If you're reading this Mike, your RP Hypertrophy app just tried to kill me. I didn't get sore in week 1 and told the app to do better next time--it took that shit personally. Today (day 1 of week 2) it cosplayed as the Iron Sheik and made me humble. DOMS incoming...
@@3h0wn3dm8 please keep in mind that the ability to reason logically is a rare gift not bestowed on everyone and even then people surprise you every day....not in a positive way
Facts!? When he talks about gohan like that? Nah that’s foul af, it goes piccolo, vegeta, gohan… fym putting gohan at the bottom tf also kid gohan is 50% of gothenks aka coolest looking character of all time
Love Menzter for teaching the importance of warming up, keeping a journal, controlling the weight, making every set count and working the negative. It’s definitely brought my fitness game up.
to me, warming up is light dynamic stretching to make sure nothing's messed up, then one set with as super-light weight to make sure my form is feeling right
It’s funny how dr Mike shits on mentzer and his 1 set to absolute failure protocol, but we still have DORIAN YATES WHO STILL CARRIES THIS PROTOCOL. Dr Mike even said you can get the same effects from many sets as you can by going 1 set to failure. So why do many sets over 1 set? If you’re achieving the same results, then surely less is more.
Mentzer is becoming more popular because people are realizing that, even though he wasn’t entirely correct with all his methods, he still had a lot of knowledge on things like nutrition and training during a time where that kind of information just wasn’t readily available or even known as much as we do now. He’s finally getting the recognition he deserves. RIP to the uncrowned king of 1980
And with all the methods there is out there, influencers saying hundreds of different things. He developed a great style of training that is certain and easy to build a routine around
I think bc Mike was an objectivist the dogmatism of his positions is almost sought after in an industry where you can hear 10 different perspectives and someone resolve the differences by saying “do what works for you”. To hear him speak with such certainty and in a very articulate matter is pretty unique to the realm of body building
Mentzer was a scam artist just trying to make a buck off clients who did not want to work hard or often. He used high volume when building his physique.
As a natty at 22 years old, switching to more of a Mike Mentzer approach has shown me insane results at a much faster rate compared to anything I've tried in the past.
I will say as someone who has done both remember to switch to more volume for a couple months and then goibg back to mentzer style. Also mentzer initial book showed 3 times a week semi full body style training. I honestly have done 2 full body days mike mentzer style training for 6 months and i was made some gains but around the 3rd month it started to slow down. So i switch to high volume after 6 months and my squat and deadlift blew up like crazy.
At 22 you can do more frequency than Mentzer program easily without overtraining. More volume was shown to yield better results than less volume in studies. But if you believe for you it’s opposite than keep at it.
The appeal of Mike/Dorian's hit training for me is simply that I enjoy it. Training doesn't always have to be about the BEST method - it's about the method which gets you into the gym working hard. Personally, I mix HIT with dropsets and myoreps which I think inflates the volume significantly and it feels amazing. Compare my sessions of one working set to failure + myoreps/dropsets to the people who are grinding out 3-4 sets with rests in between - I'm out of there quicker to get on with my day. That's just my preference.
You’re completely right. There’s more than one route you can take to get to your destination. Everyone is so obsessed with proving their way is the best or shitting on another routine that they don’t tell the viewer about the fact that you can actually take numerous routes and it’s about what you enjoy getting in and doing the most
@@donrobbiedeathstare272 That's why the science is there, to objectively measure the differences in programming and Dr. Mike is an exercise scientist. That being said enjoyment is a major key. No point in what's hyper-optimal if you hate that shit.
As long as your training is progressive after 10 years youre going to reach your potential or close to it anyways. Volume can get you there faster but it also comes with more wear and tear on the bones, joints, tendons and ligaments.
Doesn’t myorep require you to do one set then rest, then do another set with pauses in between? That’s not really mentzer style training anymore. You’re hitting failure at last 2 or 3 times instead of just once for that exercise. Not saying it’s a good or bad way to train, just saying it doesn’t support the argument that mentzor style training is good because it’s not actually mentzer style training
@@jlol933 I go to failure, wait 10 seconds and then go again - I don’t have a spot so this is how I go past failure, along with dropsets. Pretty sure myoreps as Dr Mike describes them are where you take very short breaks to get more reps
I run anywhere from 2-10 miles a week and I will say my veins have gotten a lot bigger and are all more visible with zero pump. The last time I went to the doctor, they took my heart rate and they looked at me almost surprised and said "do you work out a lot?" So I think even just a little bit of running is really good, real runners would laugh at how much I run
Because of my work and disability, I can go to gym only once per week. So I am exercising kind of like Mike Mentzer. I am doing rest-pauses, to failure then 15 breaths of break and to failure again, until I can't do no more reps. But I am only doing it with separation exercises. For the ones with compound movement, I am doing normal rep ranges and amount of sets. I am also going slow on positive and negative movement, with a bit of pause on contraction. I just started to train with this method, after a long break from gym, so I hope that it will work
If you're reading this Doc I recently applied your tips during my chest workout and I had amazing results like never before. You're the real deal. Thanks
@@heibaimaoslow on the way down, really retract your shoulder blades and bring your chest up as you drop down on a chest or a fly. I do it on Seated cable flys and you feel like your pecs are gonna rip off its great lol
@heibaimao Slow controlled eccentric with focus on maximising the weighted stretch plus a slight pause at the bottom. This will cost you to lower the weight but Quality reps are king
I was looking for a comment in support of Scott the camera guy. I am here for him too, the best camera angles in the fitness industry and he put up with Dr Mike kinks to boot.
