Can't stress enough what Dr. Mike said there. If you can't recover before your next workout, drop the volume. If you can easily recover, increase your volume. It literally is that easy. Stop looking at training programs from your favourite influencers or from your friends. Every body is different and needs to be treated different.
and if your strength isn't increasing week to week, insert another rest day. I just started his routine yesterday but it's going to be a challenge only going to the gym every 4-7 days...
@@dive2drive314 I go 3 times a week, started doing the original Heavy Duty program, but ended up adapting for my needs. I kept most of the exercises and added a few more (Dumbell preacher curl, Bent over barbell row, RDL). Doing pretty good.
The reason the muscle mind connection was so difficult on 6-8 is because you lift faster than mentzer. Check out the heavy duty routine where he is instructing a client. He usually does super slow 4 second concentric/eccentric. This means lighter weight but around 3x slower reps than you were doing. Compensates
@NapsterRulez it does but it's necessary to have a partner and also train those failure sets to the point that you are going to feel like you're dieing lmao
I can confirm what Dr mike said about someone who is chronically overtraining benefiting from less volume. In high school I was weighing somewhere around 180. I was doing pyramids from 10 to 1 and back to 10 for flat, incline, and decline bench. Was also doing shoulders and triceps. I was doing this 3 days a week. I bought Mentzer's book Heavy Duty. I started to understand what overtraining was. My bench was stuck at 210 for months. I decided to take a week off from training entirely. I did nothing but eat, sleep and have fun. My bench jumped up by 60 pounds, that is went from 210 to 270 in one week and all I did was take a week off. It was mind blowing.
Mike personally worked out 4 times a week 30 minutes per session But he admitted natural people can't do that and need 3-4 days rest in between..so yeah Mike's program for naturals had you work almost less than once a week
Mike also advocated for failing on the negative part of an exercise after failing on the concentric in order to actually push to failure, because failing only on the concentric is like half of the intensity needed for his plan to work. Great video Nevertheless Will 🔥
@@joemomma8369Like after you fail to lock out your last rep on the leg extension, as your going back down, still fighting as hard as you can to do it as slow as physically possible. This is ofcourse not possible for safety reasons on all exercises, like squats and bench press.
@@joemomma8369The key is controlling eccentric movements. It is one of the largest factors for muscle stimulus. Take some simple dips for example. Lower yourself down as slow as possible and explode up quickly. Once you reach concentric failure, put yourself back on the bars and lower yourself down, step off, repeat. Or on bench, have your friend pick the weight up for you and then you lower it down. You will see improvements
11:02 Mike would cringe if he saw that, he was all about controls and no momentum. He does one rep in 2 seconds, also I didn't see a single lift done to a failure. Did he actually dedicate a whole week of your life to Mike without doing any research?
@@joemomma8369it's about failure to control the descent; if you're doing DB curls with a three-second lower and you literally cannot keep the descent slow enough to maintain for three seconds, that's failure.
The reason Will didnt really feel the 6-10 rep range is due to him skipping over the fact that Mentzer was very adamant on using about 3 seconds in the positive and negative portion of the rep, as well as a second or two in the static contracted part of the rep.
@@nab5999 11:02 he does 1 rep in 2 seconds, the real Mike way would be 3 second lift 2 second hold and 3 second lower i.e he is ego lifting and control his weights. 10 reps should take him 80 seconds, but will rushes it in 20 seconds
Slow down your tempo both on the concentric and eccentric (4 seconds, 2 seconds hold and 4 seconds). Remember that doing 6 reps doesn’t mean you have to go crazy in weight, but you can go crazy on time under tension.
he was pretty adamant about the 4 second cadence in both the positive and negative portions with 2-4 second holds at peak contraction (depending on the exercise). the slow reps are BRUTAL
I do about 4-5 sec on every rep and I go to failure. It's legit the most hurtful thing you can do. Pushing that hard though I have backed off my set and exercises. Like Mike always said it's so easy to overtrain and I do believe that's a lot of people's issue. This high volume stuff just isn't it. You can't recover fast enough.
@KenMagnet2 Ellington Darden, PhD wrote a pretty interesting book on HIT advocating as much as a minute for negatives. I’ve played around with all kinds of different cadences and settled on 5-7 for most. Good way to change up a routine to make harder. Try a set number for a few weeks and see how you do. Then try another. Record everything. I can’t imagine that a one second variation towards either could be labeled as right or wrong. I feel that the idea is to just do it. My 2 cents with 2 years doing HIT. Hope it helps.
@KenMagnet2 sure, and you can look around and see people bouncing weight off their chests; negatives as fast as concentric. Can we agree that controlled negatives make an exercise more challenging? Art Jones of Nautilis fame claimed something along the lines of, “it’s not how much you can lift, it’s how much you can lower”. I train alone, so incorporating slower negatives allows me to safely incorporate bc when doing 10+ reps, your form MUST be near perfect. You’ll start off with a little less weight, but I challenge you to try and update me?
I'm 66 years old. I've been training since I was 15. I have used Mike Mentzer's HIT, off and on since the early 80's. It has always worked well for me. Because of his HIT program, I attained 17 7/8 inch biceps, 50 inch chest and 28 inch thighs, with a 29 inch waist, at 5'10", up to 2018. And I was, and still am natural. The reason I have gone off and on is because of my job. I work all over the world and gyms are sporadic, have different equipment and sometimes are so limited that I have to do HVT (High Volume Training) with light weights, just to get some sort of "feel" or "pump". Plus I have to accommodate my time in accordance to my job and travel time. (I've had 176 flights this year) I ruptured my left achilles tendon during the pandemic lockdown, by simply stepping off a curb. I was bed-ridden for 6 months, had a $28,000 surgery, and the gyms were closed, and the ideal foods were scarce. I lost 65 pounds.{29.5 kg). Now I've been using HIT to try to come back. I've gained back 18 pounds (8.2 kg) in 17 months. I'm doing it slowly, because I want muscle not water and fat. My doctors have told me that my left calf will never regain it's size or strength. But I'm working it, and it's coming along nicely. Mike promoted carbs in his diet, but it was mostly complex carbs, veggies and fruit. Not simple carbs like bread, fried foods and pasta. I went to 3 of Mike's (and Ray's) seminars when I was in college. His seminars were more informative than his books, although I have his books. The keys are: Proper warmup. SLOW reps, 3-4 seconds up, 1-2 second hold, 3-4 seconds down, adequate rest (48-96 hours). He also wasn't "stuck"on the 6-10 rep regimen. He said, in every seminar, "If your goal is to get 6 to 10 reps, and as you're working out, you realize that you can get 12 to 15 or even 17 reps, then do it! Your objective is to work to failure. So if you can get 15-17 reps, now you know you need more weight. So in the next workout , increase your weight. THIS IS HOW YOU KNOW YOU'RE PROGRESSING". I've found that as I get older, HIT works best for me. I UNDERSTAND THAT IT DOESN'T WORK FOR EVERYONE. BUT NO "WORKOUT FORMAT" WORK'S FOR EVERYONE. I took Mike's HIT and adapted it. I have 3 warmup sets (compound), then the same compound exercise 6-10 X 2, to failure, and one isolation exercise 6-10 X 2 to failure, per body part. This works great for me. I know I'll never be as big as I was, but that's not my goal. I just want to be healthy. And I am. I'm 66, and I'm still working at my job. Not because I need to, but because I want to. And it's because of my training that I'm still capable of doing so.
I tore my Achilles 22 years ago and yes it never fully regained the original size ,I did recover a good portion, as far as strength goes it took some time but have recovered most as well .
Tempo,pausing etc is SO IMPORTANT with this as is WARM UP for every diff body part.Later Mentzer added more reps..Its ALL about more time outside the gym. eg studying if a Student say.
The 6-8 rep range is a guide for you to select the weight. If you can get more reps, then keep going to failure and adjust the weight the next week to get you in that 6-8 rep range.
Mhm, mhm. Then you can start dialing it in even further! Got 6 reps with a weight? Stick with that weight until you can get 8! Then progress to the next weight Something simple like that
You can also use the rest and pause concept to reach beyond the failure. I'm using these two concepts and things are going well. I tripled the weight of supine in one month, and next week I am going to test again (I am using creatine).
I’ve heard him say if you can’t do 6-10 and end up doing 14 or even just 4, it’s ok, just go to failure and it’s how you also find out what your next weight should be! So glad you made a video about Mentzer bc I’m very inspired by his bodybuilding philosophy and bought his book & still waiting for it to show up! You rock man, you’re hilarious & always love your content, keep it up!
What I do is if I overshoot the weight a little bit (where I could only do 5 reps), I just stick to that weight for the next workout with the intent to surpass the number of reps from that previous workout. If I did more, than I did something right regardless.
I tried to order his book and gave up waiting and had to cancel. It is so in demand. I shall get it eventually. Whoever has teh rights to his royalties is making bank.
@@MannyCarlos714That’s another thing he says, if you fail your rep range only by a little, you will probably reach it the next week. Ultimately with progressive overload you should either always go for at least 1 more rep or add some weight from the previous session.
The science seems pretty clear today. Number of reps doesn't matter if it is taken to failure. 10 reps. 100 reps. If taken to failure they both yield the same muscle gain.
Hey Will, about the exercises that require 6-8 reps like lateral raises, I think the idea is not to up the weight and struggle, but have a lighter weight and keep your movements slow and controlled.
Yep , for lateral raises didn't mike want 4 secs up , 2 sec hold and 4 secs down. To do 6 to 8 for that you need to drop the weight from what you can do 12 normal reps
I was about to comment exactly what you said until I saw this. The point of his trianing is to pick a weight you can fail within this rep range but with good form and tempos
Thank you for actually trying the Mentzer program seriously and not self sabotaging it like other peeps on RUclips. I've been doing the Mentzer approach (modified) for the past 5 weeks and my results have been spectacular! My modifications is that I only do each exercise once per week (I noticed you did squats twice in that 7 day period.) I also go up to 15 or 20 reps on some exercises. However, generally I have been going with the 6 to 10 rep range on most things. Every week I have been gaining 3 reps or 5 lbs of strength on just about all my lifts. I'll stick to my modified Mentzer workouts for now. When it stops working/I stop making gains, then I'll add more volume.
