Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1697: HIIT Training Doesn’t Work (Unless You Follow These Steps)

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin discuss everything HIIT  HIIT training season is here! (1:26) Busting the myths surrounding HIIT. (6:00) Who is HIIT training for? (7:36) How has HIIT training been abused? (9:24) HIIT Training Doesn’t Work (Unless You Follow These Steps). (13:49) Step #1 – Programming matters! (15:30) Step #2 – Have perfect form. (18:10) Step #3 – Use rest periods as a tool to compose yourself. (23:06) Step #4 – Apply plyometrics properly. (28:04) Step #5 – Phase your programming. (32:35) Step #6 – Focus on mobility. (38:24) Why everyone should start as a beginner. (41:57) Related Links/Products Mentioned December Promotion: MAPS HIIT and MAPS SPLIT 50% off! **Promo code “DECEMBER50” at checkout** Concurrent resistance and endurance training influence basal metabolic rate in nondieting individuals Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max The effects of high intensity interval training on muscle size and quality in overweight and obese adults Mind Pump #1042: The Truth About HIIT- The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Mind Pump #1205: Do The Risks Of HIIT Training Outweigh The Benefits? Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump right in today's episode. We talk about hit training. Why it doesn't work unless you follow the right steps. A lot of people do it wrong.

Actually, most people do hit training wrong, which is a travesty because when done properly, hit training can burn a tremendous amount of body fat, improved strength stamina. It's a great way to interrupt your year long training cycles for incredible results. But again, a lot of people do them wrong. By the way, this episode is brought to you by Maps Hit.

So this is our high-intensity interval training workout program. We did it right. We programmed it right. This is how to do hit training the right way. And right now, it's 50% off. So if you're interested, head over to mapsfitinistproducts.com and then use the code December 50. Again, that's December, five zero with no space for that discount. Oh, by the way, we are also having another program on sale, maps split.

So if you're more into bodybuilding style training, use that same code to December 50 for half off, again, at mapsfit at maps fitness products.com Boys, we are entering into a hit training season. I think this is when everybody starts towards close soon. Everybody starts to hit it. That's actually an interesting point. Do you think that we are heading into the most popular time for hit or do you think it is heading into like springtime? No, I think so because, yeah, after the holidays, it's like everybody gets in this hustle of like, oh no, like I need to do something about this and what's the quickest way I can lose weight? Yeah, I remember specifically.

So I started training professionally, I guess it's a kid, right? So I was 1997 or 98, I started working in gyms and hit didn't exist, right? The acronym high intensity interval training wasn't a thing. Cardio was doing the stair master or the treadmill or the bike. In fact, ellipticals, I don't even think existed at that time. And that was that.

And then I remember, I don't remember when this happened. I won't say. Oh, 102. Was it early 2001? It was the reason why I remember so vividly is because I was a new trainer, I was pretty brand. I was like maybe a year or two in the business. And maybe like we could probably go back and like fact check me on these

when it really started to, I mean, maybe it started before but it became popular. Yeah. Because I was in the gyms, I was working in gyms in 2000 and it wasn't but a year or two later, did it become like, I mean, and being completely transparent, like I trained like every fucking client hit for like a year or two later did it become like, and being completely transparent, like I train like every fucking client hit for like a year. Everybody did, like did matter your goal

to make everyone build muscle, lose body fat, all the current studies that were being touted at that time were related to hit and all its benefits. Well, I remember specifically there was one study that is the reason why every trainer did this. Yeah, I remember that. The experienced trainers didn't, I do reason why every trainer did this. Especially new trainers. The experienced trainers didn't. I do remember that.

It was all of us new trainers, but there was a study that came out that showed that something like, you know, 15 minutes or 20 minutes of hit training was as effective as, I don't remember, I mean to throw out a number, something like an hour worth of traditional steady-state cardio. So all of a sudden, everybody was like, oh my gosh, I could get the same potential calorie burning effect or fat loss effect or whatever, with a less than half of the time. And so it just became this huge thing.

And it was probably early 2000s. I do remember that. And I remember all of a sudden, nobody did traditional cardio. Everybody was doing a hit training. I do remember, though, too, that study. The one I read at least was very controlled. It had a guy on a bike.

And it wasn't an assault bike. It was something very similar to that where they were doing just constant sprints. And then they would rest for a brief minute. They would do sprints again. So it was like, it was different than what all of a sudden hit became. But that was definitely, it was different than what all of a sudden hit became. But that was definitely the study that then a lot of trainers

used to justify these, like, mean. So that's interesting that we're all, I mean, we all remember different studies. So I remember the muscle sparing one. So I remember the research that was done around how muscle sparing it was, like, oh, and you could do this cardio, burn the most amount of it, but then not, because here's the thing

I remember being the the skinny kid trying to build muscle I didn't want to lose muscle so cardio was like that's not happening and so when this study came out and said Wow, I could do this cardio and actually not lose muscle that it was the most muscle sparing way for you to do cardio That's what triggered it for me or at least what I remember now. Doug just pulled up a to do cardio, that's what triggered it for me or at least what I remember. Now Doug just pulled up a article that said this was popular in the 70s, I call bullshit. Yeah, well they didn't call it hit training,

I don't think, I think they might have called it. You know what, there's a, I mean we should credit the coach who did it, right? So it's coach Peter Coe is supposedly the first person to like really make it popular, but it wasn't popular then. It wasn't, when we, Well, no, it's not working.

