Behind every incredible physique, there’s a story of hard work, discipline, and unwavering dedication. For Mike Mentzer, that story includes innovation and pushing the limits of the human body and mind’s capabilities. Mike Mentzer’s training was unlike anyone else’s of his time.
The term legend gets thrown around too often, but Mike was a legend in every sense. Although he accomplished a lot on stage, his influence on the sport goes beyond the titles. In fact, his bodybuilding career is one of untapped potential. Who knows what he could have accomplished if he had continued his competitive journey?
Either way, Mike’s impact on the fitness world is undeniable. He was ahead of his time. The Heavy Duty Training Program flew in the face of what everyone else at his level did. While people were looking for ways to do more, Mike found ways to do better.
In this article, we will delve into the legacy of this bodybuilding icon and explore how his principles can help you take your training to the next level.
Table of Contents
- Who is Mike Mentzer?
- The Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty Training Program.
- Mike Mentzer Training Principles.
- Mike Mentzer Diet Plan.
- How You Can Train Like Mike Mentzer.
- Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty Training FAQs.
Who is Mike Mentzer?
Mike Mentzer was a professional bodybuilder, author, and trainer born in Philadelphia in 1951. He was known for his unique approach to training, which emphasized heavy weights, low volume, and high intensity to stimulate muscle growth.
He started competing in bodybuilding at 18 years old and had a ton of success in his twenties, including winning the Mr. America title in 1976 and the Mr. Universe title in 1978 with a perfect score. Arguably his most significant win came in the 1979 Mr. Olympia, where he won the heavyweight class. Although he lost the overall in 1979 to the aesthetic king Frank Zane, heading into the 1980 Mr. Olympia, Mentzer was considered a favorite to take the title.
However, the 1980 Olympia is one of the most controversial in history. At the last minute, Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the competition after a five-year retirement from pro bodybuilding. Although clearly not at his best, Arnold still won the show. It was Arnold’s seventh Mr. Olympia title and by far the most disputed. Mentzer took fourth place.
Mike retired from competitive bodybuilding soon after the 1980 Mr. Olympia. He was only 29 years old and in his prime. Mike maintained throughout his life that the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest was rigged in favor of Schwarzenegger. He didn’t want to be a part of the sport if the judging was corrupt and predetermined.
Later in life, Mentzer trained hundreds of people, including many bodybuilders. Six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates even credits the Heavy Duty program as significantly influencing his training.
Mike passed away in 2001 due to heart complications. He was 49 years old.
The Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty Training Program
Mike used a few different training splits throughout his career. His book, Heavy Duty, outlined his program following a push, pull, legs routine. With this split, he trained his chest, shoulders, and triceps together on day one. Back, traps, and biceps on day two. And he finished up the week with a leg workout.
However, in the last book before he passed away, “High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way,” he changed his preferred split. Now he recommended training chest and back together on day one. Legs and abs on day two. And finishing up the week with shoulders and arms on day three.
High-intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way came out about ten years after Heavy Duty, so he likely changed his views over the decade. Although he had retired from bodybuilding by then, he was still training and coaching full-time.
Day #1: Chest and Back
On day one, Mentzer started his workout with chest training. The first exercise was a chest fly variation. He often rotated a traditional dumbbell fly with a machine pec deck or cable crossover. After a warmup set or two, he did one all-out set to failure of six to ten reps. On the last rep, Mike held the peak contraction at the top for as long as possible before lowering the weight slowly.
With minimal rest, he would move on to the second exercise of the day, a Smith machine incline press. Mike preferred the Smith machine because he could focus on pressing and not stabilizing the weight.
He opted for a medium grip on the incline presses. He felt using a wide grip, as many bodybuilders did, was a mistake. Using a closer grip increased the range of motion, plus he thought it offered a more significant chest contraction. After one all-out set of six to ten reps, the chest work for the day was done.
The back workout started with a machine pullover or a straight bar cable lat extension. He preferred his buddy Arthur Jones’ Nautilus pullover, but one was only sometimes available. A lat extension was a great alternative because he liked to start his back workout with a movement that minimized biceps involvement.
After one set to failure on the pulldown or lat extension, Mike would move onto a close grip underhand lat pulldown. He opted for a narrow grip because it gave his lats a better stretch and allowed an increased range of motion.
Day one ended with Mentzer’s favorite exercise, the deadlift. He was quoted as saying if he could only do one exercise, it would be the deadlift due to how many muscles it activates.
The Workout:
- Dumbbell Chest Fly or Cable Crossover or Pec Deck: 1 set x 6-10 reps (superset with)
- Incline Smith Machine Press: 1 set x 6-10 reps
- Machine Pullovers or Straight Bar Lat Extensions: 1 set x 6-10 reps (superset with)
- Close Grip Underhand Lat Pulldown: 1 set x 6-10 reps
- Deadlift: 1 set x 6-10 reps
Day #2: Legs and Abs
After a rest day or two, Mike returned to the gym for the second workout of the week. Day two was devoted to legs and abs.