Update* still making incredible gains on the Mentzer program. I add one extra set to an exercise if I didn't gain anything from the week before. I've only had to do that a few times, though. It's mostly just one set to failure or near failure still.
Brother can u pls tell me ur exact workout split bc I am farmer from India I am very active And fallowing nobro split And after workout or next of my workout I am not get soreness Is it ok I do always up to failure And 48 hours rest between workouts So how do I know I recovered from Is Mike workout method work for me as a farmer between I am 22 So pls help me brother 🙏 What’s ur workout split and nutrition
@appusgrstudio5260 Hello! First of all, I don't claim any of my advice is fact, just my personal opinion. I think only 48 hours of rest is not enough. It doesn't matter if you're sore or not. I do each exercise only once per week in a 5 day split, then on Saturday and Sunday, I usually don't do any exercise at all. My split currently is this: Monday: Chest & Legs (squats) Tuesday: 20 minutes of cardio, arms Wednesday: Back Thursday: 20 minutes of cardio, shoulders Friday: Forearms, legs (leg extensions, leg curls, toe raises), abs (ab machine with weighted resistanc) My nutrition totally depends if I'm on a cut or a bulk. Right now, I'm on a cut with about two weeks remaining. 1800 to 2200 calories a day 120 to 160 grams of protein Very low fat consumption at 20 to 40 grams The rest is carbohydrates (about 55 to 65% of my calories I try to get from carbohydrates) I have found that Greek yogurt is an excellent bodybuilding food because it's extremely low in fat, good protein, and good carbs. I hope that helps!
Havent watched willson for like a month or so and man i forgot how much I love his humour and his persona, just actually my most favourite youtuber ever. Cozyness factor 100/10. Will keep going, you look absolutely massive.
He literally gave 2 days of rest lol, that's as anti Mike mentzer as you can get. And his words were "I'm not even remotely recovered from workout one" 😂
With crohns, I'd never believed I'd have the body Mikes program helped me get. Im still only in the beginning, but I'm loving the progress, and I finally have my confidence back. I do modify it for my condition, but the base program does help people who need to focus on recovery. If it takes me 10 years, so be it. I hate not having a spotter because I'm always worried about the HIT, and the fatigue near the end makes it difficult, but I'm going to continue. Thanks for the video.
I’ve been doing the Mentzer routine for a couple months now. I plan do it for at least half a year of continuing to track data before I decide its effectiveness. I think there’s 100% something to it though because I’ve noticed the biggest and strongest I’ve been is when I was consistently pushing myself until failure on exercises. And it’s logically sound since why would the body build muscle if you don’t provide it the proper reason/stimulus to do so? It’s all about intensity and volume is a lever that helps you reach intensity, but Mike advocated not to over-use that lever
Before you hit that one failure set for say quads and chest , how many warm up sets do you need ? I've found that I need 4 warm ups for quads and 2 for chest , 2 for back ,2 for laterals , 1 for shoulder press , 1 for bis and tris so my total volume is still pretty high
I generally do like 2-3, but for some isolation lifts I sometimes do 1 set of warmup. Also I keep the warmup sets below an 7 intensity level@@iang8169 But for chest, I do a few 1-3 rep sets as heavy as I can do before my set to ensure I'm increasing my 1 rep max. That communicates a slight lack of faith in Mentzer's program but I do just love strength training chest
Mike emphasized that there is genetic variance in workout recovery. He would prescribe sometime 4-6 days between lifts for some of his clients. He was brilliant because he was calibrating and tailoring his muscle growth concepts to each individuals genetics.
After spending 20 odd years on/off in the gym from like age 14, i was always following the programs the professional lifters suggested with none of the gear, time and rest they have. and as a result never made the progress i felt my input deserved ... anyway took a step back as I wanted to focus on my other activities... within weeks of dropping training to 2 or 3 short, intense sessions where I do a couple sets, beyond failure and then waiting at least 7-10 days before i go again..im leaner,.with significantly more muscle mass, dont feel as tired and have time to do other things.. i think the rest is the key thing, us nattys need a lot longer than we realise
There are so many different methods out there it's hard to figure out what will work best. Especially if you are older like me. Less sets? Lower volume? More reps? Or more weight/less reps?
I used to do the high volume training when I started lifting and I stopped seeing progress after two years of training. When I started Mike's method it was like a miracle. I am seeing progress every workout like he said.
Yes, another challenge is to get rid of that mindset of more is better. Was very difficult at the beginning but when you stick to the plan, damn boi, I'm 40 and hitting prs, probably in the best shape of my life too following his program. Leaves you time for your family and other things you know
I think the problem with doing this for only a week is that you need at least a few weeks to figure out what your weight's going to be. Kind of like the issue you had with the squats. I've been doing the Mike Mentzer heavy duty ideal program since July and I'm really liking it. Like you, I couldn't believe that this was going to work with such little volume, but it's working for me.
he also done pretty much everything incorrectly. mike recommended 3-4 days recovery after every workout. will took one days rest. the form was completely different to what mike recommended too.
MM is incorrect, LMAO So the Mr O's he trained and praised him were also wrong. And watching you do your work. You did not read his book. You have too many mistakes to list. I am 73 and started using MM HIT methods for quite a while. They work and work well. HIT is not perfect but, when done correctly you will see results. The very first time I tried them I could not believe the way the muscle felt. And MM said you can only make 3 mistakes when doing HIT and you are making them all. Read the book carefully and try again. Hope this helps. Reply
I like to switch to Mike's way every 4 to 6 months to reset and see where my progress really is. Do it for about a month, taking 3 days in-between workouts and throw some Dorian Yates in as well. He prefected Mike's way of training in my opinion.
Mike is my personal bodybuilding GOAT. Even had his quote on my graduation book in college and I just graduated last June! I'm a bit nerdy so maybe I gravitated towards his style more but huge huge inspiration on my life for sure.
I appreciate his style and approach to training. But even more his independence of mind and philosophical orientation with regards to beauty and heroism.
What Will says about the mindset of only getting one shot to get it right is so spot on for me. Been following HIT for almost 2 years and I can say that hands down, this is the best I’ve ever done. I get better results with full body workouts 1-3x/week than I ever did with my “bro splits” 4-6x/week and every other program I’ve tried. My shoulders got jacked and my arms are more vascular than they’ve ever been. Whoda thunk that less is more? Unbelievable to me the progress I see workout to workout. You have to go past the pain threshold and not stop when it hurts, but when you get to failure. (Not with squats.) Be creative. Like I do single leg presses every other workout and keep the non working leg at bottom to “spot” myself. 6 second negatives add to intensity. Love it. Great post.
Great video my friend! Kudos to you for trying Mentzer’s program. (Side note) ..I’m 52 and it dives me f**kin bananas when guys like you video and talk into their phones at the gym. Lol😂 Keep up the good work!
Been working out following mike mentzer style for a while and i love it. I think the key is to do slow reps and have a training partner to go to complete failure. Think Wills reps were too fast
I found the one set approach to work similar to Mike's way. 15 years back when I was in my 40's, I joined a gym and it was one of those $10/month deals. I did not have the time to do a lot but wanted to make gains so I did just one set of exercises just twice a week. One session for upper body and another for lower body. I used cable station machines not really dead weight as lifting heavy without a spotter is a big no no based on a previous accident. I used to body build alone at home with weights and did 2 hour sessions 6 days a week in my early 20's. Anyway after a year and a half, I was able to do a one time bench press max of 420 lb on that cable machine. I know that is less than dead weight but I could have done more but it was the max of weight. I could never do that kind of weight when I was young and bodybuilding. Now I am 64 and started working out with a put-together home gym. I do one set and two sessions per week again. I am slowly gaining strength every week doing each session once a week. Moderate exercise at moderate effort, not to exhaustion. I found that at exhaustion style you are susceptible to injury if you have to exert yourself doing something during the week so I dialed it back a little. This is very sustainable if you want to make this a life long style. Big tip: I got a hex bar to do squats and calf raises instead of the barbell on the shoulders and its more safer and no crushing pain on your neck area. The key is consistency even if you do just a little exercise.
Every video you've been posting for the past couple of weeks has been an absolute banger! I don't know how you can do this constantly, but congrats on the awesome videos Will (and editor Josh, since the editing has been superb too)!!
Hey willy boy, u missed a few key things on mentzer's training method. He didn't eat 2000 cals a day, but he would eat only in smthn like a 200-500 cal surplus or deficit (I may be wrong with the numbers). Also, he did support higher rep ranges for certain exercises like calf raises (12-20 reps) or lat pulldowns (6-10reps), and it was a point of his that the rep ranges were just numbers he threw out there that felt good for the muscle depending on it's size and use, but stressed that ROM, form, and slow intense reps to absolute failure were key, and if you exceed the rep range then keep going and raise the weight next workout.
@@user-zc2ks7pd3d Yeah, I'm a 120 lb skinny guy and it says I need 2100-2200 calories to gain weight. Being 250 lb bodybuilder would need like 4000-4500 calories.
Don’t worry, Will , even though you didn’t push yourself hard enough like you’re supposed to I still have a lot of respect for you and you’re one of the best content creators
was waiting for this...thank you sir. Also, 6x mr. olympia Dorian Yates was greatly influenced by Mentzer and espouses a similar training philosophy to this day. Dude was arguably the pinnacle of bodybuilding when it came to crazy size plus unbelievable conditioning. Maybe a video with Dorian is in order....the guy is extremely interesting if nothing else.
@user-le8dn2jr4j sources? He has went on record saying that he used a similar low-volume, high-intensity training methodology like Mike mentzer. He actually used around 2 sets for a lot of exercises and eventually cut it down to one set (doing so after actually training with mike mentzer)to failure...I would recommend you actually read the Dorian Yates biography.
@@Psych1_- oh shit, my bad. thought you were referring to Dorian lol. Will did okay here. The HIT principles were pretty much applied, coulda done a little better, but meh
Michaeldonnelly8068 Yates followed only a h.i.t hybrid of his own design . he still did the usual 4 to 5 days of workouts a week but only 45 min at a time . His typical workout for one body part was Ex 1 2 warm up sets , 1 failure set Ex 2 1 warm up set ,1 failure set Ex 3 0 warm up sets , 1 failure set So 6 total sets ,3 warm ups ,3 failure sets per body part .
