More On High Intensity Training For Cardiovascular And Metabolic Conditioning

Since posting Dr. James Peterson’s Project Total Conditioning case study I’ve received a lot of e-mails from people with anecdotes about how high intensity strength training improved their cardiovascular and metaboolic conditioning, improving their performance in athletics or work. While the plural of anecdote is not data, these confirm what has already been proven over and over through research and the empirical experience of thousands of high intensity training instructors over the last four decades.

I recently received the following in an e-mail from Australian HIT instructor Christian Marchegiani about his experiences with high intensity training and boxing:

Hey Drew,

I thought I would share an experiment I did. My background is boxing but have not boxed in 18 months since getting more into high intensity weight training. I haven’t even done any ‘cardio’ as such (whatever that is). Yesterday I returned to training and participated in an hour of boxing and it was as If I never left. My speed, power, and endurance was unbelievable (even my coach had commented on how fast and powerful I had become). What perhaps was lacking was my skill which is understandable since it’s been 18 months since I practiced boxing. We did push ups, burpees, sprints, etc and it was a breeze (although burpees are not my choice of exercise). I was able to recover between rounds very quickly.

HIT works. Period.

HIT instructor Christian Marchegiani

I’ve had a similar experience with my own training and with hundreds of clients. I have studied and continue to practice several martial arts for a few decades, although for the past few years I have done so very sporadically. There are some months I practice consistently, spending an hour or more most days of the week doing forms or drills, and times when I only do one form in the morning or evening (Wing Chun’s Siu Nim Tao). Other than this, I don’t do anything that might be considered “cardio” other than high intensity strength training once every three to four days. With just these HIT workouts, I am able to maintain a high enough level of cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning that I am able to jump right back into heavy training, including sparring with friends locally, without difficulty.

I’ve trained and consulted athletes at various levels of competition, active military and law enforcement, and people with other kinds of physically demanding jobs, using high intensity training only – no “cardio” –  and clients consistently report being able to do things longer and more easily with less fatigue and score better on physical fitness tests. A woman I used to train who was in her mid fifties at the time told me her doctor said she performed better on her cardiac stress test than some of the Orlando Magic players and was shocked when she told him she only did strength training for about half an hour two times a week.

If you are an athlete or have a physically demanding job which can place demands on stamina and endurance you do not need to perform traditional “cardio” for conditioning. All you need to do to stimulate improvement in all trainable, general factors of functional ability (muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning, flexibility, body composition, bone and connective tissue strength, etc.) is a proper high intensity training program. During Project Total Conditioning the group who was performing only high intensity training improved more on every measure of cardiovascular conditioning than the control group, which was practicing football and following their own workouts or workouts supervised by their coaches at the time. The HIT group improved their two mile run times by over four times as much and improved their forty yard dash times twice as much as the control group.

Regardless of what you are doing with your muscles, whether it is strength training, running, swimming, cycling, etc., if you are working with a high enough intensity of effort you will also be placing demands on and stimulating improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic efficiency. Since a proper high intensity training workout effectively addresses these factors there is no need to perform additional physical activities for them. Additionally, there is a direct relationship between muscular strength and local muscular endurance; the stronger a muscle is the smaller the relative effort required to perform submaximal tasks, the more work it is able to perform.

The only other work you need to perform to improve your endurance in specific physical activities is to practice those activities to improve your skill and efficiency of movement to make them less fatiguing. Strength training stimulates general improvements in endurance affecting all physical activity, while skill practice stimulates specific improvements in the activity practiced, so if you are training to improve endurance for a specific type of activity you should practice that activity regularly in addition to high intensity training. However, if you are only interested in general cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning high intensity training is all you need.

