Yuku free message boards

Scott, thanks for your kind words!

First, please understand that all that I say is based on my experience of training me and of training with a few like minded individuals and relating what I read elsewhere to that training.

Furthermore the training I do is geared towards developing maximum strength, most recently maximum strength in strongman terms. Such training would not be suitable for frail, ill, old or otherwise out of condition individuals - indeed if any of those individuals were brave/daft enough to hire me as a 'personal trainer' they might be relieved/surprised to find I would instead start them off in a manner which would perhaps be more akin to what Fred does.

Now for a history lesson on HIT...

Arthur Jones was brought up in Oklahoma with a hardnosed working ethic. He spat upon those unworthy citizens too lazy or decrepit enough to think for themselves and develop their own empires. He described himself as somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan. He liked guns, crocodiles and loose women.

He developed his Nautilus machines in response to the 'inferiority' of the barbell. He wanted a machine that worked the muscle from full stretch to full contraction... he didn't want a lazy barbell. He also developed a training system based on his hardnosed working ethic to be used with his hardnosed machines. The system required all-out effort, the intensity of which necessitated brevity and a puke bucket.

Dr Ken noted that Arthur didn't have a particular rep speed in mind, rather he just wanted a smooth repetition because he valued hard work and no 'cheating'.

At some point rep speed came about, originally Nautilus said 2 seconds up 4 seconds down. Perhaps Ell Darden came up with the speed, perhaps in response to people saying, "How fast should I lift and lower?".

In other words rep speed was first defined in terms of 2/4 because it was simpler than trying to describe the concept of a smooth no cheating type rep.

However, people started latching onto rep speed numbers. Ken Hutchins came along and wrote an entire book on a single rep - the superslow 10/10 rep. This must rate as the world's most boring book. Arthur Jones despised Ken Hutchins. Arthur wanted hard work not handwringing about rep times. Arthur wanted poundage not temperature controlled enviroments. Arthur wanted bigger crocodiles not poodles.

Arthur was concerned with hard work (which at some point was dubbed scientifically as intensity), he saw poundage as crucial to achieving hard work. He once said something to the effect that if one could work up to curling 200 lbs for 10 reps in good form that one would have arms large enough to handle anything short of armwrestling grizzlies.

Fred, came along and took to superslow with a zeal. He wrote embarrassing articles in Hardgainer Magazine. He left superslow because it didn't work... a photo from those days shows Fred looking somewhat pale and ill rather than the manly Chuck Norris look-a-like he is now. Fred invented slowburn with the basic notion to increase the poundages by lowering the time under load.

Arthur Jones died. His last words were, "Superslow sucks! I've owned chickens stronger than the average superslower!!! Arghh, Urk!...[silence, death, spittle]"

So when it comes to rep speed I pay no attention to it. I pay attention to poundage. The rep speed just turns out whatever it turns out as. I analyse it here; http://sumoman.com/articles/2008/apr2008/reps.html

I also have a Fred Curl competition with Fred here; http://sumoman.com/articles/2008/mar2008/power.html

A positive might take 2-5 seconds. Crucially it is important to appreciate that I am not 'controlling' my rep speed in the manner that Fred is. This doesn't mean that I am out of control, instead it means that I am not pacing the rep like Fred, instead I just lift the heaviest weights I can and go at whatever the 'speed' turns out as.

Drop sets aren't used much in strength training, they are more of a bodybuilding thing. Strength training focuses on max poundage which means max crossbridge interaction. Fatigue reduces crossbridge interaction which is what Drop sets are doing - fatigue and squeezing muscles is more of a bodybuilder thing. Dave Tate once said that as a powerlifter he didn't do anything which lasted longer than 10 seconds, which is what you want for max strength.

Drops sets didn't do much for me.

Juan

Bearing in mind that this is the strength section, you will be looking at poundages in the +90% region.

So if you can squat 100 kg your working sets will be +90 kg - a typical load might be 95 kg for a rep or a double. Look at what powerlifters or weightlifters do and you will see that reps are typically in the 1-3 region maybe up to 5.

If you scan through each page of my training log here; http://sumoman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2 you will see that I typically do low reps quite often only single reps.

Strength athletes uses percents of 1 rep max (% 1RM) rather than TULs, this is because they are looking at poundages - this is why I outlined the HIT history. The original history was intensity based on poundage (reverse of strength athletes) but over time it has become about fatigue, time under load, safety and in Landau's case muttering gibberish... it has progressively got further from poundage and so less productive for strength athletes.

David, please respond in a rational fashion as befits your username, rather than that of a shouting lunatic.

My history lesson, though tongue in cheek, illustrates what I feel is a valuable lesson... that the philosophy of HIT originates from AJ's hardnosed to life.

All ideas have some sort of history... no doubt you have some sort of history to explain your disgraceful behaviour over at Dr Darden's place; http://www.drdarden.com/r...?id=510225&pageNo=15

I am also still puzzled as to why you refer to me as 'SKELETOR' as you have a puny physique which is smaller than my own and you only have a fraction of my strength.

Our resident superslower is statisticool, he can do a superfast negative with 300 lbs in the squat - AJ would beat stats senseless to educate him about hard lifting;

stats is still looking for the secret answer - he is unable to even consider the possibility that it could involve simply lifting weights;

That's rather sad.

He'll probably train for it using superslow and tennis balls and then be astonished on the day when he expires after a mile... or more likely he find a reason why genetics does not allow him to run.