@@iang8169 yeah, that's correct. Although I don't know about "hybrid", he just applied the basic HIT principles to his training regimen. A little extra volume with the warm-up sets because of the heavy weight he put up. Really, with his unreal training intensity, his version of HIT is more or less the best example of the best example of the effectiveness of real high intensity training.
@@michaeldonnelly8068he went way too fast, need to under tension for 60-90s before true failure. The start of your set is the warm up and should feel "easy" enough..
Mike mentzer later improved the HIIT ,he said to have a low rep warm up set before every failure work set, also to warm up every joint you use for working muscles ,*important: he also said that not only the negative but to also have a slow positive rep range.
Yeah I agree, I want to work out more than once every 4 days, but I love his low volume extremely high intensity philosophy of training. So I now run a modified 4 day a week bro split (I find it easier to focus on just one muscle group per day rather than a PPL split) and just do 2 sets with 3-4 excercises per workout for like 6-10 total sets and I'm out of the gym in less than an hour. It's actually amazing how much progress I'm making rn
@@DarkLord_Immoranyou re doing something wrong after my set there is no chance on earth i can do another one close to the intensity as the first one you have to all out
@WL like I said, I have taken techniques and the philosophy and applied it in a practical and efficient way in regards to my life and how I like to train. I may eventually drop to just one set, but at the moment, it's a bit challenging for me to ONLY do one set. I know Mike said only ONE set, but like I said, 2 sets work well for me right now. Relax
happy new year Will cant explane how perfict you came to my magic screen when there was day i was like i cant be assed one of your vids would apper and yea it pumped me up enouhe to go out and do it
@Amag0 This was my initial take, but I've developed a new take. Arnold was a young egotistical gifted man who was at the top of his game and didn't want anyone taking his crown away from him. He may have cheated. Probably. But he is still an icon in the bodybuilding world, and deserves much respect for his contributions. He has matured as he's aged, and while still not perfect, he is someone who really set modern bodybuilding into the public eye. While learning about Mentzer did change my view of him, I just take the good with the bad. While Mike is my number one favorite bodybuilder, and I consider him one of the most intelligent men to ever compete, he let his hatred of Arnold get the best of him, and his anger consumed him and made him bitter. I love Mike, but I think he could've handled the situation with more open mindedness. Nonetheless, both are great, great men, who have inspired young men around the world to get off the couch and do something with their lives.
@@ZeroFlowers So imma deal with it like an open minded Mike Mentzer for you. I congratulate Arnold, shake his hand, click a photo with him and move on. Again Start working hard towards my goal and compete in the following years and they are still rigging it for Arnold and his buddies. Do you see any difference? in him being open minded about it? You are sugar coating his egotisticalness and insecurity as something good but why wasn't he being open minded about competing the right way. And he would have won since he was a gifted man. but nah he opted to rigged shid for himself cuz he was bussy. my english is not that great but hope you get the gist of my message.
@Parnassoss I'm not condoning cheating, he should not have done it, he should have been reprimanded as WELL as the inside corrupt people that he bribed. But that didn't happen. What happened has happened and been lonnggg over with. Absolutely not giving Arnold a pass. He was a dick, 100%. I'm just pointing out that past his failures, he has done a lot for the sport. And as great as Mike was and as much as I love him as my favorite, he made mistakes too.
I will say this style of training is underrated I spent years training with less intensity than I should because some “influencer” said I should do 5 sets. 2 sets with maxed out intensity so way more beneficial. And if you’re only training 3 days a week the intensity isn’t an issue because you have plenty of rest
Yeah I totally agree. I'm only in the gym for around an hour including warmup as well because I only do 2 sets and waaay less total volume as well. Getting a spotter to assist you past failure is really good as well I've found
I trained most of my life using heavy duty .From age 16 to age 32, short, intense and productive. I never got injured and was playing football at the college level. I would say that my body was durable and strong, never injured on the field but looking back, it was probably more difficult to get really high numbers on the big 3, squat, deadlift and bench simply because you don't but in the volume or practice to drive up the numbers. I did come up with a variation which is safe, short and highly productive.Its 1 set to failure, 3 different exercises per muscle group, aim for failure around 20 reps on the first exercise, 10 reps on the second exercise and 5 reps on the third exercise. Example for chest would be flat flys to failure 1x20, Incline dumbell press 1x10, flat bench 1x5. The concept is that you try to beat your reps everytime you train, if you get 26 reps to failure you increase the weight the next time. Split was 3 days a week, Monday- chest and arms, Wednesday- legs, Friday - back and shoulders. Write down everything and try to better yourself every training session. I am 52 now and remember how strong I got within 2 months back in the 90s.
Great video, happy to see Mentzer getting more respect for his style. To be fair, there's a couple of things not completely following his example (absolute failure, also on the negatives, using primarily nautilus machines because the form is the most important thing, and not using the EZ bar because your biceps would not be fully engaged), so I am officially asking for a part two.
I agree I feel like he didn't do enough research on mentzer or his training programs... if you aren't feeling your muscles are going to explode you're probably not doing his training style correctly lmao
Yeah, I've also watched another video of someone doing the same thing, and people only do the mike mentzer routine by using his lower volume lower reps approach and forget to fully dive into his training and use every technique given to truly push to absolute failure and sometimes beyond. Also, mike said that before jumping into his heavy duty workout style, you should take 2-3 weeks off the gym to let your body recover before hand. And the last thing I want to mention is that Will Tennyson only does this for one week. Like dude, you can't make a decision about something based off of 1 week of trying it.
3RIR on leg extensions and 2RIR on leg press. No forced reps, emphasised eccentric, paused reps, the list goes on. Mike did not train as easy as this. Neither did Dorian. This is not training to failure. Title correction: “I TRIED training like Mike Mentzer for a week”.
Thank you Will for your hard work! We appreciate your research, filming, editing, your humor, and putting your body through some difficult/weird situations. Thank you. Hope you and Katie have a great holiday! Oh and great sponsor transition🎉🎉 smooooth!😎😎
The one thing I will say about Mike’s plan…I tend to be pretty injury prone. I did Mike’s plan for 9 months. Made good gains, zero injuries. Intensity with solid rest…
I'd just like to take a moment to thank you for mentioning exertion headaches, Will. I've had plenty of them myself but I always felt crazy when I'd talk to people about them. I know now that the mere ability to lift a certain weight does not mean I should. 😂 I'm taking my fitness training much easier now (thanks, Dr. Mike; good to see you in this video).
Will! Huge fan. I NEED you to put out more content like this. Youre so good at recreating past wrkout regimens. This is what drew me to your channel. 😌
One thing to remember Mike often had a training partner with him (his brother), so he was confident to push absolute failure and then some. I think when you don't and you're doing heavy squats (especially when you havent BB squat in a long time), it would be fine to replace this with a pendulum or hack squat. I think that explains why you felt you left a bit in the table.
Love what Mike said, modify it to your needs while keeping the foundations of hit the same Also if your wondering if you should follow this program 1. Do your research 2. If your a busy person and you can’t cut to much time out of your week for the gym, this is perfect for you(aka you have a life outside of the gym)
his advice to use a straight bar on curls vs ez bar is clutch. That and with a reverse grip pull down gives me the legit pump for biceps that we all want.
You have to do a lot of research to properly understand HIT. I mean you'll need to read and watch a lot of hard to find material, if you only read the first blog that pops up on heavy duty you're fucked
@@nikola_kornetaThe problem with the diet is it is not a sufficient amount of protein. I'm a fan of his work but I haven't heard enough of his rational to justify the percentile of protein in my caloric intake being that low relative to the amount of carbs
After 40 years of drug free training I can honestly say that infrequent, low volume, high intensity work with compound movements was pretty much all that would put significant muscle mass on me. The most useful book I found was “Brawn” by Stuart McRobert. After I dumped the silly stuff and concentrated on short, basic, compound lifts I never looked back.
I've been working out for 10 months, and on my 4th month is when i found Mike Mentzer. Progress has been crazy the past 6 months once I discovered high intensity training. Hitting failure took a while to learn, since i had to callous and strengthen my mind. As long as you hit all out failure (partial reps, rest pauses, drop sets), all you need is one set per muscle group.
I've done Mike's program, did it for around 2 years and I grew. It's intense, especially when you slow down your reps. I'm still training with heavy duty principles. I've written my own program, still growing, still getting stronger in my mid 30's. My body responds very well to this form of training. Is it for everyone? No. Should people try it? Yes! The thing is that people don't do it long enough to give it a chance. Good video, influencer whom I don't follow
@@MikeRepluk not everyone may gain results, and not everyone will have the discipline for it. If done right, it's actually brutal. Many I know that tried it didn't last longer than 6 weeks
So I wanted to point out a few things, in his book he mentions, you can perform a few warm up sets to find the correct weight range to meet failure at the desired rep, especially for legs. Here is my Mentzer plan that I just started yesterday and let me tell you, today I feel like I got hit by a bus, and last night when I finished my first workout I was vibrating everywhere, also finished in about 30 mins. Here is the plan, Day 1: Chest and Back Pecs Deck 6-10 reps Incline Press 1-3 reps Close Grip Palms Up Pull-downs 6-10 Dead-lifts 5-8 reps 2 days off Day 2: Legs and Abs Leg Extensions 12-20 reps Leg Press 12-20 reps Standing Calve Raise 12-20 reps Sit Ups 12-20 reps 2 days off Day 3: Shoulders and Arms Standing Lateral Raise 6-10 reps Bent Over Dumbbell Laterals 6-10 reps Barbell Curl 6-10 reps Triceps Press-downs 6-10 reps Dips 3-5 reps 2 days off Day 4: Legs and Abs Leg Extensions 12-20 reps Squats 12-20 reps Standing Calve Raises 12-20 reps Sit-Ups 12-20 reps 2 days off Day 5: Chest and Back Pecs Deck 6-10 reps Incline Press 1-3 reps Close Grip Palms Up Pull-downs 6-10 Dead-lifts 5-8 reps Give that a go mate.
