Apex Body » markus-reinhardt

High Intensity Shoulder Press – Video

markus-reinhardt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:39:40 +0000

Interview with MM Pro Markus Reinhardt

markus-reinhardt — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 05:48:02 +0000

Musclemania Pro World Championships

Why HIT?

markus-reinhardt — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:00:07 +0000

by Markus Reinhardt

A Rational Training Approach (or WHY HIT is the better choice in resistance exercise)

(Article written for FUN&FIT Magazine/LV)

I’d like to take this chance and introduce myself: My name is Markus Reinhardt, and I’m a longtime bodybuilding competitor,personal trainer and fitness model. This is the first in a series of articles I’ll be doing for FUN&FIT magazine on the subject of high intensity training (HIT for short).
You see, I thought it was time to set the record straight on how to develop a rational and scientific method to reach maximum fitness and muscular development. A good place to start is by addressing some fundamental questions:

Is bodybuilding and fitness really a science?

Yes, indeed. Bodybuilding (or resistance training) is very scientific, but you don’t have to become a brain surgeon to make it work for you. Unfortunately, bodybuilding and fitness is still treated by the majority of trainers and lifters like some sort of religuous experience. In other words, most people believe that, if you train like then champs and celebrities (muscle mags/infomercials), take a magic pill (or several) and use some sort of magic training angle or machine,you’ll evenutally look like the ripped mammoths and ripped up celebrities (madonna,billy blanks and the P90X dude..lol) in the pictures and infomercials.
I am sorry to be the one to breaks the bad news here, but this just isn’t going to happen for the most of us. Stick to the basic principles that I’m going to explain in this articles and forget about most of the “junk science” you’ve previously heard.

(Markus is taking a client during a Seminar in Europe through a proper set of leg presses)

What’s the basic concept behind high intensity training?

The theory behind HIT is that neither “more” or “less” exercise is good, but only the precise amount necessary to stimulate optimum muscular growth (you can call it growth, tone or firm..essentially it all pertains to the same). Doing too much can be especially problematic: Every set that you do represents a negative – i.e., negative in the sense that it depletes precious recovery energy. This basically means that, the more sets you do, the less energy you have available for repair and growth.Think about that as you pump out 12 or more sets for your chest and back!

Should everyone train using the same program?

Yes, to a certain extent. The only real difference lies in our very own individual ability to recover from exercise stress. Most of my more- advanced clients train on the same basic HIT program until they no longer make progress. What usually happens is that the intensity reaches a point where the body can no longer recover adn compensate. That’s when it’s time to add even more recovery by inserting extra off days between workouts. The time between sessions and the level of intensity used (i.e., weights,sets,reps) need to be carefully monitored using a training log. If any of you train with someone that does not use such…fire him!

So how many sets and reps should I do on a HIT program?

The only logical point to start any HIT program at would be with one set. Of course you might find that you need to do 1-2 light warm up sets prior to the actual HIT set. These bouts should be done with about 20-30 precent of your one-repetition max.
always perform your work set under full muscular contraction. Six to 12 reps seems to bea good range for the majority of muscle-groups. Perform reps slow and controlled (four seconds each for the eccentric or negative, and concentric, or positive phases of the movement)., hold each rep for 2 seconds in the contracted position.

Should I use HIT all year long?

Yes, of course. Remember, there is no so called need for so-called “periodization”, since the dose and frequency of workouts are now prefectly regulated. The only people who need to back off and change their workouts frequently to avoid “getting stale” are the ones who follow the high volume approach (i.e, P90X and everything that takes more then 20mins..lol)

Train hard, but smart!

Markus Reinhardt

- courtesy of www.mrhighintensity.com

10 Important rules to High Intensity Exercise!

markus-reinhardt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:52:49 +0000

by Markus Reinhardt

1. Perform each repetition slowly and smooth. Try not to bounce the weight or use momentum. Momentum is an outside force that will limit the amount of friction of the muscle and increase injury risk. No ballistic and explosive style movements! (Now stop bouncing around on those retarted blow up balls!..lol)

2. Perform 6-10 repetitions per set for upper body movements and 10-20 reps for lower body ones. Take your time during each rep. Lift the weight at approx. 4 seconds and lower it at the same speed. Hold each rep on isolation movments such as , leg extensions, side lateral raises, pec deck, leg curls, and biceps and triceps extensions for 2 seconds in the fully contracted position before lowering it.

