HRT: Animal Hellraiser Trainer – Injury Recovery

You're breaking down your muscles, pounding your joints. But what's the point if you're not rebuilding bigger muscles, or, worse, if you're zoned on the couch because you hurt yourself?

With Hellraiser Training, you're going to spend hours pounding it in the gym. Recovery becomes critical to adding mass. Do this right, and you're actually going to be making progress 24/7.

Do it wrong, and all the hard training can turn into a nightmare. You don't want Hellraiser-style nightmares. Trust me, you don't want this mug in your grill after hours, pinhead.

Obviously it's important to be eating right and taking proper supplementation, but there are a couple other key steps to make sure we're doing everything it takes to build mass.

Today, on your day off, let's cover sleep, cardio, stretching and deep tissue massage.

1 Sleep

• Sleep is critical for ensuring you're physically and mentally ready to hit the gym.
• Sleep is also a key time for growth hormone and testosterone release. Elevated levels of both hormones help with both recovery and building muscle.
• Sleep at least 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Squeeze in a 15-20 minute nap when you can.
• Mental alertness is extremely important for HRT. If you're not paying attention, you're going to get hurt.

2 Cardio

• HRT is mostly an off-season, mass-building routine. Generally, people who are focused on building mass avoid cardio like the plague. But in this case it offers some really solid benefits, like improved cardiovascular health. It also helps flush toxins out of the body.
• Do 15-20 minutes of low-intensity cardio. Keep the beats/minute at 110-120.
• Do cardio only on your three off days.

3 Stretching

• HRT is all about maximizing the pump. Between your training, your nutrition and your proper supplementation, you're going to have a tremendous amount of nutrient-rich blood reaching the muscles, filling them up like a balloon and pushing against the fascia.
• The best time to stretch is within 5 minutes after training a muscle group.
• When you stretch, apply a moderate amount of pressure. Your muscles are already vulnerable from being torn up from the training, so you don't want to injury yourself.

Types of HRT Stretches

4 Deep Tissue Massage

• It's important to get a full body deep tissue massage a couple times per month. This helps reduce soreness by increasing circulation. It can also help break up knots and scar tissue that may result in injury, as well as allowing the muscle to be more flexible.