BF2002

I did 16 weeks of the HIT training method using the original Arthur Jones Nautilus machines when I was in my freshman year of college. I had very good immediate strength gain since it was the first time I ever lifted weight. I didn't see too much muscle mass gains.

After this, I did a semester following a full-body routine of 1 excercise per bodypart for 3 sets, along with cardio. I made strength gain, but again didn't see much muscle mass increase.

I worked out for another year at a Bally's Health Club using the full body routine with a mix of Nautilus, Universal, and computerized Life Cycle machines.My gain stalled soon with the same program. I didn't gain much mass, but I never used free weights, never paid much attention to nutrition except for the shake I drank before working out, and probably needed to go to a more advanced program.

I was pretty happy with the muscle gains (very small) I made and the increase in strength. However, I eventually stopped working out.

Last year, about 10 months ago, I got back into it. Some very painful and terrible events led to it --- the breakup of my marriage when my left after I discovered.her 2+ year affair.

So over a decade after my last workout, I started lifting again. This time, I did a strict body split routine from the first day. It was easier for me to focus and was the way I understood most serious bodybuilders trained. I had read bodybuilding magazine in my college training days. I just didn't implement them because I was so indoctrinated by the Arthur Jones HIT method. Even the 3 sets per excercise/bodypart felt like I was breaking cardinal rules. I had always previously accepted that my gains were slow because, as Arthur Jones stated, my genetics were just of a very slim bodytype. My doctor in college had told me diet wasn't important since my metabolism was so fast, it didn't matter much. The second weight coach (with the multiple sets, whole body philosophy) stated I could gain at most 30-35 lbs. of muscle in no less than 3 years, if I consistently worked out. I just accepted that genetically, this was my potential.

However, when I started working out again, I had gone past the HIT philosophies and come to realize the split routines and high volume was the way to go, at least for the beginner bodybuilder. Health and Fitness had some good articles explaining why. Newer trainers need to work on building up their nervous systems and multiple sets did this best. Mens Health, which advocates compound lifts and whole body routines, explains this very well too. Both advocated whole body routines initially and going to a split with increased volume later.

I opted to jump right to the full body split and started with a more moderate number of sets and volume to build up my muscular endurance. I had a trainer for motivation and to watch my form. We worked together for 3 moths during my contract assignment in Denver. I made great gains in dropping my bodyfat from 20% to 11% along with great strength increases and increases in muscle mass.

After that assignment, I spent almost 2 months doing hardcore lifting in my body split, with 16-24 sets per bodypart. I made great gains in mass and strength.

I've spent the last 4 months consolidating my gains in my chest, built up much more strength in my back along with improved definnition, along with an improved upper chest, and more striated shoulders. My arms are the same strength as 4 months ago, but harder. They don't need much stimulation anymore, with all the work they do for the chest, shoulder, and back work. I'm concentrating on building up my legs, which I had just maintained and lost a bit for a while, since 4 months. A lot of these gains, along with some of the cutting and weight loss (I lost about 5 lbs. to get more definition), involved some weeks where I did full body circuit training for a third of the bodies muscles split better upper, ab/lower back, and lower bodyparts. During more traditional bodypart days, I would do supersets of 2, 3, and 4 excercises with limited rest between excercises. These built up my overall body endurance, helped burn more calories/fat, and increase GH release which increases mass faster. I have also strived to make the core of my excercise routines, whether on a upper/middle/lower body day or a more traditional bodypart day, rotate around compound excercises (barbell rows, squats, deadlifts, presses) which tend to build the most muscle due to the GH effect and involvement of many large muscles.

At this point, I'm starting to do so periods of lower volume and HIT type training. However, it's a scary experiment, as I haven't done this since my first 16 weeks lifting weights, and goes against so much commonly accepted and mainstream bodybuilding philosophy among the hardcore lifting crowd. Some bodybuilders have used the methods successfully, so I'm starting to try it for some bodyparts where I have much less to risk. Arms seem to be a natural test case, since they get so much indirect work and that's where most of my growth seems to have come from to start with.

I am a big believer in free weights, because it is what has made me gain the muscle mass in 10 months I was told I could never achieve in less than 3 years. Machines helped me gain strength but never much definition, and this was only during the first 4 months of my lifting, when everyone gains whatever they do. Compound excercises lead to the most growth, and they are best done with free weights to work the auxillary muscles and to bring in more muscle fiber recruitment and therefore more intensity which leads to more GH release and more growth.