What is High Intensity Training (H.I.T.) ?

Jesse Schmidt • July 25, 2018

H.I.T. is a safe, efficient and effective form of strength training based on workouts that are brief, intense, and infrequent. Because of their efficiency H.I.T. style workouts provide maximum benefit in minimum time. This has many advantages for both the general health and fitness enthusiast as well as the highly competitive athlete.

For coaches and athletes, utilizing H.I.T. based protocols allows more time to be devoted to all other sport requirements including skill training, strategy and tactics and any other conditioning needs that may be required. Due to their brief and infrequent application H.I.T.
based protocols also allow for maximum recovery time which promotes rapid improvements as well as a lower likelihood of over training .

Two men in a gym with a sign that says welcome to the june

Finally due to their ability to provide maximum benefit with minimum volume and frequency; H.I.T. based protocols may be easily adapted to in season training allowing for greater maintenance of higher performance levels throughout the duration of the athletic season and if needed, post season as well.

For the general fitness enthusiast, the brief and efficient H.I.T. based workouts mean more time to devote to all other aspects of ones life. Effective H.I.T based strength training programs can be easily accomplished in as little as one hour per week. (yes, you read that correctly!)

Two men are standing next to each other in a gym.

H.I.T. Specifics:

Brief – 1-3 sets of a few basic exercises performed in an hour or less.

Intense – as hard as possible in good form. The key for most is performing quality repetitions to a point of volitional fatigue.

Infrequent – No more than three times per week, often times two, or even one.

Safe – H.I.T. is intended to be an extremely productive protocol, but also one that stresses safety. One of the fundamental goals of strength training is to prevent or limit potential injury.

Execution – Repetitions should be done in a controlled fashion so that continuous tension is placed on the muscles. We advocate a 3-5 second count for both the concentric (lifting) and eccentric (lowering) phase of each movement. Regardless of the actual repetition speed, the key is performing quality repetitions to a point of volitional fatigue.

So there it is. For more information on H.I.T training and how to maximize you training efficiency, subscribe to the T.N.T. podcast and see what you’ve been missing.

Keep training hard!

TAKU

Newer Post >