Maximize Your Training

Rating:
Summary: HIT: An effective approach with REAL RESULTS
Review: As a captain of Princeton University's varsity wrestling team, I had the opportunity to train under Matt Bryzski (editor of "Maximize Your Training" using the High Intensity Training (HIT) program from 1996 through 2001. The HIT program dramatically improved my physical conditioning and performance as a collegiate wrestler. During my first year and half at Princeton I had moderate success in the weight room and on the mat as I continued to rely on a traditional 3 set workout regimen for lifting. However, halfway through my sophomore year, I began primarily using the HIT program for full body workouts, three times a week. The results were incredible. Without the aid of any supplements, I saw drastic improvements in my strength. In the course of a year, my bench press increased from 12 reps at 165 lbs to 12 reps at 220 lbs; my leg press increased nearly 200 lbs; Hammer Strength lat rows increased from 170 lbs to 230 lbs. I saw similar improvements in all major muscle groups. This significant increase in strength translated to success on the mat. I went from 12-13 my sophomore year to 35-7 and first-team All-Ivy my junior year. I later qualified for Division I Nationals during my senior year. I continue to use HIT today with much success.

Though I am firmly committed to the HIT program, it should be recognized that this is not the only lifting program that works. Empirically, it is hard to completely discard other programs. It should also be noted that HIT is not a magic formula. In order to get great results, you will have to be diligent in your focus and effort every workout. The intensity required to exercise your muscles to failure takes a healthy dose of commitment and hard work. The intensity I learned in the weight room from HIT also prepared me to train more intensely on the mat.

While other lifting programs do work, I feel strongly that the HIT program is the most effective technique for lifting with regards to the time you have to put in. You may be able to get comparable results with another lifting program - but it may take 2-3 times the amount of time required for the HIT program. Anyone who wants to get the most out of his or her workout in the least amount of time - which is everyone from the competitive college athlete to the middle-aged business man trying to stay in shape-should strongly consider the HIT program. But in order to understand how this program works and how it can help you, it is useful to be fully acquainted with the strategies and skills involved in HIT. "Maximize Your Training" is a great place to start.

I highly recommend this program and the intelligent and thoughtful approach the authors and editor take in presenting the HIT program.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: From reading some of the reviews all I can think of saying is this "Did you read it or is it your Ego speaking?" This us and them mentality is pure stupid. This is a very good book and is backed with a bunch of non biased research (Rare in Strength and Conditioning) Just looking at the credentials of the ones bashing it tells the whole story for anyone that has been paying attention. If you are interested in different ways to apply High Intensity Training to your program, this is for you. If your not interested then why waste your time? AND you shouldn't be rating the book if you haven't read it.

Rating:
Summary: Contains at least one gold nugget
Review: I read Cruickshank's review. Obviously, HIT was not the protocol he should have been using. Anyone who has ever wrestled knows that it demands an incredible amount of endurance as well as strength. I don't know what Bryzycki was thinking. Using a standard HIT routine and only that routine to train a wrestler would be like training a marathon runner using only one allout 400-meter dash. Others have criticized Brzycki for being too dogamtic. To prescribe one training protocol for all trainees would seem foolish. Weight training can be used to build strength, size, or local muscle endurance or a combination thereof. The reps per set and total sets or tonnage determine to a large degree what the results will be. Also, individuals vary in their response to exercise, recovery ability, etc. With experience and careful experimentation one might find a "system" that works...for that individual. For example, while I have a fair propensity for building muscle I have found that most of the workouts I see in bodybuilding books lead to rapid overtraining. And for me the recommendation to work calves every day is hogwash. My calves say no less than five days between workouts. More than five sets of heavy bech presses lead to overtrained shoulders. One, two,or even three for me is fine, but never five.

So for me the gold nugget in this book is "The Dose-Response Relationship of Exercise". The author points out that most of his clients need 5-7 days or more between workouts. The time is established by performing a workout, waiting seven days and then doing the workout again and adjusting the interval until progress is made. He also questions the often quoted premise that 96 hours is the bewitching hour after which decompensation takes place. His search of the literature turned up no studies or other evidence to support it.

This article shows is one way to tweak a training regimen to ensure better response. If you believe overtraining is holding you back, then this and a some other books may be of help.

Rating:
Summary: Informative!
Review: I'll try and avoid all the dogmatic HIT vs. non-HIT stuff that is seeping into other folks' reviews and just address the stuff in the book.

Some of the information is good, some not so good. Some of the articles are interesting, some are a bit technical and drawn out.

The bottom line is this: take any strength training book written and sift it through your BS filter. Try the stuff written in it. Keep what works and throw away the rest. But also realize that what works for you may not work for somebody else.

Anyway, my point is that there's a lot of good information in this book and it's a worthy addition to any lifter's library.