References:

1. James Peterson, PhD., Total Conditioning: A Case Study, Athletic Journal Vol. 56 September, 1975

2. Maisch B, Baum E, Grimm W. Die Auswirkungen dynamischen Krafttrainings nach dem Nautilus-Prinzip auf kardiozirkulatorische Parameter und Ausdauerleistungsfähigkeit (The effects of resistance training according to the Nautilus principles on cardiocirculatory parameters and endurance). Angenommen vom Fachbereich Humanmedizin der Philipps-Universität Marburg am 11. Dezember 2003

3. Effect of resistance training on cardiorespiratory endurance and coronary artery disease risk. Cardiovasc J S Afr. 2005 Sep-Oct; 16(5):256-9

4. Strength training and hemodynamic responses to exercise. Am J Geriatr Cardiol, 2003 Mar-Apr; 12(2):97-106.

5. Hemodynamic responses during leg press exercise in patients with chronic Congestive heart failure. Am J Cardiol. 1999 Jun 1; 83(11):1537-43.

Join the discussion or ask questions about this post in the HIT List forum

Like it? Share it!

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Carlos Sep 18, 2014 @ 16:00

    Hi Drew , I ‘ve been playing football this year and in the beginning I felt really very difficult to be unconditioned . Currently 2 in HIT style workouts I reached optimum conditioning , especially in sprints .

    I also realized that in my case 2 HIT workouts are better than just one week . It comes to their student?

    Carlos

    • Drew Baye Sep 19, 2014 @ 12:40

      Hey Carlos,

      Response to exercise varies tremendously between people, and a frequency that is effective for one person might be overtraining for another. If you recover quickly enough to train more frequently doing so will give you faster net progress, but it is best to err on the low side to avoid overtraining if you’re not sure.

  • Paul Beck Sep 18, 2014 @ 19:04

    Hi Drew and other readers of this column,

    High intensity training can mean one thing to one and another thing to yourself. I’ve read Doug McGuff’s articles and some of yours. Both of you recommend HIT but his version is a workout once or twice a week doing super-slow reps and I don’t recall exactly what tempo you recommend. Doug says one set of each exercise, working to failure, and I don’t recall what you say works best. I am a CPT and working out for myself my regime is as follows:
    Monday: legs and calfs. I do 2 sets of 10 as warm ups. A 3rd set, with heavier weights, I do to failure. A 4th set (drop-set) using less weight, to failure again. Sometimes a 5th set using lighter wts (drop set) than the 4th set – to failure.
    Tues: Chest – same principle as above.
    Wed: Interval Run-walk on treadmill at 80-85% of my training heart-rate.
    Thur: Upper and lower back also with torsional training.
    Friday: Shoulders and arms. Same principal as Monday.
    Sat: Interval walk-run as on Wed.
    Sun: Off
    Note: I don’t do cardio as a warm-up. My 1st 2 sets are warm-ups and specifically for the muscle group for that exercise.

    Here is the point I am trying to make. If you work out for any group of muscles, your warm-ups should be only for the exercise used. If you want to strengthen the heart you have to increase your heart rate and I’ve never been able to do that by weight training alone and definitely not by super-slow. I use a heart monitor, do cardio based on the 220-age = training rate. Then use 65 – 85% of the training rate as a max. A beginner = 60-65% and more advanced trainees = 85%.

    If you can’t get your heart rate up to the % you want of your training rate, why not use cardio
    on a treadmill, elliptical trainer, stepper, etc .?

    One set of any exercise is fine for the beginner but I definitely think multiple sets to failure with drop-sets are the way to go for the more experienced trainee.

    • Drew Baye Sep 19, 2014 @ 12:35

      Paul,

      While different trainers have developed variations on high intensity training, it is not relative. It is a set of specific principles, which I have outlined in What Is High Intensity Training?

      If proper form is being used a warm up is not necessary for most people, and if exercises are done properly more than one set is usually a waste of time, and often counterproductive. The same can be said for working out on consecutive days, regardless of how you split your workouts up.

      That you claim not to have been able to increase your heart rate with weight training alone tells me all I need to know. I have never had a client who has not had significant heart rate elevation from a properly performed workout, and this includes professional athletes. If you can’t get your heart rate up strength training you’re doing it wrong.

