Mike Mentzer’s Workout Routine: The Complete Guide

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 Obligation,” a coaching methodology that prioritized lifting heavy weights for minimal units, coaching to failure, and emphasizing restoration. He believed this strategy was probably the most environment friendly option to construct muscle and keep away from overtraining.

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

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

Right here’s every thing it’s essential to know.

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

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

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

If one thing interferes together with your coaching schedule—work, journey, or fatigue, for instance—he suggested ready an additional day slightly than dashing again to the gymnasium. 

In response to Mentzer, as you construct muscle and power, your restoration wants improve, so he inspired extending the remaining interval to six or 7 days, and even longer, as you get extra skilled within the gymnasium.

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

Some folks carry out finest within the early morning, whereas others favor the late afternoon or night. Mentzer believed the optimum time to coach is while you really feel centered and able to give your finest effort. 

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

For instance, in case your heavy set of deadlifts is 165 kilos for 7 reps, Mentzer recommended beginning with 115 kilos for 7-to-10 reps. Comply with 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.

In case 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 illustration, when combining the leg extension and leg press, heat up on the leg press.

After ending a pre-exhaustion set, Mentzer really helpful going instantly into the subsequent train. For instance, after ending your pre-exhaustion set of dumbbell flys, you must instantly start the incline bench press. 

After performing units of different workout routines, he recommended resting till you are feeling recovered, however not. Which means that as your health improves, you’ll be able to usually end Mentzer’s Heavy Obligation coaching program in much less and fewer time. 

In response to Mike Mentzer, “rep timing” was a key facet of coaching. He believed that to keep up correct type and security, and to make sure the goal muscle—not momentum—is doing the work, you need to take 4 seconds to carry the burden, 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 Obligation exercise program was the emphasis on coaching to failure—the purpose at which you’ll’t carry out one other rep with good type. 

Actually, he believed that reaching full failure throughout your heavy set of an train was the best driver of muscle development.

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

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

For instance, if this week you’ll be able to curl 100 kilos for six reps and subsequent week handle 10 reps with the identical weight, you must improve the burden sufficient the next week to deliver 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. Once 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 workout routines in his program as a result of he believed they had been probably the most becoming, he means that you can substitute them periodically when 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 pondering man’s bodybuilder,” Mike Mentzer’s exercise program isn’t completely aligned with our fashionable understanding of what drives muscle development.

To judge 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 means of the lens of science.

Mike Mentzer’s exercise routine has loads of benefit, however in its unique type, it’s unlikely to swimsuit 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 reveals works finest for muscle development.

That stated, with a number of easy changes, Mentzer’s program will be an efficient and sensible option to prepare. For instance:

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

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