The mental mind zone / are you trianing hard enough

**Tlolec the toilet** · 09-06-2016, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by NACH3

Also... 'failing or hitting true positive failure' on a regular basis is much much harder than it may seem... The set it just starting when your tired and think you've reached true positive failure yet we fail each day trying to achieve this and also FAIL when done right - it's an interesting way of looking at things and keeping ones perspective!

yes, yesterday i was using all the advanced protocols, but i don't think i reached true failure. 1 being because i didn't stay longer than 1 hour and 2 being because i didn't drop set down to absolutely nothing. i could have kept going until i failed easily at the lowest weight available. whose knows how long i would have been there though. i got some pretty good isolation on my chest and biceps though. it felt like exactly what i wanted to do. the pump was really good.

**marcus300** · 09-07-2016, 02:04 AM

Originally Posted by Tlolec

yes, yesterday i was using all the advanced protocols, but i don't think i reached true failure. 1 being because i didn't stay longer than 1 hour and 2 being because i didn't drop set down to absolutely nothing. i could have kept going until i failed easily at the lowest weight available. whose knows how long i would have been there though. i got some pretty good isolation on my chest and biceps though. it felt like exactly what i wanted to do. the pump was really good.

You don't want to be using the advance protocols, you need to just train the body and mind to go to true failure, this isn't something you can just say your doing or do. It takes time to put your body under that much stress and be able to go into that zone, so imho forget all the advance protocols because all you will be doing is saving something in the tank to do the advance protocols. IMHO if your into HIT and you feel its something you want to work with come to the dungeon and read from page one it will change your life, body and mind.

**NACH3** · 09-07-2016, 07:09 AM

Originally Posted by Tlolec

yes, yesterday i was using all the advanced protocols, but i don't think i reached true failure. 1 being because i didn't stay longer than 1 hour and 2 being because i didn't drop set down to absolutely nothing. i could have kept going until i failed easily at the lowest weight available. whose knows how long i would have been there though. i got some pretty good isolation on my chest and biceps though. it felt like exactly what i wanted to do. the pump was really good.

You don't want to be in the gym longer than an hr... I know we're all different, however, if doing true HIT your working set will dictate your beyond failure protocols imho... And without reaching true positive failure you can not go beyond!

Also, a pump is much different than actually tearing muscle fibers... Try doing two warm up sets to 10-12 reps(but not to failure but not light either... Then feel your way into your working set weight(hitting 4-6-maybe 8) but unable to move the weight any longer 1/4 reps down to nothing -

Just try hitting failure first - and I mean true positive failure(I struggle still if not in my right mind set) it all starts there

**Tlolec the toilet** · 09-08-2016, 06:25 PM

i'm really enjoying isolation and the pump at the moment. i want to focus on it. I've also been thinking of making a synergistic routine for myself and i did.

i think i understand Nach. you're talking about partial reps, or complete failure to even move the weight. i was able to do this 2 weeks ago, but it's gotten difficult. a certain type of desperate need drove me to true positive failure. it was an uncomfortable sense of urgency. like an important race. my ego has been getting in the way and i'm getting cautious. maybe too cautious. gotta drink water. gotta eat a balanced meal every 2 hrs. gotta sleep

**OnTheGrindAgain** · 11-20-2016, 10:18 PM

I changed my ways of lifting when I restarted lifting last year , I hit it with a new approach and I've
Never seen changes in my body so fast. If anyone has heard of George Leeman , he basically taught me how to funnel adrenaline and rage.

**marcus300** · 01-24-2017, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by OnTheGrindAgain

I changed my ways of lifting when I restarted lifting last year , I hit it with a new approach and I've
Never seen changes in my body so fast. If anyone has heard of George Leeman , he basically taught me how to funnel adrenaline and rage.

Glad to hear it, are things still going well?

**marcus300** · 02-12-2017, 04:09 PM

Bump

**godfather666** · 02-12-2017, 05:05 PM

Hi marcus im so happy finding this thread you won't believe me. i read every single post for the last hour and i can say that you are one truly amazing inspirational person. there is no words to describe the way you wrote everything. i was like in a completely different world reading your intense approach to lifting. hands down for you.

Anyway by reading your supersets and dropsets technique i realized i was doing them wrong (well maybe not). the way i do dropset is first i start with feeler sets going up with weights until im ready for my working set. then i perform my first set 8-10 reps and then i drop weight resting like 30-40 sec and again perform another set but same rep range and then again drop weight. i think its called full pyramid set where you go weight up and down but same rep range. what do you think about this approach?

The next approach would be superset. you wrote that when you perform superset it has to be in total 8-12 reps for both exercises but all this time (been training for 4 years now naturally) i was performing one exercise 8-12 reps and immediately performing another exercise but same 8-12 reps range. is it bad approach what do you think? again big respect for your thread.

