During one my recent sessions, one of my clients brought up the training philosophy of the late Mike Mentzer. Since this is one of the most interesting and controversial aspects in bodybuilding I decided this would be a good blog topic.
Mike Mentzer, Mr. America, Mr Universe (with perfect score) was an extremely talented and intelligent bodybuilder. During his early career, he followed the school of Schwarzenegger and Weider , which was a high volume approach. Unsatisfied with his gains,he became convinced that the majority of people is over trained and drastically shortened his workouts. In conjunction with Arthur Jones, he created High Intensity Training or HIT. Basically, the trainee trained infrequently, 3-4 times every 2 weeks and did only one set beyond failure. He also added drop sets, negatives, partials etc.
Mike Mentzer became the Anti-Arnold and spent 20 years of his life educating people about his style of training. He wrote several books on it, made training videos etc. In fact, he died in the midst of a DVD shoot in 2001 due to heart failure.
While this philosophy looks great in theory, there are several problems with it. First of, it is impossible to always train with maximum intensity . Secondly, the average person does not have sufficient neuro-muscular efficiency to reach all muscle fibers in one set. Hence, 2 or more sets are needed. Thirdly, constantly training at maximum intensity is very injury prone.
Does this mean that Mentzer was wrong? Not at all. He was the the first to point out that the majority of athletes do not sufficiently recover, restricted training to 60 minutes and he gave us negative reps.
Thanks Mike!
1 comment:
A few corrections:
Mike did not create high intensity training with Arthur, nor did it start with Arthur. Most people trained similarly prior to DeLorme & Watkins recommending 3 sets of 10 in their 1952 book Progressive Resistance Training.
Arthur developed his training principles through trial and error over a period of several decades before taking a commercial interest in exercise, and they were not called high intensity training until Ellington Darden used the term at a presentation at Duke University in the early 70's. Mike learned about HIT after he met Casey Viator at the 1971 Mr. America who suggested he call Arthur.
Mike did create his own version of HIT, however, which he called Heavy Duty. HD differs from Arthur's HIT in that it involved much lower volume and frequency of training than what Arthur was recommending in the 70's and 80's.
Not only does Heavy Duty work in theory, when correctly applied it is a practical and effective way to train.
It is definitely possible to train with maximum all the time, as long as the workout volume and frequency are appropriate for the individual. I have been using HIT with personal training clients for over 15 years now and have not had a single client who was not capable of all-out effort on a regular basis, as long as they were not attempting to train too long or too often.
Multiple sets are not necessary for 100% motor unit recruitment. In fact, a single set performed with 65% 1RM or more is going to recruit all motor units in all muscles involved in a short time frame.
Training at maximum intensity does not cause injuries. Training with poor form does. I have used HIT with clients with a variety of injuries and joint conditions, including severe neck and spine problems, up to 84 years of age, without a single injury over more than 15 years. This is because I constantly correct them when their form begins to falter and am careful to instruct them to perform every exercise in the safest manner possible through an appropriate ROM and with an appropriate speed for them.
Mike did not recommend workouts lasting anywhere near 60 min. Most of his workouts could be completed in well under 20. He also was not responsible for negative-only training, which was Arthur Jones idea.
I strongly recommend giving Heavy Duty a try. Don't worry about maximal intensity causing an injury as long as you keep your form strict, and if you are unable to maintain maximum intensity for each exercise in a workout (of which you only need one set), you're either doing too many exercises or not getting adequate recovery between workouts. I recommend checking out The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer by John Little for the best explanation of the Heavy Duty system.
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