I think the whole Mike Mentzer resurgence thing is mostly just an aesthetics thing. Mike competed in an era of bodybuilding that we now know was chock full of bro science and misinformation (literally watch any video of Arnold explaining his training, it’s actually comical how much volume he did), but in his training days he spoke in a way that sounds very reasonable and scientific, which I think gives him some ethos when combined with the whole underdog appeal. It helps that he was sort of kinda getting at what we know now about aiming for higher intensity and lower-ish volume on lifts. He definitely took it way too far tough, that’s for sure.
Yeah that’s I think as well, we started to realize that it really was about effective reps and not so much just do a crap of volume. The amount of volume is going is going to vary a little depending on if your gonna bulking or cutting phase but 1 set to failure isn’t enough and going 15+ sets or more per week for a muscle group is also not as effective
I think part of it is the illusion that you can go in, do your stuff quickly, get out, and tell yourself you are smarter than the guys working for a much longer period of time.
@Mantastic-ho3vm oh yeah no doubt. before he went off the deep end he had a great method , Yates took it and improved it but to him and Arthur jones were wildly off , isn’t true as well. They provided us with a great foundation, we just know that 1 set to failure is enough
@@Mark-oq9fl this. Everyone who has little to no experience lifting at all (or have "20+ years of high volume with no results" allegedly) watches a couple of Mike Mentzer videos and suddenly they think they know everything. Not only that, but they speak with such conviction and yet are so ignorant. Dunning Kruger effect I believe its called??
I wasn't even aware of Mentzer, until another channel advocated his training methods. Now it seems like everyone is talking about Mentzer. The internet is funny like that. But I decided to try HIT, just to see what's up. And I quickly realized how laid-back my normal training was. That helped put things in perspective.
Lies! Einstein actually was very careless about fashion, he would show up to formal events with casual clothes and unkempt hair and he thought it was a silly thing to care about
Okay actually interesting story Albert Einstein hated his sandals and wrote the company who made it a letter along with a design for a wide toe box sandle and shoe so that way his toes could spread out the man was ahead of the game when it came to footwear.
Mike mentzer is regaining popularity because it answers what the public wants to hear. The answer to growing is simple, doesnt take much time, and is just a mental challenge to get to failure. That being said, it can be legitimately effective, and the guy endorsing it looked incredible
Kudos to scott for editing in his disrespect, mike’s patience, and that final straw moment. Publicly shaming himself is a classy way to admit his mistake and atone
It's kind of like fashion trends from decades prior. Every new generation rediscovers him and gets their mind blown until they try it out for a while and realize that they're not making any more progress. And then they continue to learn like we all did. I got on the Mike mentzer train about 20 years ago and had the same Journey that kids today are having with him.
@@kpsiex Lets be real here, you're just another Methzer cultist that never touched the weight in life and making shit up to defend your idol. When this trend ends, you will also disappear.
Mike Mentzer is great because his style of training gives people more progress rather than spamming PPL 6 times a week with RPE style boring training and constant tired and no time to recover inbetween workouts.
max taylors style is just a modernization of mike mentzer. The only flaws that can be found with mentzer are due to knowledge that came about after his death. He took us in a different direction, away from feel and 7 days a week 20 sets of arms a day to systemic, scientific growth. Beautiful
Dr. Mike - Your content is incredible. Your humor opens the door to a whole host of knowledge concerning health and fitness. I started a casual gym-goer watching your videos for a laugh, and I enter 2024 with the Hypertrophy app downloaded, technique dialed in, and feeling better than ever. Thank you Dr. Mike - you rock!
I bought Mentzer's "Heavy Duty" about 25 years ago. 80% Ayn Rand, a little bit about training. His nutrition advice was the "4 food groups" poster I had on my classroom wall in the 60s.
And just like Ayn Rand. Teenage boys love it. But as we become adults we should grow out of it. Daily reminder Ayn Rand died penniless and alone, sucking up Medicare.
@@KevinJDildonikayn rand was a very mediocre philosopher that said nothing that Aristotle and John Locke handnt said before. Years behind her time in terms of where academic philosophy was. But of course, since she supported American ideology the public ate her up
I was a big fan of Max not very long ago because of his personality, but as I started consuming more fitness content I came to be weary of his affinity for Mike Mentzer's extremely low-volume training philosophy and I haven't watched him very much in a while. I was expecting this video to be a lot more critical of Max, but I was pleasantly surprised when I heard him emphasizing the stretch. Great video, I might find myself watching more Max content now, thank you very much
Good video, very objective. For me, training for muscle failure 3 times a week with a full body workout and about 2-3 sets per muscle works very well. But because I just don't have time to train more at the moment. I think if you have a lot of time, and I used to have that, then more volume and less intensity works. People simply have to adapt to the life situation. Many roads lead to Rome. Thanks for the good explanation as always!
