maximize your training

About the author: Matt Brzycki is a prolific writer. Brzycki is an ex Marine and works as the Coordinator of Health, Fitness, Strength & Conditioning at Princeton University.

Reviewed : January 2004

The Cool

Good for weight training for those with not much time to do it.
Very rational training philosophy
Anything written by Dr Ken Leistner is worth reading :)
Anti roids (mind you, most books 'claim' to be)
Good stuff on training for older athletes and teenagers.

The Uncool

Very one-sided perspective
It gives the impression that HIT is the best and only way to achieve maximum results. Which of course it is not.
Quite pro-machine

Maximize Your Training

Well the premise is good. Assemble a glittering array of 'Strength & Fitness' professionals and get them each to write a chapter on slightly different aspects of training. Put them all together and create a huge strength & conditioning bible.

The editor Matt Brzycki is a total HIT jedi, and this entire book is an ode to High Intensity Training. Each author has been cherry picked to preach the HIT gospel and they do it with the zeal of Jehovah's Witness - And, to give them credit - the tenacity and logic of a lawyer.

When I say cherry picked, here's an example. Bob Whelan has a chapter in the book (which incidentally is excellent, like all Whelan's writings). The chapter is about balanced training, and all of Whelan's advice dovetails neaty into the HIT manifesto. So 'Maximum Bob' comes across as a HIT disciple, but is he?

Bob Whelan in Hardgainer 88, January 2004, gives a more rounded view of his training ideology - "I used to like to say High Intensity Training, but when it got shortened to HIT, and things began to be assumed about training due to the label, I began to dislike the label. What I use and teach is progressive strength training. I hate the term HIT......I'm not an avocate of HIT. I'm a strength training avocate. I was the NSCA DC State Director for five years, and the NSCA is pretty much the opposite of HIT...."

Have you ever been to one of those buffets, you know, all you can eat for £4.99? Well, this book is a bit like that. A smorgasbord of delicacies on offer, but after stuffing yourself, you come away feeling ever so slightly queasy.

Dr Ken Leistner writes on page 119, "Dr Darden too often engendered animosity by a smugness borne of the knowledge that his was the correct stance on training."

Well, that kind of describes this book. Smug.

Hey, that's not to say it's not a good book. It is. If nothing else it will force you to analyse the way you train in a logical manner. You'll learn how to be fluent in HIT-speak and impress internet ironmonkeys' with talk of metabolic conditioning, neurological adaptation and quotes from Ayn Rand lol.

Anyway, the book is packed. The chances are, if you have any questions regarding weight training, you'll find a HIT flavoured answer here. But please bear in mind that all info is selected to tow the HIT party line. HIT tries to claim the logical, scientific high ground on training methodology, but no matter how compelling this book is (and it is), remember as long as progression is achieved, then there are a myriad of good ways to train.

Conclusion: HIT works. It's not the only effective method, nor necessarily the best method, but it does work. That really is the bottom line. It's proven and time efficient and goodness knows a zillion times better than most of the bodybuilding bunk that litters your local Waterstones.

The book is huge. It's a bit of a slog and you'll puke if you try and digest it all in one sitting. But it's well worth a read. I suspect that academics will love it, as there's plenty of stats and soundbites to fuel any budding sports scientist's essays.

For those with less patience, you'll find the nitty gritty contained in many shorter books and articles. (eg. Anything by Ken Leistner, the Cyberpump site, the slightly nutty Ellington Darden, the later works of Mike Mentzer etc etc).

Actually if you just want to know what HIT is all about it's basically this : Take a bunch of exercises and then train them to failure using one or two 'working sets' Train twice a week and cover your whole body each workout.

Also see High Performance Sports Conditioning - a similar book in concept, using various writers to cover many topics - but totally different training philosophies.