When I was in high school and we were lifting weights, like I never even heard the term hit until the 2000. You know, the closest thing I remember that was old, and I only remember this because the name was so funny as a kid, I thought it was hilarious. Heartlake. You ever, you know, it's heartlaking, yeah.

Heartlaking is, it's like that. You run and then you walk, where do we go back, go back to, it says Arthur Jones. Bring that back. Go up, go up right there, right there. Oh, it's the Arthur Jones.

No, his, his was high intensity training, not high intensity interval training. Oh. So Arthur Jones is the one that pioneered the last. Not a list. One set to failure. The famous KC Viator study, the Denver product. Yeah, yeah.

I just say he was a known for hit. No, he was not known for hit. But this came out and there was a known for hit. No, he was not known for hit, but this came out and there was a study that showed that, oh, it burns as many calories, but you gotta do less time, it spares muscle. There was another study showed, it's got some positive hormone effects.

Now there's some truth to this, and then there's also a little bit of false expectations. Now the truth in it is that, yes, in a head to head comparison, so long as it's appropriate and all things are equal, it is more muscle-sparing because it's the resistance training form of cardio. So let me explain, right? Yeah, that's like saying, like, hammer is incredible

when hitting a nail. Yeah, anything else, it's not very useful. Well, you know what it is. It's not very good for screws. You know what it reminds me of, it's like when people, you ever talk to like the average person who doesn't know much about exercise and you say, hey, you should try resistance training. It's really effective.

And they'll say, oh, I use dumbbells and barbells. And you're like, oh, yeah, how do you use them? I do the body pump class in my gym or I do this large circuit. And then you have to explain to them, well, you're doing cardio with weights. Even though you're using resistance, you're actually making it more like cardio. Yeah. Hick training, although it is a form of cardiovascular training, is more like resistance training than

traditional cardiovascular training because of the short durations of maximal intensity. And it's more related to like sprinting. So you're going to get more of that muscle sparing effect than you would if you did, you know, steady state kind of long duration low intensity type of cardio. But the problem now is what typically happens in the fitness space is a study or two will come out. And so long as it feeds the popular narrative, which is the harder the better,

oh cool, we can have short time, oh, I can beat the crap out of my clients, then it's gonna become popular. And this is just what tends to happen. And it got abused and it got applied poorly. And I'll be honest with you, let me ask you guys a question. How often do you see hit training being applied appropriately or properly in the gym?

I can't think of an example other than maybe somebody else training. Never, almost never. It's used the way you just you just explain which is most people are just doing cardio with weights Most people are attracted to the sweat the burn the high intensity aspect of hit And so the the protocol the prerequisites get kind of thrown out the door and it's just can I make this client sweat and burn prerequisites get kind of thrown out the door. And it's just, can I make this client sweat and burn and feel like they got an incredible workout? And what really that ends up mirroring more

like running on a treadmill on a stairmaster? Yes, you're using dumbbells or barbells to do it, but it actually looks more like, what's going on inside your body? Looks more like what happens when you get on a treadmill. If you apply lift weights. Totally, because if you apply hit training properly, and you do it right in a short period of time,

because your body will adapt to it after a certain period of time, but if you do it right, it's extremely effective. But it also has to be appropriate for the person. There are people that hit training, I would never apply, hit training to a lot of people. Like if I trained somebody who is deconditioned, hasn't worked out in a while, maybe doesn't have good stability, or maybe they're over stressed, you get that type of individual,

it's just super high stress. Hit training is terrible. It's a super high intense way of getting their body to crash or injure themselves. Unfortunately, the people I just labeled are the ones that often gravitate towards hit training. So you have to be for the right person. You have to be able to move well, not being a super high stress lifestyle because it is extremely high stress on the body.

It's a form of exercise. It's very high stress. And if you, if you're not any of those two things and you do it right and there's more that goes into it, then it can be, you know,, I mean, that really, I guess, is what, why usually it sounds like we're against hit or at least me personally. It's just because I've seen so many examples of people out there that can't even maintain proper posture,

just through a strength exercise where you're just supposed to be controlled. You're supposed to have control over your body and without restriction in the joint, without pain in the joint, and be able to the joint, without pain in the joint, and be able to, you know, apply these movements without, with ease. And then to then jump them into something that's like really explosive and fast paced, it's just to me like, why are you doing that?