      Also, the HR Max = 220 – age thing is so far off as to be relatively useless. From The Surprising History Of The “HRmax=220-age” Equation:

      “Consequently, the formula HRmax=220-age has no scientific merit for use in exercise physiology and related fields. A brief review of alternate HRmax prediction formula reveals that the majority of age-based univariate prediction equations also have large prediction errors (>10 b/min). Clearly, more research of HRmax needs to be done using a multivariate model, and equations may need to be developed that are population (fitness, health status, age, exercise mode) specific.”

      For more on this I suggest you also read You Don’t Know HIT Part 2: “Cardio” And Fat Loss

      With proper training as you become more advanced and are capable of greater intensity of effort you will need less not more volume. You have this completely backwards.

      • Paul Beck Sep 19, 2014 @ 17:56

        Hi Drew & Readers,

        Thank you for your reply. To keep my comments (previous posting) within a reasonable length I did not mention that (1) I take medication for atrial fibrillation, (2) I’ve had 2 surgeries (cardiac ablations) for cardiac problems, a-fib and a-flutter. I manage to keep a normal sinus rhythm now but sometimes I revert back to short spurts of a-fib. Presently, if that happens as it did today, my HR may jump from normal to 150-200. Thankfully, it returned to normal after about 1/2 hour after completing my workout. I am also on an anticoagulant, daily. You stated that I could not raise my HR – not true. I wrote
        that I could not raise it substantially unless I did cardio. I’m sure that the defibrillator-and pulse rate regulator installed in my chest affect my HR when exercising. In any case, if the HR doesn’t rise up to what works for me, I see nothing wrong with using the treadmill. What really matters is that the heart gets exercised by a faster HR and how it’s accomplished is secondary.
        Keep up your good work!

        • Drew Baye Sep 20, 2014 @ 0:02

          Paul,

          I’ve had several clients over the years with similar medical histories, and none have failed to elevate their heart rate with proper strength training. For various reasons strength training is also a safer and more effective way to accomplish this than steady state activity (1-3).

          If you strength train properly your heart rate will go up, and how it is accomplished is not secondary, it is very important because while there are many ways to improve cardiovascular conditioning not all of them are equally effective, safe, or efficient. Proper strength training beats all so-called “cardio” on each of these. Arthur Jones put it best during an interview with Stephen Langer, MD,

          “…the lifting of weights is so much superior for the purpose of improving the cardiovascular condition of a human being that whatever is in second place is not even in the running, no pun intended. That is to say, running is a very poor, a very dangerous, a very slow, a very inefficient, a very nonproductive method for eventually producing a very limited, low order of cardiovascular benefit. Any, ANY, result that can be produced by any amount of running can be duplicated and surpassed by the proper use of weight lifting for cardiovascular benefits. Now I realize that there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people in this country who don’t understand that, who don’t believe that, who will not admit that. Now these people are simply uninformed. Certainly, it’s possible to run with no benefit, it’s possible to lift weights with no benefit. I’m talking about the proper use of weight lifting; and properly applied, weight lifting will improve your cardiovascular benefit to a degree that is impossible to attain with any amount of running.”

          You may also want to read High Intensity Strength Training for Cardiovascular Conditioning and Fat Loss. Forget “cardio” and learn to strength train properly. You might consider visiting Chad Morris at Myogenics in Los Angeles for a few workouts. The learning experience would be well worth the drive.

          1. Effect of resistance training on cardiorespiratory endurance and coronary artery disease risk. Cardiovasc J S Afr. 2005 Sep-Oct; 16(5):256-9.

          2. Strength training and hemodynamic responses to exercise. Am J Geriatr Cardiol, 2003 Mar-Apr; 12(2):97-106.

          3. Hemodynamic responses during leg press exercise in patients with chronic Congestive heart failure. Am J Cardiol. 1999 Jun 1; 83(11):1537-43.