Absolutely pro list. Only missing Gotenks who is both the most underutilized character and has the most unique creative techniques. If Dr. Mike was a Saiyan, his Ki attacks would be silly and ridiculous like Gotenks.
Dr. Mike - I see your point regarding champion physiques being built by training methods antithetical to HIT, but respectfully, on the surface, that sounds like an appeal to authority argument. That being said, personally, I'm on the fence and have seen gains using various training methods periodically over my lifetime. The one thing that I always go back to, is - what is the effect of these methods on the natural bodybuilde when PEDs are not a factor. A strong point made by HIT proponents is that the body (naturally) has a limited biochemical reserve from which muscle growth can be obtained. It stands to logic that the objective of bodybuilding should be to do NO MORE than what is required to stimulate growth and thus avoid overtraining. So my question to you would be how much is enough? When have you put the growth mechanisms into motion? One set...twenty sets? It has taken me 20 years to actualize that answer in my own body, and I can say that I am more HIT than volume oriented at this point. But, maybe I just like the time efficiency aspect of HIT, so my mind has created a placebo effect. Either way, is there any scientific proof of what we would call the growth stimulus (the point that we have stimulated the muscle enough to make it grow) and the dynamics of that? How much time under tension is required, does it require multiple attacks of timed tension to happen, and how much hrowth can be achieved once triggered? Again, I guess my question to you would be how much is enough? Thank you for reading this. Love your work.
Mentzer worked off of some basic physiological principles to create very interesting hypotheses. The idea that there’s a minimum stimulus required to create growth and that going beyond that may overtax the system and interfere with recovery is very interesting. There’s some sense to it, and it’s certainly worth exploring. The problem comes when you start treating your hypothesis as a conclusion without sufficient experimentation. The most attractive and reasonable hypotheses sometimes don’t survive rough contact with reality. There’s a certain occult attraction to Mentzer’s ideas as well. If there really is a golden standard for hypertrophy that’s hard to see and requires *less* time and volume than others are putting in, you’d have to feel pretty special if you knew about it, wouldn’t you? Again, though, he starts with an obvious truth (like diminishing returns for high volume) and then confects a hypothesis in the opposite direction that has no more scientific underpinning than the the idea he doesn’t like. A lot of the Mentzer ideas work well for me, but I’m not a bodybuilder. I’m integrating strength training with a whole lot of general performance stuff, and hypertrophy is incidental to that (though I do get strength and some mass out of my HIT-like stuff).
It is very convenient for most of the people to think that you can get a great natty body by doing one set and spending in the gym 45 mins three times a week...if only that was the case...
Mentzer DID NOT build is body via the methods he SOLD to the public (several years after he retired). He built his body the same way all bodybuilders of his era did. The first book he published after he retired was in 1982. It contains typical training advice and even included Olympic weight lifting exercises. But Mentzer knew he could not make a living from this. So he came up with HIT as a way to generate income for himself. He made a good living training people privately...and you can train more people in a day making them do HIT than he could with conventional training methods. But hey, don't let facts get in the way.
@@idx1941 Nothing you said has anything to do with what I posted, though. The original question dealt with the resurgent interest in Mentzer’s ideas. What did I say that you think you’re contradicting? And where did you come by the information that Mentzer developed a fake training system solely to bilk a few clients out of their hard-earned cash? Some of his trainees apparently did pretty well and still swear by his ideas. I think the body of scientific research calls them into doubt, at least in part. I have no problem accusing Mentzer of treating an hypothesis like a conclusion, but I don’t have any evidence of anything more sinister.
@@pablov1323 As I said, the general principles work for me, but I’m not going for outlandish hypertrophy. I just look like a strong, athletic old guy. But I’m also doing a lot of swimming, riding, and martial arts work. I have to assume that it’s not the greatest protocol for pure hypertrophy, simply because most people concerned with that are succeeding with other approaches.
Ever since I started training low volume, I've had good results, I'm out of the gym in ~ 30-45 minutes, which leaves me a lot of time to do other things that I love, and I don't walk around tired all day from all the volume that used to tax me so much systemically.
@@sirslime1687if you go to failure all the time every time you train that fries your nervous system way more than higher volume and not going to failure.
@@movestattoo4561Not true if you're training every 4-7 days or more. It leaves tons of time for recovery (and trust me , you'll need it, even if your workout is less than 30 minutes and 2 sets per muscle group).
The Mentzer resurgence is because its attractive in that one set to failure is 1) fast, no giant workouts and 2) fun as shit if you have the right mindset. Granted, he wasn't right and studies show that, but its not like it will NOT grow you, so people see results which means its not easily disprovable at the individual level. Ultimately anything that is the One True Secret that is also a shortcut will be popular.
I train using HIT principles, and it works beautifully within my overall fitness regimen. It’s helped me gain strength and some mass in my 50’s, but my focus is a balanced approach of strength, endurance, and mobility. If I were all about hypertrophy (especially at a competitive level), I have doubts that it would outperform conventional protocols.
That 1 set will beat your nervous system up more than your entire volume training. It isn't a shortcut if you do it properly. It's blood and guts for a reason.
Dr Mike, I love you. You are the first sixty-year-old who knows his anime. And watching you do the full lockout on the hack squat puts my teeth on edge.
