Get Ripped Fast!

High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

A PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

High-intensity bodybuilding advice from the first man to win a perfect score in the Mr. Universe competition

This one-of-a-kind book profiles the high-intensity training (HIT) techniques pioneered by the late Mike Mentzer, the legendary bodybuilder, leading trainer, and renowned bodybuilding consultant. His highly effective, proven approach enables bodybuilders to get results–and win competitions–by doing shorter, less frequent workouts each week. Extremely time-efficient, HIT sessions require roughly 40 minutes per week of training–as compared with the lengthy workout sessions many bodybuilders would expect to put in daily.

In addition to sharing Mentzer’s workout and training techniques, featured here is fascinating biographical information and striking photos of the world-class bodybuilder–taken by noted professional bodybuilding photographers–that will inspire and instruct serious bodybuilders and weight lifters everywhere.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars The Last Word from Mentzer
Mike Mentzer has always influenced my training. Growing up I read his articles in Muscle and Fitness and Flex and always felt that his notion of less is better made sense, certainly more so than most of the other articles found in those magazines. Mentzer’s logic is compelling as he reduces the complex to the simple. Earlier Mentzer works advocated more training – three days a week and one set per bodypart. I embraced those notions and grew muscle fast–the kind of muscle that people noticed and commented on. When I told them how little exercise I actually did they did not believe me. Heck I did not believe it.

Once I started reading Mentzer’s later work, Heavy Duty II and this one, I noticed Mentzer reduced the volume of exercise he recommended even more. Before he died, he was advocating that trainees only hit the weights once every four days on a protocol that looked like this: Workout 1: Chest and Back; Workout 2: Legs; Workout 3: Shoulders and arms; Workout 4: Legs…repeat cycle. As you can see, a muscle like the chest for example would be trained only once every 2 weeks or so…. Of course, I tried the program–after all Mentzer had steered me right before–but this time things were different. Gains slowed, muscle mass decreased, and I felt my hard earned gains slipping away. This was especially the case with compund exercises such as the squat and bench press which require greater practice to do correctly.

Even with its shortfalls, I would recommend Mike Mentzer to anyone who lifts weights simply to give them another way to train. Shorter is better, maybe not as short as suggested in this book, but certainly less than the 20 sets per body part that some still use. If you are stuck in a rut, find something by Mentzer, especially the first Heavy Duty book and open your mind. Be prepared also to adjust the program that Mentzer suggested as many have found the supersets he recommends detrimental to their gains. Experiment within the context of Mentzer’s Heavy Duty principles and you will be rewarded.

4 Stars Use these suggestions if you buy this book!
The plan given in this book is really quite simple. Do as little warmup as possible, only do one set per exercise to complete exhaustion, and rest for 4-7 days between workouts.

I have tried the 4-7 days between workouts plan and found I was getting fat because the workouts became so sparse. My body relied on the frequent workouts I previously did to burn calories, so I would not recommend doing this. Also, the 4-7 days he recommends is for each workout, not for a certain body part workout, which means that you could end up not working a certain body part for several weeks if you do follow this plan. This simply is not frequent enough for muscle growth, in fact, I believe that it will not lead to any substantial muscle growth.

Personally, I think this 4-7 day between workouts plan is an excellent idea if you use it for a certain body part workout, and work other muscle groups in-between, being careful to plan your workouts so you don’t work the same muscle groups before they have received adequate rest (for example, working your chest and the next day working your shoulders you will end up working your upper chest, deltoids and triceps two days in both workouts).

For example, here is an example of a workout plan that allows your muscle groups adequate rest:

1. Back, Traps

2. Calves, Hams, Forearms

3. Quadriceps, Abs

4. Chest, Delts

5. Calves, Hams, Forearms,

6. Quadriceps, Abs

7. Rest

You could easily eliminate workouts five and six, and end the plan at workout four, but I believe the additional workouts for the quadriceps and calves, hams and forearms are not wasted and you will find that the additional work for these muscles is not overtraining because these muscle groups seem to respond better when worked more frequently, even Mentzer has you working the Legs twice although he does not explain why, I found that it really helps your muscle growth in these muscle groups to train them more frequently.

