High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way (NTC SPORTS/FITNESS)

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Modifying Jones’ principles somewhat (Mentzer used fewer reps), Mentzer became a high-intensity disciple. One of his earliest intensity routines — later dubbed his Heavy Duty routine — was as follows: (10) Day 1 (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps)

He counted his calories and did not feel the need to deprive himself of food he enjoyed. A full three decades before “If It Fits Your Macros” became a common mantra in the fitness industry, Mentzer wrote the following: Mentzer, along with Jones and Viator, helped push a generation of bodybuilders to try high-intensity training. The best-known example of this was undoubtedly six-time Olympia winner Dorian Yates who entirely changed his approach after reading HIT works. Yates’ later ‘blood and guts’ routine was, in effect, a modified Mentzer approach. Nutritional Protocols

What isn’t communicated in the workout above is the intensity Mentzer brought to his training. Typically he did only one or two sets per exercise. Using pre-fatigue and forced reps, Mentzer’s philosophy was simple — obliterate the muscles and then move on. His workouts were often 45 minutes in duration.

More than a book about weights. High-intensity, low-reps are king. Arnie lied to you. Muscles cannot be confused, they do not have an identity. Read philosophy. Eat philosophy. Be philosophy. Do not divorce your warrior from your scholar. Rest well. Eat protein. Pray. I found this book to be enlightening and extremely motivating. Prior to this, I did not know much about exercise physiology and basically just blindly followed programs I was recommended from friends or found on Reddit. While reading this I started a new gym and began on the program Mentzer suggests in Chapter 13. This book filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge. It also gave me insight into why previous attempts of higher volume training stagnated or plateaued. This book educates and equips you to build your own program when you understand the principles. Why did people listen to Mentzer? He wrote clearly and coherently. More importantly, he was phenomenal during his bodybuilding career. In 1978 he achieved a perfect score at the Mr. Universe contest. He turned professional the next year and won the heavyweight division of the Mr. Olympia contest. He only lost the overall to Frank Zane. lb of body weight? That's arbitrary. Use reason. Use Objectivism. A muscle is 22% protein. Eat 22% protein, and 63% carbs, and 15% ice cream."In school and later in university, Mentzer distinguished himself by virtue of his remarkable grades. He was a top student, one whose ultimate goal was to become a psychiatrist. Before embarking on that pathway, however, Mentzer threw himself into amateur bodybuilding. ( 5) If you feel you can attempt a second set, then you couldn’t have been pulling out all the stops during the first set.” — Dorian Yates DORIAN YATES’ HIGH-INTENSITY WORKOUT BASICS Like Arthur Jones, Mike Mentzer emphasized the eccentric (negative) half of reps. One or more partners help raise the weight and then the HIT-trainer lowers it slowly to push sets beyond failure or for sets of eccentric-only reps. There was a negative training movement in the ’80s, with people doing entire workout routines of concentric-only reps. MIKE MENTZER’S FALL First, he neutered the Junior Mr. America and earned first place at 190 pounds. Then, he took third at the 1975 Mr. America, stepping on stage cut at 195. He placed behind Roger Callard and Robby Robinson.

Your final moderate-intensity warmup set should also be pushed to near-failure but with a lighter weight and higher reps (12-15) than your working set. So he's a dork, but he's credentialed. Let's give it a try. I'll hop on High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer way for a few months, and if I'm shredded to the bone and 5'8" by June, we'll know it worked. Mike Mentzer menade på att det fanns tre olika typer av styrka: den positiva kontraktionen, statisk styrka och negativa repetitioner. Om man faktiskt ärligt tränar till failure innebär det oftast enbart att den första och svagaste styrkenivån – positiva kontraktionen – inte klarar mer påfrestning. Om du klarar 70kg i benspark, klarar du antagligen att hålla 100kg i toppositionen ett tag, och du klarar antagligen att med någorlunda kontroll den excentriska delen av rörelsen. Dessa siffror är påhittade men summan av kardemumman är att för att uppnå äkta muskulär failure måste även den excentriska styrkan vara slutkörd. Recent studies have vindicated Mike Mentzer, of course. A man who trains regularly can coast on three or more weeks of complete inactivity without any loss in muscle or strength.

Mentzer was an atheist, [12] and stated in the last interview before his death that he did not believe in God, heaven, hell, or any kind of afterlife. [13] Objectivism [ edit ] Mentzer retired from competitive bodybuilding after the 1980 Mr. Olympia at the age of 29. He maintained that the contest results were predetermined in favor of Schwarzenegger, and held this opinion throughout his life. While Mentzer never claimed he should have won, he maintained that Schwarzenegger should not have. Nevertheless, the two eventually had an amicable relationship. [6] [4] Legacy [ edit ] Discuss NANBF/IPE, INBF/WNBF, OCB, ABA, INBA/PNBA, and IFPA bodybuilding, noncompetitive bodybuilding, diets for the natural lifters, exercise routines and more! He talks about how so much of bodybuilding training amounts to folklore, and how the idea "everyone responds to different training methods" doesn't make sense from a medical standpoint. He also took issue with people taking successful bodybuilders' words as gospel, but had the class not to point out that the primary authority on bodybuilding lore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, lied compulsively and for fun all the time. Workout Systems: Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty’, Poliquin Group. December 20, 2016. https://www.poliquinstore.com/articles/workout-systems-mike-mentzers-heavy-duty/

With gyms re-opening I wanted to find a new way to weight train, while moving away from standard "bro" splits but something familiar enough that I could supplement my knowledge of weight training with it. It doesn't disappoint I came in looking for good advice from a legend, and was left with more knowledge and a new outlook on how I train.Mike Mentzer was a complex and gifted man who left an indelible mark on the bodybuilding landscape,” McGough wrote. ( 17) Around the time Dorian Yates made his pro bodybuilding debut, a rehabilitated Mike Mentzer returned to the bodybuilding scene. Over the next few years, as Yates validated Heavy Duty, Mentzer launched a personal training business, revised and expanded on his high-intensity theories in bodybuilding magazines, and published Heavy Duty II: Mind and Body. Even as his legacy, bound to Yates, grew, his writings, bound to Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, grew more arcane and his recommendations, no longer bound to his own training, grew more extreme, such as working bodyparts with only one or two all-out sets every two weeks. SUPERSLOW TRAINING For modern trainees, Mentzer’s life and writings should act as a call to arms to question everything, discover what is best for one’s body, and, more importantly, train with purpose and intensity. That alone makes Mentzer a worthy bodybuilding legend. References