Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout
There are many schools of thought when it comes to bodybuilding intensity. Should bodybuilders complete 3, 4 or 5 sets of a given exercise? Should bodybuilders and strength athletes complete 8, 9,10,11 or even 20 sets per muscle group per workout?
However, one of the most compelling theories to successfully bodybuilding is that of Heavy Duty workouts, or High Intensity Training, by Mike Mentzer, an ex-professional bodybuilder and now a bodybuilding coach. Mentzer suggests that bodybuilders need to only complete one working set and one set per exercise and only 2 to 3 different exercises per muscle group per workout.
Other Heavy Duty workout bodybuilders
Others, like Arthur Jones and 6 time Mr Olympia Dorian Yates also employed Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty workout ideas to create workouts of such high intensity that they were able to build huge muscular physiques using workout methods that normal schools of bodybuilding thought would deem under-training.
Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty workout or High Intensity Training - H.I.T is explored in the following article, allowing you to make your own mind up about with the Heavy Duty / H.I.T workout could work for you in your quest for increased muscle mass.
Heavy Duty workout: Less is more
Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty workout encompasses the 'less is more' theory to a tie. Where many bodybuilders believe that volume training (multiple sets over multiple exercises per muscle group), the Mike Mentzer theory goes that if a bodybuilder can't complete a warm up set followed by an all-out set of an exercise, where the bodybuilder pushes their body into a state of muscle adaptation and muscle grow, why will they be able to do so using 2, 3, 4 or even 5 sets of the same exercise?
As Dorian Yates once put it, "Heavy Duty training is like hitting a nail with a hammer. Why take 3 or 4 hits to nail it when you can do the job with one swing?"
The advantages of the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout
Using the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout has many benefits. One obvious benefit is that workout times will be slashed as bodybuilders drop up to 3 sets per muscle group in order to perform one all out set per exercise. Less time in the gym means more recovery time - after all muscle grow when repairing themselves away from the gym not during bouts of exercise.
Another benefit is that advocates of the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout should never fall into a state of overtraining. Sure, Heavy Duty bodybuilders work extremely hard during bouts of exercise but overtraining normally occurs when bodybuilders are tricked into thinking that 'more is more' and they add exercise after exercise to their workouts.
This means that Heavy Duty bodybuilders like Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates complete short, sharp workouts which finished as their anabolic hormones (the hormones used to develop muscle mass) were at optimal levels rather than finishing their workouts in a catabolic hormone state (the hormones that begin to breakdown muscle tissue to use as workout fuel).
Another key advantage of the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout theory is that each working set is an all out effort rather than merely as pre-cursor to another heavier set. For example, when forming pyramid sets - sets where the number of reps drop as the weight gets progressively heavier - there is only one true all-out set which challenges the muscle to adapt and grow, and that is the heaviest set. All other sets, it could be argued, merely act as prolonged warm up to the true one 'working set'. With the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty / High Intensity Training workout the muscles are warmed up thoroughly and each set there after is an all out, using as much muscle energy as possible, rather than performing the heaviest set after pre-fatiguing the muscle.
The disadvantages of the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout
Firstly, the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout isn't for bodybuilding beginners. As bodybuilding beginners people need to use multiple sets in order to train their nervous system as well as their muscles to handle the weight effectively. It is only with repeated practice that the body's nervous system truly learns a new skill, especially a controlled movement like weight training.
Secondly, even for advanced bodybuilders, training in an all out manner in every workout could lead directly to injury. The Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout requires that bodybuilders go all out on every working set for 6 - 8 repetitions. Placing the body under this type of stress in each and every workout may take its toll on not only the body's muscles but also on the joint's supporting tendons and ligaments, which could result to a injury which keeps the Heavy Duty / High Intensity Training bodybuilder away from the gym for a prolonged period of rehabilitation and recover.
Finally, advocates of volume training - using multiple sets over multiple exercises per muscle group - suggest that the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout theory is floored. Volume-based bodybuilders suggest that muscles can change and adapt to sets that fall outside of the Heavy Duty 6 - 10 repetition range. They suggest that muscle endurance can be developed with sets of 13 or more reps and that muscle mass can still be developed with rep ranges up to 12. So, sets with are not necessarily 'all out' efforts still play a part in the development and adaptation of the muscles.
Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout: The conclusion
The Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty / High Intensity Training workout certainly seems an attractive proposition. Spend less time in the gym and gain more muscle. Do only one set per exercise and move on. Both physically and psychologically, the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout certainly seems a winner.
However, one argument yet to be explored is the idea of genetics. Perhaps if Mike Mentzer, Arthur Jones and Dorian Yates had followed the volume training principles of others like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, Lee Hanley, Ronnie Coleman and Lee Priest etc (all successfully voume training-based professional bodybuilders at one time or another), they would look exactly the same, or even more muscular!
Genetics plays a huge part in sporting performance and muscle development. Do you think the likes of Carl Lewis, Michael Jordan, Michael Johnson, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, Chris Hoy and other speed and power athletes wouldn't get where they are today without having the genetics that make them pre-disposed to having the muscles and frame to beat the best of the best in world sport? Genetics is the key to any sporting success.
That said, you may just have the genetics to succeed using the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout. So with that in mind, try following a Heavy Duty workout for a month or two to see what happens, If it works, great! If it doesn't simply go back to training your muscles using more than one set per exercise.
Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout: An example workout
Below is an example Heavy Duty workout plan.
Note: The first exercise per body part will consist of one warm up set at 50% of working weight, followed by one all out set.
Monday
- Chest press / Incline press / Decline press - 1 set, 6-8 reps per exercise
- Shoulder press / Side raises - 1 set, 6-8 reps per exercise
- Tricep dips / Tricep pressdown - 1 set, 6-8 reps per exercise
Tuesday
- Lat bar pulldowns / Bent over rowing / Seared row - 1 set, 6-8 reps
- Bicep hammer curls / Incline curls - 1 set, 6-8 reps
Wednesday
- Squats / Leg press / Leg extension - 1 set, 6-8 reps
- Stiff legged deadlift / Leg curls - 1 set, 6-8 reps
- Calf raises - 1 set, 10-20 reps
Thursday
Friday
- Chest press / Incline press / Decline press - 1 set, 6-8 reps per exercise
- Shoulder press / Side raises - 1 set, 6-8 reps per exercise
- Tricep dips / Tricep pressdown - 1 set, 6-8 reps per exercise
Saturday
- Lat bar pulldowns / Bent over rowing / Seared row - 1 set, 6-8 reps
- Bicep hammer curls / Incline curls - 1 set, 6-8 reps
Sunday
- Squats / Leg press / Leg extension - 1 set, 6-8 reps
- Siff legged deadlift / Leg curls - 1 set, 6-8 reps
- Calf raises - 1 set, 10-20 reps
Monday
Tuesday
- Start the workout cycle once more
This is by no means the only way to create a Mike Mentzer inspired Heavy Duty workout / H.I.T workout. This merely covers the theory of the Heavy Duty workout. For more ideas and a full breakdown of the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty workout system I suggest purchasing the Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty book, entitled 'High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way' from an online retailer.
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