**marcus300** · 02-12-2017, 06:27 PM

Originally Posted by godfather666

Hi marcus im so happy finding this thread you won't believe me. i read every single post for the last hour and i can say that you are one truly amazing inspirational person. there is no words to describe the way you wrote everything. i was like in a completely different world reading your intense approach to lifting. hands down for you.

Anyway by reading your supersets and dropsets technique i realized i was doing them wrong (well maybe not). the way i do dropset is first i start with feeler sets going up with weights until im ready for my working set. then i perform my first set 8-10 reps and then i drop weight resting like 30-40 sec and again perform another set but same rep range and then again drop weight. i think its called full pyramid set where you go weight up and down but same rep range. what do you think about this approach?

The next approach would be superset. you wrote that when you perform superset it has to be in total 8-12 reps for both exercises but all this time (been training for 4 years now naturally) i was performing one exercise 8-12 reps and immediately performing another exercise but same 8-12 reps range. is it bad approach what do you think? again big respect for your thread.

Thank you very much means a lot to me

A drop set is once your doing your working set you drop the weight as soon as you reach failure and move straight away on to the set again with less weight until failure is reached again, if possible you could add in a further 2nd drop set and repeat again. But I wouldn't rest 30-45 seconds between drop sets because than a version of a rest pause method which is different but still productive.

The first thing you need to learn how to attack and perform is failure before you start going into dropsets, rest pause, negatives and forced. Failure is very hard to do and you cant just do it and it takes time for you to train your body to go into this zone, what you think failure is probably isn't.

Remember going to true positive failure like I've describe previously hits the toughest muscle fibers what grow the biggest these are the fast twitch type 2b fibers, you hit these fibers and you will have the biggest chance of increasing in size. What we are aiming for is progression overload so you keep hitting the muscles with an increased weight so they need to change and adapt to the overload its being put under. This kind of continuous stress will have a reaction on the body and it will have no other alternative but to grow. We keep within the right rep range what stimulates the biggest growth and we continuously try and increase the intensity by increasing the reps then once the reps increase you increase the weight to bring the reps down within the correct range again. I can't stress enough about taking your muscle to true positive failure, this takes a lot of mental preparation. Once you hit failure these fibers starts to be stimulated and this is when most people stop the working set, with HIT you go to failure or beyond but learning to go to failure is first and this can take months even years to train yourself to do

**godfather666** · 02-13-2017, 01:33 AM

Originally Posted by marcus300

Thank you very much means a lot to me

A drop set is once your doing your working set you drop the weight as soon as you reach failure and move straight away on to the set again with less weight until failure is reached again, if possible you could add in a further 2nd drop set and repeat again. But I wouldn't rest 30-45 seconds between drop sets because than a version of a rest pause method which is different but still productive.

The first thing you need to learn how to attack and perform is failure before you start going into dropsets, rest pause, negatives and forced. Failure is very hard to do and you cant just do it and it takes time for you to train your body to go into this zone, what you think failure is probably isn't.

Remember going to true positive failure like I've describe previously hits the toughest muscle fibers what grow the biggest these are the fast twitch type 2b fibers, you hit these fibers and you will have the biggest chance of increasing in size. What we are aiming for is progression overload so you keep hitting the muscles with an increased weight so they need to change and adapt to the overload its being put under. This kind of continuous stress will have a reaction on the body and it will have no other alternative but to grow. We keep within the right rep range what stimulates the biggest growth and we continuously try and increase the intensity by increasing the reps then once the reps increase you increase the weight to bring the reps down within the correct range again. I can't stress enough about taking your muscle to true positive failure, this takes a lot of mental preparation. Once you hit failure these fibers starts to be stimulated and this is when most people stop the working set, with HIT you go to failure or beyond but learning to go to failure is first and this can take months even years to train yourself to do

Thanks a lot for the answer Marcus

I have an idea now how I am going to attack the weights next time. I think you right saying that I don't reach the proper failure because I watched all those videos you posted with Dorian and for me I was thinking reaching failure is simply not able to lift anymore reps, but this is different approach. its a mentally approach to failure, because your partner can squeeze another 2-3 reps from you. Also a lot of good training methods can be done with a partner/spotter. That's the problem I don't have anyone I can rely on training intensely to get into the zone.

But the main thing is that I have learned something and really helped me with my future training sessions

thanks a lot again.