Thanks for the comedy! I've been starting this workout recently and have been doing the 4 -5 secs. concentric and 4 - 5 secs. negative and I tell you I start losing count on how many reps I have done because of concentrating so much on each rep. Getting to the last rep is very intense. Unfortunately Will, you need to slow down your rep speed then you will feel the full intensity. Thanks for the videos!
Ive been using mike mentzers training style for a few months but adjusting it so I’m still enjoying my time in the gym so that I keep wanting to come back. I’m doing PPL with 6-7 working sets per muscle group and training every other day. So each muscle group is getting 5-6 days of rest. It’s been working wonders not just for growth and strength, but giving me more rest days to catch up on personal life things
On leg press especially when doing higher weight amounts, you should practice raising the back rest all the way and allowing your legs to naturally extend past your torso on the sides. It’s a bit wider than what most people do but it opens up the hips and allows for full range of motion. Ever since I switched to this my legs blew up. The only reason I tried is because I injured my back squatting and leg press was the only relief. I highly recommend to anyone to give it a try, check out Eric janickis leg videos for more depth on this technique but it’s so helpful
I’m 36 used to train pretty much every day for 2+ hours. Last couple months I switched to 3/4 sessions a week around 90 mins long including warm up and I’ve made a big jump in progress, 8-10 rep range heavy as I can safely manage.
@@nygeek6471 no. He wasn’t. The reason why people make better gains is because it forces you to train to failure, and most people train far far from failure. The arbitrarily low frequencies, volumes, and low rep ranges for several exercises is objectively bad. The science supports that. If he was alive today, and had half a brain, he wouldn’t be promoting his style of training. Or maybe he would, after all, he was involved in the scam of the Colorado experiment, in order to sell nautilus machines.
Being a lifelong lifter, as I've gotten older I have enjoyed doing periods of doing 3x5s and focusing on heavier weight. This is only for 3 days a week on my second workout, the first being cardio-focused. It is nice to hit the heavy stuff to break a plateau and just to simply push some weight.
Great video! I know the video concept is limited to a week timeframe but am I right in saying that Mentzer advised 3 (or more) days of rest between workouts, hence better recovery?
I think there is a lot we can all take from Mentzer's theory, I certainly think the rest pause/negative and forced reps can cut down on the number of sets you have to do, a lot of the exercises need a spotter to give you a safety net and encouragement as often we fail to want to attempt the next rep in our minds first before our body gives out, I have followed his routines before but the intensity needed is very hard to keep up especially on leg day.
@@sincorddnb9155 good one, very original… very incorrect as well. If you don’t know about a situation don’t spread false information about it. The fact that someone’s life work can be disrespected so heavily by one false accusation is very disturbing
VERY tragic detail about Mike's brother Ray: He died just two days after Mike from Berger's disease. Considering how close the two of them were, I'm willing to bet Ray's death may have at least partly been due to the grief of losing his brother.
Yeah that amount of intensity will fry you out. That's why Mike spaced out his workouts like that. A good balance between volume and intensity is still the best way. I tried high intensity before and man, I'm always so tired and couldn't really recover that why I cut back on the intensity a little and added just a little bit of volume and it works for me
Yeah, instead of going to concentric and eccentric failure plus rest pause, you can go to concentric failure and be done, one set. As your body adapts, which ultimately it will, you can start adding one more set, or rest pause and forced reps into it to get more stimulus. I found that going beyond failure, even on one set per exercise, would absolutely fry me, specially in the legs workout.
@@jmgonzales7701 I see a lot of ppl like to do a lot of nothing but I would say of course a little more but not that much ppl waste hours doing nothing
A massive part about Mike Mentzers training system that ALOT of people don’t point out is LONGEVITY! Mike trained Dorian Yates! Yates was a mass monster in his prime. Let’s fast forward decades and look at him today. He is in good health, does Yoga, and in better shape than most men his age! Compare Yates to Ronnie Coleman for example. Ronnie can barely walk anymore! Yates is able to still be healthy at his age and after years of PEDs and hard training thanks to Mikes style!
my job is high labor and 10 hour days. I tried the Mike style because I wanted to work out but don't have hours a week to do so. I found it incredibly helpful and gave me the ability to work out and not ruin my ability to actually work
I recently decided to prune my YT subscriptions and Will and Mike were 2 of the 3 fitness channels I kept. The third was Jeff Nippard. Curious why the exercise selection was blurred out? You showed the day 2 exercises as you went through them but we never got to see day 1's exercises.
@@CrimpKeeperHow's it going? Im gaining strength weekly for example when I started mentzer programme I was at 30 kg in tricep presdown but now I'm 60 kg that too same reps proper form and only took 6 weeks
@@vasubhatnagar3287 it’s going great. Since I’ve started training heavy duty, the Mentzer way, I’ve dropped 10% body fat and 15 pounds. I started at 215lbs, 33% body fat and today I was 200lbs at 21.3% body fat. My strength has gone up in all my lifts. I’ve also remained injury free the entire time. To put things in perspective, when I started, I could only do 15 body weight pushups. I just did 28 the other day, full ROM. Back squat has gone up 35 pounds and my bench has gone up 30.
Can't stress enough what Dr. Mike said there. If you can't recover before your next workout, drop the volume. If you can easily recover, increase your volume. It literally is that easy. Stop looking at training programs from your favourite influencers or from your friends. Every body is different and needs to be treated different.
Boom!
honestly never looked at it this way. love that
and if your strength isn't increasing week to week, insert another rest day. I just started his routine yesterday but it's going to be a challenge only going to the gym every 4-7 days...
@@dive2drive314 I go 3 times a week, started doing the original Heavy Duty program, but ended up adapting for my needs. I kept most of the exercises and added a few more (Dumbell preacher curl, Bent over barbell row, RDL). Doing pretty good.
Dr. Mike >>> Mike Mentzer
The reason the muscle mind connection was so difficult on 6-8 is because you lift faster than mentzer. Check out the heavy duty routine where he is instructing a client. He usually does super slow 4 second concentric/eccentric. This means lighter weight but around 3x slower reps than you were doing. Compensates
Imagine dedicating a whole week of your life to Mike without actually watching a single Mike instruction video in your life.
exactly. I dont know how to say this nicely but Will's form is trash. He is not activating the muscle fibres properly with his form.
Doesn't matter, Mike's idea doesn't work anyway
@NapsterRulez it does but it's necessary to have a partner and also train those failure sets to the point that you are going to feel like you're dieing lmao
@@NapsterRulezThat’s something you would say if you’re weak. I think you’re weak.
I can confirm what Dr mike said about someone who is chronically overtraining benefiting from less volume. In high school I was weighing somewhere around 180. I was doing pyramids from 10 to 1 and back to 10 for flat, incline, and decline bench. Was also doing shoulders and triceps. I was doing this 3 days a week. I bought Mentzer's book Heavy Duty. I started to understand what overtraining was. My bench was stuck at 210 for months. I decided to take a week off from training entirely. I did nothing but eat, sleep and have fun. My bench jumped up by 60 pounds, that is went from 210 to 270 in one week and all I did was take a week off. It was mind blowing.
That must have blown everyone’s mind,😮
“I Trained like Mike Mentzer for a Week” is a funny way of saying “I worked out once”
Mike personally worked out 4 times a week 30 minutes per session
But he admitted natural people can't do that and need 3-4 days rest in between..so yeah Mike's program for naturals had you work almost less than once a week
@@MikeJohnMentzer You're responding seriously to a clear joke.
@@vvoof2601 LoL
@@vvoof2601 well those are really facts😂😂😂😂
I was thinking the same thing lol!
Will is definitely my favorite fitness content creator. He seems like a genuinely real guy, no forced persona for videos
I agree except for the “no forced persona” part. Its not a bad persona but hes clearly playing a character the whole time
He's just playing a social media character but his content is good
Will, Sam and dr Mike are my favourites
100%. His content is never boring.
Are you dumb he’s playing a role
Mike Mentzer's techniques & philosophy worked well for many bodybuilders. He was an Icon.R.I.P Mike.
Mike also advocated for failing on the negative part of an exercise after failing on the concentric in order to actually push to failure, because failing only on the concentric is like half of the intensity needed for his plan to work. Great video Nevertheless Will 🔥
silly question, but how tf do you fail a negative? I’m pretty sure gravity goes down
@@joemomma8369Like after you fail to lock out your last rep on the leg extension, as your going back down, still fighting as hard as you can to do it as slow as physically possible. This is ofcourse not possible for safety reasons on all exercises, like squats and bench press.
@@joemomma8369The key is controlling eccentric movements. It is one of the largest factors for muscle stimulus. Take some simple dips for example. Lower yourself down as slow as possible and explode up quickly. Once you reach concentric failure, put yourself back on the bars and lower yourself down, step off, repeat.
Or on bench, have your friend pick the weight up for you and then you lower it down.
You will see improvements
11:02 Mike would cringe if he saw that, he was all about controls and no momentum. He does one rep in 2 seconds, also I didn't see a single lift done to a failure.
Did he actually dedicate a whole week of your life to Mike without doing any research?
@@joemomma8369it's about failure to control the descent; if you're doing DB curls with a three-second lower and you literally cannot keep the descent slow enough to maintain for three seconds, that's failure.
The reason Will didnt really feel the 6-10 rep range is due to him skipping over the fact that Mentzer was very adamant on using about 3 seconds in the positive and negative portion of the rep, as well as a second or two in the static contracted part of the rep.
Yeah studies show, I've heard, that you can grow from 6 to 30 reps. That said it depends on the individual most times.
he actually even said 5 sec negative 2 seconds hold and 3 seconds positive
@@nab5999 11:02 he does 1 rep in 2 seconds, the real Mike way would be 3 second lift 2 second hold and 3 second lower
i.e he is ego lifting and control his weights. 10 reps should take him 80 seconds, but will rushes it in 20 seconds
yu can grow from 3 reps its just not as good@@Sjcstro84
@@DuBstep115 that part was obviously a joke😐
Slow down your tempo both on the concentric and eccentric (4 seconds, 2 seconds hold and 4 seconds). Remember that doing 6 reps doesn’t mean you have to go crazy in weight, but you can go crazy on time under tension.
static isnt hypertrophic , his info is so outdated
@@abdoster3367 And yet Dr Mike literally says the same things about tempo and negatives. Outdated?
