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One Set to Failure Workout???

Slickster

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Hey Guys,

Just read an article about a workout where you do a fairly light warm up set maybe 20 reps. Then load up heavy and do one set of as many reps as you can (keeping good form).

The article claims that brief intense workouts such as this produce the best results. They give a sample workout that takes 15-20 minutes to complete. They also recommend only working out 2-3 times a week. Sounds great to me as I'm pressed for time usually.

Just wondering if any of you lifters have any thoughts or ideas about workouts such as this.

Thanks
 

Derek Flint

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The only experience I have with a one set workout is doing the set in slow motion - 10 seconds on the positive, 10 seconds on the negative.

I never stuck with it long enough to know if it was effective, but it sure was difficult to do.
 

Slickster

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This particular workout suggests 8 seconds. It does sound hard. I think I heard some guys talking about this type of workout recently.

I hope someone can shed some light.
 

diablo

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From what I understand, this isn't really a very economic workout. You're only training one or two sets of muscles it would seem, if the entire workout takes 15 minutes to complete. Part of becoming a DJ is the physical aspect of it. I used to work out fanatically, but now am also pressed for time. I would suggest waking up an hour early and running 2-3 miles (half an hour) then doing a half hour strength training routine. Just as with eating right, you can't cut any corners with working out. You get out of exercising just as much as you put into it. That is, unless you plan on juicing. :rolleyes:
 

Slickster

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No Bishop, its a full workout.

Session 1. Bench Press, Shoulder Press, Lat Pull Down, Tricep Extension, Bicep Curls.

Session 2. Squats, Hamstring Curls, Toe Raises, Crunches.

I'm not looking for an easy way out. Right now I lift 3 days a week and do 3 cardio days. My schedule gets ridiculous in a month or so though and I won't be able to keep that up. Getting up early isn't an option. I already get up at 5:00 AM.

Once again I'm not trying to cut corners. I just wanted some opinions on this article.

Thanks.
 

madgame

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You can try it and see for yourself if it works or not. I think one of the most important things about lifting (and a lot more things...) is consistency. Better work out 3 times a week for 20 minutes and always try to get the weight up and do one more rep than going to the gym every now and then for an hour and then not go there at all for a week and so on...
But all in all I think its bull**** to claim that such a workout produces the best results. If it really did I think all professional bodybuilders would have figured that out by now.

I work out about 4 times a week for 1 1/2 hours. If I kept the rests between the sets shorter I probably could finish it in about 1 hour (for some strange reason I need to rest about 3 sometimes even 4 minutes in order to finish the sixth set (for example) of a weight which I can lift 7 or 8 times with 4 reps)

However if I work out less than that..if I train each muscle only once a week with the intensity I usually train it twice a week I can only remain my lifts but cant increase them anymore. I think the same thing applies to working less sets than that.
 

Templeton

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It's just a variation of high intensity training which has been around for years.

Ten or even eight seconds up and then down is referred to as super slow and is a complete load of bollocks. You can't use enough weight to have a noticeable effect. This crap has come back after about 10 yrs or so - it disappeared quickly then and no doubt will again.

Sure, control you're weight on the neagative phase but 10 seconds to lift is failing to take advantage of the explosiveness that leads to size and strength by enabling the handling of heavy weights.

Old school HIT is very different and can be effective although you need to give it 100% and then some.

I would perform two sets of 10 reps rather than one of 20 as a warm up. You don't want to be too far from your working weight during a warm up or the jump will be too much. (Although for the super slow training your working set won't be much, thus my comments above). As an example, 60 then 70% of your 1RM will feel a lot better before going on to the working set(s).
 
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Originally posted by Slickster
Hey Guys,

Just read an article about a workout where you do a fairly light warm up set maybe 20 reps. Then load up heavy and do one set of as many reps as you can (keeping good form).

The article claims that brief intense workouts such as this produce the best results. They give a sample workout that takes 15-20 minutes to complete. They also recommend only working out 2-3 times a week. Sounds great to me as I'm pressed for time usually.