Certain muscle fibers aren't activated/stimulated until you reach failure. There is a SLIGHT benefit between 2 rir and 1 rir, between 1 rir and 0 rir, and between 0 rir and failure. That's with individual sets. Yes, you CAN get "similar" results with 1 set to failure vs 3/4 sets no to failure, but 1 set to failure saves time and fatigue vs 4 sets say 1-2 rir especially if the last set is to failure. But like i said, why the extra time and fatigue for similar results? I personally do 1-2 sets to failure or beyond per exercise no more than 6 sets for a muscle in a workout. Works wonders
I think the Mike Mentzer and HIT resurgence is mostly because people appreciate his ability to articulate a more seemingly scientific approach to bro science back in the day. I myself tried low volume high intensity training and quickly realized that its implications are that after a phase of high volume training, the body may respond very well to reduced volume giving short term results, but after adapting to low volume, it ends up not being enough to stimulate growth for many body parts (shoulders, arms, chest, lats, quads, calves), which goes against the whole philosophy of one set to failure if more sets are required. Good concept but factoring in athleticism and how it changes depending on physical activity, you really can't just generalize one set to failure as the end all be all for any muscle group.
I personally just do 2 sets to failure instead of one on those specific body parts you've mentioned and it always ended up being enough for me. If it doesn't work for you then keep trying until you find what works for you! We are not the same and don't have to be so do what's good for you .
@@Matt_Alaric What is the point of this comment??? I get it, I'm wrong, but why? Where is your opinion and experience? Help me understand why you need to state the obvious that my comment is not evidence or science, but it was never stated as such either. I will wait for your condescending reply... Cancel Reply
Low volume made me strong and small. More sets and more frequency is what finally made my arms grow after years of power lifting. I do 1 compound and 1 isolation exercise twice a week. (Row + curls) and then (pulldown + curls). Similar routine for triceps. For forearms i do wrist curls 2x a week and reverse curls 1x a week. So 12 sets biceps, 12 sets triceps, 9 sets forearms a week. They are blowing up 😊
After a long time of being disappointed by myself for not being able to lift as heavy as I wished for and of course not seeing much results in the mirror I got down a little bit in weights and doing more reps and sets. I got stronger and yes I grew more. I prefer a quite easy workout with not so many different exercises. For example, Dumbbell deadlifts, bench presses on slightly incline shrugs, and for arms skull crushers and hammer curls. I do the heavy ones with a barbell one or two times a week
Wait. If you do wrist curls 2x and reverse curls, thats 3 sets in total. Where did the 9 sets for forearms come from? I would also like to see your program, as I find myself being strong and small also.
Same here. I did low volume, low-medium frequency for a while and while i did get really strong, hypertrophy was nonexistent until i took a little weight off and increased my volume and frequency. I feel sorry for all the naive beginners out there who will miss out on a lot of gains because they fell for the MM/HIT tropes. That being said, HIT and low frequency can absolutely yield results as well...particularly in people who are experienced lifters and already have a considerable amount of muscle mass 👍
As a beginner to the gym, observing from a distance, Mentzer has the whiff of intellectual superiority. It’s esoteric and simple with a healthy machismo when followed properly. It’s also a quick workout. I, following Dr. Mike’s advice, have not joined the Cult of Mentzer, but I see the appeal and it clearly can yield very positive results.
Mike Menzters approach appeals to 2 types of people: 1. Those who want to get in and out of the gym in under 45 mins, and not having to go 3,4 5 times a week (in short those short on free time) and 2. People who love to hammer their muscles into oblivion and not have to worry about having enough time to recover. That said, the mental fortitude needed to do that on so few sets takes a certain type of person. I tried it, it wasn't for me, RP app all the way and getting results on just 3 full body workouts per week
Mike Mentzer is great because training like that is more fun and simpler (no periodization). That makes people go to the gym more consistently (fun) and it works better because of that for most people. Also, it works better since most people can't do periodization correctly if they need to. Another reason it works better is it incurs less systemic fatigue and it takes less of your time. So yeah, if you're a pro then it's not optimal but for most people it's actually optimal.
You’re point about “systemic fatigue” is just wrong and your other point is just that people are lazy. You can train however you want and yes it’s true that the best program is the one that’s gonna keep you coming back to the gym but the need to justify it is kinda silly.
@@connorhall8463I would agree if people aren’t doing anything besides going to the gym. However, if you have a full time job, coupled with a social life and hobbies, is it really people being lazy?
@@icetray2727 No dude! You're lazy! you have to lift hours a day 5-6x's a week to look good, you also have to ignore all the natural systems your body has in place to tell you when it needs to rest and buy expensive pre-workouts to maintain energy level's as well as protein powder, because hey how are you going to have good meals with all that lifting you gotta do? Dude look at "X" bodybuilder! (This is sarcastic, please look into HIT training, it doesn't even need to be Mike Mentzer's routines, many other people have routines as well.)
I lift in a similar fashion, and your training advice is absolutely the best, most realistic and most ego removed advice I’ve heard. Applying just the free advice I’ve got from your channel has definitely helped, could you comment a bit more on cardio? I haven’t heard your opinion on cardio and how to implement that ideally
I also follow the Mike Mentzer philosophy, i lifted for a few years, wasnt as good as Arnold, threw a tantrum and quit, and now im looking to spin my failure into a profitable self help style scheme.