**marcus300** · 02-13-2017, 01:35 AM

Originally Posted by godfather666

Thanks a lot for the answer Marcus

I have an idea now how I am going to attack the weights next time. I think you right saying that I don't reach the proper failure because I watched all those videos you posted with Dorian and for me I was thinking reaching failure is simply not able to lift anymore reps, but this is different approach. its a mentally approach to failure, because your partner can squeeze another 2-3 reps from you. Also a lot of good training methods can be done with a partner/spotter. That's the problem I don't have anyone I can rely on training intensely to get into the zone.

But the main thing is that I have learned something and really helped me with my future training sessions

thanks a lot again.

Read this thread everything you need to know is here **Marcus's HIT Dungeon**

**marcus300** · 11-14-2017, 03:52 AM

bump

**marcus300** · 12-21-2017, 06:02 AM

Turning the heat up with my training, been off training for some time now and I am doing better with my health so its time to turn the heat up. It will be a slow onset but will try and see what happens. If I feel injury is going to occur I will take a step back yet again. But my mind set is slowly coming back

**GearHeaded** · 12-21-2017, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by marcus300

Turning the heat up with my training, been off training for some time now and I am doing better with my health so its time to turn the heat up. It will be a slow onset but will try and see what happens. If I feel injury is going to occur I will take a step back yet again. But my mind set is slowly coming back

definitely take your time and ease into it with lighter weight higher reps. I recently made the mistake of not doing that myself.
was out of the gym for quite some time having had surgery. lost quite a bit of weight and was super motivated to get back in the gym and gain it back. 50mg of tren suspension and 30mg of Dbol pre-workout had me moving some heavy weight. jumped under 405 decline smith bench press and that jacked my shoulder up (now I can't bench at all) . I should of taken it way way slower and gave my joints and body time to adapt over time with lighter weight.

**marcus300** · 12-22-2017, 02:00 AM

Originally Posted by GearHeaded

definitely take your time and ease into it with lighter weight higher reps. I recently made the mistake of not doing that myself.
was out of the gym for quite some time having had surgery. lost quite a bit of weight and was super motivated to get back in the gym and gain it back. 50mg of tren suspension and 30mg of Dbol pre-workout had me moving some heavy weight. jumped under 405 decline smith bench press and that jacked my shoulder up (now I can't bench at all) . I should of taken it way way slower and gave my joints and body time to adapt over time with lighter weight.

I won't be going back to my level of training ever again Gearhead due to injuries I had and also health scares over the last couple of years so its all about keeping healthy for me now. Infact I'm dropping size because I'm too big and will be just playing at this game now, been hard to come to terms with because I've train hard and intense for over 30 yrs but I had a wake up call and going to take notice. My mind is my most power weapon and I am just playing with it at the moment aittle push here and there to keep some of my muscle tissue will be fine. I think taking things slow isn't in our mind set or our ability when we have been controlled by the iron for so long but it is the best advice to give.

I'm learning to train differently these days to see how my body reacts and how much muscle its going to give up lol lol.

**Calcium** · 03-06-2018, 06:03 AM

Very powerful thread
thx for sharing

**marcus300** · 03-09-2018, 01:30 AM

Bumpy

**i_SLAM_cougars** · 07-02-2018, 12:56 PM

Bump

**marcus300** · 08-06-2018, 05:00 AM

bump

**bonhamsurf** · 10-16-2018, 06:54 PM

Very, very powerful and helpful information. Thank you for the details

**Family_guy** · 11-13-2018, 01:15 AM

Great post Marcus! I read this a while ago and I still think about it before I do a set. I literally tell myself in my mind “light weight! You can move that light weight” and I get jacked up. This post goes through my mind when I’m in the gym and I’m feeling tired. I get inspired thinking about this. Thanks a lot!

**Stalker3060** · 02-04-2020, 11:47 PM

Thanks Marcus this helped me alot, not spinning my wheels anymore

**AwareXx** · 03-17-2020, 07:14 AM

One of the articles here on this forum that's sure to give you a boost for your training needs!

**JesusEscog** · 10-29-2022, 12:30 PM

Well here are my credentials.

Weight: 205lb
Height: 5 9"
age: 17

in competion bests

Bench Press: 300lb raw
powerclean: 315lb raw
deadlift: 625lb raw
I hold Northwest Indiana state record in deadlift. And state record in totals.

My best squat ever with knee raps: 600lb.
Hope my lifts are enough to be a Gladiator. NO PAIN NO GAIN hit them hard boys cause tha weights hve no problem beating you to a bloody puple

**user1234567890** · 11-01-2022, 06:39 AM

Thank you Marcus. I’ve been struggling with the mental aspect in recent weeks and looking for a solution. I believe this is the answer. I’ve gotten very complacent lately. Life is just good and I’ve been forgetting to harness my anger. I have plenty of infuriating moments in my past to draw from. You iust reminded me that is how I used to do it. Much appreciated brother.