I don't think you come off like we, like you don't like it or hate it or that you're against it. I think that it's, I think you're on point. I think that it's of all the modalities of training out there, it's one of the most abused. Clearly, it's just that. It's not that your anti-it or there's not tremendous value in it or it's not applicable to certain clients. It's just that when you look at like all the different ways

of training, ought to be able to abuse yoga. It's not a popularly abused, this is an abused way of training because of the things that Sal was alluding to with the burn and the intensity. It feeds into all that. Yeah, and the mainstream narrative, it feeds into that, therefore, it happens to be one of the most abused. Yeah, and here's one of the other reasons why it's abused or used them properly is that people, oftentimes, this is true for all forms of exercise, people judge the effectiveness by how hard it feels or how much they suffer through the workout. And because hit training literally has intensity in the name. Now crappy coaches and trainers

and popular fitness media companies can sell programs that just do that. And so then people do it and they're like, oh my God, I could barely finish and I'm breathing hard. I'm sweating a little. This is a great workout when in fact it's not. Here's one of the biggest, number one biggest mistakes I see with hit training.

When I examine hit workouts, which if you look at all the most popular workouts that are sold to the, like workout programs that are sold to the average person, hit style workouts have to be near the top, right? That style of training has got to be up near the top. So when I look at all of them, I almost never see great workout programming.

It's almost like, and I and this is probably what happens, is they throw together difficult exercises together. And they say, you know, it would be really hard after doing jump squats, burpees. Oh, you know, we could do next. Let's throw in some, you know, some windmills or let's throw in some, you know, whatever, to make it really hard. And there's almost no focus on programming. It's almost like the exercises are interchangeable. It doesn't matter.

So long as you do them in a row. Well, I clearly remembered doing that myself. I remember sitting down and riding hit workouts for clients back in 0102 and what decided what exercise I had put there was I was always thinking what was going to elevate their heart rate up the most. What could I do? So let's say I'm trying to attack the full body.

Like this is exactly the thought process of my programming back. This is why I wasn't a great trainer. But I also know that almost all trainers did it this way. It's like, okay, today's a full body routine. I got to train this client. So I want to, I got to hit buys, try shoulders with that. Well, I know that when my client does a bicep curl,

a tricep push down, and a lateral raise, their heart rate doesn't get up there very high because it's very, very small muscles that we're hitting. So what I wanna do is I wanna do a squat first, then I'm gonna do that, then I'm gonna do this. And then when I go to the next series of exercises, I'm gonna pick another compound lift first, and then do the smaller muscles

because I'm gonna elevate the heart rate to keep it up while I do all these other ones. So I get the most calorie burn. That was the thought process when writing a hit program back then. And I still think it is today. So when you see, and that's what I see when I walk in a gym and I see trainers training clients, is I always see a compound or plyometric exercise paired with the little auxiliary movements. And you know what they're doing. They're using those compound lifts or plyometric exercises to elevate the heart rate so that they're burning more calories when they do the same.

Yeah, it's always jump squats, jump lunges, squat press, burpees, all just kind of thrown together. Sometimes jumping jacks and climbers. Yeah, they'll throw mountain climbers in there because the trainers like, what else can I do? I ran out of exercises. This will make them really tired. I like the term programming when we talk about designing a good workout because we can take

that word and as an analogy, we can look at programming for like technology or computers, right? If we break it down and I'm not a programmer with computers, but I could safely say that a lot of programming is basically ones and zeros, right? So it's ones and zeros. But those numbers aren't interchangeable. I can't just throw a bunch of ones and zeros out on a computer screen and then expect it to make a program.

There has to be an order and there's a way you put them together that creates the beauty of whatever program you're trying to create. We'll now take that understanding and apply to exercise. Rather than ones and zeros, what good trainers and coaches have to work with are exercises, tempo, rep ranges, exercise order. What we start with, what we finish with,

what follows each exercise. And I'm sure by the way, an engineer would tell you that's what coding is like too. That there's all these different variables. You're saying ones and zeros because we know nothing about it. 100%. I guarantee an engineer would say you that's what coding is like. Absolutely. That there's all these different variables. You're saying ones and zeros because we know nothing about it. 100%. I guarantee an engineer would say there's all kinds of variables just like. 100% and good programming results in the desired result.

Results, it ends up with the result you're looking for, fat loss, muscle gain, balance, symmetry, aesthetics, right? If I just throw a bunch of stuff onto a piece of paper and say, here's your workout, and there's no emphasis on good programming, what you're gonna get at most, at most, is you'll move and you'll sweat, okay? You're good, tired.

Here's what you'll get at worst. Injury, overstress your body, muscle loss, you're gonna feel like crap, hormone dysfunction, right? Which often happens when people just do a lot of these workouts because the programming sucks. So number one, with high intensity interval training, the programming matters as much as it does with any other type of workouts. Arguably more. You're right, because the intensity and how you're working so quickly, that a small, like the wrong programming, the wrong exercise at the wrong time, is going to greatly increase risk of injury or reduce the chance of really good results.

So programming makes a huge difference and most hip programs are not written with that intent whatsoever. They're just written with exercises that are hard. This is why, for example, when we created our hit program, we spent a lot of time. We actually sat down and spent a lot of time figuring out the order and the reps and how we're going to do these particular exercises because we know that that's one of the most important features of a good work. Yeah, because we're doing these with speed now and we're cutting our rest time.

