyzed.

This was reveled whilst trying to reduce the training time.

Because of this discovery, he made a training system based on high-intensity training - HIT for short. The simple principle behind this is that a muscle is worked as hard as it can be, but only in short bursts.

To do this, you need to put a considerable amount of effort on each set of the exercises and reach momentary muscular failure (MMF) - the point where your muscles can no longer produce adequate force to overcome the workload. In doing so, you will utilize the maximum number of muscle fibers. This is the only way, Arthur Jones says, total muscle stimulation can be attained.

This HIT system developed by Jones targeted the muscle with low sets, usually one or two. This means the muscles were used at their maximum while training with the exercise machines that Jones invented, The Nautilus Machines.

The main focus of these machines was that you could work a muscle group for the entire range of motion, as there were no resistance or extra movements involved. The whole idea of these apparatuses and the HIT system was that you can get the maximum amount of results with the minimum amount of training.

An example of this is how Arthur Jones preferred whole body workout 3 times a week, each lasting 20 to 30 minutes. It seemed unbelievable to spend so little time working out and having the ability to gain more from that. This was the thing that attracted so many people.

And so, Jones became a multimillionaire thanks to the sales of his HIT training schedules and Nautilus Machines.

HIT Principles

The reason these machines worked was that their goal was to create intensity, as envisioned by Jones.

Also, he detailed the principles of Nautilus training in two books, where he was underlining the significance of training to failure, using low sets and training only 2-3 times a week. His pre-exhaustion technique was one of the most interesting.

Although he did not invent this principle, he made it popular. It went well with other training regiments, helping the person train his muscles fully.

The theory is that big muscles cannot be fully trained due to weaker muscles named accessory muscles.

Basically, you pre-fatigue primary muscles with isolation exercise and after that your introduce compound exercise. As an example, in shoulder training, Jones' recommendation is that you need to do lateral raises first and then you continue with seated press behind the neck.

In doing so, you pre-exhaust the deltoid with the isolation exercise, then through the compound exercise, you work the deltoids more intensely than the PBN exercise

.

You can extend the reach of your failure training by adding an intra-workout supplement like HIT BCAA which improves endurance and prolongs intensity. HIT BCAA has the effect of giving you the extra boost you need for the last rep in order to achieve true muscular failure.

HIT Limitations

Most contemporary studies concur with Jones's affirmation that more high-intensity training is good for muscle development but underline the fact that overdoing it presents risks concerning muscle growth. Adequate rest, recovery, and nutrition are just as important as training for the muscle tissues to fully develop. DY Nutrition's The Glutamine is a proven way to aid your immune system and muscle recovery.

Precisely because muscular failure training is very efficient and has good results, training HIT-style severely depletes glutamine stores in the body, so it stands to reason that we should put extra effort into replenishing it.

Conclusion

"The nutrition and the training and the supplementation - It all goes together. Most people would be more effective if they went to the gym only 2 or 3 times for an hour, but they put 100% into those workouts, both physically and mentally. That's when you're gonna progress consistently."
Dorian Yates

Most of the medical news outlets keep HIT in high regard because it is very good for people that are looking to gain strength and build muscle mass. But be warned - because most people may not be familiar with how to achieve true muscular failure, the HIT method presents risks in training with only one set to achieve failure.

Also, while training is very significant and of imperative importance towards achieving muscular development, note that a substantial amount of people have incredible genes that enable them to reap these benefits without putting in the same amount of effort as other people do.

One of the explanations for this is that these types of people have a minor amount of myostatin, which is a protein that inhibits muscular growth. But this is circumstantial.

The best way towards exceptional body development and muscle tissue growth is and will remain a solid HIT workout routine.