  • Luke Sep 19, 2014 @ 11:31

    I can relate somewhat to the story as I am a martial arts practitioner as well. I have recently been travelling for a year in South America and have done one HIT workout per week. Every workout was in another gym, and some gyms were really poorly equiped, and some were between 3000 and 4000 meters altitude. When I came back home now and dropped into a Martial Arts classe, it quickly became obvious that I had lost significant skill and economy of movement, but was still at instructor level when it came to endurance, power, recuperation etc. -to reach this with 30 minutes of gym activity per week is amazing!

  • Jonas Sep 19, 2014 @ 15:53

    I tried a heart rate monitor last week for the first time. My HR peaked at 195 bpm and average HR was 157 through my 17 minute workout. I just turned 40 so according to the formula my HRmax should be only 180 bpm.

    I don’t do any cardio – only one HIT work out per week. Switched to 3/8 protocol after reading Drew’s article about negative emphasized training. Progress has been amazing. Example: Leg press from 120 to 190 Kgs (9 reps) in less than 5 months.
    Thanks for an inspiring website, Drew!

    • Drew Baye Sep 20, 2014 @ 0:06

      Hey Jonas,

      You’re welcome, and thanks for sharing. I will be posting an update on my experiments with negative emphasized repetitions soon. I have recently switched back to just doing bodyweight workouts but am continuing with the protocol and it has been working very well.

  • Joe Sep 19, 2014 @ 22:09

    People always ask me what kind of cardio I do. They’re always impressed with my conditioning and think I do something crazy. It’s just a basic HIT routine once/week. They’re also impressed with my strength and conditioning, and some are impressed by my flexibility when I have an occasion to display it. Some of them ask how I find “all the time” to “stay in shape.” I tell them it’s all literally due to 20-30 minutes I dedicate on Sunday mornings. I don’t know if they don’t believe me, but I always expect more people would be more interested in learning more, but they aren’t. You think a strong, fit person explaining to people that he only works out about two hours/month would pique significant interest, but most of them end up trying crossfit or P90X. I don’t understand it. It’s the hype, I suppose.

    • Drew Baye Sep 19, 2014 @ 23:38

      Joe,

      It’s because proper exercise is very hard work, and most people would prefer to believe a lie they like than a truth they don’t like.

  • Eric Sep 20, 2014 @ 7:56

    Love this topic. I am a lifetime, die-hard HITter (Mentzer, Baye, McGuff). I lost 30 lbs of bodyfat this year that I let accumulate over a decade of poor eating habits. The first 20 came off easily through diet. The last 10 seemed to require some tweaking of both diet and training.

    I am a 1x/week consolidation routine guy. I found that adding a day or two of HIIT – hard stuff like the Airdyne, Concept 2 or track sprints – seemed to help on the fat loss side for those last 10 pounds FWIW.

    For maintenance I continue to do HIT and HIIT… it’s still brief, hard and infrequent… and fun in that way only us HIT nuts can appreciate.

    • Tim Sep 22, 2014 @ 8:52

      Hello Eric!

      Care to share some tips on the diet you used?

      Thanks

  • Paul Beck Sep 22, 2014 @ 12:10

    Drew,

    Regarding HIT, I read your article “What is HIT?” and I saw no mention of warming up before you do a day’s exercise routine or a warm up before total fatigue on each exercise. I know “cardio” is a bad word with you but a word or two if and how you do warm ups, Also the rep range you recommend for each exercise.

    Regarding warm ups, please list your research references on this particular matter.

    • Drew Baye Sep 22, 2014 @ 12:42

      Paul,

      I do no warm up, and I do not have clients warm up unless it is necessary for them to be able to perform an exercise pain free due to injuries or joint conditions, and then only for the exercises which require it. Read my article Warming Up.

  • Steven Turner Sep 22, 2014 @ 18:37

    Hi Drew,

    Great to see Chris HIT training in Australia, I hope anyone in Australia contacts Chris for a HIT workout they will never regret it.

    I used to have all my clients wear a HR monitor when doing 3 x 3 and other HIT workouts. When first wearing a HR monitor most people could not believe the high level of HR with no “cardio”. Now I don’t even worry about HR moniotrs I know that if my workout is a HIT workout my HR will elevate automatically with the the effort put into the workout. One thing that I did notice in relation to HR’s it appeared that people who would be considered endurance athletes HR remained slightly lower and at a more steady rate.