So what does that transition look like going into another exercise? As a coach, you got to make sure you're setting your client up for success. So there's not a whole lot of things that got a battle in terms of like being able to control their body, be able to be composed and not fatigue them too early, right? In the workout and something that they can kind of string out. So all of those little factors matter when you're stacking these exercises together. Well, for the audience that actually cares about this stuff, it was the largest launch and the biggest program launch we'd ever did in Mind Pump's history. And by the way, it was, we didn't come out with that program until we wrote lots of other prerequisite programs.

And I remember that. I remember our marketing team was so mad at us for not coming out with it first, but we're like, we can't responsibly do this until we have these other things that people can set themselves also. The only program of all programs that we have that has a warning on it because we know that it's abused so frequently by people and that we don't encourage people to stay in that. And of all the programming that we have, it's the one that I would not recommend that people

run in a loop. You could get away with running Maps and Obolic all year long, the way it's phased, it's set up. And it doesn't mean that you couldn't technically do hit, but we don't recommend it because that's what most people do. No, I think the best way to apply hit training, if you want maximum results, is to use it as a way to, is interject it into other workout programming. So two-thin erupts.

To interrupt all the other maps for the program. Yeah, so like you'll follow a map, Santa Bolic, and then you'll do mapsit, and then you'll go and do maybe maps performance, and then you could do mapsit again. And in that short period of time, it's very effective at burning body fat, improving stamina, improving strength endurance and that kind of stuff.

Go ahead. Well, I was going to say this kind of leads into the next point, but like back on the programming side of it, it may look simple on paper. And this is something like as far as a critique, if it gets any critiques, the way that we program this is because we intentionally made sure that the flow was right, that as you're performing these exercises, you're still able to do them with correct form and composure. To do that, you're not going to want to throw the kitchen sink out there just to where

you are, which is what you see on TV, which is what you see in magazines, and you see all these like crazy ass workouts that have like all the coolest, you know, craziest looking exercise and moves that are worthless. So, you know, just to bring it back down to still it down to what matters and to perform it and execute it, you know, with perfect form is something that is a big deal. For some reason, of all the forms of exercise, hit training somehow gets a pass for perfect form. Now bad trainers and bad coaches and people who don't know will have bad form when they do almost anything because they're just after the burn and the sweat. But even I've even seen decent trainers take form and throw out the window when it comes

to hit training because the goal they think with it training is the intensity aspect of it. So it's almost like, well, your form can be lot looser with this exercise because we're doing hit or you don't have to be perfect. That is so wrong. It's because they have the wrong people doing it. That's why. You see, it's most popular used with people

that are overweight and relatively new to the gym as this quick way to get them to shred body fat and hopefully Hang on to some muscle or build a little bit of muscle So the the person that is doing this is not the right clientele that you see the least most I mean you see some some people that are advanced and athletes that are doing it Which is fine? There are probably a better a better avatar for that But I think it why you see that is because you have these new people, you have coaches and trainers that want to show this client quick results because they have a lot of weight

to shed. They know if they keep them moving and burning a ton of calories, forget that their burpees look ugly and their jump boxes look like their knees are going to explode. I know they're burning and they're burning a ton of calories and they're gonna lose some weight from this, so they're applying it to what I think is the wrong population of people. Yeah, I think just to illustrate this, if you imagine every exercise has,

let's say two meters on every exercise, and one meter is how effective you can make that exercise, and then there's another meter that says how dangerous or how high the potential of risk is, or that you can make this particular exercise. The better your form is, the higher the potential of the effectiveness of the exercise and the lower the potential of risk of injury for that exercise. The worse your form is, the less results you get from it and the higher risk of injury. This is true for any type of workout program, especially for hitch training, because hitch training has a lot of fatigue involved. So perfect form is absolutely crucial.

Now with hitch training, oftentimes, what people will do, and this is part of hitch training, is you'll do an exercise until, maybe you can't perform the exercise anymore, but people misunderstand that as, I do this until I can't move anymore. No, you do it until your perfect form is no longer perfect. That means you're done.

Now we move on to the next movement. Because the second your form isn't perfect, we're losing effectiveness. We're actually wasting time with what we're doing. And we're only increasing risk of injury. And what do you here for, right? You're here to get maximum results and not hurt yourself. And the way to do that is for perfect form. So hit training, you have to have a very strong emphasis on form and you almost never see that with any kind of fatigue-based program. It's almost like it gets a pass because it's hit training. Yeah, it's just kind of funny if you just

think about like continually practicing bad behavior, what are you going to replicate after that? So it's just about making sure that what you're doing is quality. So that way when you actually go to use this or apply this to other workouts, you still maintain that good behavior, that good form. Yeah, well, a good squat is, for example, done properly, is extremely safe. It strengthens the lower body. It works the quadriceps, the hamstrings, the glutes, it works the core and the stabilizers. You get some upper thoracic stability. It's a phenomenal exercise, okay?

A squat done poorly trains all those muscles I just explained, not very well. And now you've dramatically increased the risk of pain and injury in your knees, in your low back, in your hips, in your ankles, which is why hit training has a higher rate of injury than other forms of exercise. Again, because people don't realize that perfect form is crucial for all forms of resistance training, but especially for hip-tiles. Well, I think part of what leads to that is not only do I think the wrong people are doing it, but also the next point is a major reason for this and that is the lack of rest periods. Yeah.

