Peripheral Heart Action Workout
Peripheral heart action training is not called PHAT it is called PHA, but one could consider PHAT to be a great name? It certainly is not a new concept with exercise scientists like Dr. Arthur Steinhaus mentioning it as far back as 1944 in the middle of World War II.
Since then PHA has been brought to the bodybuilding world in the 1960s by Bob Gajda, a former Mr. Universe and Mr. America title holder. The concept is simple because the objective of PHA is to keep blood circulating throughout your whole body during a workout.
PHA is very different to standard circuit training which is designed to pump your blood into one or a group of body-parts. PHA circulates the blood throughout your entire body for the whole workout by pushing blood to the smaller muscles in the heart and then pushing the blood to larger peripheral muscles like legs and arms.
As described above the objective is to pump the blood to the extreme ends of your body in order to prevent that "burn" feeling. Any typical PHA workout will use a few exercises to target both the upper and the lower musculature. It then changes with each movement so that you will be moving from upper body to lower body.
The PHA workout listed below will give you a good idea how to create a great PHA workout that will not only increase your cardiovascular fitness but will increase lean body mass as well. The workout needs to be done with as little rest between sets as possible and only resting for 2 or 3 minutes after completing each circuit.
Standing Press 10-12 reps using dumbbells, barbell, machine, sandbag or kettlebells
Squat 10-12 reps using a trap-bar, dumbbells, barbell, machine, sandbag or kettlebells
Abdominal Crunch 10-12 reps using bodyweight, suspension apparatus or dumbbells
Chin-ups 10-12 reps using bodyweight, machine or assisted
Standing Calf Raises 10-12 reps using dumbbells, barbells, sandbag or kettlebells
Dips 10-12 reps using bodyweight, machine or assisted
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