    From what I read on Project Total conditioning it was a double blind experiement Arthur arranged for the researchers not to know who performed the HIT only workouts. When the researchers were told that those who performed best on the “aerobic” tests were the HIT only group they could not believe the results.

    If you do the sets properly there is no need for warm up sets, all the proceeding reps are the warm up, if people just thought about it for a moment – the proceeding reps are a specific warm up to the last two or three hard reps.

    Warm ups were introduced as a way of reducing injuries from all the high impact movements of the “aerobic exercises” – jumping. A way to avoid injuries but you will never avoid injuries by undertaking high impact, overuse activities – eventially injuries will come

    Proper HIT training is not high impact training.

    • Drew Baye Sep 23, 2014 @ 7:58

      Steven,

      Some of the people performing the tests were from the Cooper’s Aerobics Institute, founded by Ken Cooper, MD, who is to blame for popularizing “aerobics” and starting the jogging craze of the 70’s. When Cooper’s people told him the results he refused to believe them.

      I can’t remember the details, but Ken Hutchins told me he and Ell Darden once ran into Ken Cooper at an airport and had a long discussion about it. Cooper was not convinced, but apparently was impressed with them because he ended up buying a line of Nautilus equipment for his institute.

  • Bradley Sep 23, 2014 @ 5:19

    Paul- hi there,
    If you have time, watch Doug McGuffs interview with Dr Mercola which he did last month. The difference in Heart rate from HIT ‘regular cardio’ that you are experiencing may be explained. It is a long interview jut to let you know.

    • Drew Baye Sep 23, 2014 @ 7:53

      Hey Bradley,

      I’m not a fan of Mercola since he has promoted a lot of pseudo-scientific bullshit over the years, but his interview with McGuff is worth watching:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC4w7Hf2COU

      • Ben Tucker Oct 2, 2014 @ 13:55

        I read an article of his on the benefits of intermittent fasting and how it promotes HGH:

        “Even more remarkable, the study also found that fasting triggered a dramatic rise in human growth hormone (HGH)—1,300 percent in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men! The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training.

        HGH, commonly referred to as “the fitness hormone” plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from the practice (as long as they don’t overtrain and are careful about their nutrition).”

        Is this along the lines of bs you’re talking about?

        • Drew Baye Oct 3, 2014 @ 11:33

          Hey Ben,

          What I dislike most is his promotion of various forms of “alternative” (another word for “unproven”) medicine, but I am skeptical of this as well. I highly doubt fasting would increase growth hormone by anywhere near 1,300 to 2,000 percent, have not seen this in any other studies, and he provides no reference to the study, just a link to a press release which mentions the study and provides no reference either.

          • Ben Tucker Oct 3, 2014 @ 22:56

            Yeah, I was looking for the reference and couldn’t find it either. I believe there is some merit to intermittent fasting, but I scratch my head at those numbers, too.
            I’ve actually been trying it for close to 2 months and haven’t noticed much. I do like the clarity I get from waiting to eat until close to lunch. I don’t get that insulin crash from too many carbs in the morning.

            I could be mistaken, but did I read somewhere on your blog about an author you respect who teaches the benefits of IF?

            • Drew Baye Oct 4, 2014 @ 13:42

              Hey Ben,

              Yes, Martin Berkhan has had good results with IF and I have used it with clients under certain circumstances. The research on it is mixed though, with some studies showing benefits and others showing negatives like increased LDL and blood pressure, higher fasting blood sugar levels, and delayed response to insulin. There are also studies which show no difference in fat loss whether you eat three times a day or one as long as the calories and macros are the same. If a person does this I would only recommend it for short periods of time, or only on one or two non-workout days a week.

          • brandon Nov 18, 2014 @ 20:36

            Here’s the study that these claims come from:

            http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/?page=1

            Brad Pilon writes extensively about fasting and HGH in his book, Eat Stop Eat, complete with references.