So not only do I see the wrong people doing it, but then I see coaches and trainers teaching it again, like cardio where there's either no rest periods or very minimal rest periods for the client to fully recover so then they can go perform that perfect form. When you are exhausted and then you're trying to perform a complex movement like a squat. Squats are hard with rest. You got perfect rest and you start off on squat.

You rest for four minutes and it's still hard. Squat is still a very technical exercise. Same thing with a jump box or some of these movements that you see people using in these circuits. And that's another reason why I think this is why you see it poorly programmed and failed as the lack of the rest. The problem is with hip training, we identified as no rest. And the truth is, you should still have rest. It's not like rest periods with traditional resistance training.

So traditional resistance training, you're probably on average resting 90 seconds, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, depending on what phase you're in your training. With hit training, it is true that you rest less, but you still need to rest long enough to be able to perform the next exercise with perfect form. So you don't need to be fully rested.

It is more cardio than other forms of resistance training, but you still need to have enough rest to get your composure so that you can perform the next exercise with perfect form. That's one of the reasons why the form is so crappy with it training. And that's why too, it's on an individual basis. Yes. Not everybody is going to have the same type of conditioning like coming into it. And so you have to pay attention to those things yourself to know when your form starts to degrade, when I can't perform this exercise correctly. And then like how long it takes for me to

regain my composure. So I know, okay, now this exercise I can do this with good form. Well, isn't this also one of the number one reasons why it is effective is the heart rate variability? Is the, God, so glad you said that. Is the difference just keeping it up the whole time? Yeah, if you're just keeping it up all the time, sure you may be quote unquote, burning more calories. So it's an interval. What makes hit training so beneficial is the recovery process. Yeah. Is the heart rate coming back down towards the resting heart rate and then the climb again and the coming back down. If you don't have the peaks and valleys like that, you lose a lot of the benefits from it, then it is, if it's just peaked all the time,

then it's just cardio. That's all you're doing. You want the real benefits of hit. One of the most valuable things that you can do is allow the heart rate to come all the way back down, which is this is where you have to modify a person. I could have one person where all they need to rest is 30 seconds to a minute

because they're cardio-dirted. It's there. Yeah, and they go right back at it. Then I have one person where all they need to rest is 30 seconds to a minute because they're in cardio-derms. They're in shape. Yeah, and they go right back at it. Then I'm another person, I might have to rest three minutes for their heart rate to drop back down for me to go back at it again. So you've got to be able to do that.

Yeah, you know, in fact, when you look at the most basic forms of hit that are very simple, performed on like an air dine or a treadmill, what they tell you to do is to train at maximal heart rate and then wait till your heart rate comes down. However long that takes, before you go and do another interval, a lot of people don't consider that.

And to them, it's like, I do this sprint and then I cruise for 20 seconds and I got sprint again, regardless of my heart rate, which does completely defeat the purpose. So good hit training would offer you some type of a complex where you're doing multiple exercises. And then you should probably rest long enough to let the heart rate come down, compose yourself before you do it again. Not what a lot of people do, which is they go, go, go until they can't move anymore. And you know, back to Adam's

point, like, if I do a really hard set of squats where I rack the bar, and I'm like, I can't move anymore. And you know, back to Adam's point, like, if I do a really hard set of squats where I rack the bar and I'm like, I can't do another rep with good form, you can tell me to do a set of dumbbell curls and look crappy right afterwards. I'm so exhausted, a simple exercise like dumbbell curls and it'll look really bad. I'm not going to have bad form. So I also in between exercises have to give myself at least enough rest to be able to compose myself. Not as long as I would with a traditional resistance training workout, but enough to

wear, okay, I can do some good, quality reps. Otherwise this is the truth. If you don't follow those things that I just said, the exercises don't matter. It really, no joke. It is well, jump in place. I swear to God, I used to tell my trainers this. That would work for me. When I, after they do a training session,

then I would do a, like a training session for the trainers, because I don't want to, you know, isolate a specific trainer, but I would say to them, if your clients are looking like this, you're not giving them enough rest to compose themselves, I don't know why you guys are putting different exercises together. You mean we'll just do this. Yeah, you might as well just have him jump in place

and run in circles. Save your money totally. Because it doesn't matter. And this is to people who are thinking about hiring coaches. You don't need, if that's what you want to do, you don't need to hire anybody, literally move for 30 minutes real hard. And it's the same thing.

So the form is crucial and the rest is a tool that's used to ensure perfect form, which brings me to the next thing. This is a super big pet peeve of mine. For some reason, one of the most popular forms of exercise in hit training is plyometrics. Now here's the irony of all that. Of all forms of exercise,

plyometrics has to be the most specific in terms of how it needs to be applied. Plyometrics literally, the reason why they exist at all is to improve explosive ability. Now, to improve explosive ability, or to improve strength ability or endurance ability, you have to train it. So I can't get more explosive with pliometrics

if I'm not training it explosively. It's impossible to train pliometrics explosively when I'm just doing it explosively, it's impossible to train plyometrics explosively when I'm just doing it in a fatigue circuit. So now I'm just jumping up and down, there's zero explosiveness going on. All I'm doing is jumping in place, until I can't move anymore. Kind of speaks a little to the biomechanics of it,

but really, what you're trying to do is generate as much force as possible at that one instance. And to be able to do that, you can't have any inkling of fatigue. And so to be able to now take my body through this entire process where I need this triple extension, I need all these joints to communicate with each other at once and to perform this explosively, I need to make sure I'm under the utmost composure and focus. It takes a lot of focus.

