When it comes to the work you do in the gym as an athlete, training economy is of paramount importance. Joe defranco sums up the definition of training economy pretty well.
“Whether it’s your job, family or school, most of us don’t have a lot of time to train. The majority of people reading this article aren’t professional bodybuilders. We can’t spend all day, every day, working out. So how do my clients, my colleagues and I get buff even during the busiest times of year? We all adhere to TRAINING ECONOMY. When I talk about the training economy, I’m referring to choosing the exercises and training methods that give you the quickest results in the shortest possible time. It’s important to know that ALL EXERCISES WERE NOT CREATED EQUAL!”
It’s important to understand the concept of training economy, especially if you’re an athlete. Not only do you most likely not have time to be in the gym for hours on end, but doing so can also severely limit or possibly even decrease your overall performance.
If there’s one thing that many athletes need, it’s muscle. However, putting on muscle can be a draining and potentially performance DECREASING process if done incorrectly. So how do our athletes here at Fowler Fitness put on muscle mass as fast as humanly possible,, without neglecting other important factors for optimal performance? Enter the HIT Layer System. It should be noted that this is a method that we generally use with our more advanced athletes, who have at least 2-3 years of solid training experience under their belt. Beginners will get better results by simply sticking with the basics, and saving the high intensity methods for when they really count.
The HIT Layer System
The HIT layer system was something I designed by combining concepts from Christian Thibodaux’s original Layer system of motor unit potentiation, Russian Strength-skill training, and Mike Mentzer’s high intensity “one set to failure” protocol.
The HIT layer system is compromised of 3 different stages. Before going into each stage, it’s important to mention that these stages MUST be performed in the order listed or you will not receive the desired training effect. No exceptions. For demonstration purposes, we will use the overhead pressing pattern as an example.
STAGE 1: activation:
Warming up the muscles and joints is great, but we cant forget the nervous system! As athlete, regardless of the goal, each workout should consist of some type of specific or general drill designed to “fire up” the central nervous system and corresponding muscle motor units for optimal performance. This not only helps athletes get mentally “in the zone”, but also serves to amp up muscle recruitment, therefore potentiating overall performance and consequently muscle growth (the desired goal here). For the overhead pressing pattern, it would look something like:
- Pre-activation: medicine ball overhead throw 4 sets of 3 (throw as fast and as forcefully as possible)
STAGE 2: Potentiation
One mistake that many novice lifers and athletes make when trying to build muscle is neglecting the basics. Most people will search for 10 different bicep curl variations to grow their scrawny arms before getting brutally strong on basic compound lifts like the bench press and squat first. This is totally backwards. Therefore, the main component (and arguably the most important) in our HIT Layer system is an emphasis on a basic compound lift.
Now that our CNS (system wide) and corresponding muscle motor units (pattern specific), are active and contributing maximally, it’s time to perform our main lift. Although you could use any strength training scheme here, I prefer to use Russian strength-skill for a few reasons. First, it allows you to accumulate a very large amount of volume with a relatively decent load. To optimally grow a muscle, you need a combination of muscle damage, metabolic and mechanical stress as well as volume. Russian strength skill effectively provides us with plenty of mechanical stress and muscle damage…but here’s the thing. Under normal circumstances, you may be able to use up to 80% of your maximum for close to 8 reps during a given set (8 reps being pretty close to the upper limit at that percentage), but the last rep will most likely be of 1) a much lower quality (which predisposes the athlete to injury) 2) pretty damn hard to complete. This means that once you move on to your second set, you will probably be unable to complete the allotted number of reps, and therefore will not receive the desired stimulus for sparking muscle growth. Strength skill training solves this by doing LESS overall reps per set spread out over MORE sets, with LESS rest in between sets. For example, a traditional 3×8 @80% would look like 8×3 with strength skill. Same volume, different set up. This also has a few other benefits for athletes. For 1 it keeps fatigue, and therefore fatigue byproduct such as lactic acid, at bay. This means you can play your sport without having to be concerned with crippling soreness. High levels of lactic acid are associated with reduced activity of mitochondria, which slow down the recovery process and impede anaerobic power development…not good if you’re a power athlete.
Second, the lower reps per set coupled with reduced rest periods allows athletes to tamp into the “high threshold” motor units–the ones most responsive to growth. For example, during a traditional set of 8-10, the high threshold motor units are only stimulated on the last couple of reps where the weight becomes a challenge to lift, while the previous reps in the same set only accumulated fatigue byproduct that decreases overall performance and average bar velocity. Strength skill training allows us to circumvent this. Because athletes are able to perform each rep with a higher average velocity (due to less accumulated fatigue per rep), this will translate into improved power and force production. Lastly, strength-skill training allows us to attain a slightly higher average intensity when compared to straight set loading.In other words, it allows you to use a heavier load.