I’ve always liked Mike Mentzer, but Mike didn’t find out about HIT until his early 20’s via Casey aviator introducing him to Arthur Jones. If you look at pictures of Mentzer in his teens you can see he had most of his muscle mass (via conventional training) prior to finding the HIT/Heavy Duty methodology. As I say, always been a MM fan, so not hating, but a lot of HIT fans who quote Mentzer seem to assume he used the method to gain his mass, which he generally didn’t. He was already big by 18 years old.
The original routine he followed was quite high in volume. Even in his later years of bodybuilding, Franco caught him having long sessions at the gold's gym.
For H.I.T training.My personal experience follows like this,so i used to do moderate to high volume training and yes it was cool pumping non stop but my gains were really slow,sometimes it stopped completely.And i was lost in training,i had no inspiration to train because of the stop of my gains,i saw no change in muscle definition or growth.And when i wanted to give up training,Mike Mentzer became really popular so i decided to try out low volume/moderate volume high intensity training.With this change my gains came instantly,even faster and more than before.Before while it took me for example 4 weeks to increase weight,with this system im either increasing the weight or reps per week or training.My bench press pr was 70kg for a long time and 2 days ago i hit 100kg(225lbs) for 5 reps for 3 sets.I think that says enough about Mike Mentzers training system.
I started training one year ago. I workout at planet fitness using all machines and some dumbbells. I do Mike Mentzers workout routine you can find on UA-cam. I started doing upper lower 4 days out the week. Then moved to 2-3 days. Eventually I moved it to chest triceps then legs then back shoulder biceps. As you get stronger you need more rest. I also used to superset everything, now I just do one set of every exercise because recovery was taking longer. I was 150lbs last year and as of today I’m 178lbs. I’ve also gotten leaner so the majority of that has to have been muscle. Heavy Duty all the way! Looking at 190-195 hopefully in the next year!
That's what's called newbie gains, absolutely nothing to do with mike mentzer, As a newbie any stimulus will make you grow, but the more advanced you get you need more intensity , load & volume to stimulate growth. Your body only grows as a last resort when it has no other option
@@warrenchu5752 dorian didn't train anything ilike what mentzer advocated, His back day was 8 exercises in total & his leg days were 7 exercises, Apart from 1 top set they trained nothing alike
The Mentzer resurgence is part of a larger cultural zeitgeist of disbelief in the contemporary knowledge of academics, preferring to believe that singular individuals have the "real" answers. It's the same thing in many areas these days...
@@kpsiex If someone dedicates years of their life for a doctorate in a field, I believe their authority trumps mine in said field. That doesn't mean that I should blindly believe everything they say, but it does mean that their opinion probably holds more weight than mine.
Well, you could blame what is going on by the general abuse and conning occurring throughout all structures of society, not just academics, but it extends into politics as well. You do know we are living in a time where politicians have connections to a certain man who had a certain island and was convicted of SA against children, no? You also know that academics has found it okay to teach children that gender is something that is on a spectrum and allows men dressed as women to read children's stories to said children. This is supported by the same politicians who I was initially writing about, not to mention, they control a lot of those academic structures. So yeah, excuse us for being a little subjective of what we have to accept as fact.
I have my own theory on this ,people are noticing that corporations and marketers have influence over academia ,paying for results or over marketing for certain studies. Mike mentzer sums a lot of this ,because Arnold was a selling machine ,for you to train six times a week ,2 hours every day you gonna sell pré workouts ,pos work outs ,protein shakes ,gym memberships ,magazines of men health , supplements . With mentzer you don't need pre workouts to go 2 or 3 times a week in the gym ,only rest .you don't need pos work-out for recovery only rest . Little to no equipment, so just a home gym will do the job ( his best exercise for arms was dips). For people who want to lose weight he told them to just walk more . How you going to sell a high speed treadmill like this . Mentzer kept simple and cheap and this is just not good for business .
Switched from one set to failure to getting close to failure on 2-3 sets has changed my physique tremendously. With that being said, do what works for you. Mike Mentzer way might work for some but not all.
Huge advantage to walking instead of running, You can watch Renaissance Periodization while you do your steps! But on a serious note, it allows you to listen to something _other_ than music, if you want to study, research, or be entertained. Very under-rated.
I like Mentzer because his training methods align exceptionally well with my schedule of being a full-time employee, full-time student, and full-time father. With Mike Mentzer's HIT techniques, I can lift heavy every few days and still see results. I don't look like a bodybuilder, but it does wonders for my work/study/family life balance while simultaneously making me not fat in my 30s.
