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Why HyperStrike Training Programs are Unique

August 14, 2006 Print This ArticleShare

Author: Michael Greeves

There are thousands of training programs out there.  How do you know which is a good training program?  Many are created with the “fun factor,” pointing out that if you like it you’ll keep at it.  Unfortunately, by pumping the exercise program full of fun factors, its effectiveness is compromised – while the fun might get you going at the beginning, too much of a focus on fun instead of result won’t get you far.  Other programs are way too serious, telling you to “lift heavy or go home.”  While this is good for various competitive lifters, it won’t give you a complete fitness program.

HyperStrike has been lucky in that thousands of people contact and tell us about their own exercise programs – enough so that we have a good insight into what a lot of people are doing out there.  We are constantly told that they weren’t getting the kind of results they wanted.  After reviewing their programs, we can see why.  It’s in their program design.

A program design can bring great result or it can bring days, months or years of work with nothing to show for.  Below we tell you some of the elements you should look for in a program design, so that you’ll get the result you want and which you (and others) can see.         

A Good Goal and a Good Plan

We can’t emphasize enough that when you exercise you must have a clear goal and a solid plan to reach it.  It is not enough to just exercise because you think it’s good to do it.  In the investment world, you wouldn’t just put money into stocks because you think it’s good to invest; you’d find the best stocks that give you the biggest returns.  Otherwise you’d waste your time and your money.  When you exercise, you should choose the best way to exercise in order to maximize your results and reach your goal.

Your goal, of course, is to become physically fit for whatever it is you want to do, whether it is for sport, work, life or looking your best.  If you’re reading this, then it is obvious that you want to be fit and you want to look great. 

Just like vague communication can disrupt or destroy a project, having a vague idea of what “being fit” is can disrupt or destroy your achievement of it.  You should clearly have a working definition of fitness.  Only then can you implement a plan to achieve it.

HyperStrike is here to define fitness for you, and then it is our job to give you the plan that helps you achieve it. 

Fitness and Body Image

We know that most people want to look good and that they realize to do this they must improve their fitness.  Yet, we’ve found that most have only a vague idea of what fitness really is.  Fitness should not be casually connected to just low body fat and good muscular definition.  Rather, it is deeply related to your physical capacity to do many things:  A jack of all trade; an all-around great “athlete.”  When you’re fit, any physical task can be done well and nothing is left for compromise!  This is true fitness.  With a good exercise program, anyone can attain it. 

When you are truly fit, your body will reflect your condition.  It is not the other way around.  Just as form should follow function, so too should looks follow fitness.  Make yourself fit first, and then you’d be amazed at how your body responds with how it looks!  The body works more efficiently this way!

Body Part Myopia

The focus on exercising individual body parts (biceps curls, calf raises, etc.) is a method that is several decades old, and was given birth to the mass from the subculture of bodybuilding.  While an “older” method doesn’t make it invalid, it neither qualifies it as “tried and true” or the best way to exercise. 

The program found in today’s mass market has its root in bodybuilding, perpetuated by articles found in bodybuilding magazines, written by bodybuilders for bodybuilding purpose.  A lot of these authors are themselves competitive bodybuilders, and by their nature they have the kind of time and training commitment that are daunting to most of us who live “normal” lives.  But even if we’re willing to commit to the time and the training, there’s still something that most of us wouldn’t do that bodybuilders do:  Anabolic steroids. 

While using steroids, almost any kind of exercise regimen works.  The hormones that are responsible to trigger muscular development and fat burning are controlled by the administration of various steroids and illegal fat burners.  This practice for the most part is unspoken and unrevealed in popular literature.  And yet these bodybuilders continue to give us articles on “how they do it” through training. 

Most of us chose to go without the legal and physical risks associated with steroid use.  So we should think twice about using the exercise programs developed by bodybuilders.  For legal, health and ethical reasons, HyperStrike stands strongly against steroids, and therefore our focus is on developing exercise programs for people who do it naturally.

Without the use of steroids, we have to control our natural hormonal environment in order to elicit the best muscular development and fat burning effect possible (a very different process as compared to that with steroid use).  We do this by selecting the types of exercises that trigger the best responses from our endocrine system, or hormonal system. 

Because the typical bodybuilding program (which focuses too much on individual body parts) blunts the hormonal system in the non-steroid user, it is important that we implement an exercise program that naturally triggers a favorable hormonal environment.  Fortunately, sport science has given us a lot of information in the area of exercise and hormonal responses. 

Maximize the Hormonal System

There are specific exercises that can be used to positively stimulate your endocrine system for favorable hormonal releases.  Additionally, there are ways to use those exercises (in the form of repetitions, sets and rest) to trigger the types of hormones, as different types have different jobs in our bodies – i.e. muscular development, fat burning.

These exercises, it just so happens, don’t focus on individual body parts too much.  They focus on multiple body parts at once.  They are called multi-joint exercises.

Multi-joint Exercises

These are exercises that engage and move many muscle groups at once.  No focus is placed on just one muscle group (i.e. biceps, back of thighs, etc).  Engaging many muscle groups maximizes the hormonal system to bring about muscular development or fat loss all over the body, and it does so more effectively than single-body-part exercises. 

You might have heard that there’s no such thing as spot reduction – or burning fat at a particular area of the body.  So why do a thousand crunches?  Also, trying to increase muscle size in a particular body part by exercising it separately is a less-than-optimal method.  Save it for the early stage of a physical therapy program.  You want the biggest bang for your effort. 

Emphasize multi-joint exercises for the best muscular development and fat burning! 

Variations

It’s not just variation in sets, repetitions, and techniques that are important for continual results, but also in exercises.  You have to vary the stimulus through reps and sets as well as the types of exercises.  Change the way you do an exercise, but also change the exercise completely.  And you should do it often enough to keep the body responding. 

Metabolic Systems

Exercises should also target the three primary metabolic systems.  The ATP-PC system fuels fast and high-effort activities that last up to about 10 seconds.  The anaerobic system fuels high-effort activities that last from 10 seconds up to 3 minutes.  The aerobic system fuels activities that last longer than 3 minutes.  These systems need to be challenged in order to bring about positive changes to the neuromuscular system, such as muscular development, fat loss, and greater physical capacity for doing things.

Maximizing Fitness

By minimizing the use of a traditional bodybuilding program, you will focus more on an exercise program that prepares you physically for the real world.  You will achieve real-world fitness. 

Remember that fitness comes before looks.  When you achieve fitness (the physical capacity to do a lot of things), you’re able to do so much more physically, and as a result you’re able to trigger changes much quicker than if you are to primarily focus on the looks but lack the means to change. 

The exercise program that focuses on increasing your fitness not only brings you excellent muscular development and fat loss without the use of steroids, but also prepares you for real life.  You will be an all-around athlete competing in the game of life!  (And you’ll look good doing it!)

If the program design you’re using doesn’t address all these elements, then is it time you use one that does?  It’s your fitness.

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