HDHITman's Current Training program and Journal

Current Stats:
5ft 9in
213 lbs
19.6% BF
172 lbs of LBM

Goal Stats:
200 lbs
10% BF
180 lbs of LBM

How does that stack up:
Need to lose 21 lbs of bodyfat and gain 8 lbs of muscle, for a total of losing 30 lbs.

To achieve those goals I will be following and intermittent fasting protocol(leangains) and a Paleo/Primal-style nutrition plan over the next 5 months to reach my goal stats, for you numbers type of people that would be roughly losing 4.2 lbs of bodyfat and gain 1.6 lbs of muslce per month. I will be using steady state and HIIT cardio throughout to meet fat-loss needs with using my own modified Heavy Duty routine(inspired by Mike Mentzer's Most Productive, Dorian Yates's MP and Markus Reinhardts ideas). So on training days(Monday, Thursday) I will eat above maintanence calories with 150g carbs max and high protein and fat, on non training days I will eat 500 calories below maintanence 60g carbs max and high protein and fat. Cardio will be performed post workout, and 1 session on Saturday that is up to 30 mins max.

All of the above should get me into great shape that will make cutting for a Natural Bodybuilding contest in May much easier, contest prep for that will be starting in March and ending in April with me ready to place in the contest.(first contest want to place, but really using it for a learning experience, so that I can do better in later contests.

Current Training Program:

Workout 1: Chest/Back/Shoulders (Monday)
Workout 2: Arms/Legs

Chest:
Flyes 1x6-10
Decline Press 1x4-6
Smith Machine Incline Press 1x4-6

Back:
Decline Pullover 1x6-10
Underhand Pulldown 1x4-6
Yates Row 1x4-6
Deadlifts/High Pull 1x5-8

Shoulders:
Machine Laterals 1x6-10
Smith Machine Press-Behind-Neck 1x4-6
Cable Laterals 1x6-10


Triceps:
Tricep Pressdown 1x6-10
Dips 1x4-6
Tricep Ext(Decline) 1x5-8

Biceps:
Scott Curl 1x6-10
Chin-Up/Pulldown 1x4-6
Incline Curls 1x5-8

Brachialis:
Rope Curls 1x6-10

Legs:
Leg Ext 1x10-15
Leg Press/Squat 1x10-15
Leg Curl 1x10-15
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts 1x10-15

Calves Trained infrequently.

This productive has been very very productive for me, little high in volume by todays HIT standards, but right in line with the 70ties and 80ties HIT standards.

Misc:

Mainly using straight sets.
Semi-rush factor.
Will be using supplements off and on.
Using high intensity techniques sparingly but often. (Pre-exhaust I consider a technique like all the rest)
Will be warming up.

Will be posting workout stats weekly, and all other progress if interest for that arises or asked to post current levels.

Well here it is comments, questions and critiques welcome.

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

"High" volume indeed!
I see at least one exercise per bodypart you could get rid off without missing something but you decide.
I would be careful with HIIT too, steady state for 30min. is much less stressfull and okay.
All this considering you're on negative calorie balance on 5 out of 6 days.
Now where's the actual workout?

Franco

I will be posting once a week my progress, since this is a new workout yesterday was the first performance of workout 1, now I need to make adjustments to it and see what I need to change with it for continued progress in the long term.

Thanks

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Current changes to my program, I have dropped the cable laterals, and incline curls from the program to reduce some of the volume brings it down to 19 sets total per week. Have incorporated loaded stretching(extreme stretching in DoggCrapp training circles) after completing each bodypart and holding them for 30 seconds.

