Don't Knock It Until You Try It

I've trained with weights for over fifteen years. I've read about different training philosophies and through trial and error, tried nearly everything out there. Several years ago, my interest in high-intensity training arose again and I was determined to attempt to reproduce the results that Arthur Jones achieved with his groundbreaking study "Project Total Conditioning." Having already practiced version of high-intensity training several months, I was ready for the next phase - I was ready to perform brief, high-intensity exericse in a circuit. After spending quite some time tracking down a facility that could accomodate me, let me tell you - it was a wake-up call.

When asked, most people will say that they train hard. I would've certainly told you that I train hard as well. Very hard. Well, having someone else, like a trainer, there to motivate you and encourage you truly makes a big difference in how much effort you're able to put forth. Even if you're a highly motivated person you will certainly train at a higher level of intensity and exert more effort if you have an intelligent trainer or partner to oversee your efforts.

I spend much of my time reading about exercise and nutrition and scoffed at the idea of needing a personal trainer, because I thought, "What is this guy going to teach me that I don't already know?" Well, it's not necessarily about being taught anything, but having someone there to supervise your workouts has enourmous potential. For instance, my workouts take no more than 30 minutes and during that time my trainer charts which exercises I'm going to do, the weight used, settings, and performance on each exercise. He makes sure the equipment is properly set up for me, which results in less time wasted. But most of all, his encouragement and coaching is able to coax an extra repetition or two out of me. These things together make having a personal trainer or coach invaluable. That is...if you value your workouts and want them to be as productive as possible.

Which brings me to weight training done ciruit-style. Most people don't really understand what this is and even fewer have actually done it. What I'm referring to is what Arthur Jones (famed Nautilus and MedX inventor) prescribed doing: one exercise performed at a high-intensity until you reach momentary muscular failure and then immediately moving to another exercise.

How many sets? One per exercise.

This does not entail talking. This does not include water breaks. It is exactly what I said - you move from one exercise IMMEDIATELY to the next. No breaks. Do this for ten to twelve exercises and you've completed an entire workout. Doesn't sound too hard? Think again.

Performing a workout like I described above is one of the hardest feats that you will ever do. First of all, training to momentary muscular failure is foreign concept to a great many people. To summarize: training to failure consists of moving the weight until you can no longer perform another full-range repetition. If you are physically capable of performing another repetition - then do it. Stopping short does not consist of going to failure.

There are many high-intensity techniques that can be employed but "training to failure" does not mean moving the weight until you cannot move it another centimeter or letting your sets degenerate into spastic convulsions. It simply means that it is physically impossible for you to perform another repetition, in proper form, with the given weight. This, in itself, is physically very taxing. A great many people stop short of training to failure and this is evident by looking around any gym. Why is this? Training to failure is flat-out hard work. There is no other way to describe it. It's unpleasant and can sometimes cause nausea.

At this point, you may ask, "Why do I have to train so hard? Why can't I go in and just train at moderate intensity?" In an effort to be brief, I will say that your body will not want to change unless you give it a damn good reason to. Your body must be convinced that you have a good reason to add more muscle to your body otherwise it will see no need to add more metabolically active tissue to your frame. Your body must be convinced that your life potentially may depend on adding more muscle. Do you accomplish this by picking up a 5 lb. dumbbell and doing bent-over biceps curls - in a zombie-like fashion, while watching TV? Or...do you do this by performing a very hard and demanding set? The answer should be obvious to many but sadly, it still is not.

Mike Mentzer, years ago, used a fantastic example: he said that employing low-intensity, high-volume training was akin to the sun-worshipper attempting to get a tan by going out at Midnight and laying under the moon for several hours. The stimulus is just not there. That person can lay under the moon for 1 hour, 3 hours, or 5 hours and the result is still going to be the same: no tan.

You have to push your body above and beyond what it normally experiences in order to entice the adaptations that you're after. Going in and doing set after mindless set in the gym hoping to get results will not work. It may've worked for you when you started training with weights in high-school but the reason that it worked - back then - was that your body had not performed any resistance training ever; it had hardly, if ever, been stimulated. In that situation almost anything will yield results for a short period of time.

Okay, back to training:

After your first set, move as fast as possible to your next exercise. The goal is to keep your heart rate high. Why exactly do we want to do that? Keeping your heart rate at a very high level for 15 to 30 minutes has many health benefits and does wonders for cardiovascular conditioning.

After I completed my first circuit I was amazed at how difficult and taxing it was. Remember, if exercise is easy then it's not going to be very productive. There is a dirct correlation in exercise - the harder it is, the more beneficial it is going to be. The easier it is, the less.

The combination of training to failure on every set and then doing it in a very quick fashion really opened my eyes to what hard, effective training is. Unfortunately, duplicating this type of workout in most commercial gyms is very difficult, if not impossible. In order to do this effectively, you'll need to know the settings for every machine that you plan on using (or, if you use free weights, have them set up before you begin). Additionally, you'll have to cross your fingers and hope that no one is using a machine that you need during your circuit. If this happens it can become extremely frustrating but you can work around it if need be.

It's in your best interest to give this type of training an honest try. Just because everyone else trains in an easy fashion and takes 3 minute rest periods does not mean that you have to. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose and only time, muscle, and better conditioning to gain.