With the “one set is all you need” mindset, I believe that this idea is valid for isolation exercises, but for compound multi-joint exercises where a lot of different muscles come into play (for example, squats, deadlifts, bench press, upright rows) one set is simply not sufficient to exhaust the many muscles involved. I think two sets is sufficient for those using reps of 10-15, and three sets is better if you stick to Mentzer’s low rep range of 6-10.

Mentzer gets around this problem by using the principle of preexhaustion where you do an isolation exercise before a compound exercise. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be tired before I start a major compund exercise like squats where I have a lot of potential to build muscle if I am fresh, and when you are tired from preexhaustion you are also much more likely to risk injury especially when doing high intensity training. Yes preexhaustion is necessary if you are to follow Mentzer’s plan, but who wants to do leg extensions before doing squats?

Another problem I encountered was counting reps. If you are doing an exercise to muscle failure, you will end up doing partial reps at the end of your set most of the time. I solved this problem by counting all partial reps and all full reps until I completely stopped the exercise. This means that for most exercises where I can do 8 full reps, I can do at least another five partial reps for a total of 13 reps or more on most exercises (excluding those where partial reps are impossible, like squats and deadlifts). I don’t count full reps versus partial reps, although this can be done but is more confusing and complicated.

Well, it seems as if I am doing this article backwards, because the only thing left to talk about is the warm-up. I don’t believe it is safe for some exercises to do as little warm-up as possible (for example, squats and deadlifts could be extremely dangerous if you don’t warm-up thoroughly beforehand). A proper and thorough warm-up doesn’t need to be anything more than simply using lighter weights with each exercise for the first two or three sets before starting your “working sets.” Do as much warm-up as necessary, when in doubt, do another warm-up set. It is better than risking injury in your “working sets”.

All in all, I do not regret buying this book just for the valuable education it taught me about how my high volume workouts with many many sets were hurting me and unnecessary. I think that with the revisions which I have stated above, the book could be useful for motivation and education about how the high frequency, high volume workouts hurt us more than they help us. I would not follow Mentzer’s plan verbatim, but use the suggestions above along with your own common sense and research to guide you in your path to attaining more muscle.

2 Stars Not a One-Size fits all program
The theory in this book is sound, seems logical, and seems legit, until you actually apply it in real life. I’ve had nothing but DISASTROUS results using Mike Mentzer’s suggested routines/workouts. Flat out, 100% disastrous results.

I can tell you right now why my results have been disastrous: TOO MUCH TIME AWAY FROM THE GYM. He recommends way too infrequent training to have any sort of success with a person who has my body type and metabolism. I firmly believe that a person who has a naturally stocky, heavy-set kind of frame THRIVES off this type of program. But for me, I got smaller, as if I wasn’t even working out in the first place.

I gave Mentzer routines 3 trial runs over a 10 year period. Each and every time, I lost anywhere from 5-15 lbs of muscle, and had my strength absolutely plummet. Now, some may contend that I wasn’t working out as hard as I should have been. Balderdash!! I have been an advocate of HIT training for years, and have had TREMENDOUS success with it, using other routines. But when I cut it down like Mentzer recommends, I shrink QUICKLY.

For me, a program like Ellington Darden’s latest HIT book works well for me. A 3x a week HIT routine, or perhaps Don Lemmon’s “Know How” program, which is a 5x every 2 week full body routine. Those work for me — Mentzer’s don’t.

I totally believe in the theory behind HIT, but his crippling fear of overtraining isn’t suitable for some individuals.

5 Stars H.I.T. MASTERPIECE FROM THE LEGENDARY THINKER
Mike Mentzer has brought a new dimension to H.I.T. theory and practice, opened up the eyes and ears and minds of those willing to listen and put into use the science based FACTS that he has developed. 10 OUTTA 10 !!!!

5 Stars Excellent Book
RECOVER ABILITY is so under rated among weight trainers. I do the consolidated workout in the book and it has work wonders.

Buy/More Info