Just wondering if any of you lifters have any thoughts or ideas about workouts such as this.

Thanks
Sounds like good old fashioned Mike Mentzer's and Co HIT work out (the idea is quite old). Except that Mike would have you working out once a week or even once a fortnight (I've read some HIT proponants including mike I think who suggest working out only as often as you get a haircut). I think thats a bit extreme though. I'm sure it will work out to some degree. Is it the most optimum ? - I don't know.

There are guys with big muscles who do HIT (or at least one of them i.e. Mike Mentzer - when he was alive) so it definitley works for some people. There are also guys who do high volumn (Arnold Swarzenegger comes to mind) so it too works. As to what is best, who knows? Both work to some degree I think.

I tried doing only two sets to failure just as an experment for a monht or so. I didn't see any particularly great gains but nor did I loose anything. I didn't like finishing a work out with heaps of energy left though so I went back to my old volumn workout.

I sort of do a cross between HIT and high volumn myself. Like HIT I only workout once a week (for time reasons as much as anything, don't want to spend mylife in the gym). But when I do workout I do a high volumn workout with about 12 sets total for each body part, usually taking about 3-4 hrs.

Personaly my bet is that 2 sets to failure is good for just strength workout but higher volumn is better for size (or so the theory goes) could be wrong about this though. Bottom line is try it for a couple of months and see how it goes. (I think you'll at least retain size and strength on that workout if not increase in strength as well). Once you've tried it for a month or two post back and let the rest of us know the results.

(I wander are there any body builders out there with seriously big muscles who do pure HIT apart from Mike?)
 
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Re: Re: One Set to Failure Workout???

Originally posted by Alpha male Female Catcher


(I wander are there any body builders out there with seriously big muscles who do pure HIT apart from Mike?)
Mentzer's full of shyt. I can't believe people still give that wacko creedence...HIT proponents are like members of this fanatic cult.

The only builder who actually used HIT was Mentzer... and he didn't use it to get his size in the first place... he began using it later in his career... Mentzer liked to say that he trained Dorian Yates.. but Yates has publicly stated that was a lie. Yates uses high intensity low volume training - but it looks more like a Max OT type workout than anything Mentzer would advocate.

Bottom line - absolute crap.
 

Templeton

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I think Yates had ONE arm workout with Mentzer back in 92 and that was it. I have however seen HIT work for some guys, my old training partner for example BUT he was able to generate the requisite intensity. Furthermore, Mentzer hardly ever used HIT he just promoted it in an almost obsessive manner. Generally, it's just good for a change in stimulus as would be any change in routine and the effects wear off pretty quick.

If any of you are familiar with Doggcrap's method, his variation of HIT looks a lot more solid and many guys are getting excellent results from it.

As I said before, the article slickster read is more towards super slow, which as explained is a little different but still based on the one set theory. Just to reiterate, total crap.
 

TheManiac

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hey all,
I havent posted in about a year I think, Im only doing so now because my weight training/ running health class is covering this a 1 set to failure class right now. (im actually about to go to it)

the basic principle is that youre body tries to be super efficient and if youre not pushing your body to the point where it decides that its worth the resources to build and support more muscle.

If you arent pushing yourself to failure then you wont see significant gain because your body doesnt recognize a need to build more muscle.

One set to failure is simply a simple way of doing that, you can do 4 or 5 sets as long as you eventually reach failure, youll see the gain.

The professor recomended Bench Press to failure, squats to failure, and pull ups to failure i believe. These 3 exercises cover the main muscle groups so youll see improvements all over. At first it wont take you that long, as time goes by and you get stronger youll either need to increase weight or reps to continue to reach failure.
 

JoeBlack

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heh, glad to see a few knowledgable trainers on the site.

Yup, the 1 set to failure system was pushed by Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones etc...

Normally it went well beyond failure, very high intensity, hence the HIT abbreviation.

Like anything its a way of training, there are others that will work too. Try it and see how you get on.
 
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