62 posts
There are numerous posts on this website where I talk about how much I love high-intensity training. In 2011, I posted High Intensity Training - My 6 Month Update, which was a good overview of HIT....
Read more →Way back in 2012, I reviewed the book Hillfit. Hillfit is a HIT-based fitness program that uses bodyweight exercises to develop strength safely with minimal risk of injury. A year later, I covered...
Read more →I found an interesting discussion between Doug McGuff and Drew Baye on YouTube. One of the topics they covered was exercise-induced headaches. This is something I experienced regularly when I did...
Read more →Greg left an interesting comment on the post Notes on Pavel’s – The Quick and the Dead that I felt deserved its own post. I might need some help from the HIT experts as I have not kept up with the...
Read more →One of my favorite podcasts is Masters In Business from Bloomberg by Barry Ritholtz. The show is a collection of interviews with some of the brightest and most successful people in finance. (side...
Read more →This is a follow-up to the previous post The Case For High Intensity Training Seems to be Getting Weaker. Heavier Weight or More Volume? Chris shared this article by Lyle McDonald, which was...
Read more →This post is what I hope to be the start of a conversation. I haven't made up my mind on this topic yet. Before I share some things I've learned recently, I'll give a little background on the topic....
Read more →In my previous post, I mentioned the lack of resources for teaching the very basics of HIT and safe lifting to beginners. Most of what is available either assumes too much background knowledge or is...
Read more →When it comes to lifting weights, I think everything that needs to be said probably has been. There is nothing new. Everything is a remix or resurrection of ideas someone else put forward years or...
Read more →A few people have asked me to do an updated post on High-Intensity Training. For the most part, I don't have any new insights. I think I've said all I have to say on the topic. In this post, I'm...
Read more →I am a big fan of High-Intensity Training. Nothing is changing here, but in the last year I have lost some conditioning and it is probably my fault. Before I say where things went wrong, let me go...
Read more →I'm sure I'm not the first to have this thought. I have no doubt many others have looked around a gym and noticed that almost everyone models their workouts as if they were machines designed to do as...
Read more →In my last post, Why Isn’t High-Intensity Training More Popular? I covered a few reasons why HIT (not HIIT) doesn't seem to be gaining in popularity. When I put the post together I was viewing HIT...
Read more →I am an enthusiastic supporter of High-Intensity Training (HIT). I've written many posts on the topic, but the one I haven't written is why it isn't more popular. I believe that good ideas spread and...
Read more →Normally I don't read T-Nation, but an article being shared on Twitter caught my eye. I knew it was going to be lacking, but I had to look. The article is titled 6 Reasons Why You're Always Hurt...
Read more →I am so sick of the logic used in articles written by "strength" coaches to dismiss High Intensity Training. The articles all go something like this: 1. Using higher volume and lower intensity...
Read more →I recently was invited to do a High Intensity Training workout at DeSisto Strength Training in San Francisco. It has been over 3 years now since I had those two HIT workouts from legendary trainer...
Read more →Regular readers of this site know that I am a proponent of High-Intensity Training (HIT) and that the bodyweight approach I discuss the most is the Hillfit program. As great as that routine is there...
Read more →This is a follow up to the post I’m Done Talking About High-Intensity Training. But before I start I want to be clear that post was about conversations outside this blog. Not this blog. I will...
Read more →Last night I made a decision that I would never talk about High Intensity Training unless someone solicits my opinion on the topic. I'll still blog about it here, but I'm done discussing it in...
Read more →I received an email with three fitness questions. Instead of responding privately, I decided to answer them in a blog post. I will need help with the third question. The email came from someone...
Read more →I've never been a fan of Assisted Pull Up Machines. From my 2012 post How I Improved My Chin-Ups: > When you get under one of these machines, if you start with a decent pull, the lifter slides upward...
Read more →The gym I go to has a lot of older adults because they participate in the SilverSneakers program. The program connects those over 65 years old to a gym and it works with their health insurance. It is...
Read more →I just finished reading Solving the Paleo Equation by Matt Stone and Garrett Smith. With a minor exception, I really liked the book. The audience is not necessarily just those stuck on a Paleo diet,...
Read more →Time to head over to Conditioning Research to read Hypertrophy training - What does the evidence say? Chris provides an overview of what the scientific evidence says is required to gain muscle. It...
Read more →It has been a year since I posted Is High-Intensity Training Best for Ectomorphs? Time for a follow-up. In the past year, I have scaled down my intensity. As I mentioned in a recent post, the...
Read more →Anyone that has read this blog in the past few years knows that I am a fan of HIT (High Intensity Training). Machine-based workouts performed very slowly without locking out at the top or pausing at...
Read more →In early 2011, I became a convert to High Intensity Training. Unlike traditional strength-building protocols, HIT focuses on using slow controlled movements, less volume, and higher intensity. Safety...
Read more →I thought I would post a quick fitness update. I may have stumbled upon the secret sauce for ectomorphs trying to gain muscle. Well at least for me. Last August, I posted Is High-Intensity Training...
Read more →Let me start by saying that I loved the new book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, however, there was one point I believe Taleb fell for the survivorship bias he warned us about in Fooled By Randomness....
Read more →When I first started lifting weights in 1994, I read the muscle magazines which endlessly repeated the golden rule of bodybuilding, which was to do 3 sets of 8-12 reps with a wide variety of...