Generally, on the very last set of our strength-skill movement, I like to throw in an iso-hold at some point in the ROM, followed by a super slow accentuated eccentric on the very last rep. This serves to further ramp up muscle fiber/motor unit recruitment, in addition to stimulating mTor (mechanism for muscle growth) before moving on to the final part of our layer. If you are using exercises that provide a stretch (such as a dip or chin up) you could also add in a max time weighted stretch at the bottom. This helps to stimulate muscle growth via the occlusion effect, and also provides “functional” mobility. Using the overhead pressing pattern, the Strength-skill section would look something like:
2) Standing overhead press: 8×3 @80% of 1 rep max + 10 sec iso-hold at lockout followed by 5 second eccentric (lowering) only on the VERY last rep of the last set.
NOTE: There is a time and place for traditional straight set loading (3×10, 4×8 ect) as seen with methods like lactic acid tolerance training. However, when talking about MAXIMAL MOTOR UNIT RECRUITMENT and it’s role within the HIT Layer system for muscle growth, this is undesirable.
STAGE 3: Intensification
The last phase of our HIT layer system is the intensification stage. The intensification phase is based on the ideas of Mike Mentzer, who used super low volume, super high intensity training protocols with his bodybuilders. These protocols generally involved taking one set to absolute failure, each set lasting about 60-90 seconds. Because each set is taken to absolute failure, the average volume of work must decreased. For example, instead of performing 12 sets per muscle group (as many bodybuilders and athletes still do), Mentzer would have his Bodybuilders perform as little as 3-4 sets, but at a much higher intensity. This has a few applications for athletes.
For one, the high volume training protocols that are often prescribed for muscle growth are generally not suited for athletes, (unless the goal is lactic tolerance training for endurance/lactic sports) especially athletes in power sports like football and throwing events in T&F. High volume “muscle building” training requires large amounts of glycogen, which requires large amounts of stress hormone like cortisol to mobilize it. In addition, high volume training programs also cause a significant degree of inflammation within the tissue. When this happens, a cascade of physiological changes take place, ultimately causing tissue specific insulin resistance. This essentially means that nutrients are not able to enter into the muscle cell (due to the inflammation), therefore prolonging the recovery and immune response/process. Combine high levels of cortisol, sports specific practice, and the fact that most athletes under eat and sleep and you have a recipe for disaster. As mentioned before, high volume training protocols (compromised of multiple sets) also accumulate large amounts of lactic acid, which delay recovery time and decrease power and speed production.
In this stage, athletes will perform 1 sets of 2 different exercises (so that’s one set per exercise) to absolute failure IMMEDIATLY (within no less than 15-20 seconds) of the last set of your strength-skill work. The idea behind this is simple. After completing our activation and strength-skill work, the muscles we are trying to target have been thoroughly activated, but not fatigued. As stated before, the high threshold motor units are the most responsive to growth. By performing our “all out” intensification set immediately after our strength-skill training, we can EVEN FURTHER tap directly into, and fully fatigue these motor units due to their upregulation during the previous two layers.
Here’s what makes this so advantageous to athletes. Because we are now able to tap directly into these motor units via potentiation from our previous two layers, we can therefore fatigue them much quicker than normal (meaning with less overall reps). That means that we are essentially getting the same training effect as those that perform higher volume training programs, with literally HALF of the work. this means less soreness, less cortisol, less overall fatigue, less time in the gym, less volume spent on bodybuilding and isolation work, no drop in speed or power, and an INCRESASE in muscle mass!
It should be noted here that while you will feel an actual increase in performance from set to set during the first two layers, (due to the potentiation effect) the opposite will be true when you reach the intensification layer. Essentially you will feel weaker, and that’s exactly what you want. Don’t be surprised if you’re having to use half of the weight or getting half of the reps that you would normally get. This means the layer system is working exactly like it should, and you have effectively tapped into the coveted high threshold motor units! Please remember, you’re only doing 2 sets here! If you can do more than two, you either 1) did not take advtanage of the short-term motor unit potentiation or 2) did not take each set to absolute failure. Remember, the goal here is to do LESS work not MORE.
While you can use variety of bodybuilding or “intensification” techniques and methods to take these sets to absolute failure, I like to stick with partial reps and intra-set tempo contrast, as these are the methods that work best for me. It’s very important to note here that each set MUST be taken to absolute concentric muscle failure because the volume of work is so low. Most people have never pushed themselves like this, so it’s going to demand some serious testicular fortitude. The goal here should also be to really focus on feeling the target muscle work, therefore avoiding the contribution of other muscle groups. This is why this method is not well suited for beginners, as it requires a decent amount of body awareness to be truly effective. The intensification phase for the overhead pressing pattern might look something like:
3) Smith machine overhead press performed immediately after completing SC: 1x of 3 reps super slow p (4 seconds lowering and 4 seconds lifting) followed by 3 reps fast. Repeat until you hit absolute failure (you physically cannot get another rep).Move immediately without rest into the next exercise
4) Lateral raise: 1 set of max reps. Perform 1 full rep, and partial reps in between each rep until you hit absolute failure.
Give the HIT Layer system a shot, and let me know how it goes bellow in the comment section!