Strength Training and HIT

High Intensity Training (HIT)

The S+ strength training program uses the High Intensity Training (HIT) method to help you make impressive gains in:

• strength
• fitness
• health

...all with a ​small investment of your time.

The evolution of HIT

High Intensity Training was introduced in the 1970s by Arthur Jones, a pioneer in the field of physical exercise and strength training. Jones was an inventor and businessman who developed the Nautilus strength training equipment and was the founder of Nautilus, Inc. and MedX, Inc.

Arthur Jones

In developing the Nautilus equipment, Jones’ objective was to maintain a constant load on muscles throughout the range of motion—something that free weights do not readily permit. This encouraged the fatiguing of muscle fibers in a shorter period of time, with fewer repetitions, for more time-efficient exercise.
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HIT in a nutshell

High Intensity Training is a method of progressive resistance exercise. HIT is characterized by a progressively challenging level of anaerobic effort with brief and infrequent workout sessions.

(“Anaerobic” means “without oxygen”. Practically speaking, anaerobic exercise improves your conditioning in a shorter period of time by working your muscles with greater intensity as compared to aerobic exercise—such as jogging—that requires more oxygen and takes longer to have a conditioning effect.)

HIT is governed by 5 essential principles:

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Load

The amount of weight or resistance used in an exercise to give you maximum personal results. The load is initially adapted to your start-up capability and then progressively increased as desired and required.

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Volume

The amount of “work” you do in your strength training sessions. This is measured in the number of sets and repetitions that are required to fatigue your muscles. Typically, the volume is a single set of a limited number of repetitions. The volume is adapted to your capability, just sufficient to intentionally tire your muscles.

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Cadence

Slow and deliberate movements. These will produce maximum personal results in a limited amount of time.

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Duration

The time required for a set of repetitions to fully fatigue each major muscle group you exercise. ​Durations are typically short due to the slow cadence and the challenging loads.

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Frequency

Once or twice per week to ensure recovery—so that muscles have time to rest and rebuild.

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​In a nutshell, the HIT method is built on:

• A load adapted to your capability that progressively challenges you and builds your strength…
• A limited volume of work that, along with the load, brings you satisfying muscle fatigue in limited time…
• A slow cadence designed to maximize the challenge to the muscles exercised...
• Infrequent workouts to permit recovery, rebuilding, and new-found strength.

​H.I.I.T vs. H.I.T: What's the difference?

You may also have heard of High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT. HIIT is different from High Intensity Training (HIT), and it’s important to understand the difference.

The main purpose of HIIT is to improve your physical condition by increasing your capacity to absorb oxygen and improve your cardiovascular function, including glucose metabolism.

HIIT involves alternating periods of high and medium intensity exercise that may last 30 minutes or less: brief bursts of all-out, high (near-maximum) intensity exercise followed by medium (or low) intensity exercise.

Typically, HIIT is done on a stationary bicycle, although it can be done without any equipment, including vigorous and rapid push-ups, squats, burpees, and lunges, among others.

HIIT exercise was made popular in the 2010s at a time that exercise science ramped up its research into the question “How little time is required to get benefits from exercise?”

The New York Times Wellness columnist, Gretchen Reynolds, published “The First 20 Minutes” in 2012, bringing to the public consciousness how relatively little time was required to bring real benefits to those who were willing to put in the effort.

Many programs and books followed with titles like “The 20 Minute Body”, “Short Workouts for Beginners”, “10 Minute Workout”, “7-Minutes Body Plan”, “4-Minute Workout”, and others, as enthusiasts and promoters got on the “intensity” exercise bandwagon.

Remember: This relatively recent surge in interest in briefer, more intensive, exercise came about thirty years after Arthur Jones first introduced his notion of high intensity training that is the foundation of S+’s strength training program!

Generally speaking, HIIT is favored by younger “athletic” populations due to what may be seen as a “punishing” workout regimen including all-out and rapid physical movements, as with bicycle riding or burpees. 

However, McMaster University in Canada and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have tested HIIT regimens with senior populations and have found that the HIIT exercise was tolerated and had positive effects on the physical and mental quality of life of the study participants.

In Summary…
High Intensity Training is a method of progressive resistance exercise, characterized by an increasingly challenging level of effort, with brief and infrequent workout sessions.

HIT builds your strength and requires only a small commitment of time with little to no risk of injury.

We’re not saying that HIT strength training is the only exercise you might want to do. There are many exercise routines that are useful ways to build your fitness: walking, jogging, cycling, and weight lifting, among others.

But, if you have limited availability for exercise, and you want superior results, in less time, and in the safest way possible, HIT strength training is the one exercise you should do.