I strongly agree with losing fat through overall energy expenditure, whether that be through simply walking to do chores and such. Taking a few seconds less between sets is my go to plan. Great stuff
HIT works for some people better than others. I think the people who hate on it the most have invested an unhealthy portion of their identity with the gym. I used to be in there 5-6 days week for 1-2 hours per session. Did that for years. I didnt start growing (after noob gains) till I cut things back to 3 days a week. The best gains in my life were when i cut it even further down to 1-2 days a week. Go figure...
i think the mike mentzer training method has come more to light from tnf(you should react to tnf) due to tnfs highly science based training and personally i enjoy the fewer sets(1 set i believe just isnt enough) and higher intensity and ive seen quite good progress from when i started HIT. Id really love you to react to tnf since id like too see the agrees and disagreements. Love the channel doc
Yeah, at the end of the day it’s about finding what works for you in terms of volume vs intensity. If you keep your intensity really high for all sets you’ll need less volume, on the other hand if you raise your volume you’ll need a bit less intensity. Dr. Mike usually goes for higher volume I think due to stimulus to fatigue ratio, but personally I think you should do what helps you being more consistent. I enjoy high volume for arms or chest, but I hate doing squats, I can’t do more than 2 sets per day without wanting to delete myself and taking way more time than necessary because I’m dreading it. So instead I just push those 2 sets to the limit and then I’m done with it
Obviously some people overtrain. The increased recovery is good for them. Obviously some people undertrain. The increased intensity is good for them. May not be optimal, but it makes sense why a lot of folks get results.
I have a question: how you do not essentially go to failure if you’re trying to beat your reps from the week prior? Assuming that to beat those reps you need to push pretty hard
Oh good question - because if your workout is effective, you get stronger (and hopefully bigger) which will shift your failure point. This is why progressive overload is either adding more reps or adding more weight. If you get stronger you can do more reps without going to failure, but yes, ideally beat your prev reps and go to new failure or add more weight and go to new failure. Dont forget to eat right and allow enough time for recovery to get more gains :)
I originally bounced off of fitness as a whole, since the attitudes most people have towards it didn't really resonate with me. Like I follow Arnold on twitter, and it's great to see all the inspiration and encouragement he's dishing out, but that doesn't really do anything for me. Seeing Mentzer, on the other hand, really resonated with me, because he is a MASSIVE turbonerd. He was heavily into Objectivism, which would've gotten him shoved into lockers if he didn't have one of the best physiques of his era. Its fascinating to see how ahead of his time he was, and learning what he was wrong about and why he was wrong about it really helps that information stick. Furthermore, as someone who is not in good shape, it's very tempting to do way too much in the gym as some sort of penance or something, but his extremely low volume philosophy helps to disperse that anxiety that I haven't done enough that day. He's easily one of my favorite bodybuilders, but I don't hold up as some kinda god. Those mentzer videos that have been popping up are a good gateway to channels of people who know wtf they're on about, and I feel like they promote the mindset of actually following the science and taking a measured approach to the gym.
Honestly, I’ve only been doing Mentzer style training for about a month and every week I’m seeing results whether it’s going up in weight or getting a few more reps out, I do understand that one day the weekly pbs are going to slow down but compared to the PPL split I was doing before Mentzer’s training methods are working wonders for me and I’m reaching new heights that I could only dream of with how I was training before
I think the biggest thing about the HIT/Mike Mentzer resurgence is time spent vs gains; as opposed to time *passing* vs gains. If you only have a 2 hour window per week to work out, failure training is probably going to do better for you, because you'll actually be able to stimulate every muscle group in 2 hours to a decent level.. And it doesn't matter if recovery time is longer if you're not working out for another 7 days, anyway.
Is it possible that 1 set to failure is too little volume but Arnold’s volume is probably unnecessary? These seem to be the two extremes that dominate the convos
Yeah unfortunately we living in a world where people like to pick sides and don’t want to compromise on the probably rather better happy medium that actually is 99.99% of the times the right solution
If i feel well rested and at my best i will happily do one set to failure, if I'm tired/not 100 percent ill do a few, seems to work for me, so yea it's weird people want to go to one end or the other. Best to just listen to ya body and try things and find what works
As someone who's trained at both extremes of the spectrum, I can tell one set is enough volume for musclegrowth but not optimal. Example: 1 set of bench press per week, you keep adding one rep every week. You grow. If you're doing extreme amounts of volume like Arnold did, you're gonna want to cut down on intensity so you don't dig a hole you can't climb out of.
Mentzer’s HIT is a great place to start when you want to train for both strength and size. Especially for strength I found it to be insanely effective. I no longer do it, but HIT took me to another level even after years and years of training before.
I’d say what made Mike mentzer so great for his time, was his use and understanding of basic exercise physiology and science. He applied it with the facts that they had at the time and made it important to understand the physiology before starting a training program. Also just his overall charisma and straight to the point philosophy is what I think makes mentzer such a talked about guy. His understanding of exercise tempo was on point, but with his “1 set” scenario definitely not ideal.
What I like most about Mike Menzer's philosophy is making sure you pass the stimulus threshold when you reach failure. Maybe working with 2 RIR is enough, but how do you know how far you are from failure before you reach the failure? I have observed many people that in situations where they think they cant do more, they are actually able to do 4-5 more reps when they are really push.
After training like a regular bber of the time (high volume stuff) for 10 years, I bought Heavy Duty and trained that way for many years and was the most jacked I ever was. I was strong, too. But this was in my prime, even though I ate like crap. But I was bigger and stronger than everyone else I knew and had surprising performance gains. I was never really fast. When I was training HD, I was faster than my buddies who were more athletic and faster than me. It was kinda wild, but again, I was in my prime.
the reasoning behind the mike mentzer resurgence is he explained in very good detail the WHY's and the HOW's of why certain ways of exercising is wrong, and the HOW's and WHY's certain exercising is better. Not only that, he shows new methods to working out. easy curl bar for biceps? no, use the straight bar because XYZ. wanna do arm workouts? do dips because XYZ. when you explain it in a clear and concise way that is simple to understand, it makes sense.