            • Drew Baye Nov 19, 2014 @ 7:16

              Hey Brandon,

              Thanks for the link. A quick read through doesn’t support the kind of increase Mercola is claiming, and ultimately what matters is whether there is an advantage for long-term improvement in body composition, and while I’m sure intermittent fasting is an effective approach for this I am skeptical of whether it is any more effective than eating the same amount of food distributed over more of the day, as other studies suggest:

              Bortz WM, Wroldsen A, Issekutz B Jr, Rodahl K: Weight loss and frequency of feeding. N Engl J Med 1966, 274(7):376-9.

              Finkelstein B, Fryer BA: Meal frequency and weight reduction of young women. Am J Clin Nutr 1971, 24(4):465-8.

              Garrow JS, Durrant M, Blaza S, Wilkins D, Royston P, Sunkin S: The effect of meal frequency and protein concentration on the composition of the weight lost by obese subjects. Br J Nutr 1981, 45(1):5-15.

              Verboeket-van de Venne WP, Westerterp KR: Frequency of feeding, weight reduction and energy metabolism. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1993, 17(1):31-6.

  • Bradley Sep 23, 2014 @ 11:34

    lol ok thanks for the reference Drew!

  • Brian Sep 26, 2014 @ 14:51

    I would like to add some interesting, albeit anecdotal proof, for the purposes of conversation and pure mental floss. This is the information and a true story that I share with my clients that doubt the benefits of HIT and this helps me change their mental lock that high volume anything = results.

    First a true story as told by Coach Dick Vermeil himself in an interview with a major network. ( I wish I could remember or find a copy of it on YouTube to be able to play it for my clients.) From 1997-1999 he was head coach for the St. Louis Rams. His first two years with the Rams were embarrassing to say the least – 5 wins and 11 losses in 1997. The following season was worse – 4–12.

    Here is what happened. Vermeil started off 1997 with a bad team that he felt needed to be toughened up, so he put them through a hardcore training regimen in the gym and on the field. The players complained of exhaustion – hence the 5-11 record. Dick felt they were cry babies and needed to be driven even harder. In 1998, he increased everything – weights, cardio and practice reps. I don’t recall exactly but I think Vermeil said he went from 3 hour practices to 4. The players were ground up meat. Thus, they ended the season with only 4 wins.

    Now either he started off training camp of 1999 with even more volume or he dropped it down. Basically, the players told him that they had nothing to give come game day and they needed more rest. He lowered the practices down to something like 2 hours and saw immediate results. Little by little he lowered everything down until their on field practices were something like a quick 30-40 minutes. That season ended with a 13-3 record and them winning the Super Bowl. Yes, Kurt Warner helped get them there, no doubt, but Vermeil himself concretely believes it was the LOW volume training and increased rest and recovery that did the trick.

    Now, taking into account all of the above, many football teams these days LIMIT the players volume in the gym. In fact, generally speaking, many of the most successful NFL teams only allow a routine consisting of 4-5 compound movements 2-3 times per week for a total of around 20 minutes each session at most. In other words – ‘HIT’ it and be done.

    Oddly enough ego and a lot of BS still gets in the way. Example – many pro NFL players will claim they do some ridiculous high volume routine when being interviewed for fitness rags like Muscle and Fitness and similar. I don’t know if it is the player or the magazine or both – but it is BS. Yes, there are some teams out there with strength coaches that are still grinding their guys down into little nubs because they still cannot disengage their primitive minds from the old school theories and those teams may go on to the Super Bowl. However, no one is saying HIT is a guaranteed ticket to the SB. I do have to wonder if all that high volume punishment is a major reason why many of those 20-something NFL pros are barely able to get out of bed without mega doses of pharmaceuticals. With the exception of practice or game day injuries aside, that is a large part of the story no one ever admits to or discusses. Just look at the numerous NFL players that are unable to walk or function properly before they turn 40. Seriously! Stop and think of the gravity of that.