So to be able to apply plyometrics properly for one, you know, you need a lot of focus and concentration and you need to have your wits about you. You need to be not in any state of fatigue and then also back to the original point of the prerequisites. So to be able to apply these exercises, we got to make sure our joints are healthy enough to handle that kind of stress. Again, the programming on this, right? The reason why people or trainers do this is only because it's hard. It's just like I was saying earlier about the squatting and the barbell complexes, when you would write those, when I would write those,

when I was 20 years old on these, I would go, okay, oh man, jump boxes, those are really fucking hard. So I'll put that first, and then I'll do this extra, and it was literally the whole reason why I'm putting in there is not because I'm gonna try and help this person jump better or improve their form or work their quads so much. It was that I know this is going to elevate

the shit of their heart rate, and then I would go to these other exercises, and it couldn't be more, program more awful than that, because how risky plyometrics are. I did the same thing, and that's exactly it. It's like, I'm gonna pick a hard exercise just to make you tired. I can do that with much safer,

like if that's your goal, if your goal is just to get tired, don't pick plyometrics, because what you're doing is you're picking exercises now that have a high risk of injury when you're really tired. If you want to train explosive ability, fast twitch muscle fibers, right, these are the muscle fibers that have the greatest potential for visible change. These are the ones that grow and sculpt. Then you have to do it explosively. You can't do it super fatigueigued. Otherwise, it's just, again, it's endurance training, in which case, don't do plyometrics. And then back to Justin's point, if you can't squat with perfect form and stability, then you have no business squat jumping. Like all you're doing is adding an

element of explosiveness to something that you can't do that's when you're when you're not being explosive, right? But if you can do it perfectly and you do everything right and it's programmed properly, plyometrics have tremendous benefits. They can really change the body and they have so much carry over to your other exercises. I mean, power lifters. Okay, if you look at powerlifting for people who don't know, it's a, it's a sport where people compete in the bench press, the dead lift and the squat. And when you watch powerlifting competitions,

they don't look explosive. I mean, they're lifting maximal weight, they're grinding the weight up. It might take them three seconds to get the weight up. And it's a very controlled, like strength movement. Yet years ago, powerlifters realized that if they did some explosive training in their training, which meant they used lighter weight and they moved the weight much faster,

they got great strength gains as well. I think at some point people who are training just for muscular hypertrophy, just for size, we'll really start to figure this out. In fact, you see sometimes people in putting plyometrics in their training just to get more development. So it's a very effective tool, but it's a tool that needs to be used properly and most hit training programs, throw plyometrics in just to get you tired. And they're not being used properly at all. And it's at the peak, right?

And so it's kind of that point, which with our next point about phasing, you know, your programming and making sure that it's stacked in such a way that you're kind of leading up to something like a plyometric type of a workout, which we're sort of prepping the body. So considering that we start out with lifting weights and doing traditional type of weightlifts,

now we cut the rest time in between and we get that benefit from it. Then we move on to multi-planar type movements and using dumbbells and then we get into plyometric training. There's a reason, a rhyme and a reason why we set you up in that direction. Yeah, I don't think when I looked at all the hip programs that were out there before we did ours, there was no attention paid to this, right? Yeah, with phasing. The only, most of them were circuit-based, was the same thing that you were running over and over.

Or, at best, you would just interchange exercises. Oh, so instead of doing this squat right here, I'm gonna put the deadlift right here. Like that was the, that's all they were doing to change the routine up, instead of actually methodically thinking about what adaptation are we focusing on right now, running that for a couple of weeks,

and then phasing out of that and then something else. You just didn't see that. No theme, yeah. There's no theme to the phases. Phases need to have a theme. Yeah. There's no theme to the phases. Faises need to have a theme. Strength, power, you know, multiplayer movement, because when you're training specifically for a theme or an adaptation, the body does a very damn good job of moving in that direction.

If there's no theme, what ends up happening is you get some great results for two or three weeks, your body adapts. Look, we've all experienced this. You've done a routine. You're, let's say you try and you work out. ends up happening is you get some great results for two or three weeks, your body adapts. Look, we've all experienced this. You've done a routine, you, let's say you try and you work out, you saw it in a magazine or online, and you're like, oh my God,

it's the best workout I've ever done. In the last, you know, 60 days, my bench press went up 15 pounds, my squat went up 30 pounds. This is amazing, you're telling your friends, this is the greatest workout of all time. I can't, this is gonna get me where I wanna go. And then all of a sudden, it just stops working.

