English Arabic Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Esperanto French German Hindi Latvian Luxembourgish Malayalam Maltese Norwegian Portuguese Russian Spanish Tajik

John Robert Cardillo

John Robert Cardillo

John travelled the world to learn the best training and nutrition principles and trained alongside top pro bodybuilders at Gold's Gym California. He was a student of Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus and Medx Fitness machines, and the pioneer of hi-intensity training. John developed the HIT3 Training System, which transformed his physique to win countless bodybuilding competitions at just 18 years of age! He was also the first bodybuilder to utilize Faradic Electric Muscle Stimulation in his training and intermittent fasting during his competition prep. John’s SHREDDED Nutrition Diet helped him build one of the most shredded physiques of all time. His diet program incorporates fasting and nutrient timing to help athletes build lean muscle while losing body fat.

Print Share this

Time As A Factor To Building Muscle By John Robert Cardillo

When working a specific body part, the rest time between exercises determines the level of intensity and degree of hypertrophy achieved. To train with the highest intensity that I advocate in my HIT3 workout system, no rest is permitted between exercises. Only the time needed to move to the next exercise. Taking more than this minimal time causes the muscle to recuperate and maximum muscle fibre recruitment is hindered. This leads to overtraining the muscle fibres that were stimulated in the previous set. Therefore, a particular body part must be worked from start to finish without any rest. Rest of one to two minutes is permitted after completing a body part and moving on to the next body part. 

Time Under Tension

To create the greatest amount of intensity of effort we must also consider the amount of time that the specific muscle is under tension during the performance of the exercise. Essentially what we are trying to accomplish during high intensity exercise is to provide the most tension possible for a muscle we’re training for as long as possible. Using maximal resistance and employing all of the prerequisites of my HIT3 principles a muscle would be under extreme tension during the time it was being exercised. Typically, to perform 10 repetitions it would take 15 to 20 seconds. However, using my HIT3 principles, you would take 2 to 3 seconds to perform the positive part of the exercise and 3 to 4 seconds performing the negative part. Therefore, a total of 5 to 7 seconds per repetition is required. In a set of 10 repetitions, the body part being worked would be under tension for more than a minute. Intensity is further enhanced by moving from one exercise to the next without any rest. In total, a large muscle such as quadriceps will receive adequate stimulus by the performance of 3 exercises and keeping the quadriceps under pressure for as little as 4 to 5 minutes. 

Want to Train and Diet Like a Bodybuilder? Check Out Canada's Premier Fitness Expert John Cardillo or Right Here.​