HD Chest, Back, Shoulders (Monday)

DB Flyes 60x10
Decline Press (Hammer) 280x6
Smith Machine Incline Press 140x5

Decline Pullover(2 DB) 25x10
Underhand Pulldown 170x5
Yates Row 100x11
High Pull 135x8

Side Laterals 40x6
Smith Machine Press Behind Neck 90x8

HD Arms, Legs (Thursday)

Tricep Pressdown 105x6
Parallel Bar Dips BW+60lbsx6
Tricep Ext(Decline) 70x6

Scott Curl 70x3
Underhand Pulldown 200x6 performed by pulling from overhead and when the forearm touches the bicep completes the rep.
Rope Curls 100x9

Leg Ext 160x15
V-Squat 270x8
Leg Curl 100x12
Stiff Legged Deads 145x12

Well that is for week 1 only 5 more before a deload week or complete rest week.

Hope you all enjoy comments and critiques welcome.

Also here is a little background I might not have posted that is relevent.

Current
213 lbs
19.0% BF
172 lbs Lean Body Mass
41 lbs Fat Mass

Desired
200 lbs
10% BF
180 lbs of Lean Body Mass
20 lbs Fat Mass

Hope to achieve those numbers by the end of February, the will go on a harder cut cycle to bring my bodyfat levels down to 4-5% to compete in a drug and polygraph tested natural bodybuilding show in my home state.

Thanks comments and critiques or advice welcome

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

HDHitman,
I'm following ya my Brotha, Wishin ya nothin but the best... I'm changin mine up as well, not sure to what yet, but changing, possibly an abbreviated alternating routine!!!

Your Brother In IRON
Silverback

Glad to have the support, its been tough but sticking with the workouts. cleaning up my diet, and making sure results are made. Life is getting tough with the baby on the way, and I am training two guys in the way of Heavy Duty, and they are making great results especially since they are ectomorphs all the way.

Either way when you get your program straightened out make sure to post it here so I can give you support as well.

All the best to you

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Strong numbers, Daron!
Do you feel you can still give 100% for the reminder after the first 5-6 exercises?
I know I couldn't!
Do you superset some of the exercises or how much do you rest between?
Btw, what's your height? EDIT: Forget that! I found it.

Best,
Franco

Well since I am mainly using straight sets on my exercises I normally rest between sets from 1-3 minutes and I really dont time my workouts anymore, but I know they dont take longer then 30 minutes. I usually able to give 100% on all my exercises if I do the above. I know many on this board use the rush factor, but after reading a lot of Mentzer old stuff and recently Dorian Yates's Blood and Guts I believe that if your goal is size and strenght then the rush factor is not optimal, and resting until you can give 100% is. I plan on competing in May so right now size and strength with a bodyfat loss as a side effect is my goal, maybe during my cutting I will employ the rush factor to extra caloric burn.

Plus you are right if I employed the rush factor as you do I would definetly have to cut down my volume, due to cardiovascular fatigue, but I understand many of you employing it since many of you are looking for overall fitness and a great athletes physique and I do believe that the rush factor is great for that.

I hope this makes sense, and any other question or critiques are welcome.

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Daron,
I hear ya, I have always been one to use more of a Hybrid version of HIT anyway, I respond better to more frequency than less, I just adjust and do less exercises and encorporate rest/pause (like DC training) or negatives or forced reps, but rarely go over 2-4 exercises per bodypart, using more (4) for larger groups and less (2) for smaller!!!

Considering a few different possibilites, here are a couple:

Fullbody abbreviated routine (rotating Pre-X) + Isolation

Monday-
Lower Movement (Pre-X) -2 sets
Upper Pull - 1 set
Upper Push - 1 set
Isolation movement - Delts - 1 set
(5 sets total)

Wednesday-
Lower Movement - 1 set
Upper Pull (Pre-X) - 2 sets
Upper Push - 1 set
Isolation Movement - Biceps - 1 set
(5 sets total)

Friday-
Lower Movement - 1 set
Upper Pull - 1 set
Upper Push (Pre-X) - 2 sets
Isolation Movement - Triceps - 1 set
(5 sets total)

15 total sets/week

or...
the same routine but on a Monday-Friday-Wednesday-Monday-Friday-Wednesday schedule!!!