Read more →Last night I received word from Bill DeSimone of Congruent Exercise that my fitness mentor Greg Anderson died over the weekend. Greg Anderson ran Seattle's Ideal Exercise and has been active in the...
Read more →I've read several claims that people tend to lose strength after they start a High Intensity Training program. I started HIT in December 2010. Have I lost strength? I guess it depends on how you...
Read more →Since December 2010, I have been a huge fan of High-Intensity Training. I'm in the best shape of my life and unlike my free weight days, I never get injured anymore. In other words, everything is...
Read more →One of the core principles of high-intensity training and many other fitness programs is to record your workouts. I remember reading years ago that strength coach Charles Poliquin wants to see at...
Read more →Three months ago I put out my 5 part series on exercise and fat loss. If you don't wish to read it, my belief is that exercise is vastly over rated when it comes to long term fat loss. What looks...
Read more →I've done the Max Pyramid leg press many times, but never with a static weight. The traditional way it is done is by increasing the weight (pyramid up) and then decreasing the weight (pyramid down)....
Read more →My previous post I No Longer Give a Squat About the Squat, I outlined why I no longer perform the barbell back squat. This post will list the exercises I've used to replace weight lifting's most...
Read more →This is the 5th and final part of my series of posts on the role of exercise and fat loss. For the most part, I strongly believe that you lean out in the kitchen and not the gym. I think the role of...
Read more →In my last post Fat Loss and the Case For Less Exercise, I explained how I've designed my exercise plan to be as minimal as possible to maximize my chances at fat loss without increasing my appetite...
Read more →This is the third part of my series about exercise and fat loss. Part one was the post Walking Didn't Lean Me Out, where I showed how all my fat loss was a result of diet and how exercise played no...
Read more →I've only been doing High Intensity Training for a little more than a year now, so I am far from an authority on the topic. Before I became a believer in the effectiveness of HIT, I really didn't pay...
Read more →I just got back from a very cold day at my gym. My gym is a neighborhood playground where I do a workout that I describe in the post Escaping the Glitter: Taking High Intensity Training Outdoors. It...
Read more →For the past few years I have been reading the fitness blog Conditioning Research by Chris Highcock. Although I would be hard pressed to name a favorite nutrition blog, I can easily say Conditioning...
Read more →I thought I would post a 2 month progress report on my outdoor High Intensity Training program. I outlined my playground workout in the post Escaping the Glitter: Taking High Intensity Training...
Read more →My membership to the Northgate 24-Hour Fitness has ended. During my 2 year relationship with them, they upgraded their facility from a small gym (Express) to a monstrosity (Super Sport). The fair...
Read more →I'm going to share my dark embarrassing secret. My bench press sucks! Since I started lifting weights in 1994, there have only been three periods where I could bench more than my weight. And then I...
Read more →My dietary tweaking over the past three years has led me to discover what many others in the elite fitness community have already discovered. That is the superiority of a cyclical approach to fitness...
Read more →In the post Training to Failure or Training to Quit, I discussed the disagreement about training to failure that exists between my fitness mentors. Pavel and Arthur De Vany believe you shouldn't...
Read more →When it comes to coffee, my favorite drink for years has been espresso. No milk, no sugar. To me and others, espresso represents coffee at its ultimate potential. When I'm hosting an event for the...
Read more →It has been a while since I last posted on Cold Weather Training. For those new to the site, I began experimenting with cold temperature exposure back in 2008 as way to "toughen up" after living in...
Read more →In the post High Intensity Training My 6 Month Update, I confessed that I no longer collect data from my workouts. > I violated a core HIT rule. I didn't record any workout. ...My training philosophy...
Read more →Today I strained my back attempting a Max Contraction exercise in the gym. It was just last week that I read and reviewed the High Intensity weight training protocol of Max Contraction Training. Even...
Read more →I just finished reading John Little's 2004 follow up book to Static Contraction Training. !Max Contraction Training : The Scientifically Proven Program for Building Muscle Mass in Minimum Time Max...
Read more →It was last December when I started up a super slow HIT program. For those unfamiliar with High Intensity Training (HIT), it differs from traditional weight lifting in the following ways: - 1 set...
Read more →My interest in High-Intensity Training continues. !The New High Intensity Training: The Best Muscle-Building System You've Never Tried The New High-Intensity Training: The Best Muscle-Building System...
Read more →There is a split in opinion with my fitness mentors on training to failure. Training to failure means that you completely exhaust your muscles to the point you can not do another repetition. I'm...
Read more →Am I the only paleo blogger that isn't embracing the extreme "functional" workout program known as CrossFit? I've read articles from their journals, watched videos, and talked to members. To me,...
Read more →A few months ago I started doing a High-Intensity weight lifting protocol. Slow movement, machine-based, and one-set to failure. I'm guessing it will be another month or two before I know if it is...
Read more →John Little is one of my favorite writers in the fitness field. He co-wrote the definitive fitness book Body by Science. Recently, I listen to an outstanding interview with him on High Intensity...
Read more →After posting The Myth of Cardiovascular Training, I received an email invitation from Greg Anderson to come to visit his North Seattle gym. Ideal Exercise is not a glitter gym (bright lights,...
Read more →Earlier this year I decided to abandon my normal weight lifting protocol and try slow motion weight lifting. Body By Science is a stellar book and it made an excellent case for slow motion weight...
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