The workout starts by pre-exhausting the quads with leg extensions. After one set to failure, he would move immediately into either a barbell back squat or a leg press. He was a fan of the old-school vertical leg presses.
Next was a lying or seated leg curl, followed by standing calf raises. Mike was known to use a lot of weight on calves. The calves should be able to handle a lot of weight, but most people don’t continuously push the progressions with calf work.
The last exercise of the day was a weighted decline sit-up. He did one set of 12-15 to failure.
The Workout:
- Leg Extension: 1 set x 12-20 reps (superset with)
- Barbell Back Squat or Leg Press: 1 set x 6-10 reps
- Leg Curl: 1 set x 6-10 reps
- Standing Calf Raise: 1 set x 6-10 reps
- Weighted Decline Sit-ups: 1 set x 12-20 reps
Day #3: Shoulders and Arms
The last workout of the week was a shoulder and arms session. Mike would typically take three or four days off after the leg workout. If day one fell on a Monday, day two on a Wednesday or Thursday, then day three would be either Sunday or Monday.
Mike started the workout with Naturalis machine laterals or dumbbell side raises. After one set to failure, he would do a reverse pec deck or a dumbbell rear raise to hit the posterior delts. Interestingly, that is all he did for his shoulders. Mike felt the front delts got enough work from incline pressing on chest day.
After finishing up the shoulders, he moved on to the arms. For the biceps, he would only do one exercise, a barbell curl. Since one of the biceps functions is to supinate the hand, he always used a straight bar, not an EZ curl bar.
The workout concluded with two triceps exercises performed back to back. First up was a cable triceps pressdown, followed by a weighted dip. Both movements were taken to failure. If Mike was training with a partner, he might even do a few forced reps on the cable pressdowns.
The Workout:
- Machine or Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 1 set x 6-10 reps
- Reverse Pec Deck or Dumbbell Rear Raise: 1 set x 6-10 reps
- Barbell Curl: 1 set x 6-10 reps
- Cable Triceps Pressdown: 1 set x 6-10 reps (superset with)
- Weighted Dips: 1 set x 6-10 reps
Mike Mentzer Training Principles
When Mike was competing, his training style vastly differed from most of the other competitors. Keep in mind Arnold dominated the bodybuilding world in the 1970s. Everyone wanted to be like Arnold, so they copied his training. Arnold was known for training twice a day, six days per week. You can’t get further from Heavy Duty training than that.
Here are the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty training principles.
High Intensity
Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty training protocol was all about high intensity and training to failure. Mike emphasized pushing each set to the limit. He felt “carrying a set to the point where you are forced to utilize 100% of your momentary muscular ability is the single most important factor in increasing size and strength.”
The problem with stopping short of failure comes down to measuring intensity. It is hard to tell what 85 or 90% of the effort on a set is. Going all out and giving 100% effort ensures you get the most out of each set.
Typically, the further you get from failure, the harder it is to gauge how close to failure you are. More importantly, when leaving a few reps in the tank, it’s easy to convince yourself you are training closer to failure than you are.
Mike recommended regularly attempting to go beyond your existing capacity. For example, if you can bench press 200lbs for ten reps until you try the 11th rep or add weight to the bar, your body has no reason to build upon its existing capacity.
Sometimes just attempting a PR is enough to recalibrate what failure feels like. Plus, a significant mental component exists in pushing yourself until you can’t do any more reps. Often your mind fails before your muscles do.
Low Volume
With high-intensity training comes lower volume. Intensity and duration exist in an inverse ratio. You can train hard or long, but you can’t do both. Mike recommended training as hard as possible and only doing one set per exercise.
Optimal results can only be achieved if the least number of sets required is performed. Training beyond this point is a wasted effort. The key is finding how many sets are needed for progress. More is not always better. Mentzer believed most bodybuilders mistakenly did too much volume.
It’s not that high-volume routines can’t work. Countless bodybuilders have had success with high-volume approaches. And there is plenty of research showing the benefits of volume. That said, it’s a question of efficiency. If you can get the same or possibly even better results doing less and in less time, it’s worth giving it a shot.
The problem many lifters have is they automatically jump to high-volume routines. In this scenario, they don’t know if they could have progressed using less volume because they didn’t give themselves a chance to find out.
Progression
It’s no secret that progression is an essential aspect of muscle growth. If a muscle is getting stronger, it is in the process of positive change. This is why a significant part of the Heavy Duty training routine emphasized training for strength. Mike believed you need to get stronger if you want to get bigger. He recommended keeping a logbook to track your workouts.
