Quick insight for everyone here who trains HIT and cares about longevity, productivity, and real progress. If you’re over 40—and especially if you train to true muscular failure—traditional squats won’t let you get there safely. Your lower back gives out long before your legs hit real failure, and that kills both intensity and progress. The belt squat solves the entire problem. No compression. No lumbar fight. Just pure leg work and the ability to drive the muscle to failure the way HIT requires. You can use a cable setup, landmine, or hip-belt variation. As long as the weight hangs from your hips, you can train hard without paying a spine tax. This is a core part of my newest eBook, Stronger 40. It’s a full high-intensity system built specifically for lifters over 40 who still want real muscle growth, real intensity, and training that supports their life—not drains it. Inside the book you get: - The complete over-40 HIT framework - Spine-safe programming - Movements designed for longevity - Recovery strategies that actually work after 40 - Leg training built around the belt squat advantage - A system that lets you keep pushing without breaking down - Presale is open now: Stronger 40 Presale: https://pay.highintensitycoach.com/stronger40pre If you want to train hard and stay strong for the long haul, this is the blueprint. Markus Reinhardt www.highintensitycoach.com

I’ve been around this game long enough to see one pattern repeat. Everyone talks about intensity, but very few actually understand it. Real intensity isn’t about screaming through a set or chasing exhaustion. It’s control. It’s thought. It’s applying logic to effort. Mentzer used to tell me, “You can’t outwork poor logic.” That stuck with me for life because it applies to everything. Training, recovery, even business. Every rep, every session, every move you make has to serve a purpose. Otherwise you’re just burning energy and calling it progress. When was the last time you truly trained with full focus — no noise, no momentum, just control?

Over the years working with clients, I have noticed something interesting. Most of them understand the idea of training hard, but very few truly understand the context of that effort. The body is not a machine that simply obeys force. It is an adaptive system that reacts to stress, mechanical, chemical, and neurological, and then needs time to reorganize itself before it can improve. When I started experimenting with true high intensity work, I saw firsthand what Arthur Jones meant by quantifying fatigue. The magic was never in the machines. It was in learning how to isolate a muscle, drive it into deep fatigue, and then step back long enough for the body to do what it is built to do — adapt, grow stronger, and become more muscular in the process. What really changed my perspective was seeing how often even experienced lifters chase failure for its own sake. They confuse effort with progress. What I have come to realize is that stimulus is only half of the growth equation. Recovery is not passive rest. It is the active rebuilding phase that determines whether your training was productive or just exhausting. Intensity lights the fuse. Recovery is what makes it explode. — Markus Reinhardt