@@abdoster3367are you dumb or stupid
@@abdoster3367 going slow and having a slight pause isn't static.
@@abdoster3367 even so thats how mike trained and thats what this video is about
he was pretty adamant about the 4 second cadence in both the positive and negative portions with 2-4 second holds at peak contraction (depending on the exercise). the slow reps are BRUTAL
I do about 4-5 sec on every rep and I go to failure. It's legit the most hurtful thing you can do. Pushing that hard though I have backed off my set and exercises. Like Mike always said it's so easy to overtrain and I do believe that's a lot of people's issue. This high volume stuff just isn't it. You can't recover fast enough.
THe slow rep almost caused a muscle tear to me during lateral raises
@KenMagnet2 Ellington Darden, PhD wrote a pretty interesting book on HIT advocating as much as a minute for negatives. I’ve played around with all kinds of different cadences and settled on 5-7 for most. Good way to change up a routine to make harder. Try a set number for a few weeks and see how you do. Then try another. Record everything. I can’t imagine that a one second variation towards either could be labeled as right or wrong. I feel that the idea is to just do it. My 2 cents with 2 years doing HIT. Hope it helps.
And it stops people from cheating to much with swing and momentum just to get the rep number, but not actually the training effect.
@KenMagnet2 sure, and you can look around and see people bouncing weight off their chests; negatives as fast as concentric. Can we agree that controlled negatives make an exercise more challenging? Art Jones of Nautilis fame claimed something along the lines of, “it’s not how much you can lift, it’s how much you can lower”. I train alone, so incorporating slower negatives allows me to safely incorporate bc when doing 10+ reps, your form MUST be near perfect. You’ll start off with a little less weight, but I challenge you to try and update me?
I'm 66 years old. I've been training since I was 15. I have used Mike Mentzer's HIT, off and on since the early 80's. It has always worked well for me. Because of his HIT program, I attained 17 7/8 inch biceps, 50 inch chest and 28 inch thighs, with a 29 inch waist, at 5'10", up to 2018. And I was, and still am natural. The reason I have gone off and on is because of my job. I work all over the world and gyms are sporadic, have different equipment and sometimes are so limited that I have to do HVT (High Volume Training) with light weights, just to get some sort of "feel" or "pump". Plus I have to accommodate my time in accordance to my job and travel time. (I've had 176 flights this year)
I ruptured my left achilles tendon during the pandemic lockdown, by simply stepping off a curb. I was bed-ridden for 6 months, had a $28,000 surgery, and the gyms were closed, and the ideal foods were scarce. I lost 65 pounds.{29.5 kg).
Now I've been using HIT to try to come back. I've gained back 18 pounds (8.2 kg) in 17 months. I'm doing it slowly, because I want muscle not water and fat.
My doctors have told me that my left calf will never regain it's size or strength. But I'm working it, and it's coming along nicely.
Mike promoted carbs in his diet, but it was mostly complex carbs, veggies and fruit. Not simple carbs like bread, fried foods and pasta.
I went to 3 of Mike's (and Ray's) seminars when I was in college. His seminars were more informative than his books, although I have his books.
The keys are: Proper warmup. SLOW reps, 3-4 seconds up, 1-2 second hold, 3-4 seconds down, adequate rest (48-96 hours).
He also wasn't "stuck"on the 6-10 rep regimen. He said, in every seminar, "If your goal is to get 6 to 10 reps, and as you're working out, you realize that you can get 12 to 15 or even 17 reps, then do it! Your objective is to work to failure. So if you can get 15-17 reps, now you know you need more weight. So in the next workout , increase your weight. THIS IS HOW YOU KNOW YOU'RE PROGRESSING".
I've found that as I get older, HIT works best for me.
I UNDERSTAND THAT IT DOESN'T WORK FOR EVERYONE. BUT NO "WORKOUT FORMAT" WORK'S FOR EVERYONE.
I took Mike's HIT and adapted it. I have 3 warmup sets (compound), then the same compound exercise 6-10 X 2, to failure, and one isolation exercise 6-10 X 2 to failure, per body part. This works great for me.
I know I'll never be as big as I was, but that's not my goal. I just want to be healthy. And I am.
I'm 66, and I'm still working at my job. Not because I need to, but because I want to. And it's because of my training that I'm still capable of doing so.
176 flights in one year. Thats insane.
I tore my Achilles 22 years ago and yes it never fully regained the original size ,I did recover a good portion, as far as strength goes it took some time but have recovered most as well .
@wintertime what split did you use and what exercises, same as this vid?
Tldr
@@wintertime331you should try the ATG program then
Tempo,pausing etc is SO IMPORTANT with this as is WARM UP for every diff body part.Later Mentzer added more reps..Its ALL about more time outside the gym. eg studying if a Student say.
The 6-8 rep range is a guide for you to select the weight. If you can get more reps, then keep going to failure and adjust the weight the next week to get you in that 6-8 rep range.
Mhm, mhm. Then you can start dialing it in even further! Got 6 reps with a weight? Stick with that weight until you can get 8! Then progress to the next weight
Something simple like that
@YeahTheDuckweed Yeah, if you're not hitting the high end of the rep range I wouldn't move up in weight.
@@YeahTheDuckweed Yep this is a type of progressive overload technique.
You can also use the rest and pause concept to reach beyond the failure.
I'm using these two concepts and things are going well.
I tripled the weight of supine in one month, and next week I am going to test again (I am using creatine).
@@Bolaway you mean myoreps?
I’ve heard him say if you can’t do 6-10 and end up doing 14 or even just 4, it’s ok, just go to failure and it’s how you also find out what your next weight should be! So glad you made a video about Mentzer bc I’m very inspired by his bodybuilding philosophy and bought his book & still waiting for it to show up! You rock man, you’re hilarious & always love your content, keep it up!
What I do is if I overshoot the weight a little bit (where I could only do 5 reps), I just stick to that weight for the next workout with the intent to surpass the number of reps from that previous workout. If I did more, than I did something right regardless.
I tried to order his book and gave up waiting and had to cancel. It is so in demand.
I shall get it eventually. Whoever has teh rights to his royalties is making bank.
@@MannyCarlos714That’s another thing he says, if you fail your rep range only by a little, you will probably reach it the next week. Ultimately with progressive overload you should either always go for at least 1 more rep or add some weight from the previous session.
@@kylezdancewicz7346 Yep. In my experience so far, whenever that happens, I always rep out more on the next workout
The science seems pretty clear today. Number of reps doesn't matter if it is taken to failure. 10 reps. 100 reps. If taken to failure they both yield the same muscle gain.
Hey Will, about the exercises that require 6-8 reps like lateral raises, I think the idea is not to up the weight and struggle, but have a lighter weight and keep your movements slow and controlled.
Yep , for lateral raises didn't mike want 4 secs up , 2 sec hold and 4 secs down. To do 6 to 8 for that you need to drop the weight from what you can do 12 normal reps
@@iang8169 Correct. The way Will performed those reps went against what Mike was trying to teach.. He would have cringed.
Always up the weight or stay weak and skinny
Facts I thought the same
I was about to comment exactly what you said until I saw this. The point of his trianing is to pick a weight you can fail within this rep range but with good form and tempos
Thank you for actually trying the Mentzer program seriously and not self sabotaging it like other peeps on RUclips. I've been doing the Mentzer approach (modified) for the past 5 weeks and my results have been spectacular! My modifications is that I only do each exercise once per week (I noticed you did squats twice in that 7 day period.) I also go up to 15 or 20 reps on some exercises. However, generally I have been going with the 6 to 10 rep range on most things. Every week I have been gaining 3 reps or 5 lbs of strength on just about all my lifts. I'll stick to my modified Mentzer workouts for now. When it stops working/I stop making gains, then I'll add more volume.
Update* still making incredible gains on the Mentzer program. I add one extra set to an exercise if I didn't gain anything from the week before. I've only had to do that a few times, though. It's mostly just one set to failure or near failure still.
Respect bro keep it up if it works for u!
@@tempestindustries9446 thanks man!
Brother can u pls tell me ur exact workout split bc I am farmer from India I am very active
And fallowing nobro split
And after workout or next of my workout I am not get soreness
Is it ok I do always up to failure
And 48 hours rest between workouts
So how do I know I recovered from
Is Mike workout method work for me as a farmer between I am 22
So pls help me brother 🙏
What’s ur workout split and nutrition
@appusgrstudio5260 Hello! First of all, I don't claim any of my advice is fact, just my personal opinion.
I think only 48 hours of rest is not enough. It doesn't matter if you're sore or not. I do each exercise only once per week in a 5 day split, then on Saturday and Sunday, I usually don't do any exercise at all.
My split currently is this:
Monday: Chest & Legs (squats)
Tuesday: 20 minutes of cardio, arms
Wednesday: Back
Thursday: 20 minutes of cardio, shoulders
Friday: Forearms, legs (leg extensions, leg curls, toe raises), abs (ab machine with weighted resistanc)
My nutrition totally depends if I'm on a cut or a bulk. Right now, I'm on a cut with about two weeks remaining.
1800 to 2200 calories a day
120 to 160 grams of protein
Very low fat consumption at 20 to 40 grams
The rest is carbohydrates (about 55 to 65% of my calories I try to get from carbohydrates)
I have found that Greek yogurt is an excellent bodybuilding food because it's extremely low in fat, good protein, and good carbs.
I hope that helps!
13:33
Wrong, Mike had 5 mile run and 14 mile cycling in his Daily routine
Dont forget the meth
@@miufke_ The amphetamines for the 20 minute workout.
@@miufke_ You can use all the Meth you want you'll still look like crap like you always are
Havent watched willson for like a month or so and man i forgot how much I love his humour and his persona, just actually my most favourite youtuber ever. Cozyness factor 100/10. Will keep going, you look absolutely massive.
You can tell how hard core this routine is as Will just looks progressively more tired as the week goes on.
it makes sense because mike was blasting every steroid known to man
Cuz he does it wrong
He literally gave 2 days of rest lol, that's as anti Mike mentzer as you can get. And his words were "I'm not even remotely recovered from workout one" 😂
This video showed us how se didn’t train like Mike Mentzer.