There are many ways to utilize progressive overload in your training, but the three Mike prioritized are:
- Increase the number of reps performed with the same weight.
- Increase the amount of weight used.
- Decrease the amount of time required to do the workout.
He set his training up using a double progression system. Double progression is a training method in which weight and repetitions gradually increase, allowing for progressive overload and muscle adaptation. The goal is to increase reps first and then weight once a certain number of repetitions are achieved. For example, if you are working in a rep range of six to ten. Start with a weight that allows you to perform six reps and continue using the same weight until you can do it for ten reps. Once you reach ten reps, increase the weight and repeat the process.
Additionally, he would strive to progressively reduce workout time. Performing the same work in less time is another form of progression. It’s a delicate balance because you don’t want your performance to suffer.
Low Frequency
Mike recommended only training two to four days per week to maximize recovery. The more advanced you are your ability to generate force increases, resulting in added recovery time.
Training too frequently doesn’t give your body enough rest. As you get older, this becomes more important.
Mike felt if you could train six days per week and feel recovered, each session probably needs to be more difficult.
Use Strict Exercise Technique and a Full Range of Motion
Mike advocated using a full range of motion, slow and controlled tempo, and strict form. No jerking the weight or using other muscles to help get the weight up. This may seem like common sense, but not all bodybuilders preach strict form.
When you are training to failure, it increases the need for clean technique. Not only to prevent injuries but also to ensure you are not progressing your lifts simply by sloppy technique.
Mike Mentzer’s Diet Plan
There is less information available on Mike’s nutrition. However, he believed in following a well-balanced diet. He thought many bodybuilders ate too much protein and needed more carbohydrates. He was also ahead of his time with nutrition, emphasizing tracking calories before macro-based diets were popular.
Another mistake he felt many bodybuilders made was putting on size too quickly. Doing so caused them to accumulate extra fat, which just made the fat-loss process more complicated than it needed to be.
That said, you can’t build muscle out of thin air. Mike recommended a slight calorie surplus of 300-500 calories when in a muscle-building phase.
A typical day of eating for Mike might have looked something like this.
- Breakfast: 1 cup of oatmeal, 8oz of low-fat milk, 1 slice of toast, 1 tbs butter.
- Snack: Peanut butter sandwich and 1 medium banana.
- Lunch: 6-8oz Chicken breast, 8-12oz baked potato, green salad with salad dressing.
- Snack: 12oz low-fat milk and 1 cup of dried fruit.
- Dinner: 6-8oz sirloin steak, dinner roll with 1 tbs butter, and 1 cup of mixed vegetables.
How You Can Train Like Mike Mentzer
So what can we learn from Mike Mentzer? Here are a few tips for returning to old-school high-intensity training.
Tip #1 – Try a Lower Volume Approach
I recognize Mike’s Heavy Duty program was extreme in its low volume. However, that doesn’t mean we must throw the baby out with the bath water.
What is the worst that would happen if you reduced your training volume by half?
High-intensity training is all about efficiency. I want to save time in the gym as I get older. Instead of trying to do as much as possible, I want to do as little as needed to get the desired results.
Tip #2 – Start Pushing Some Sets to Failure
Research shows you don’t need to train to failure to build muscle. I even have an entire podcast talking about it. With that said, people need to train harder. The lack of intensity is a big issue.
It’s rarely one thing, but if I had to choose one reason people don’t see progress, it’s a lack of effort, not volume. Most people do enough work to facilitate muscle growth. Very rarely do people need to add extra sets. Usually, they need to execute the sets they are already doing better.
Tip #3 – Include More Rest Days
Going hand in hand with doing less volume is including more rest days. For many of us, myself included, our love of training gets in the way of taking adequate rest. For years I trained six days per week, sometimes even seven days per week. I loved it, but I didn’t need to do it.
Most people can get by training only three or four days per week. You don’t have to be utterly sedentary on the other days. Rest days are a great time to incorporate other active hobbies. Play golf, do jiu-jitsu, or take a yoga class. At the end of the day, this may add value to your life without taking away any muscle or strength progress.
Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty Training FAQs
What is the Mike Mentzer training method?
The Mike Mentzer training method is a bodybuilding training philosophy developed by the late Mike Mentzer. The philosophy emphasizes high-intensity training with low volume and sufficient recovery time.
Why did Mike Mentzer stop working out?
Due to a severe shoulder injury, Mike Mentzer stopped training from 1971 to 1974
How many days a week did Mike Mentzer train?
Mike Mentzer only trained two or three days per week.
Why did Mike Mentzer and Arnold Schwarzenegger not get along?
Mike Mentzer and Arnold Schwarzenegger had a well-known rivalry in the bodybuilding world. It stemmed from the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest in which Arnold took first place. Mentzer felt Arnold received preferential treatment and did not deserve to win.
Author: Kyle Hunt
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