3. Perform each set in a controlled fashion to positive muscular failure, i.e. were you no longer can lift the weight concentric. Relax your neck and face while doing so.(looking like me in most of my shots doesn’t help…it rather takes away focus from the muscles being trained and places stress on your neck – plus you look like an idiot so RELAX…lol)

4. Train no less then 2 times a week and no more then 3 times. Muscles don’t shape and up and grow during training but during rest time.

5. Train your larger muscles such as back and legs first and place your smaller muscles such as arms and abs during the end of your workout.

6. Train with single joint and multiple joint movements. Use single joint movements to pre-exhaust in advanced level routines later.

7. Take as little rest as possible in between sets and muscle groups to increase the cardio vascular aspect of high intensity exercise.

8. Remember, the stronger and more advanced you get the LESS frequent you should and have to train. The ability to recover from workouts does NOT increase with the size of your muscle, in fact its the excact opposite!

9. Never train on consecutive days. Your body needs to rest for local recovery (the muscle you trained) as well as systemically (your overall body/system as a unit). Take 1 or sometimes 2 days off in between workouts.

10. Take a complete 10 days off every 6 month of training. Also train to absolute failure only on a 3 week basis then take 1 week and stop 2-3 reps shy of failure on each set (you might perform an extra set per exercise). This will ensure you don’t run into overtraining and recharge your CNS (Central Nervous System).
HIT HARD!

- courtesy of www.mrhighintensity.com

Quick Fat Loss Tip of the week!

markus-reinhardt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:51:07 +0000

by Markus Reinhardt

Low intensity exercises mainly require triglycerides as an energy source, and contrary to popular belief, one does not “burn fat” while engaged in the aerobic activity at the time. This occurs after the exercise (assuming you burn up more calories than you take in), and the body breaks down adipose tissue and converts it into triglycerides for the muscles to store and use for energy

So its basically a “calories in vs. calories out” situation guys – keep that in mind when you check yourself in the mirror after a 30mins aerobic session..lol

- courtesy of www.mrhighintensity.com

HIT BASICS – by Markus Reinhardt

markus-reinhardt — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:27:06 +0000

Let me first of all tell you guys that HIT was not the only way I trained since i started bodybuilding. But it sure is the ONLY WAY for me to train now after I was lucky enough to meet my mentor and friend Mike Mentzer in the late 90′s.

The basic concept of HIT is to induce exercise stress carefully and just enough in order to built a strong and powerfull physique in less time that ever dreamed of as well as reduce the amount of injury and wear an tear on your joints and connective tissue.

Let me start with looking at Exercise as a negative..i.e. any type of exercise, paticularly high intense weightlifting causeses an inroad into your bodies natural reserves and therefore causes a negative effect on the bodies ability to recover from it. High Intense Exercise such as desribed is very demanding and needs to be adjusted carefully, almost like taking a certain medicine prescribed from a doctor.

In order to understand this more, we need to find out what basically causes the musclular hypertrophy first. Your muscles are always do what u demand them to do. In other words they adjust to the intensity of stress(exercise) by increasing there overall volume…increasing the size of fibers within the muscle belly, resulting in larger and stronger muscles. It only stands to reason that if you want stronger and bigger arms..you will have to move heavier weights then.

Heavier weights and increases in intensity, i.e. increases in reps and even decreases in the speed of repetition per single set will cause the muscle to adapt to a specific demand, i.e. adapt to the greater stress induced and therefore resulting in muscular gains if you leave enough time in between workouts to ensure a full recovery, both local (local pertains to the muscle trained that day) and systemic (your overall system that needs to recover as well) – once full recover has been allowed..muscular gains and increases in strengh are possible.