With crohns, I'd never believed I'd have the body Mikes program helped me get. Im still only in the beginning, but I'm loving the progress, and I finally have my confidence back. I do modify it for my condition, but the base program does help people who need to focus on recovery. If it takes me 10 years, so be it.
I hate not having a spotter because I'm always worried about the HIT, and the fatigue near the end makes it difficult, but I'm going to continue.
Thanks for the video.
I’ve been doing the Mentzer routine for a couple months now. I plan do it for at least half a year of continuing to track data before I decide its effectiveness. I think there’s 100% something to it though because I’ve noticed the biggest and strongest I’ve been is when I was consistently pushing myself until failure on exercises. And it’s logically sound since why would the body build muscle if you don’t provide it the proper reason/stimulus to do so? It’s all about intensity and volume is a lever that helps you reach intensity, but Mike advocated not to over-use that lever
Before you hit that one failure set for say quads and chest , how many warm up sets do you need ? I've found that I need 4 warm ups for quads and 2 for chest , 2 for back ,2 for laterals , 1 for shoulder press , 1 for bis and tris so my total volume is still pretty high
I generally do like 2-3, but for some isolation lifts I sometimes do 1 set of warmup. Also I keep the warmup sets below an 7 intensity level@@iang8169
But for chest, I do a few 1-3 rep sets as heavy as I can do before my set to ensure I'm increasing my 1 rep max. That communicates a slight lack of faith in Mentzer's program but I do just love strength training chest
@@iang8169 I do about he same but those warm up sets are nowhere near failure so they don't really count as volume.
Mike emphasized that there is genetic variance in workout recovery. He would prescribe sometime 4-6 days between lifts for some of his clients. He was brilliant because he was calibrating and tailoring his muscle growth concepts to each individuals genetics.
Yes he himself took only a day or two rest between lifts but he knew non steroid users need more
Yes, great point
After spending 20 odd years on/off in the gym from like age 14, i was always following the programs the professional lifters suggested with none of the gear, time and rest they have. and as a result never made the progress i felt my input deserved ... anyway took a step back as I wanted to focus on my other activities... within weeks of dropping training to 2 or 3 short, intense sessions where I do a couple sets, beyond failure and then waiting at least 7-10 days before i go again..im leaner,.with significantly more muscle mass, dont feel as tired and have time to do other things.. i think the rest is the key thing, us nattys need a lot longer than we realise
There are so many different methods out there it's hard to figure out what will work best. Especially if you are older like me. Less sets? Lower volume? More reps? Or more weight/less reps?
Mike also advocated for warm ups , the last set is the one that counts not just one set literally, he meant one working set that was til failure.
I used to do the high volume training when I started lifting and I stopped seeing progress after two years of training. When I started Mike's method it was like a miracle. I am seeing progress every workout like he said.
It’s like you have to vary training protocol regularly every once in a while to keep seeing adaptations, or something… woooooooow
Bet you weren't pushing your intensity properly. Nothing special about this system, it's pretty shit actually.
@@QueenToKingOfSpades i did the opposite more volume less intensity more soreness, your body gets used to the same thing law of accommodation.
Same. I think his training is best for natty lifters too. Too much volume and not enough recover when you go with other routines
Changing routines is the mpst important
Yes, another challenge is to get rid of that mindset of more is better. Was very difficult at the beginning but when you stick to the plan, damn boi, I'm 40 and hitting prs, probably in the best shape of my life too following his program. Leaves you time for your family and other things you know
I think the problem with doing this for only a week is that you need at least a few weeks to figure out what your weight's going to be. Kind of like the issue you had with the squats. I've been doing the Mike Mentzer heavy duty ideal program since July and I'm really liking it. Like you, I couldn't believe that this was going to work with such little volume, but it's working for me.
he also done pretty much everything incorrectly. mike recommended 3-4 days recovery after every workout. will took one days rest. the form was completely different to what mike recommended too.
Good point@@tomowen9412
MM is incorrect, LMAO So the Mr O's he trained and praised him were also wrong. And watching you do your work. You did not read his book. You have too many mistakes to list. I am 73 and started using MM HIT methods for quite a while. They work and work well. HIT is not perfect but, when done correctly you will see results. The very first time I tried them I could not believe the way the muscle felt. And MM said you can only make 3 mistakes when doing HIT and you are making them all. Read the book carefully and try again. Hope this helps.
Reply
it is silly
I like to switch to Mike's way every 4 to 6 months to reset and see where my progress really is. Do it for about a month, taking 3 days in-between workouts and throw some Dorian Yates in as well. He prefected Mike's way of training in my opinion.
I thought you were joking like you were on the couch waiting to see lol
Being on Test probably helped some of his gains working out the way he did
Mike is my personal bodybuilding GOAT. Even had his quote on my graduation book in college and I just graduated last June! I'm a bit nerdy so maybe I gravitated towards his style more but huge huge inspiration on my life for sure.
What was the quote? I’m a huge Mentzer nerd too lol
I appreciate his style and approach to training. But even more his independence of mind and philosophical orientation with regards to beauty and heroism.
What Will says about the mindset of only getting one shot to get it right is so spot on for me. Been following HIT for almost 2 years and I can say that hands down, this is the best I’ve ever done. I get better results with full body workouts 1-3x/week than I ever did with my “bro splits” 4-6x/week and every other program I’ve tried. My shoulders got jacked and my arms are more vascular than they’ve ever been. Whoda thunk that less is more? Unbelievable to me the progress I see workout to workout. You have to go past the pain threshold and not stop when it hurts, but when you get to failure. (Not with squats.) Be creative. Like I do single leg presses every other workout and keep the non working leg at bottom to “spot” myself. 6 second negatives add to intensity. Love it. Great post.
Will has been PUMPING out the content lately, and every video has been a banger - thanks for keeping us well fed Will 🙏🔥
Not the only thing hes been pumping if you know what i mean
@@tellingmamom6823 currently edging to your comment
The info here is incorrect, though.
Great video my friend! Kudos to you for trying Mentzer’s program.
(Side note) ..I’m 52 and it dives me f**kin bananas when guys like you video and talk into their phones at the gym. Lol😂 Keep up the good work!
Please do more bodybuilder and golden era related content?? This was awesome to watch
Been working out following mike mentzer style for a while and i love it. I think the key is to do slow reps and have a training partner to go to complete failure. Think Wills reps were too fast
Agreed ! All
This work and he didn’t even follow the workout ! Twat
Too fast and cut short of failure
I found the one set approach to work similar to Mike's way. 15 years back when I was in my 40's, I joined a gym and it was one of those $10/month deals. I did not have the time to do a lot but wanted to make gains so I did just one set of exercises just twice a week. One session for upper body and another for lower body. I used cable station machines not really dead weight as lifting heavy without a spotter is a big no no based on a previous accident. I used to body build alone at home with weights and did 2 hour sessions 6 days a week in my early 20's. Anyway after a year and a half, I was able to do a one time bench press max of 420 lb on that cable machine. I know that is less than dead weight but I could have done more but it was the max of weight. I could never do that kind of weight when I was young and bodybuilding. Now I am 64 and started working out with a put-together home gym. I do one set and two sessions per week again. I am slowly gaining strength every week doing each session once a week. Moderate exercise at moderate effort, not to exhaustion. I found that at exhaustion style you are susceptible to injury if you have to exert yourself doing something during the week so I dialed it back a little. This is very sustainable if you want to make this a life long style. Big tip: I got a hex bar to do squats and calf raises instead of the barbell on the shoulders and its more safer and no crushing pain on your neck area. The key is consistency even if you do just a little exercise.
Every video you've been posting for the past couple of weeks has been an absolute banger! I don't know how you can do this constantly, but congrats on the awesome videos Will (and editor Josh, since the editing has been superb too)!!
Thanks Nicolau! And yup, Will is indeed killing it
Hey willy boy, u missed a few key things on mentzer's training method. He didn't eat 2000 cals a day, but he would eat only in smthn like a 200-500 cal surplus or deficit (I may be wrong with the numbers). Also, he did support higher rep ranges for certain exercises like calf raises (12-20 reps) or lat pulldowns (6-10reps), and it was a point of his that the rep ranges were just numbers he threw out there that felt good for the muscle depending on it's size and use, but stressed that ROM, form, and slow intense reps to absolute failure were key, and if you exceed the rep range then keep going and raise the weight next workout.
Casey Viator trained the HIT and eat sporadically.
Yeah sounds absurd the fact that a profesional bodybuilder would only eat 2000 cals
@@user-zc2ks7pd3d Yeah, I'm a 120 lb skinny guy and it says I need 2100-2200 calories to gain weight. Being 250 lb bodybuilder would need like 4000-4500 calories.
Slow down, 4sec positive and 4sec negative with no rest pause and muscle under constant tension.
Later in Mike's career he recommended training every 4 - 7 days, to maximize recovery.
Love seeing Dr. Mike more on this channel, my two favorite fitness people coming together
Don’t worry, Will , even though you didn’t push yourself hard enough like you’re supposed to I still have a lot of respect for you and you’re one of the best content creators
was waiting for this...thank you sir. Also, 6x mr. olympia Dorian Yates was greatly influenced by Mentzer and espouses a similar training philosophy to this day. Dude was arguably the pinnacle of bodybuilding when it came to crazy size plus unbelievable conditioning. Maybe a video with Dorian is in order....the guy is extremely interesting if nothing else.
@user-le8dn2jr4j sources? He has went on record saying that he used a similar low-volume, high-intensity training methodology like Mike mentzer. He actually used around 2 sets for a lot of exercises and eventually cut it down to one set (doing so after actually training with mike mentzer)to failure...I would recommend you actually read the Dorian Yates biography.
@@Psych1_- oh shit, my bad. thought you were referring to Dorian lol. Will did okay here. The HIT principles were pretty much applied, coulda done a little better, but meh
Michaeldonnelly8068
Yates followed only a h.i.t hybrid of his own design . he still did the usual 4 to 5 days of workouts a week but only 45 min at a time .
His typical workout for one body part was
Ex 1 2 warm up sets , 1 failure set
Ex 2 1 warm up set ,1 failure set
Ex 3 0 warm up sets , 1 failure set
So 6 total sets ,3 warm ups ,3 failure sets per body part .