Also with mentzers programs, it’s kind of like peaking in powerlifting. Intensity goes way up, volume goes way down, and your strength goes through the roof for a week or two, so people think they’re seeing real gains
I've been liking my adaptation of Mike Mentzer's training. If you're like me, very sore after every session, and beat up systemically, I suggest you try embracing the soreness while cutting down the volume. I'm still fairly new to the gym (leaving out all the breaks, around a year). When starting, I tried to do a semi-scientific approach - I did PPL, only one cycle in a week though, because of the lack of time and the fact that I'm getting really sore (even after months of consistent training with the same exercises I would get sore for like 3 days). I trained mostly close to failure and 6-12 sets per muscle group per week (except leg groups 3-4). I definitely saw progress, but that's to be expected as a beginner. This summer I had around 2 months off and after that I decided to try something new. Since I was getting too sore to manage training most of the muscle groups more than once a week before, I decided to work with soreness as a measure of the quality of training (which even Dr. Mike says is a good indicator) and increase it even more. My adaptation of Mentzer's training is: one cycle of PPL per week, 2-4 sets per muscle group per week (except leg groups are a single set), always going to failure and beyond (be it with myo-reps, cheated reps when safe, negatives and combinations between all three). Now (after about 2 or 3 months) I'm getting sore for 5-7 days and feeling both bigger and stronger than ever spending probably 2/3 of the time I spent training before, that includes my expanded warm-up and post-workout stretching I added in the new program. Some of my results are probably due to muscle memory, but there's definitely something there, for example, doing my deficit pushups before I was stuck at 6 or 7 (I can't remember) reps for, I think, over 2 months, push workout number 2 or 3 of the new program, I managed 8.
Just came across your channel recently. An old school bodybuilder/oly weightlifter from the 1940's was way ahead of the curve on this. He had some other very interesting philosophies regarding mass gains. His name was was Louis Abele, and he was a beast
Mike training with 72+ hours rest works really great. By doing really heavy barbell curl + BB, Incline BB literally gave me serious growth within a week.
If you're reading this Mike, your RP Hypertrophy app just tried to kill me. I didn't get sore in week 1 and told the app to do better next time--it took that shit personally. Today (day 1 of week 2) it cosplayed as the Iron Sheik and made me humble. DOMS incoming...
I could see that. The idea of an app trying to generate a workout without
Knowing what's going on in your body seems far fetched.
The app needs data, the longer you use it, the better it gets.
@@foxdogs1stthe best part is our brain has this thing called logic that you can use in tandem with the app!!
@@3h0wn3dm8 please keep in mind that the ability to reason logically is a rare gift not bestowed on everyone and even then people surprise you every day....not in a positive way
He didn't read it😔
I knew Dr. Mike was smart about exercising but my man is spitting straight FACTS about the DBZ characters. Impressive
Spittin facts, the only good Gohan is mystic Gohan. Once he dropped that potara his career was over😂
caught me off guard, had no idea dr mike was a FUCKIN NERD
Facts!? When he talks about gohan like that? Nah that’s foul af, it goes piccolo, vegeta, gohan… fym putting gohan at the bottom tf also kid gohan is 50% of gothenks aka coolest looking character of all time
He's a muscle nerd already @@tamas9402
Trunks >>> Gohan
Love Menzter for teaching the importance of warming up, keeping a journal, controlling the weight, making every set count and working the negative. It’s definitely brought my fitness game up.
warming up? 👎🏼. u should probably listen to more of de mikes videos
@@stensballe3683 Mike Menzter promoted warm up sets. Look up when he trained Marcus Reinhardt.
to me, warming up is light dynamic stretching to make sure nothing's messed up, then one set with as super-light weight to make sure my form is feeling right
That's what any good protocol should have though
It’s funny how dr Mike shits on mentzer and his 1 set to absolute failure protocol, but we still have DORIAN YATES WHO STILL CARRIES THIS PROTOCOL.
Dr Mike even said you can get the same effects from many sets as you can by going 1 set to failure.
So why do many sets over 1 set? If you’re achieving the same results, then surely less is more.
Mentzer is becoming more popular because people are realizing that, even though he wasn’t entirely correct with all his methods, he still had a lot of knowledge on things like nutrition and training during a time where that kind of information just wasn’t readily available or even known as much as we do now.
He’s finally getting the recognition he deserves.
RIP to the uncrowned king of 1980
And with all the methods there is out there, influencers saying hundreds of different things. He developed a great style of training that is certain and easy to build a routine around
In the era of peak bro science mentzer was the symbol of doing your own research
Mike won the sub 200lbs mr o in 79
he was basically an influencer
also a lot of people are fucking lazy and want to do less work
The whole segment on the Dragonball hero hierarchy was worth the watch.
what minute please?
I think bc Mike was an objectivist the dogmatism of his positions is almost sought after in an industry where you can hear 10 different perspectives and someone resolve the differences by saying “do what works for you”. To hear him speak with such certainty and in a very articulate matter is pretty unique to the realm of body building
You summed it up perfectly. Wow.