The amount of recovery we need from a workout however is individually different. It ranges from the hardgainer that most likely needs to recover longer to the genetic freak that even after the hardest workout can go back into the gym the next day and make progress, ie. lift even heavier weights and get bigger at a much faster rate. Also age and gender has a lot to do with it. Men generally recover faster then women due to the fact of the higher amount of testosterone in theyre system – sorry girls – grin

It is essential that someone keeps exact data on every training bout. Only then you will find your very own recovery time and see wether you are actually making progress or not. A workout without a training log is like trying to find a black cat in a dark cellar that doesnt exist. You have no way of knowing whether your progress takes place or you already overtraining with even little amount of exercise. Make sure to record each workout with number of reps and sets as well as take side notes on how you feel that day to motivate you and give you the feedback you need. I will soon come out with own design on workout log books – available here on markusreinhardt.com

We now know that muscles need intense stress in order to make them change in size. How intense? – well..put it this way, if you would select a weight that u can possibly do 10 reps with and stop at the 7th rep – you would certainly not make any progress whatsoever. So 100 percent, to the point of failure is an absolute must in order to make any progress..or else your be just waisting your time and energy. Make sure to perform each set with strict caution under slow control…no sudden jerky movements or you will end up overloading your connective tissue and result in an injury.

But remember, you can only train long or you can train intense – you cant do both! – if you want large muscle, the second option is your best – just look at any sprinter or athlete that requires fast speed and strengh, compare them to a long distance runner and you can tell the difference.

Short and intense workouts like HIT workouts will give you just enough to stimulate the muscle to grow, yet dont take such a deep inroad into your bodies recovery system. So only one set will do!. One perfectly performed set taken to complete muscular failure is like hitting a nail with one blow that is perfectly placed right, its like turning on the light switch – the light is on…no need to stand there and keep flipping the switch.

Now u know the volume, i.e. amount of exercise that is needed – lets talk some more the frequency, how many times you need to do the workout. In my experience, an average person will get great results in training up to 3 times per week with inserting one rest day in between. Your average time to train should not exceed 20-25 minutes and you should perform only one set per exercise with about 2-3 exercises per muscle. That will do fine for the beginner to intermediate. I will demonstrate in my upcoming Videos on how to adjust this workout to the advanced trainee.

Since we now know the amount of intensity we need to apply, lets also talk about the amount of reps within each single set. I usually recomment 6-10 reps for all upper body movements and 10-15 reps for the lower body as these muscles react to higher reps much better. You can train your calfs and abs also with higher reps. No need to go super heavy on those since they are comprised of slow twitch fibers and therefore need to be under load much longer and with less weight in order to get stimulated to grow.

I also recoment breaking up your muscle groups at each workout. A routine that is based on a Chest, Delt and Triceps workout the first day, then break it up with legs and calfs for the second day, followed by a back and biceps workout that last day is by my experience the best to ensure full recovery. Make sure to insert 1 to sometimes 2 days in between workouts to ensure full systemic and local recovery. No routine is written in stone..your an modfify each workouts by what is most important – if you dont wanna built legs then dont train them intense or not at all. Or if you dont want your arms to grow any bigger (I seem to have that problem -grin) then just leave em out..they get enough stimulus from other exercises such as back pulldowns or rowing movements.

The exercises that you will perfom can be executed on machines or/and free weights. I like machines better for the sake of better control, safety and the fact that they much great stress during the full movement.. Machines a better choice…read more about that in my articel here on this site (machines v. free weights).

I think I pretty much covered it all at this point. Again let me say that one set is all you need if performed properly and intense enough..Mike use to say to me “markus, feel free to add another set to each exercise if you can give me me one rational explanation why?” – I never could…plus after I trained with him and got more used to training intense, I wasnt even able to ask for more due to the extreme intensity that he put me trhough – if you can do another set after you have completed your exercise…u obviously have not trained hard enough – so train intense and let you body have the time to recover – the results are guaranteed..take my word for it!

Markus Reinhardt

Markus Reinhard Official Website

Chest with my buddy Steve Kim LVAC

markus-reinhardt — Sat, 10 May 2008 09:01:17 +0000

Watch video!

Doing a High Intensity Chest workout with my buddy Steve Kim (former Chippendale) at the new Las Vegas Athletic Club. Steve will be competing in 2 weeks here in Vegas at the FAME Show in the MUSCLE MODEL division – I am guiding him thru his workouts and diet till the show. For more Videos of me training please check out my official website at www.markusreinhardt.com!