@@iang8169 yeah, that's correct. Although I don't know about "hybrid", he just applied the basic HIT principles to his training regimen. A little extra volume with the warm-up sets because of the heavy weight he put up. Really, with his unreal training intensity, his version of HIT is more or less the best example of the best example of the effectiveness of real high intensity training.
@@michaeldonnelly8068he went way too fast, need to under tension for 60-90s before true failure. The start of your set is the warm up and should feel "easy" enough..
You are one of the most entertaining folks out here. Have me rolling every few minutes and you’re consistent. Love your stuff man. Thanks.
An educational comedy show, possibly made me laugh more than your typical comedy show actually.
Mike mentzer later improved the HIIT ,he said to have a low rep warm up set before every failure work set, also to warm up every joint you use for working muscles ,*important: he also said that not only the negative but to also have a slow positive rep range.
Excited to see my gym (Iron Fitness) in this video. Had the pleasure of chatting a couple of time with Mentzer in 70's 80's; seemed to be a good chap.
Mike mentzer has a lot of great info. Modifying his workout plan to your recovery ability is probably the best approach
Yeah I agree, I want to work out more than once every 4 days, but I love his low volume extremely high intensity philosophy of training. So I now run a modified 4 day a week bro split (I find it easier to focus on just one muscle group per day rather than a PPL split) and just do 2 sets with 3-4 excercises per workout for like 6-10 total sets and I'm out of the gym in less than an hour. It's actually amazing how much progress I'm making rn
@@Amag0This is what I did, I follow his notion of high intensity but instead of one set per exercise I do two.
@@Amag0nothing like Mike Mentzer
@@DarkLord_Immoranyou re doing something wrong after my set there is no chance on earth i can do another one close to the intensity as the first one you have to all out
@WL like I said, I have taken techniques and the philosophy and applied it in a practical and efficient way in regards to my life and how I like to train. I may eventually drop to just one set, but at the moment, it's a bit challenging for me to ONLY do one set. I know Mike said only ONE set, but like I said, 2 sets work well for me right now. Relax
happy new year Will cant explane how perfict you came to my magic screen when there was day i was like i cant be assed one of your vids would apper and yea it pumped me up enouhe to go out and do it
9:45 "hey call me Pam cuz I'm just excited to be back in gym" 🤣🤣
Hell yeah. Mike is my favorite bodybuilder. Clicked on this video immediately.
Same bro
Hell yeah. The more I learn about mike mentzer and Tom platz the less I like Arnold, he doesn't seem like a very good person (or at least he didn't)
@Amag0 This was my initial take, but I've developed a new take. Arnold was a young egotistical gifted man who was at the top of his game and didn't want anyone taking his crown away from him. He may have cheated. Probably. But he is still an icon in the bodybuilding world, and deserves much respect for his contributions. He has matured as he's aged, and while still not perfect, he is someone who really set modern bodybuilding into the public eye. While learning about Mentzer did change my view of him, I just take the good with the bad. While Mike is my number one favorite bodybuilder, and I consider him one of the most intelligent men to ever compete, he let his hatred of Arnold get the best of him, and his anger consumed him and made him bitter. I love Mike, but I think he could've handled the situation with more open mindedness. Nonetheless, both are great, great men, who have inspired young men around the world to get off the couch and do something with their lives.
@@ZeroFlowers So imma deal with it like an open minded Mike Mentzer for you. I congratulate Arnold, shake his hand, click a photo with him and move on. Again Start working hard towards my goal and compete in the following years and they are still rigging it for Arnold and his buddies. Do you see any difference? in him being open minded about it?
You are sugar coating his egotisticalness and insecurity as something good but why wasn't he being open minded about competing the right way. And he would have won since he was a gifted man. but nah he opted to rigged shid for himself cuz he was bussy. my english is not that great but hope you get the gist of my message.
@Parnassoss I'm not condoning cheating, he should not have done it, he should have been reprimanded as WELL as the inside corrupt people that he bribed. But that didn't happen. What happened has happened and been lonnggg over with. Absolutely not giving Arnold a pass. He was a dick, 100%. I'm just pointing out that past his failures, he has done a lot for the sport. And as great as Mike was and as much as I love him as my favorite, he made mistakes too.
I think a Reg Park diet and workout vid would be awesome!
9:41 I can't believe the editor incorporated this little sound from Mario Bros. when you hit a P switch. What a nice little touch.
I will say this style of training is underrated I spent years training with less intensity than I should because some “influencer” said I should do 5 sets. 2 sets with maxed out intensity so way more beneficial. And if you’re only training 3 days a week the intensity isn’t an issue because you have plenty of rest
Yeah I totally agree. I'm only in the gym for around an hour including warmup as well because I only do 2 sets and waaay less total volume as well. Getting a spotter to assist you past failure is really good as well I've found
I trained most of my life using heavy duty .From age 16 to age 32, short, intense and productive. I never got injured and was playing football at the college level. I would say that my body was durable and strong, never injured on the field but looking back, it was probably more difficult to get really high numbers on the big 3, squat, deadlift and bench simply because you don't but in the volume or practice to drive up the numbers. I did come up with a variation which is safe, short and highly productive.Its 1 set to failure, 3 different exercises per muscle group, aim for failure around 20 reps on the first exercise, 10 reps on the second exercise and 5 reps on the third exercise. Example for chest would be flat flys to failure 1x20, Incline dumbell press 1x10, flat bench 1x5. The concept is that you try to beat your reps everytime you train, if you get 26 reps to failure you increase the weight the next time. Split was 3 days a week, Monday- chest and arms, Wednesday- legs, Friday - back and shoulders. Write down everything and try to better yourself every training session. I am 52 now and remember how strong I got within 2 months back in the 90s.
love that Mike is getting the attention. he was definitely on to something
Great video, happy to see Mentzer getting more respect for his style. To be fair, there's a couple of things not completely following his example (absolute failure, also on the negatives, using primarily nautilus machines because the form is the most important thing, and not using the EZ bar because your biceps would not be fully engaged), so I am officially asking for a part two.
I agree I feel like he didn't do enough research on mentzer or his training programs... if you aren't feeling your muscles are going to explode you're probably not doing his training style correctly lmao
Yeah, I've also watched another video of someone doing the same thing, and people only do the mike mentzer routine by using his lower volume lower reps approach and forget to fully dive into his training and use every technique given to truly push to absolute failure and sometimes beyond. Also, mike said that before jumping into his heavy duty workout style, you should take 2-3 weeks off the gym to let your body recover before hand. And the last thing I want to mention is that Will Tennyson only does this for one week. Like dude, you can't make a decision about something based off of 1 week of trying it.
@@austin6996I agree but honestly it’s not that bad compared to other influencers like Alex Eubank
Absolutely hilarious hahaha. So witty, funny as. Love these videos
3RIR on leg extensions and 2RIR on leg press. No forced reps, emphasised eccentric, paused reps, the list goes on. Mike did not train as easy as this. Neither did Dorian. This is not training to failure. Title correction: “I TRIED training like Mike Mentzer for a week”.
Correction: Training like Mike Mentzer, without the important parts.
Correction : absolute garbage video
Thank you Will for your hard work! We appreciate your research, filming, editing, your humor, and putting your body through some difficult/weird situations. Thank you. Hope you and Katie have a great holiday!
Oh and great sponsor transition🎉🎉 smooooth!😎😎
The one thing I will say about Mike’s plan…I tend to be pretty injury prone. I did Mike’s plan for 9 months. Made good gains, zero injuries. Intensity with solid rest…
I love training to failure. It’s a true test of your Willpower
Going to say it again, Will, we appreciate all the hard work with these videos. It’s a lot harder to film everything by your self.
I'd just like to take a moment to thank you for mentioning exertion headaches, Will. I've had plenty of them myself but I always felt crazy when I'd talk to people about them. I know now that the mere ability to lift a certain weight does not mean I should. 😂 I'm taking my fitness training much easier now (thanks, Dr. Mike; good to see you in this video).
Will! Huge fan. I NEED you to put out more content like this. Youre so good at recreating past wrkout regimens. This is what drew me to your channel. 😌
HIT is not a one week experience, needs at least a year to fully understand.
at least 3 cycles (about 1-2 months) just to figure out correct weights
Hats off to you man, finally someone does mike mentzer stuff other than Sam sulek. Thanks dude
One thing to remember Mike often had a training partner with him (his brother), so he was confident to push absolute failure and then some. I think when you don't and you're doing heavy squats (especially when you havent BB squat in a long time), it would be fine to replace this with a pendulum or hack squat. I think that explains why you felt you left a bit in the table.
"It literally screams we were raised by great depression era parents."
That aged tremendously well for the times we're in
Imagine living through a world war, the Spanish flu, a worldwide depression and then another world war only to listen to people now complain…
Love what Mike said, modify it to your needs while keeping the foundations of hit the same
Also if your wondering if you should follow this program
1. Do your research
2. If your a busy person and you can’t cut to much time out of your week for the gym, this is perfect for you(aka you have a life outside of the gym)
As someone who does train high intensity, the sets looked hard but weren't to failure.
exactly. mike always preached training to failure, and here Will not only didnt go to failure, but very clearly had multiple reps in reserve.
@@flynn425 and how wiped out he was the next day makes me question how hard his high volume workouts are.
his advice to use a straight bar on curls vs ez bar is clutch. That and with a reverse grip pull down gives me the legit pump for biceps that we all want.
True. I am now using straight bars in my curls along with his advise on the negative, man it really feels like my biceps are tearing apart.
Why is Straight better than EZ bar?
@@bigmoneymoose4644 bro science.
@@bigmoneymoose4644 EZ bar for brachialis and straight bar for bicep
@@bigmoneymoose4644Ez bar bends your wrist which makes you train brachialis instead of bicep
Man wtf, this is the first vid I see of you and was like yeah cool guy, let's see his workout. Then I see you in the gym you're a fucking unit!