All of a sudden, you know, four weeks later, or whatever, six weeks later, you're working out. You're like, what happened, man, I hit a hard plateau. And then you just, you know, stubbornly stick to it, right? I've done this so many times, right? I'm just, because I remember how great it was a few weeks ago. Not only is your body plateau, then it starts to go backwards.

What the hell is going on? Your body got used to it. It didn't work anymore, and you have to change the phase to get the body to continue to progress. This is true for hit training as well. In fact, for hit training, phases should be shorter than they are for traditional resistance training. If I'm doing a bodybuilding style workout, the phases are three to five weeks. When we're doing hit training, which a total hit program is shorter than

a total traditional resistance training program because the adaptations happen so fast. My phases are like two weeks long. They're not any longer than that usually. I'm not doing five week phases of the same stuff. Yeah. For some reason in the space, you've seen a lot of programs out there that really harp on the muscle confusion and to really confuse the body constantly by throwing everything at you at once, right?

And I had argued muscle focus is what you need to be doing. And that's where you start phasing these out. So your body can actually get good at something for, you know, that two to three week, even if we make it a brief window, that's our focus. That's what we're trying to adapt to instead of just take on all the stress and just hope for the best. Yeah, if you were to explain to somebody the reason behind why we phase, you know, hit training so short in comparison to traditional training, would it be mainly because of its so intense? Is that why? I mean, I think you could, I would say

the same, I would say that about plyometrics also, like plyometrics or hit training. If you have those that type of training in your routine, I don't think I would ever take a client in it much longer than two to three weeks because of how intense it is. That's the main reason why. It depends on the individual, right? With athletes, you're going to be phasing. Athletes could probably go there. Yeah, playing, but, but, but see, with athletes, it's not just plios. There's lots of other stuff that's getting. Well, with athletes too, the desired outcome is not what 99% of the clients are hiring. Exactly. I mean, 99% of clients that hire a coach or a trainer are looking for fat loss, muscle

building, or overall health. Athletes are mainly looking for performance. And it's very specific. Yeah, but performance. Right. And so I don't really care that they're, you know, a four or five weeks into doing their hit training. They're losing the the max benefits of losing body fat or building muscle from it because they don't really care about. They're all performance based. And so, so long as their performance is improving,

I would, I could extend that. But for the rest of the population, as soon as you start to lose those muscle building effects or fat burning effects, you want to be out of that. Well, in general, hit training does something really well. Is it burns a can if done properly? I always got to say that because I know when I say what I'm about to say, everybody freaks out and then this is what I'm going to do all the time. If applied properly, there is no form of training in the context of a good diet and good lifestyle and that stuff.

There is no form of training that will burn body fat faster in a shorter period of time. That being said, it also doesn't work very long. Okay, so if I follow a traditional resistance training type program, I mean, let's use our flagship workout program, maps that are very traditional resistance training, overall strength. That's a three month workout program. It's last for three months, right? Hit training, you're going to get really fast fat loss results. But even if you face it right, even if you do everything right, you'll see after a relatively short period of time, it's just not as effective and it's time to go back to more traditional

resistance strength. So although you get fast results from it, you also hit the plateau wall much faster if you don't switch out and move to something different, which is why the phases are shorter. So if I'm doing a six week program, then yeah, I'm gonna do two week phases, three of them or something like that, right?

Versus a 12 week program where I can do, three, four week type phases or four, three week phases. Now I gotta bring up something that I have never seen in another hit program. And that is a mobility focus. It's my favorite part about what we did, right? I mean, something that actually helps to restore the joints because we are adding so much stress.

Like it really does take a toll on the joints specifically when we move explosively. And that kind of impact, we need to make sure that we maintain the health and integrity of. And so these mobility sessions, I thought I was imperative that at least we have one day, in the recovery day, the active recovery day of going through and addressing all of these joints to make sure

that we're reinforcing them. Yeah, well, when you look at even good head training, so everything's done right, it's written properly, it's program properly, there's still weaknesses in all forms of training, which is why ideally over a course of a year or two years, you change your focuses and you do different styles of training because every form of training, even if it's perfect, has got some weaknesses. And one of the weaknesses of HIIT are one of them is the strength, the intensity aspect of training, even if it's perfect, has got some weaknesses. And one of the weaknesses of HIIT are one of them is the strength, the intensity aspect of it, but that can be a come a weakness because of the intensity, the recovery becomes an issue.

And your body does recover faster and better actively than it does when you're doing nothing. In other words, unless you're severely over trained, like you're you got rabdo and you got to go to the hospital or something like that, unless you're severely over-trained, like you're, you got rabdo, and you got to go to the hospital or something like that. Unless you're severely over-trained, moving properly and lightly will get your body to heal and recover and adapt better, then just sitting on the couch, like you're just trying to recover. I remember doing that as a kid. I'd work out, and I wouldn't move at all, because I think all this is... My muscles are growing. Yeah, and that's not how it works. You're better off moving a little bit. So that's one, right? The second weakness of a hit is the fact that because it's higher intensity, because rest periods are shorter, because you're pushing yourself through this workout, that your joints

can pay the price, your form can pay the price. And so if you don't place a special focus on mobility, can pay the price. And so if you don't place a special focus on mobility, then the chances of hitting that wall of injury or pain, it starts to creep up on you. And what you don't want to do, and this sucks, is you're doing a hit program, even if it's written properly, and you're applying it properly, and then you're three weeks into it, and you're like, oh my God, this is awesome, but I can't, my low back is bothering me, and I can't do the workout anymore. What do I do now? Or my knees are hurting a little bit,

or my shoulders are bothering me. Now you gotta stop this workout that you're seeing great results from. And mainly because you didn't address mobility from the gates, right out the gates, right? So mobility needs to be a focus as part of your hitch training to ensure that that doesn't happen.

