The Complete Beginner’s Guide to High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT): Recommended routine, order of exercises, tempo, time under load, rest between exercises and frequency of training (part 3)
Here it is, the post I have been building up to over the previous two articles. Having laid the foundations in part 1 and part 2 of the beginner's guide to High Intensity Resistance Training, I am going to dive into revealing the workout routine that I consider a great introduction and solid foundation to your HIT journey.
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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT): full-body workouts, types of exercise, technique and momentary muscular failure (part 2)
After writing the last post, I have been excited to get on with detailing the practical elements of HIT for you to use. But before I do that, we have some ground to cover on the theory and science behind High Intensity Resistance Training. In this post, I will detail the fundamentals of a HIT workout, including the types of exercises used, correct technique and discuss momentary muscular failure (MMF), the role it plays and how to get the most out of it.
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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT): What it is, how it compares to other forms of exercise and the results you can expect to get (part 1)
For a while I have wanted to put out a free in-depth resource to act as a thorough introduction to the topic of High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT) for those of you who are just discovering it, and as a refresher for those who need to get back to the basics of what simply works. This is the article I wish that I had had access to when I first began resistance training in earnest back in 1996. It will be a simplified summation of the 21 years of experience I have; training myself, training with other experts in the …
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The Ultimate Science-Based Resistance Training Routine for Older Adults
On 28th September 2017, a mini review into resistance training for older adults was published in Experimental Gerontology titled “A minimal dose approach to resistance training for the older adult; the prophylactic for aging”. This is a very exciting piece of research, thrilling for the simplicity and practicality of its conclusions and recommendations. It is the kind of paper that I want to beam into the hands of every individual over the age of 60 and every health influencer of that age group too. Scratch that, if all other resistance training research on earth was somehow decimated and just this …
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Book Review: HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING (HIT): How to build muscles in minutes, by Dr Jürgen Giessing
Published in English in 2016, High Intensity Training (HIT): How to build muscles in minutes – Fast, Efficient and Healthy will give the reader a strong and solid understanding of the principles and science behind High Intensity Strength Training. It is written by Dr Jürgen Giessing, HIT expert, sports science professor and exercise researcher at the University of Koblenz-Landau in Germany. Having read many books about High Intensity Training, I reached for my review copy of this book hoping it would be worth the time investment of the read, that there would be elements to it that would spark my mind …
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Regular exercise won’t save you from the dangers of sitting
You’ve probably heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking”. A strong and attention capturing statement indeed and one that implies a familiar activity has deleterious effects on our long-term health. Perhaps conjuring thoughts in the reader of diseases associated with smoking such as cancer and heart disease. One may also infer that sitting is addictive, that the comfortable looking armchair is luring us seductively to an early grave. I want to find out if there is any merit to this attention-grabbing headline and if so, what we can do to protect ourselves from the ravages of…sitting? What are …
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Resistance training can reverse ageing
In March this year, the BBC reported that a drug had been trialled in animals that could reverse certain aspects of ageing causing old mice “to restore their stamina, coat of fur and even some organ function.” Inspired by this, I wanted to understand more about how the ageing process works and if exercise can have a similar effect on the body; can exercise reverse ageing? What are senescent cells? This trial drug, a peptide worked by reducing the number of senescent cells in the mice. As we age, irreparable DNA damage begins to accumulate in cells, one of three …
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Fitness and fatness: can you be fat and fit, …or even slim and unfit?
Sometimes in order to save time and avoid mental strain we have a tendency to oversimplify. However, like many situations, over simplification to save time comes at the expense of accuracy and relevant nuance. The concept of being “fat, but fit” or “The Obesity Paradox” meets this criterion. Generally, being overweight or obese is bad for you. Obese individuals have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes than lean people. Likewise, being unfit is considered an independent risk factor for developing the same conditions. At first glance, our initial impression of those who are overweight …
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How to prepare for a Military Fitness Test
Six years ago at the age of 18 I applied to join the Royal Navy. I passed the initial exams and interviews but what I was most concerned about was the navy’s basic fitness test. The test consisted of a 1.5m run (to be completed in 13 min 10 sec or less), 20 push-ups and 20 sits-up and a swim test that included a 50 meter swim and treading water for 2 minutes while wearing a set of baggy overalls. I felt that the swim test was not an issue as I was a strong swimmer at that point. However …
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Physically Fit for Life Part 2: Resistance Training
In the last post, I covered the benefits of performing regular moderate intensity activity, specifically walking. As discussed in that post, walking is a form of exercise that helps to improve the first 7 factors on our list highlighting some of the most important benefits that can be attained through exercise. In this post I am going to address another type of exercise, one that can stimulate positive adaptations in the remaining 9 factors for being Physically Fit for Life, namely: Muscle tissue mass Strength, across your entire muscular system Bone mass density and the strength and integrity of your joints, …
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