Any thoughts???

Silverback

Hey Mike,

I think you could easily handle that on a MWF schedule without overtraining. I have been incorporating a couple things into my workouts, first I am using the extreme stretching from DC training and holding the stretch for 30-60 sec after I complete on the sets for that bodypart, I use exercise that I know stretch the target muscle like DB Flyes or DB Pullovers. The second thing is after reading Blood and Guts by Dorian Yates and some of Markus Reinhardt stuff that every 6-8 weeks I perform a deload week using lighter weights, higher reps, maybe a 2nd set, but all sets not to failure. After the deload it I dont feel that my CNS and muscles are recovered I follow that up with a week off. The last thing in my workouts that I am trying is that instead of pre-X I am using post-X instead and so far it is working great, I am using that because of an article I read off of Drew Baye's website that weak links may not be that weak after all when training the larger bodyparts. Also if you read the other posts you know that I am performing straights sets and my next set does not start until I can give 100%, so basically if size and strength are you goal the rush factor is not a good idea.

Any questions HIT me up

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Decline Press(Hammer Wide Chest) 300x6 increase next workout
SM Incline Press 140x7x3x1 R/P increase next workout
Flyes 65x4 post-X

Underhand Pulldown 175x7 increase next workout
Yates Row 115x8 increase next workout
High Pull 135x7 increase of 1 rep
Decline DB Pullover 85x4 new weight

SM Press Behind Neck 110x7 increase next workout
Hammer Machine Laterals 60x6

Stretches for each bodypart lasted 30 seconds and workout lasted about 35 minutes.

Comments, questions, and critiques welcome

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Great workout!!! Excellent #'s your tossin around... Keep it up Brotha!!!

Gonna take a page from you and do a Post-X instead of Pre-X... Wish me luck...

Post-exhaust is the way to go. Studies have shown that when using pre-exhaust the muscles, which are isolated in the first exercise, will work less in the compound exercise and the other muscles involved will work more to compensate defeating the purpose of the superset.

Mike,

Thanks for the support, hope to see your journal up soon as well. I am hoping to get this forum some new life and get it more active, so if you have any HIT friends on facebook send them the link and get them to join.

Thanks

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Merc,

I tend to agree with you on the post exhaust, but I do like to mix it up. I will though continue to perform a pre-x straight set for Triceps because I perform bar dips that can be damaging for the shoulder(delicate articulation) and doing tri pressdown before allows for a heavy weight on dips but allows failure in a lower rep range less stress on shoulders, but great overload on the target muscle.

As for biceps it is a different reason entirely. I am working toward a increasing bicep width, as research shows you can activate more fibers in an area, but you can not fully isolate any one section of a muscle. So with scott curls performed on a flat side of a preacher bench I will start my workout with these to work the short head of bicep(width) using the out works in and in works out. The reason for this is because it would be to uncomfortable on Chins without my elbows hitting my chest and not getting a full range of motion. Then when I move onto Chins using a just inside shoulder width grip will activate the full bicep muscle working the short and long heads equally.

Any questions, comments, and critiques just ask.

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Tricep Pressdown 105x8
Dips 65x4
Decline Tricep Ext 70x7

Scott Curl 70x4
Pulldown 205x4

Breathing Squat 200x20


Substitutions
Hammer Curl 40x6
Seated Leg Curl(Hammer) 50x12

Did not perform any low back work. Started coming down with a cold that my wife loaned me, so if it werent for that I think I would have had a better performance.

My road to fat loss starts on Oct 4th with a full Paleo/Primal plan. Hopefully be able to use a calorie cycling plan high calories on training days and low calories on non-training days.

Breakdown would look like this:

Training Day

High Protein
150g Carbs (limit)
High Fat
High Calories

Non-Training Day

High Protein
60g Carbs (limit to 100 or less)
High Fat
Low Calories

Any questions, comments, or critiques welcome.