    Yes, NFL football is a grueling, physically brutal sport and it is very likely that players will be permanently damaged regardless of training regimen. Yet, I can’t help thinking their odds would improve under the HIT philosophy.

    • Drew Baye Sep 26, 2014 @ 19:27

      Hey Brian,

      Thanks for sharing this, and I think you’re right. If more NFL teams and other professional teams adopted a HIT-based strength and conditioning program we’d see better athletic performance and fewer injuries.

  • Steven Turner Sep 28, 2014 @ 17:27

    Hi Drew,

    Another take on Brian’s post is what I call success due to forced time off from injuries. Often I hear athletes say that they were forced to have time off due to injuries. Whilst you can account for a number of injuries in contact sports a high amount of injuries also come from sports that have no contact.

    Also despite that I heard someone say that they have this movement screen that can detect muscles imbalances reduce or prevent the chance of injuries.

    You might be able attribute the athletes success due to forced time off from injuries. The athletes are forced to train HIT style brief, infrequent, intense.

  • Jon Sep 30, 2014 @ 12:18

    Hi Drew,

    Another great post – thanks! I wonder if you could share your opinion on what you feel the upper limits of cardiovascular conditioning through HIT might be? For example, if a client came to you with a goal of running a marathon, HIT alone wouldn’t prepare them for that activity, would it? And if not, why not?

    • Drew Baye Oct 3, 2014 @ 12:02

      Jon,

      HIT is more effective and safer than any form of “cardio” for improving cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning, but optimal endurance performance also requires skill and knowledge of proper pacing which can only be improved through specific practice. The best approach for an endurance athlete is a combination of the two; HIT for general physical conditioning, and regular practice for specific skill improvement.

  • Zidan Oct 21, 2014 @ 20:13

    Hi Drew,

    There’s always been this one thing I never understood about HIT when it comes to metabolic conditioning: from what I’ve learned from you I know that in order to maximize the metabolic conditioning effect of a brief HIT workout, one must minimize the rest between exercises. However, whenever I do this I feel ‘gassed out’ on the later exercises and feel as if I’m not reaching ‘true’ failure on the later exercises, sometimes.

    Maybe that’s just how the metabolic conditioning during a HIT workout is supposed to feel and I am actually reaching failure. But, would it not make more sense to take a rest between exercises and being able to focus more on them individually, and do some conditioning work seperately (such as jumping rope in intervals)? Or will my metabolic conditioning simply get better over time and I’ll get used to working to failure even when my heart is beating out of my chest?

    Also, wouldn’t this ‘standalone interval conditioning work’ be more effective at simulating an actual athletic event? E.g. a boxing match may be 4 rounds of 2 minutes, so working up to 3 rounds of 2 minutes of double unders may have more carry-over to the event than a continuous 4 minute HIT workout.

    As always, thanks for the informative articles.

    • Drew Baye Oct 24, 2014 @ 11:56

      Zidan,

      Your conditioning will improve and become less of a limiting factor in later exercises. No interval training is necessary for general improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning, however if you plan to compete in a sport you must practice the sport. Read Project Total Conditioning. All of this is explained there.

  • BRIAN (UK) Oct 12, 2015 @ 7:34

    Hi Drew
    I am aged 70, I have been weight training for 54 years except for a three year period when I couldn’t train , after an accident. (aged 57). After this absence from training I developed a spare tyre, and no matter what diet or training I carry out, I can not shift it.My waist is the only external area that I have fat deposits. I am told that I should accept this because of my age, but I refuse to give in. What is your opinion or advice please.

    • Drew Baye Oct 16, 2015 @ 13:29

      Hey Brian,

      Regardless of your age it is possible to improve your body composition. I’ve had clients older than you who have gained muscle and lost fat. I provide general guidelines for this in most of my books and more specific instructions in Getting Ripped.

  • Greg Roseman Apr 3, 2016 @ 14:14

    Try a 3×3 workout, the vascular system is usually the limiting factor.

