Mass Building Program Week 3 Update

Mass Building Program Week 3 Update

This update is a little late this week, but I do have to let you know that I need to halt the trial of the mass building program. For one reason and only ONE reason, I am stopping it because my performance is suffering on the football field. I play in a Touch Football League in Mississauga. Since sprinting and agility are big components of the game, my performance in that aspect has suffered. I am in a good shape, I just need to improve my explosive power more than anything. Therefore I am putting mass building program on hold.  Will give this a shot during the time of the year when there aren’t so many demands on my cardio system. Thinking November, December and January.

Here’s what I learned so far with my three week experiment of the mass building program:

  • Don’t do more than 8 exercises. At full intensity, the body begins to give up, and latter exercises and muscle groups suffer as a consequence.
  • Work different muscle groups on different days.
  • And lastly, you need to maintain a strict diet and eliminate any stress in your life.  I was actually on track to gain about 2-3 lbs of muscle a week. I lost 4 lbs in about 4 days due to stress, even though I ate really well and exercised.

With that being said, I am switching to one of my most favorite routines which allows me to build strength and explosiveness.  I’ll post my training routine at another date.

I don’t doubt the effectiveness of short, intense workouts.  However, I will remain a skeptic of the program as Tim Ferriss laid out, until I try it again.  Not only is it extremely unhealthy to put on that much mass that fast but it is impossible without the aid of questionable diet and supplementation, and maybe even performance enhancing drugs.

  • http://www.AaronHarrisfitness.com/ Aaron

    I'm skeptical too. I've read up on HIT from Mike Mentzer, I've read about Arthur Jones training Casey Viator, and I've given HIT a shot in the past. I did not make progress. For one, I was trying to do it solo with out access to the proper machines. I think you need a good spotter/partner pushing you through each rep of every set for HIT to be effective, you need great record keeping, and access to certain equipment(machines) for it to be most effective. Also, I think there are some people who genetically will respond better to that form of training than others. But one thing I think is the most important, and I think it was either Frank Zane or Dave Draper that made the comment referring to Mike Mentzer- not everyone can develop that level of mental intensity and channel it physically to make HIT training really work for them.

    But my main drawback with it is the fact that I love to workout, and hitting the weights that infrequently just doesn't sit well with me mentally. Gains or not, I'd miss exercising with that level of infrequency.

  • http://www.getfitwithandrei.com Andrei

    Nicely said. Actually, for the past two weeks, I've been to the gym about 10 times and I felt so much better working out more than 2x a week while trying to do HIT. But of course I target different muscle groups 5x a week.

    Will check out more commentary and insights from Frank Zane and Dave Draper, and see what else I can extract from their wisdom and experience.