5 Muscle-Building Lessons From HIT Training (High-Intensity Training)

HIT Training has seen tremendous growth in popularity over the past few years. With it comes a lot of debate. Does HIT Training work? Can you build muscle with low volume?

This article isn't going to try to answer this.

Instead, it will look at HIT Training and extract key lessons. One of the most beneficial things you can do in training is not to completely dismiss other styles of training. You don't need to adopt the entire program, but you can pull out what works for you.

What Is HIT Training?

High-Intensity Training (HIT) is a style of bodybuilding that's built around very low volume, high effort, and progressive overload. This is in contrast to traditional bodybuilding methods that emphasize the need for volume (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).

The use of low volume in HIT Training is a result of the primary theory; HIT Training claims intensity is the primary driver of muscle growth and does not require excess volume; if you can do more volume, you're not training hard enough.

In practical terms, HIT opposes most traditional bodybuilding. Here's a quick comparison.

As you can see, the differences can be large. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree, there are still key lessons to learn from HIT Training.

1. There Is A Wide Range Of Volume That Works

Volume is one of the most heated debates in modern bodybuilding: how much should you do? It is the primary differentiating factor between HIT Training and more modern bodybuilding.

• Traditional bodybuilding recommends 10-20 weekly sets per muscle group (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).
• HIT Training generally uses 4-8 weekly working sets.

Most traditional bodybuilders would say low volume isn't going to work, at least to optimally build muscle. And research definitely supports this. 

However, newer research suggests you can build muscle with lower volume. A recent large review from Pellan et al. (2025) suggests;

• 5-10 weekly seats is the sweet spot and most efficient range.
• 11-18 weekly sets build more absolute muscle but are slightly less efficient.

So yes, we can build muscle with fewer than 10 sets per week. This is essential knowledge for those who don't have a ton of time or want a more minimal training style.

More importantly, if people are happy with their training and report gains, there's no reason to argue about it. 

2. Intensity Is Crucial

While volume is the easiest difference to see, intensity is the key factor that distinguishes HIT Training from traditional bodybuilding. Bodybuilding still emphasizes training to proximal failure, but HIT training requires training to failure. True failure. 

Its heavy emphasis is really the main reason HIT training has plausibility. 

Even if you don't follow a HIT-specific program, you can still use this lesson in your training. 

• If you're running short on time
• Instead of doing numerous sets of curls and triceps extensions, do two ultra-intense sets.
• Stop pretending you don't need to train hard in the gym.

In fact, EMOMS and cluster sets are often used in strength training as effective training methods (Tufano et al., 2017). When you compare them with rest-pause sets, you see they are very similar.

Even German Volume Training shares similarities. 

While some evidence-based suggestions suggest you don't need to train to failure, intensity is still important. Using some training methods, such as drop sets or negatives, could still play a powerful role. 

3. Be Smart About Exercise Selection 

In HIT Training, every single exercise is strategically chosen to maximize effectiveness.  None are thrown in to see what happens.

A great example of this is Mike Mentzer's use of the underhand lat pulldown for back AND biceps. He believed this exercise was superior because it used heavier loads and a large range of motion.

When examining different HIT training systems, you'll also see that they focus on the basics and primarily use compound exercises. 

• Incline Press
• Cable Row
• Leg Press

They ensure they hit every movement pattern and don't repeat any. Research has shown that this practice is ideal, and having sufficient exercise selection can maximize muscle growth (Baz-Valle et al., 2019).

4. Recovery Dictates Frequency

One truth of HIT is that your training frequency is dictated by your ability to recover. This speaks to one of the biggest problems in the gym: trainees doing way too much work and treating recovery as optional. 

While some proponents of HIT Training took this to the extreme, it contradicts traditional bodybuilding, which emphasizes the need for work. 

In HIT Training, recovery is looked at as a training variable to maximize, rather than something you need to do.

Recovery should be viewed as a crucial component of your training, as you can't outgrow it.  When you're recovered, training builds progress. When you're under-recovered, training builds more fatigue.

If you feel like crap, don't always force the session out of some belief you need to push through it. Sometimes, you may very well need to stay home; it's just up to you to be honest with yourself.

5. Progressive Overload Must Be Tracked, Not Assumed

This isn't unique to HIT Training, as applying progressive overload is the foundation of strength training (Plotkin et al., 2022). However, it's worth noting that this is the only variable shared by all training styles.

Proponents of HIT training, Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates, were famous for stressing its importance. 

Dante Trudel of DC training had his own interesting style to ensure his clients and students were always progressing. If they stalled on the same exercise for two sessions in a row, they'd swap to a different exercise. Always moving forward, never standing still.

This obsession with progress is one of the factors that explains how they progressed using lower volume. As long as the followers progressed in their lifts, they grew. 

While subtle, this association speaks volumes to the power of progressive overload. If you performed only one exercise per muscle group and consistently progressed, you would grow. 

Track your lifts. 

Best Ways To Apply HIT Training To Your Program

Here are applicable ways you can use various HIT principles in your training.

• Use HIT Training and Rest-Pause for your accessory or hypertrophy movements.
• Improve your exercise selection; don't repeat movement patterns in the same program.
• Stop guessing what you're doing in the gym. Track your lifts, especially your primary lifts.
• Experiment with other intensity protocols such as cluster-sets or EMOMS.
• If you're feeling fatigued, taking an extra day or two off isn't going to hurt you.

References

1. Baz-Valle, E., Schoenfeld, B. J., Torres-Unda, J., Santos-Concejero, J., & Balsalobre-Fernández, C. (2019). The effects of exercise variation in muscle thickness, maximal strength and motivation in resistance trained men. PloS one, 14(12), e0226989. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226989 
2. Pelland, J. C., Remmert, J. F., Robinson, Z. P., Hinson, S. L., & Zourdos, M. C. (2025). The resistance training dose response: Meta-regressions exploring the effects of weekly volume and frequency on muscle hypertrophy and strength gains. Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-025-02344-w
3. Schoenfeld, B. J. (2010). The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(10), 2857–2872. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e840f3 
4. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2016). Effects of resistance training frequency on measures of muscle hypertrophy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 46(11), 1689–1697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8
5. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(11), 1073–1082. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1210197 
6. Plotkin, D., Coleman, M., Van Every, D., Maldonado, J., Oberlin, D., Israetel, M., Feather, J., Alto, A., Vigotsky, A. D., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2022). Progressive overload without progressing load? The effects of load or repetition progression on muscular adaptations. PeerJ, 10, e14142. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14142 
7. Tufano, J. J., Brown, L. E., & Haff, G. G. (2017). Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Different Cluster Set Structures: A Systematic Review. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 31(3), 848–867. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001581