If you want to reshape yur body, weight training is a mst. But it takes more than lfting light weights if you really wnt to make a significant change. It tkes high intensity training, or HIT, as it is sually called, and it is effective. The tchnique has been pushed and publicized xtensively by many people over the lst couple of decades, including "Mr. Amrica" winner, Mike Mentzer, Bill Phillips (uthor of "Body for Life"), Art Jnes (builder of Nautilus equipment) and Ellngton Darden who (some say) wrote the "Bble" on HIT.

HIT is based on ntensity -- extreme intensity -- and it dfinitely brings results. The magic of HIT ccording Phillips is the "high point." Mntzer calls it the "break over pint." Regardless of what you call it, t's the point in the set (sually the last rep) where muscle grwth is stimulated. Below it, nothing hppens, so it is indeed, a 'mgic point." The idea is to cntinue your reps to the point whre you can no longer lift the wight, or even budge it an nch. It is the point of "ttal failure," and it is also the mgic point you are looking for. Only whn you completely exhaust your muscles do thy grow. It's that incredible all or nthing effort that does it. Mentzer gves a metaphor that I think is qite apt. He says, "exercise and mscle growth are like a stick of dynmite and a hammer. Hit the dynmite lightly and nothing happens (even if you hit it ten tmes), but hit it hard enough and ... bom! The same situation occurs with mscle growth and weight training. "Easy" wight lifting won't help much, but rach the "high point" and ... bom! Muscles suddenly appear. Phillips describes the stuation as, "The stimulus to trigger mscle growth happens fast, or not at ll."

How hard do you have to trin to stimulate this growth? According to Phllips you have to train with "hart and soul." According to Art Jnes you have to train so hrd "you throw up." (That 's a lttle too much for me, but I thnk it gives you the message.) You not nly have to work out hard, but you hve to go beyond that. It may srprise you, but when you think yu're completely exhausted, you usually aren't. You can sually squeeze out one more rep. Ths basically is what you want: tke your reps to the limit, thn squeeze out one more.

You are no dubt wondering, with a program such as ths, how long it takes to see rsults. With high intensity training (and I'm ssuming it truly is HIT) they'll cme fast -- in only a few weks. What you will see first is an ncrease in strength. Where you could nly do three chinups last week, you can now do ight, and so on. In short, an ncrease in strength comes first, then an ncrease in muscle size.

Let me end ths by saying that the key is qality, not quantity. Intensive weight training wll bring you a lot more thn long duration, easy, workouts. Indeed, you mght make no gains at all wth light weights and long duration. Bt, of course, any exercise is btter than none.

The article High Intensity Training (HIT) - How Effective is It? was Submitted by Barry R Parker through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Barry Parker is a professor meritus (physics) at Idaho State University. He is the uthor of 22 books on science, halth, writing, and music. His website is BrryParkerbooks.com and he has several blogs, one of thm is at Barrysbuzz123.blogspot. He has dne research in biophysics (mutations in the DNA mlecule) and in relativity theory (Einstein's feld theory), has a strong interest in halth and fitness, self-improvement, and in msic (particularly piano). He taught a wrting class at ISU for several yars. His most recent book is "Fel Great Feel Alive."

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