HIV Longevity Still Fighting…

HIT is My Secret Weapon

I am three years into High Intensity Training (H.I.T.) weight lifting. I have had a couple of two week stretches of sickness and missing workouts for some reason or another ... I've also done some "other" types of weight training (e.g. powerlifting, bigger arms, etc) for a two month or so duration. All-in-all, I have probably done ~240 HIT workouts. And, I am in the best shape of my life. I am physically the strongest I've ever been. And, my cardiovascular is kicking ass. HIT is the shizz!!!

That said, I'm not posting this to banner HIT. Instead, I am keeping you all abreast of my progress. When I started HIT, I was doing three workouts per week. That was called the Beginner phase

. It was mainly utilized to create a very powerful base of muscular, skeletal, and neurological strength. After about Seven months of that, I moved to two days per week as I transitioned into the Intermediate phase. Starting this Sunday, I will officially be in the Advanced phase. Technically, I could have been in the advanced phase after year one, but I worked at building my body careful to be the machine it is and I wanted to take baby steps. I feel that my baby steps have paid off. It's time to move up!

From now on, I will only workout 1.5 times per week (three weight lifting workouts every two weeks). And, where my beginner and intermediate full body routines took ~27-30 minutes to complete, I am now down to 24 (or fewer) minutes to complete an utter failure full body workout. This is because I am only doing nine exercises each workout, when I used to do twelve.

My new 2-week schedule looks like this: Sunday - Thursday - Tuesday

As you can see, I average 3.75 days of rest (rest from weight lifting) between each workout. This is only a small change from my previous workout; which was an average of 2.5 days of rest between workout. But, it's a leap over my beginner routine; which only gave me one day of rest between routines.

Another COo.oOL benefit is that if I miss a day, I can simply do the day before or after depending on my available time. So, I should miss fewer of my advanced HIT routines.

The biggest change that can be seen is that I ONLY weight lift approximately two hours (total) per month and continue to make in-roads, strength increases, and maintain a super fit physique. That is about the same time that a "high volume" trainer would get in one workout!!! And, they would normally do 3 - 5 of those per week!!! That's right folks, I am weight lifting 1/16th as much as a normal Joe and making similar gains and staying injury free. This truly is a success secret!

What does all of this jazz mean? As a triathlete I can tell you one thing it means ... TIME!!! I have tons of time to do my three core triathlon exercises and still have a strength training routine interwoven in the mix.

If you dig this and would like to read my three year long training journal ... Check it out here:
http://www.vaughnripley.com/forum/index.php?topic=540.0

Catch you on the flip side,
Rip