Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty Training
I will give u my thoughts on this style of training.
I think many of you if you train regularly and follow bodybuilding, may be familiar with old school titan and OG mass monster Mike Mentzer. As you can see above, he had very impressive fizeek which he attributed to his, at the time, revolutionary style of training. Many old school bodybuilders, most notably Arnie and his training partners, would focus on high reps with many sets. They would spend several hours in the gym and would also train 5-6 days a week. This is essentially the direct opposite of Mike’s approach to training. Mentzer’s Heavy Duty Training Program consisted of a low amount of sets, and only 2-3 days of training. The difference between this and the typical training philosophy at the time was that Mike would make those few sets and sessions in the gym very intense. He would be in and out of the gym in 45 minutes, but during those 45 minutes his sole focus was on training as hard as possible and nothing else.
If you watch some old school footage of him training rando Chad amateur bodybuilder on the YouTubez you will see just how his style of training works. He runs the Chad through a complete split consisting of 3 days 1. Chest/Back, 2. Shoulders and Arms, 3. Legs. Besides the couple of warmup sets, every rep and set this guy hits is 10/10. Menzter makes sure he completes his reps in a slow and controlled manner as to get the most out of both the positive and negative parts of each movement. The weight is heavy but not too heavy to where he wouldn’t be able to complete the rep in a controlled manner with proper form.
Notice how he make this guy go to failure and then past failure with assisted reps. If you watch the other days of training in this video series you will see him do drop sets on machines. When he is done one set he will run over to another machine and go straight into his next exercise with very little rest. This style of training, slow and controlled, putting every ounce of focus and energy you have into contracting the muscle, allows you to get just as much, if not more out of your sets than someone who half asses 10 sets not really paying too much attention to what they’re doing. You tell someone you only spend 45 minutes in the gym and do 2 sets max of an exercise and they will look at you and tell you that’s too easy. Then you actually run them through the workout and they will be crying on the first set, 2 minutes in.
In my opinion this is the next level of training. Yes I know some of you will say that the GOAT Arnold did the opposite of this and looked the way he did. Yes this is true but I do think that if he had trained in the Heavy Duty style he would’ve looked even better. You look at Menzter’s fizeek and you will notice not only the great mass and proportions but also the graininess and definition his muscles have. In my opinion you can only achieve this look through this style of training.
A very important part of Menzter’s Heavy Duty Training Program is rest and recovery. Menzter says not to train more often than every 72 hours or once every 3 days. His standard split is Monday Chest/Back, Tuesday and Wednesday Off, Thursday Shoulders and Arms, Friday and Saturday Off, and Sunday Legs. The following week you would not start on Monday and instead would take off Mon/Tues and train on Wednesday. The average person that doesn’t go to the gym may like this style of training on the surface cause you spend less time in the gym. Most however find soon enough that Heavy Duty is no joke and often times they quit. It is hard for me to follow this rest principle because frankly I love going to the gym. I get depressed when I have to take off more than a day and find myself itching to get back to training. Having the discipline to rest on your rest days is hard but it pays off in the end. This rest principle is this way because of the high level of intensity your few training days are at. You need this time to recover whether you know or not.
I think it could do you some good if you were to follow Mike Menzter and his Heavy Duty Training Program. I personally plateaued and I found myself making no progress and feeling weak in the gym for a while. I was moving weight 6 days a week but I wasn’t getting any contraction in my muscles and often time I had no pump :( . I switched to 3 days a week with very intense sets, focusing on contraction of the muscle and broke through my plateau. Some times I will do 4-5 days a week when I feel really good but I still make sure that all of my sets are at high intensity and I focus on the mind muscle connection as much as possible. I was lifting for 2 years prior to starting this way of training and I made more progress in the short window of time under the Heavy Duty protocol than in the entire 2 years prior.
I think this training program is better suited for those that have the sole goal of developing an aesthetic fizeek and is not for the average gym goer. The average gym goer that don’t care too much about looking like Greek god and just walk on the treadmill to be healthy. That being said, if u want to get jacked and are struggling doing so, I think u need to check this out. I see people in the gym lifting that are on their phones and are not really focused on what they’re doing. This type either will do 50 sets very lightweight and get no pump or ego lift weight with poor form and get nothing out of the exercise. Then they go home and wonder why they look the same training this way for years. If this sounds like you u must check out the Heavy Duty program. Even if this doesn’t sound like you and you have been making good progress I think you would make even better progress if you trained this way.
Thank you for reading my frenz:)