  • Ben Tucker Apr 7, 2016 @ 11:34

    Greg, Drew,

    I think a 3×3 is good for an event you may be training for, like a 15k, etc.
    In general, I try to move as fast as possible during my 1 set to failure workouts, but setup does slow me down a bit.
    Whereas those workouts used to cause “floor time” in the beginning, I’ve adapted since. On the other hand a preset (no set up time) 3×3 or bodyweight workout induces “floor time.”
    I definitely give out to overall exhaustion before failure on certain movements, ie. squats, pull-ups.

    So like Zidan brought out, I’d rather rest a few seconds more to know that I hit muscular failure as oposed to the emense distraction of “global exhaustion.”

    That being said, I agree whole heartedly with Drew, minimal rest between sets like a 3×3 or bodyweight exercises… there’s no activity that even comes close for general conditioning.

  • Dustin Segers Feb 6, 2019 @ 10:15

    Hi Drew,

    I’m a long-time martial arts practitioner (MMA, Krav Maga) at the black belt level. I have long attempted to balance my martial arts skill practice with HIT principles, usually focusing on training my entire body twice weekly on a Tuesday/Friday schedule in HIT and practicing my martial arts skills twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ve found that if the martial arts practice is too intense, I just can’t seem to recover for the Friday HIT workout. However, if I do only one medium to higher intensity martial arts skill workout on Tuesdays (after my HIT workout), and a lighter “skill-only” movement based martial arts training session (very low intensity) I’m able to recover without problems. This is difficult to always accomplish because, as you know, many of those types of martial arts classes (MMA, Krav, BJJ) are almost always very intense in an attempt to replicate sport or combat or near-combat intensity situations. Frankly, the older I get (I’m 44 now), I’ve found that always doing intense martial arts workout are not only counter-productive in and of themselves, but also set you up for injury in the long-run due to a lack of sufficient recovery.

    Do you have any further suggestions for folks who want to do both HIT and martial arts workouts/skill practice that want to maximize the benefits of both?

    Thanks again for writing on this subject!

    Dustin Segers

    • Drew Baye Jun 14, 2019 @ 15:33

      Some of this depends on the volume of the workouts and which exercises are performed. Some people will do better to cut down on the volume of each of the workouts than to cut back the frequency. Like most things, it requires some experimentation to determine for each individual.

  • Simon Zammit Mar 8, 2019 @ 21:33

    In my opinion, Christian Marchegiani, is no longer a HIT instructor (if he ever was). I found out about him through a gym I joined here in Taipei. The gym promotes something called Thump boxing (which is Christian’s creation). I looked further and discovered recent (around 2016) videos of him training personal trainers in Taipei on another of his “creations” – HIRT (High Intensity Resistance Training). It seems he comes to Taipei yearly now to deliver his 2 day course. It’s easy to sell because most people here don’t know that this isn’t really HIT (or even what real HIT is). The cost is about $414 USD per person for the 2 days (in the video there were about 20 people in the room). Some there wear t-shirts with “I got HIRT” on them. One reason this isn’t HIT is because they were going for a fixed number of reps instead of MMF. There are many other things I could comment on. I wonder why he has to resort to calling what he teaches HIRT instead of HIT. It’s probably because it just isn’t.

    • Drew Baye Mar 9, 2019 @ 12:21

      Hey Simon,

      I was not aware of this. I have only spoken with Christian through e-mail and have not seen him training.

      While boxing is an exciting and enjoyable sport it is not exercise and should not be promoted as such. To do so displays ignorance of the definition of exercise and failure to distinguish between exercise and recreation.

      After a subject has determined the resistance required to achieve momentary muscle failure within an appropriate repetition or time range they should perform exercises to momentary muscle failure and not stop an exercise arbitrarily after achieving some number of repetitions.

      Also, the inclusion of “resistance” is redundant an unnecessary. There is no exercise without resistance. I suspect he may have done this to distinguish it from high intensity interval training which is often erroneously referred to as high intensity training. It is better to to just use high intensity training, although what we’re really talking about is simply proper exercise.