i think i have been misunderstood. My legs werent in pain. I could walk perfectly fine, they just felt like they were still healing.

Oh totally different. I understand what you mean. That's perfectly normal and expected on a true HIT routine which is what the workout you posted seemed most similar too. Like I said I've heard of one of my friends clients only seeing him once a month due to her long recovery period (she is older). She's not in pain but you can still feel fatigue in the muscles. For example my legs aren't experiencing DOMS but it takes more effort to walk up the stairs because the all of the muscle fibers aren't fully recovered and ready to be worked out again.

haha awesome lordchaos, you know I was just giving you sht, but much respect on pushing that much weight.

Haha I know.

As for the recovery time. It is possible for muscles to be fatigued and need to recover for that long. As far as DOMS I've never heard of it lasting 3 weeks. A change in the duration of DOMS could be due to your recent change in training routines. The program that you posted, when done correctly, is at a much higher intensity than the bodyweight workout you were doing (which was most likely moderate intensity). The deeper strength inroading process caused by higher intensity workouts would certainly increase the duration of recovery for the muscle but that is in terms of fatiguability not DOMS.

In my experience, when I first began working out my muscles would take a long time being sore and gradually they recovered faster as my fitness improved. They again went through the same process when I adapted to a higher intensity workout like you switched to.

what clients? are you a personal trainer?

Yes I am. Mostly middle-aged adults. A few younger people.

I second Eric. Body by Science has kind of become the new bible of HIT. Any of Mike Mentzer's books are a good place to start (although they are a little out of date). Searching for Body by Science in Amazon leads to a few other books that cover the topic of proper HIT techniques. Ideally you're looking any literature that talks of slow repetitions and brief, intense exercise. Great for strength increases, nothing like taking an exercise to complete failure to where you can't even move the weight an inch to incite your muscles to get stronger.

A good workout frequency is the time necessary for your muscles to fully recover from the previous workout. It may not be detrimental to workout before that but it will hinder growth and strength since you are not giving your body proper time to recover enough. This is especially true in the true HIT style of training. The higher the intensity of the workout, the more inroading you place upon the muscle, the longer recovery time you might need. Some people need as little as a week for recovery, some can need as much as a month.

I spend about 15-20 minutes training. 1-2 minutes on the machine, 1 set to complete failure (I cannot positively perform the exercise, positive being the first third of the exercise movement). I'll do 4-6 exercises. Sometimes it will take longer depending on whether I'm waiting for someone to finish with what I want but generally you want to accomplish it with as little rest as possible in between exercises. I've made amazing gains switching from "traditional bodybuilding routines" to this true HIT.

Keep in mind the stronger/bigger your muscles get the longer they will take to recover. The frequency will have to get more spread out. You will not lose strength/hypertrophy that fast. But diet will take an even more important role unlike exercise routines that can offset diet by performing them nearly every day (which I am in no way advocating). As for Jessica's comments I agree with Eric I don't consider them exercise but they are part of an active lifestyle.

Each workout creates an inroad into the muscles strength. Working out before your muscle is fully recovered, while not detrimental, will only further deepen the inroad and your strength gains will most likely stall. It's like starting at 100 units of strength and after a workout you're at 70 units. You could workout at 80 or 90 units since you've recovered a bit but you'd rather be at 100 again, and if you wait long enough you might reach 110 units of strength (an increase in the weight or TUL that you use). Dr. Doug McGuff explains this inroad process really well in his book "Body by Science".

When trying to increase strength, it's always best to err on the side of waiting longer. Rest and sleep are what help muscles recover and grow, you won't lose strength for taking an extra day to rest.

Made this the first time today. Came out great. I feel I might have used a little too much onion. Mine also weren't red, maybe that makes a difference. Any other spices you can use besides just salt and pepper? I've seen some sights with garlic and nutmeg.

I read this as well. I'm glad he did this to show that cooking changes the nature of fats and cholesterol but it might give average readers more of a reason to hate/blame fat/cholesterol for heart disease which is not the case. They would have very little effect without the inflammation and tearing or arterial walls caused by chronic insulin levels due to a high carbohydrate diet. He might have done a service for raw versus cooked but people might still blame the wrong suspects for the problem. He should do a subsequent study of why the LDL/calcium builds up on the arterial wall to do it justice.

Also, like the fact that he implicates poly-unsaturated fats.

Yeah the one I just tried the other day was very chalky. I'll have to look for better sources.

I'll have to keep this in mind for this year. Nothing beats real blood. It might be a conversation starter as well to the joys of raw food eating.

If you live on long island I would invest in a salt water fishing pole

Yeah I've thought about that. Just not sure how safe the waters around the island are.

True I'm looking around. It's hard being on Long Island. I just joined a CSA that delivers from PA once a week from two different farms. They have a whole array of different animals. Just have to find where my budget is and get some variety. Still haven't ate any raw chicken though. Next order I'll have to pick some up and eventually try it.

The arbitrary amount of protein is a joke. If you're eating a RPD you will most likely hit a good protein amount that is sufficient to gaining muscle while keeping fat accumulation down. Most meals I have give me at least 80-100g of protein, 2x a day and you're set. Don't go for a number, if you're eating RPD you're getting what your body needs or it would give you biofeedback of what it's lacking.