Thanks

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Hitman,
Good lookin workout!!! Be careful with the possibility of becoming sick... Alot of people dont realize just how much a cold can zap the workout performance and ability to recover!!! How do you figure your caloric ranges you need for a day??? I have used in the past this :
10-13 calories per body pound = lose weight
13-15 calories per body pound = maintain
15-18 calories per body pound = slight gain
18-22 calories per body pound = faster gain

You need to post up some pics... In need of inspiration, and I started the DC split yesterday, will take a couple workouts for the right weights... But thinking I'll enjoy the new routine!!!

Best Wishes,
Silverback

I normally use the Katch-McArdle formula, that uses your bodyfat % so that your calories are based on your lean body mass alone, that ensures that you not feeding the fat.
Use this website it should help if you have had your BF testes recently:
http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

Hopefully here soon I will get my wife to take pics of me and I will post soon, I am thinking of adding a photo gallery to this forum where people can put in progress pics or inspirationaly photos of HIT trainees.

Hope your workouts will go great and you post them here.

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Decline Press 310x7 increase weight
Incline Press 150x9 increase weight
Flyes 65x6
Underhand Pulldown 180x5
Yates Row 130x8 increase weight
High Pull 140x4
Decline Pullover 85x5
SM Press Behind Neck 120x4
DB Laterals 30x6

Overall a great workout all the compounds were new weights with me beating my rep range or doing quite a few reps with the weight.

This workout really suprised me since I thought my recovery ability would faulter do to me fighting a cold, but by the numbers that was not the case.

Thanks, comment, critiques, and questions welcome

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Tricep Pressdown 110/4
Dips 65x6 increase weight next workout
Decline Ext 75x6
Scott Curl 70x5
Underhand Pulldown 205x5

Did not perform legs this workout due to a flare up of my bursitis in my left knee, and since it was slightly swollen to begin with I thought training legs would make things worse and more painful in the long run. No injuries=continual progress.

Comment, critiques and question welcome,

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

Strong lifts my Friend!!! Take care of that knee... My shoulder flares up sometimes as well, just gotta work around it and be careful!!! Impressive workouts in my opinion!!!

Thanks for the positive feedback, going to be trying some new things this week especially interested in the ideas and research of stretch overload. So I am thinking of starting my workouts with an exercise that stretches that target muslce underload to hyperactive it then follow that up with my compound movements, then finish off with the DC style extreme stretching and maybe just maybe hyperplasia is possible in humans, but if not should get a huge growth increase from it.

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

I'll be keeping an eye on your progress!!! I'm on the DC split currently, but considering changing it up down the road to this:
Monday:Chest/Biceps
Wednesday:Legs/Abs
Friday:Back/Triceps

I do like your split and I have done something similar to it, but my question is when will you be training shoulders. My suggestion would be to train them with Legs and Abs. Then with you split you are training each bodypart once directly and a second time indirectly per week, also if that is not what you want then I would really keep an eye out for minimal overlap. For that reason that is why Markus Reinhardt prefers the push/pull and legs split because it has the least amount of overlap and it also guarantees that each bodypart only gets trained once per week directly which will aid recovery ability.

Thanks watching my journal and I hope to get to watch yours here as well.

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman

DB Flyes(slight incline) 70x7
Decline Press 320x4
SM Incline Press 160x4
DB Pullover 85x7
Underhand Pulldown 180x7 will increase weight
Yates Row 140x6 will increase weight
High Pull 140x5
Cable Lateral 20x11 (performed 1 1/4) will increase weight
Side Laterals(Seated) 20x8
SM Press Behind Neck did not perform this week because I thrashed my partners to hard the a widowmaker after the heavy set of legs he nearly passed out and was spent and wasnt feeling well in general after it.

Overall a great workout, hopefully Thursdays workout will be just as good.

Comments, questions, and critiques welcome

Daron
The Heavy Duty HITman