Rating:
Summary: Maximize Your Training??? I don't think so!
Review: If anyone knows the science of Supercompensation or the Fitness Fatigue Theories, knows that one bout (one set to failure) of an exercise will just "not" cut the mustard. With the supercompensation theory you debilitate the neuromuscular/cellular responses (which causes stimulation) and then you wait for your body to adjust to the stimulus (through rest/nutrition) you put on the system which in return will make you more proficient (stronger/larger) at the exercises in which you performed before. This so-called one set to failure training will help people with a low training age (beginners less than a year) due to neurological responses (intermuscular coordination)to the low "dose" of exercise that is out of their normal way of living (being a couch potato). Athletes / Weightlifters with a higher training age (several years of training) nearing their "genetic" potential will not adapt to this stimulus due to the fact of the coordination that strength takes on because of the multiple joint movements that need to be done in order to become stronger and larger. If you were to adopt the "one set to failure" formula, you will have to train a heck of a lot more frequently (day wise) in order to have this be effective which really in the end will become a multiple set type of training). One set to failure training is very good for "single-joint" movements (bicep curls, tricep pushdowns) after you have already trained your big, highly coordinated / multiple set Compound Movements in your workout. I enjoyed this book and it gave me ideas in which I have incorporated in my training of single joint movements, but to adopt this for all lifts you are doomed to improve. I don't totally down this type of training, but to develop size and coordination with your lifts you must train with multiple sets (set number is inverse to the repetitions (Lower reps./ greater amount of sets, Higher reps / lesser amount of sets). Like I said before, it all depends on your training age (how close you are to your genetic potential) on if you should adopt this type of philosophy. Good Luck.

Rating:
Summary: The Bible for High Intensity Training
Review: If your into performing power cleans and jumping off boxes don't buy this book. If you want to understand strength training principles and want a comprehensive guide to safe productive strength training then this book is for you. An important part of any strength library.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book, One Weak Spot
Review: Matt Brzycki has compiled some great information with the exception of a chapter written by Brian Johnston which is nothing more than a philosophical diatribe (and is why I didn't give the book five stars). Mr. Johnston has no educational background or creditials that match those of the other writers in the book--he simply recites, song and verse, the mantra of his mentor, the late Heavy Duty Bodybuilder Mike Mentzer.

The remainder of the information provided by some people with solid academic backgrounds is worth the read. Just skip Johnston's chapter.

Rating:
Summary: Top notch
Review: Matt Brzycki has done an incredible job with this book. I definitely put on the "must-haves" for strength training alongside Stuart McRobert's books.

Brzycki has done a great job in assembling top notch experts in the field of strength training. I read the negative review from Cruickshank and have to highly disagree. First, this is not a "Brzycki" book. Whether or not he trained under Matt Brzycki is irrelevant. This book is not a collection of Matt's ideas/approaches. It's compilation from a wide variety of authors, including Dr. Ken Leistner (Powerlifting guru), Jan Dellinger (nobody knows iron history better that I've seen), Ken Mannie and Dr. Ted Lambrinides - and that's just a few of the authors. So the reviewer's experiences with Matt Brzycki - whatever they were - are completely irrelevant to appraising this book.

To be completely honest I didn't like every single chapter. But that's okay. Every chapter has a different author's perspective on different training issues/methods. There are many different ways to do things. But their underlying philosophy of "train, hard, briefly and infrequently" has been proven successful going back a century (do some research on how the old time bodybuilders of the 20s-50s trained before the advent of steroids).

There is stuff in this book you simply CANNOT find in any other book that I've ever seen, like Bill Piche's chapter on Powerlifting HIT. I think it's very useful for any trainee - powerlifter or not - to learn some of those exercises like ball squats and trap bar deadlifts. This guy has certainly been in the trenches too - he's noted as having deadlifted 600lbs at a 198lb bw without the use of steroids.

This book covers the whole gamut of strength training, with one notable exception - detailed descriptions of the most productive strength training exercises. That's the one thing that's missing with this book. However, given the huge size of this book - it's virtually an encylopaedia with over 400 pages - this is understandable. The editor has published another book - "A Practical Approach to Strength Training - that describes in detail many exercises. I'd also recommend Stuart McRobert's book on exercise technique as well.

There isn't any nonsense in this book about miracle supplements or "secret" routines that are pushed every month by the unscrupulous muscle magazines. This book tells you all you need to know about strength training (again, with that one exception of exercise description).

My feeling is that there is just too much junk out there in terms of training advice. The best advice I can give to the trainee is to just read a very small number of books - this being one of them - and never EVER read another muscle magazine. Training really isn't that complicated, despite what some con artists will have you believe.

Good luck with your training!

Rating:
Summary: great representation of strength training
Review: maximize your training, edited by matt brzycki, is a great representation of strength and conditioning. it presents a practical and SAFE approach to strength and conditioning that does NOT include ballistic training. some of the very top names in professional training are represented including shaun brown from the boston celtics, tom kelso from southeast missouri state university, and jeff friday form the baltimore ravens. a must buy for the "clinical" strength training professional

Rating:
Summary: The one book that covers every aspect of training!
Review: This book brings together the top strength authorities in effective weight training today, it covers every aspect of training one could be looking for. The amount of information in this book is easy to read and to apply to ones training . This book is highly recommended to anyone who is in the field of strength training or even the hobbiest, as it will set you down the right path to productive training.