And it really maximizes results results you're going to get throughout the entire hit workout. Well, shameless plug, but one of my favorite things about this program was the flow sessions. And I've actually had people buy the program just for that. Oh, you can eat it. So the flow sessions with any of this? So even if you're not, you know, I don't want to do hit training.

It's not for me or it doesn't seem like something that I would want to add into my routine. I've actually prescribed some of my clients and friends to buy hit just so they could specifically use the flow sessions because we don't have a single program that has that like that. And I think they're unique and I think they're fun. And I think that you can blend those into any of the routines. So let's say you're following a map, Santa Bolic, you love it, you got great results from it. Maybe you're getting ready to run at a second time,

but you wanna add some sort of a mobility component in it. Having the hit flow sessions built in on trigger days is a great way to add mobility to a strength focus. Yeah, I remember, you know, going through and writing it, there were different things that we had to address that we didn't necessarily have to address with other workouts. Another thing that we had to address that we didn't necessarily have to address with other workouts. Another thing that we had to look at was how can we make this workout appropriate for

beginners, intermediate people, and advanced people, and we were able to do that. And so when you follow a good hit program, you have to figure that out for yourself, and be honest with yourself, and say, I'm going to, and this is what I always recommend to people, unless this is your style of training and you're really fit, everybody should start with beginner, because you still have two levels that you can move up through. But this ensures that you're training yourself appropriately.

And remember this, we've talked about this many times on the show. It's like a bell curve when it comes to results with your body. So on one end is no results, because you're doing nothing. On the other end is no results because you're doing nothing. On the other end is no results because you're doing too much intensity, too much volume, too much frequency, and appropriate levels of load or whatever.

So on the two ends, there's no results. You're not getting any results. And then somewhere in the middle, you see this peak of maximum results. And this is different from person to person, but what that middle represents, that bell curve middle represents the right dose for you. And the right dose gives you the best results. And this is why it's so important when you follow any kind of a workout,

especially a hit style workout, that you follow it and it's appropriate for your body, because when you hit that magic appropriate level, and I say magic, because that's what it feels like, when you hit the right appropriate amount of intensity and speed and frequency and volume and exercises for your body, you don't feel like you're fighting your body to progress.

It actually starts to progress for you, and it's a great feeling. This is the only program, too, that we actually had levels in, right? So we did. Yeah, so this is the only program where we actually built in like depending on your experience level where you should start off with the routine, but by far one of the most popular

programs that we ever wrote, but again only program that we've ever put a warning on because again, people get so addicted to the results because they do come on fast. And so knowing how to intermittently use it with other routines, I think is extremely powerful. So here's a summary, right? So if you're doing a hit workout for yourself, make sure the programming makes sense. So don't just throw a bunch of exercises together,

but they need to flow together with some logic training your body appropriately. Number two, your form is got to be perfect. So when you're following a hit workout, just like any workout, make sure your form is really good. Still use rest to ensure proper form. So if you're going from exercise to exercise

and you're like, I cannot maintain perfect form no matter what, rest long enough to ensure that that happens because form is number one. Don't do plyometrics unless they're being applied properly. So plyometrics need to be done explosively and you need to be able to apply them explosively. So if it's done with no rest

and you're repeating other exercises with it and you're just going in a circuit, then don't do plyometrics to other safer exercises because you're wasting your time. Phase your workouts and with hit training, you're looking at probably two week phases. So this themes, right? Barbell theme, multiplayer theme, pli-o theme, you know, train in two week phases or so.

That'll get your body to progress more consistently. You'll hit less plateaus as a result. And the last thing is put some kind of a mobility focus. So let's say you're doing a hit style workout three days a week in my opinion, at least two days a week you should go to the gym and just focus on mobility. So that again, you can maximize results and minimize the risk of injury.

Also, if you just want to follow a workout that's written out for you, then you can try our program, Maps Hit. And I do believe that it's 50% off this month I need Doug. Give me the is that true the map said is 50% off right? That's the offer this month Okay, perfect So if you just want to follow a program right now We have exercise demos in there and the whole thing you can go to maps fitness products calm

Click on maps hit and then use the code December 50 so that's December and then the number five zero with no space also if you want more free information from us Go to mine pump free calm and check out all of our guides And then finally you can follow us all on Instagram just and can be found at mine pump just and I'm at mine pump Sal and Adam is that mine pump Adam? Thank you for listening to mine pump if your goal is to build and shape your body Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy,

and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbumble at Mind Pump Media.com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps and a ballad, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having

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