Ive been doing the fitness 4x4 hour of power for about 2 months now, and I have to say it has been one of the best fitness tools ive come across.
Ive been fit for years, loads of cycling and swimming, but at about christmas I decided I wanted to get strong in my upper body. I did the Mr Mansized thing, started lifting heavy weights, got a bit stronger.
Then I started this hour of power in May, and well the different in me now is really apparant. The whole idea of the session is to lift light weights at high tempo. Therefore exercising both your muscles and cardio system. Whilst it might not be effective for pure weight lifting beefcakes, for average blokes, it certainly has worked for me.
Strength it does give you, it is run by Rajko Radovic (was on BBCs last man standing) and the hour of power was devised by his father 30 years ago. Rajko is the world record holder for dumbell curls, and his father has never been beaten in a dumbell curl event...and the basis of their training is the hour of power. Seriously it has really worked for me...has anyone else tried it?
This looked interesting so I checked out the site. Looks like you have to pay to find out much about it though. And live in London so you can attend a seminar or class.
Yeah id love to go to a class, but I live in Leeds, so I bought the DVD...I think it is all you really need.....well that and some dumbells.
Im curretly using 2 or 3kg dumbells. 2kg if if intend doing the power section twice in one session 3 if I do it once. Seriously when i started I was using 1.5kg which sounds pathetic (i use 14kg dumbells for curls in the gym) but it a different type of training, doing so many reps so quickly.
In terms of overall fitness it is great and really time-effective becuase you are getting both cardio and weight resistance training. Certainly for the guys who are in the category of 'do i do cardio or weights to get fit?' this would be great.
It sounds similar to Escalating Density Training. In that you take two opposing muscle groups e.g. Biceps and Triceps with two exercises like curls and pushdowns. Then you take a weight you can lift 10 times max on each one. You set a timer for 15 mins then do as many curls as you can then straight onto the pushdowns then back to the curls and so on. I've not tried it but proponents say it's good for people who don't want to do cardio and weights but feel they should do both.
i have been enjoying fitness 4x4 for over 3 years and have entered a couple of the competitions at the seni show , earlier this year i went to help do some work on the fitness camp dragon is setting up in montenegro his son rajko was there, i had a brilliant time and they are both top blokes we worked in the day and trained at night whilst there rajko beat his personal best and did 600 lifts with 20kg i also beat my personal best and managed 400 lifts with 20kg , i live in blackburn lancashire so there is no classes near me but a lot can be achieved just by following the dvd as i have managed to do the whole workout with 6kg weights.
Back in the late 90's or early 00's (memory's not what it used to be!), Rajko was an instructor at Flex in Uxbridge. They were pushing the 4x4 thing there at the time to, I remember the flyers everywhere. I didn't investigate it further so can't shed any light, but it's good to see Rajko's doing alright for himself.
Incidently if you live near Uxbridge and you're looking for a gym, you could do alot worse than Flex if it's still there. The proprieter Declan is a top bloke, and when I was a wee school leaving lad he was the only one out of several gyms I wrote to for advice on becoming an instructor who took the time to write back and invite me in for a chat. Decent bunch of people there, and well equipped gym. If you're in the area, go and check it out.
Anthony
ETA: Just found their website Flex Lifestyles, and it looks like it's been taken over by someone else, so ignore everything I said about it above, looks like a completely different place now!
Well as a bit of a cardio freak, before when I went to the gym and did a pure weight session I was alway like...i need to go for a run.
With the hour of power, somehow it integrates both the cardio and weights in one. Ok im not gaining massive size, but im just starting to get more and more solid, my chest is now muscular not flabby my shoulder feel a lot more stable.
With regards to the lifts, 400 with a 20kg weight is impressive, isnt Rajkos world record 550? Im doing them at the gym currently with a 12kg dumbell and can do 250-300 at the moment. People in the gym look at me like an oddball, especially when you do the Rajko crouch down recovery position at the end of the session.
By September I want to be able to do the power session twice (40mins) with 3kg dumbells, and start moving onto 4kg by the end of the year, how long did it take you trevor to get upto 6kg?
hi basso
i have been doing fitness 4x4 for about just over 3 years and it took me about 21/2 years before i reached 6kg for the hour of power, you are right rajkos record was 550 reps with 20kg but he beat this whilst i was with him in montenegro he did 600 reps, Whilst there talking to him he said that his dad when he was at his best managed 1000 reps with 20kg but only he had witnessed it so it was not documented.
every now and then they have instructor training days and i would strongly recomend you attend one it is a real eye opener into his philosophy of training and the hour of power class they hold on the day is brilliant i only wish there where classes near me, i thought about becoming a trainer myself and starting a class but with work etc i dont have the time.
my personal best of 400 lifts is a lot and most of the trainers only manage just over 200 lifts but i do train very hard and do vertical lifts everyday with a minimum of 150 reps i think even dragon and rajko themselves are impressed by the way i train but i am still along way of their standards .