He's great, but with how great his philosphy is, it should be gatekeeped 💯
Gatekept*
Gatekept for only the select few people who see the hundreds of RUclips shorts in circulation using his voice overs
"Hey Avengers was so great. LET'S GATEKEEP PEOPLE FROM SEEING IT" 🤡
You have to do a lot of research to properly understand HIT. I mean you'll need to read and watch a lot of hard to find material, if you only read the first blog that pops up on heavy duty you're fucked
Best way is to test it and one can find it out
I have been following Mentzer's program for a couple of months (training 2-3 times a week), and my progress is insane and I am stronger than ever!
Also the diet?
Not really, but I like to think my diet is pretty good..
@@thijs257what is it like
Hows your results been
@@nikola_kornetaThe problem with the diet is it is not a sufficient amount of protein. I'm a fan of his work but I haven't heard enough of his rational to justify the percentile of protein in my caloric intake being that low relative to the amount of carbs
After 40 years of drug free training I can honestly say that infrequent, low volume, high intensity work with compound movements was pretty much all that would put significant muscle mass on me. The most useful book I found was “Brawn” by Stuart McRobert. After I dumped the silly stuff and concentrated on short, basic, compound lifts I never looked back.
I've been working out for 10 months, and on my 4th month is when i found Mike Mentzer. Progress has been crazy the past 6 months once I discovered high intensity training. Hitting failure took a while to learn, since i had to callous and strengthen my mind. As long as you hit all out failure (partial reps, rest pauses, drop sets), all you need is one set per muscle group.
Amazing. Keep up the great work. Mike' s system definitely works
8:46 I swear you are one of a kind 🤣🤣🤣
I've done Mike's program, did it for around 2 years and I grew. It's intense, especially when you slow down your reps.
I'm still training with heavy duty principles. I've written my own program, still growing, still getting stronger in my mid 30's. My body responds very well to this form of training.
Is it for everyone? No. Should people try it? Yes! The thing is that people don't do it long enough to give it a chance.
Good video, influencer whom I don't follow
Why is it not for everyone if working out
@@MikeRepluk not everyone may gain results, and not everyone will have the discipline for it. If done right, it's actually brutal. Many I know that tried it didn't last longer than 6 weeks
0:05 they call me Mr heavy doody aswell
Ayooo
Finally started going to the gym because of you Will! So happy to Finally do what I always wanted to do.
So I wanted to point out a few things, in his book he mentions, you can perform a few warm up sets to find the correct weight range to meet failure at the desired rep, especially for legs. Here is my Mentzer plan that I just started yesterday and let me tell you, today I feel like I got hit by a bus, and last night when I finished my first workout I was vibrating everywhere, also finished in about 30 mins. Here is the plan,
Day 1: Chest and Back
Pecs Deck 6-10 reps
Incline Press 1-3 reps
Close Grip Palms Up Pull-downs 6-10
Dead-lifts 5-8 reps
2 days off
Day 2: Legs and Abs
Leg Extensions 12-20 reps
Leg Press 12-20 reps
Standing Calve Raise 12-20 reps
Sit Ups 12-20 reps
2 days off
Day 3: Shoulders and Arms
Standing Lateral Raise 6-10 reps
Bent Over Dumbbell Laterals 6-10 reps
Barbell Curl 6-10 reps
Triceps Press-downs 6-10 reps
Dips 3-5 reps
2 days off
Day 4: Legs and Abs
Leg Extensions 12-20 reps
Squats 12-20 reps
Standing Calve Raises 12-20 reps
Sit-Ups 12-20 reps
2 days off
Day 5: Chest and Back
Pecs Deck 6-10 reps
Incline Press 1-3 reps
Close Grip Palms Up Pull-downs 6-10
Dead-lifts 5-8 reps
Give that a go mate.
Hi ! Question, so you do every set for failure ?
@@iPenzel warm up sets no, working sets, yes
Day 1 and day 5 are the same chest and back? So you train chest and back two workouts in a row with 2 days rest?
Thanks for the comedy! I've been starting this workout recently and have been doing the 4 -5 secs. concentric and 4 - 5 secs. negative and I tell you I start losing count on how many reps I have done because of concentrating so much on each rep. Getting to the last rep is very intense. Unfortunately Will, you need to slow down your rep speed then you will feel the full intensity. Thanks for the videos!
That is it! He is performing the exercises very quickly. He should do it slower and more isolated without moving his body like he is doing.
Yes. He did all wrong
Ive been using mike mentzers training style for a few months but adjusting it so I’m still enjoying my time in the gym so that I keep wanting to come back. I’m doing PPL with 6-7 working sets per muscle group and training every other day. So each muscle group is getting 5-6 days of rest. It’s been working wonders not just for growth and strength, but giving me more rest days to catch up on personal life things
Can you explain it better?
@@YawningOfficeryeah that was confusing lol
I love how the SMG music fits for what's going on! I would definitely try this style of exercising, but one day lol.
On leg press especially when doing higher weight amounts, you should practice raising the back rest all the way and allowing your legs to naturally extend past your torso on the sides. It’s a bit wider than what most people do but it opens up the hips and allows for full range of motion. Ever since I switched to this my legs blew up. The only reason I tried is because I injured my back squatting and leg press was the only relief. I highly recommend to anyone to give it a try, check out Eric janickis leg videos for more depth on this technique but it’s so helpful
Doesn't raising back will just give back pain?
I’m 36 used to train pretty much every day for 2+ hours. Last couple months I switched to 3/4 sessions a week around 90 mins long including warm up and I’ve made a big jump in progress, 8-10 rep range heavy as I can safely manage.
This! Mike mentzer was way ahead of his time.
@@nygeek6471 no. He wasn’t. The reason why people make better gains is because it forces you to train to failure, and most people train far far from failure. The arbitrarily low frequencies, volumes, and low rep ranges for several exercises is objectively bad. The science supports that. If he was alive today, and had half a brain, he wouldn’t be promoting his style of training. Or maybe he would, after all, he was involved in the scam of the Colorado experiment, in order to sell nautilus machines.
Going for a rep PR on bench alone with no safety spotters would be a dumb way to die
Damn post workout meal and Will vid 🥹 perfect day
Being a lifelong lifter, as I've gotten older I have enjoyed doing periods of doing 3x5s and focusing on heavier weight. This is only for 3 days a week on my second workout, the first being cardio-focused. It is nice to hit the heavy stuff to break a plateau and just to simply push some weight.
How old u is
U lik real old lik 40 ?
Great video! I know the video concept is limited to a week timeframe but am I right in saying that Mentzer advised 3 (or more) days of rest between workouts, hence better recovery?
I think there is a lot we can all take from Mentzer's theory, I certainly think the rest pause/negative and forced reps can cut down on the number of sets you have to do, a lot of the exercises need a spotter to give you a safety net and encouragement as often we fail to want to attempt the next rep in our minds first before our body gives out, I have followed his routines before but the intensity needed is very hard to keep up especially on leg day.
That's why you use Mikes forbidden preworkout
@@sincorddnb9155 Under the counter creatine
@@sincorddnb9155 good one, very original… very incorrect as well. If you don’t know about a situation don’t spread false information about it. The fact that someone’s life work can be disrespected so heavily by one false accusation is very disturbing
been loving low volume high intensity training lately and my progress has been great
VERY tragic detail about Mike's brother Ray: He died just two days after Mike from Berger's disease. Considering how close the two of them were, I'm willing to bet Ray's death may have at least partly been due to the grief of losing his brother.
I actually get excited when I see one of your new video notifications. Keep up the great content man♥️
I appreciate that!
Yeah that amount of intensity will fry you out. That's why Mike spaced out his workouts like that. A good balance between volume and intensity is still the best way. I tried high intensity before and man, I'm always so tired and couldn't really recover that why I cut back on the intensity a little and added just a little bit of volume and it works for me
Mike way is better no extra bs
@@WORKSbaby if you can recover quick. most people more volume needed
Yeah, instead of going to concentric and eccentric failure plus rest pause, you can go to concentric failure and be done, one set. As your body adapts, which ultimately it will, you can start adding one more set, or rest pause and forced reps into it to get more stimulus.
I found that going beyond failure, even on one set per exercise, would absolutely fry me, specially in the legs workout.
@@jmgonzales7701 more volume more wasted energyv
@@jmgonzales7701 I see a lot of ppl like to do a lot of nothing but I would say of course a little more but not that much ppl waste hours doing nothing
You have some dope video editing
A massive part about Mike Mentzers training system that ALOT of people don’t point out is LONGEVITY! Mike trained Dorian Yates! Yates was a mass monster in his prime. Let’s fast forward decades and look at him today. He is in good health, does Yoga, and in better shape than most men his age! Compare Yates to Ronnie Coleman for example. Ronnie can barely walk anymore! Yates is able to still be healthy at his age and after years of PEDs and hard training thanks to Mikes style!
Ronnie wanted one more set. Yates was already recovering at home at that time.
Look at alot of bodybuilders from golden era most of them were also healthy and lived/live a quality life after bodybuilding
my job is high labor and 10 hour days. I tried the Mike style because I wanted to work out but don't have hours a week to do so. I found it incredibly helpful and gave me the ability to work out and not ruin my ability to actually work
Agreed
Al Sharpton was notified
I recently decided to prune my YT subscriptions and Will and Mike were 2 of the 3 fitness channels I kept. The third was Jeff Nippard. Curious why the exercise selection was blurred out? You showed the day 2 exercises as you went through them but we never got to see day 1's exercises.
I'm going to train like Mike Mentzer for two years and document that. That'll be something actually worth watching.
Are you started bro?
@@mkmade2729 yessir.
Bro I have many doubts regarding Mike MENTZER workout do you have any discord account?
@@CrimpKeeperHow's it going? Im gaining strength weekly for example when I started mentzer programme I was at 30 kg in tricep presdown but now I'm 60 kg that too same reps proper form and only took 6 weeks
@@vasubhatnagar3287 it’s going great. Since I’ve started training heavy duty, the Mentzer way, I’ve dropped 10% body fat and 15 pounds. I started at 215lbs, 33% body fat and today I was 200lbs at 21.3% body fat. My strength has gone up in all my lifts. I’ve also remained injury free the entire time. To put things in perspective, when I started, I could only do 15 body weight pushups. I just did 28 the other day, full ROM. Back squat has gone up 35 pounds and my bench has gone up 30.