Recently, I had the opportunity to interview (and train with) one of the best personal trainers on the planet: Markus Reinhardt aka Mr. High Intensity.

I had first learned about Markus from an interview he did two years ago.

Luckily, Markus lives right down the road from me in Las Vegas so it was easy setting up the time to interview (and eventually train) with him.

Click play or go to iTunes to download.

In order to fully understand HIT training, we must first get some background info on Markus.

So who exactly is Markus Reinhardt?

I already told you… He is a Master of HIT Training and one of the best trainers on the planet.

I’m just playing. Here’s the Cliff’s on Markus.

In his own words, Markus was born in 1970 in Stuttgart, Germany, which is the home of Mercedes-Benz.

At the age of 14, he started lifting weights and began competing in bodybuilding contests at the age of 16.

Eventually, Markus left Germany and moved to the United States for better opportunity and to further his bodybuilding career.

It was there where he met the legendary Mike Mentzer.

Mike Mentzer was a bodybuilder from the Golden Age of Bodybuilding that many believed should have won the 1980 Mr. Olympia over Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He is an integral part of the history of bodybuilding.

Mentzer is widely regarded as an anomaly in the world of bodybuilding because his training methods strayed far from conventional bodybuilding wisdom.

Markus Reinhardt was intrigued by Mentzer’s training methods (Heavy Duty) when he first saw him at Gold’s Gym in Venice (The Mecca).

Every single one of Mentzer’s clients seemed to be making great gains with short, intense workouts. The workouts usually consisted of hitting only one body part with only one all out, high intensity set. This was far from the norm.

On top of that, the reigning Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates, was also consulting with Mentzer. And as  you all know, he ended up winning 6 Sandows.

Eventually, Markus hired Mentzer to train him. And the rest is history. Within 4 months, Markus gained 25 pounds of muscle and he has been proponent of HIT training ever since.

Markus Reinhardt and Mike Mentzer eventually became good friends. Mentzer even chose Markus to star in his legendary training video (which I first saw way back in 2008).

Here are some clips from Mike Mentzer’s Hit Training video:

Sadly, Mike Mentzer passed away in 2001, but his legacy and training philosophies live on through Markus.

To this day, Markus continues to implement HIT training in both his own workouts and the workouts of his clients.

So what is HIT Training?

Obviously, no one can explain HIT training better than Markus but I’ll give it a shot…

Conventional bodybuilding wisdom advocates going to the gym 5-6 days and hitting body parts with 12 to 20 working sets.

I know what you’re thinking. Sonny, aren’t you a volume guy? Yes, I used to be of the same mentality.

In fact, I used to preach supersetting everything and making sure you get 30-40 sets per body part.

Does it work? Of course it “works.” Anything other than sitting on your ass and playing Game Cube (throwback) will “work”.

That type of training has clearly worked for me and it’s working for many of you.

Is it ideal? Fuck no.

This is where HIT training comes in to play.

HIT training is not about lifting as much weight as possible. It’s not about doing as much volume as possible.

HIT training is about 3 things:

1) Making the workout as intense as possible and bringing yourself to the point of complete failure.

2) Contracting as many muscle fibers as possible.

3) All while using slow controlled form.

That’s it.

Proponents of HIT training do not believe in multiple set training. They do not believe that you must do multiple sets to stimulate muscular growth.

To recap, in this episode of The Dorms to Daybeds Podcast, Markus and I discuss the following:

• Markus Reinhardt’s early life and bodybuilding background
• The background on his appearance in the famous Mike Mentzer training video
• What is HIT training?
• Why high volume training is not ideal
• Why HIT training is the most efficient form of training
• High Intensity and High Volume cannot coexist
• the psychological impact of only having one chance to go all out and fully tax the muscle
• What role do genetics play in results from HIT training?
• Why don’t more people use HIT training?
• What would happen if Phil Heath, Flex Wheeler, or even Ronnie Coleman used HIT training?
• What exactly is momentum and why does it have no place in HIT training?
• What is the mentality one needs to successfully implement HIT training?

*** Be sure to take note of Markus Reinhardt’s crayon analogy for HIT training. As I’m writing this, I just listened to it again. It perfectly sums up HIT training in a nut shell.

And be sure to check out Mr. High Intensity to learn more about Markus.

Any comments or questions? More importantly, what do you want to hear? Post any comments, questions, and requests for future episodes in the section below.

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