Mike Mentzer’s Exercise Routine: The Full Information

Michael Mentzer was an American bodybuilder, businessman, and writer. 

His most notable bodybuilding achievement got here in 1979, when he received the heavyweight class on the Mr. Olympia (though he misplaced the general title to Frank Zane).

Mentzer developed “Heavy Responsibility,” a coaching technique that prioritized lifting heavy weights for minimal units, coaching to failure, and emphasizing restoration. He believed this strategy was essentially the most environment friendly solution to construct muscle and keep away from overtraining.

At first blush, Mike Mentzer’s program appears easy. 

However if you wish to observe it appropriately, you even have to stick to his tips round relaxation, warming up, coaching to failure, and so forth.

Right here’s every thing that you must know.

Mentzer believed that restoration was simply as essential because the exercises themselves, which is why he really useful taking 4-to-7 days of relaxation between periods. 

He didn’t prescribe a inflexible schedule (e.g., practice each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). As a substitute, he structured his routine into Days 1, 2, and three as a result of your want for relaxation can range based mostly in your progress and circumstances.

Mentzer urged beginning with 4 days of relaxation between exercises. For instance, should you do Day 1 on Monday, you’d full Day 2 on Friday, and Day 3 the next Wednesday. 

If one thing interferes along with your coaching schedule—work, journey, or fatigue, for instance—he suggested ready an additional day moderately than speeding again to the fitness center. 

In line with Mentzer, as you construct muscle and power, your restoration wants enhance, so he inspired extending the remaining interval to six or 7 days, and even longer, as you get extra skilled within the fitness center.

Mentzer emphasised the significance of selecting a coaching time that works along with your schedule and vitality ranges. 

Some individuals carry out greatest within the early morning, whereas others favor the late afternoon or night. Mentzer believed the optimum time to coach is whenever you really feel targeted and able to give your greatest effort. 

Mentzer believed warming up for every train was important, however he additionally felt it needs to be fast and environment friendly to keep away from losing vitality you possibly can spend in your all-out units.

For instance, in case your heavy set of deadlifts is 165 kilos for 7 reps, Mentzer urged beginning with 115 kilos for 7-to-10 reps. Observe this with a second warm-up set of 145 kilos for 2-to-3 reps, which helps mentally put together you for the heavier set to return. After this, you’re prepared to coach.

When you’re performing an train as a part of a pre-exhaustion superset (extra on this quickly), he suggested warming up with the compound train. As an example, when combining the leg extension and leg press, heat up on the leg press.

After ending a pre-exhaustion set, Mentzer really useful going instantly into the following train. For instance, after ending your pre-exhaustion set of dumbbell flys, it is best to instantly start the incline bench press. 

After performing units of different workouts, he urged resting till you’re feeling recovered, however now not. Because of this as your health improves, you may usually end Mentzer’s Heavy Responsibility coaching program in much less and fewer time. 

In line with Mike Mentzer, “rep timing” was a key facet of coaching. He believed that to take care of correct kind and security, and to make sure the goal muscle—not momentum—is doing the work, you need to take 4 seconds to raise the load, pause for two seconds on the prime of every rep, then decrease it for one more 4 seconds. 

One of many cornerstones of Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Responsibility exercise program was the emphasis on coaching to failure—the purpose at which you’ll be able to’t carry out one other rep with good kind. 

The truth is, he believed that reaching full failure throughout your heavy set of an train was the best driver of muscle progress.

He referred to reaching failure as passing by the “break-over level,” the brink beneath which you don’t stimulate progress and above which you do. 

Mentzer emphasised the significance of progressively rising the depth of your exercises. For him, one of the best ways to realize this was by progressive overload—lifting heavier weights over time. 

For instance, if this week you may curl 100 kilos for six reps and subsequent week handle 10 reps with the identical weight, it is best to enhance the load sufficient the next week to carry your max reps again down to six. 

He additionally suggested not stopping a set simply since you hit a goal rep vary. In case your purpose is 10 reps however you are able to do 13, push for 13. If you attain the higher finish of your rep vary (corresponding to 10 reps in a 6-to-10 vary), add about 10% extra weight in your subsequent exercise.

Whereas Mentzer selected the workouts in his program as a result of he believed they had been essentially the most becoming, he lets you substitute them periodically in case you have issues performing them (due to harm or entry to gear, for instance).

Right here’s are his suggestions for substitutions:

Whereas he could have positioned himself as “the considering man’s bodybuilder,” Mike Mentzer’s exercise program isn’t completely aligned with our trendy understanding of what drives muscle progress.

To guage what Mentzer received proper and the place he could have missed the mark, let’s discover the professionals and cons of his coaching methodology by the lens of science.

Mike Mentzer’s exercise routine has loads of benefit, however in its authentic kind, it’s unlikely to go well with most individuals. 

The low quantity, coaching to failure, and lengthy breaks between exercises don’t match how most individuals like to coach or what science exhibits works greatest for muscle progress.

That stated, with a couple of easy changes, Mentzer’s program might be an efficient and sensible solution to practice. For instance:

Mike Mentzer’s exercise routine calls for only one working set per train, which he believed was sufficient to stimulate muscle progress should you take it failure. This interprets to roughly 1-to-2 units per physique half per week, relying on how lengthy you allow between exercises. 

Mike Mentzer admitted to utilizing anabolic steroids throughout his bodybuilding profession.