Mentzer was a scam artist just trying to make a buck off clients who did not want to work hard or often. He used high volume when building his physique.
Yea wasn’t he a big Ayn Rand fan?
bro is the articulator
Well said , wanna write this essay for me ?
The thing with Mike Mentzer is mustaches are back in style and he is the undisputed king
Lol 😅 love it !!
This is the only reason.
That is a glorious stache, Mike's, not Max's
As a natty at 22 years old, switching to more of a Mike Mentzer approach has shown me insane results at a much faster rate compared to anything I've tried in the past.
same one set to failure per exercise is all you need just get in and get out no longer living at the gym lol
That and giving myself way more time for my body to rest I feel way stronger.@@austin6996
@@austin6996 B*llocks
I will say as someone who has done both remember to switch to more volume for a couple months and then goibg back to mentzer style.
Also mentzer initial book showed 3 times a week semi full body style training.
I honestly have done 2 full body days mike mentzer style training for 6 months and i was made some gains but around the 3rd month it started to slow down.
So i switch to high volume after 6 months and my squat and deadlift blew up like crazy.
At 22 you can do more frequency than Mentzer program easily without overtraining. More volume was shown to yield better results than less volume in studies. But if you believe for you it’s opposite than keep at it.
This was the 1st of Dr. Mike’s critique videos that I’ve seen that was predominantly positive.
That´s beacuse Max knows his shit
RIP to the man, the myth, the legend, Akira Toriyama
RIP the goat
The appeal of Mike/Dorian's hit training for me is simply that I enjoy it. Training doesn't always have to be about the BEST method - it's about the method which gets you into the gym working hard. Personally, I mix HIT with dropsets and myoreps which I think inflates the volume significantly and it feels amazing. Compare my sessions of one working set to failure + myoreps/dropsets to the people who are grinding out 3-4 sets with rests in between - I'm out of there quicker to get on with my day. That's just my preference.
You’re completely right. There’s more than one route you can take to get to your destination. Everyone is so obsessed with proving their way is the best or shitting on another routine that they don’t tell the viewer about the fact that you can actually take numerous routes and it’s about what you enjoy getting in and doing the most
@@donrobbiedeathstare272 That's why the science is there, to objectively measure the differences in programming and Dr. Mike is an exercise scientist. That being said enjoyment is a major key. No point in what's hyper-optimal if you hate that shit.
As long as your training is progressive after 10 years youre going to reach your potential or close to it anyways. Volume can get you there faster but it also comes with more wear and tear on the bones, joints, tendons and ligaments.
Doesn’t myorep require you to do one set then rest, then do another set with pauses in between? That’s not really mentzer style training anymore. You’re hitting failure at last 2 or 3 times instead of just once for that exercise.
Not saying it’s a good or bad way to train, just saying it doesn’t support the argument that mentzor style training is good because it’s not actually mentzer style training
@@jlol933 I go to failure, wait 10 seconds and then go again - I don’t have a spot so this is how I go past failure, along with dropsets. Pretty sure myoreps as Dr Mike describes them are where you take very short breaks to get more reps
The reason I watch you is because you make me laugh while learning makes learning fun.
Nah fr been laughing nonstop at his comments 😭😭 cool guy
Same
I’m in binge watching mode as a sport student, golden stuff
Same
No, the main reason is you loving the toxic content
I get the point about cardio not being as important for fat loss, but what if you want like a healthy heart? Or to extend your life?
This. Also, high rep lifting can be amazing cardio. So why not at LEAST have a few high rep days in your rotation to double up?
this is my main reason for getting some jogging in
I run anywhere from 2-10 miles a week and I will say my veins have gotten a lot bigger and are all more visible with zero pump. The last time I went to the doctor, they took my heart rate and they looked at me almost surprised and said "do you work out a lot?" So I think even just a little bit of running is really good, real runners would laugh at how much I run
If body building is your profession, then running isn't great, but most of us should not train like a body builder.
@@JasonTheOneAndOnlyjogging is for women (actually joking)
Because of my work and disability, I can go to gym only once per week. So I am exercising kind of like Mike Mentzer. I am doing rest-pauses, to failure then 15 breaths of break and to failure again, until I can't do no more reps. But I am only doing it with separation exercises. For the ones with compound movement, I am doing normal rep ranges and amount of sets. I am also going slow on positive and negative movement, with a bit of pause on contraction. I just started to train with this method, after a long break from gym, so I hope that it will work
How’s it going for you?
“No head on my hair”😂
Saw this as he said it 😂 made me chuckle too
Physician here..always appreciate a good Dr Oz dig
non physician here. I completely agree
If you're reading this Doc I recently applied your tips during my chest workout and I had amazing results like never before. You're the real deal. Thanks
What are the tips?
@@heibaimaoslow on the way down, really retract your shoulder blades and bring your chest up as you drop down on a chest or a fly. I do it on Seated cable flys and you feel like your pecs are gonna rip off its great lol
@heibaimao Slow controlled eccentric with focus on maximising the weighted stretch plus a slight pause at the bottom. This will cost you to lower the weight but Quality reps are king
How many sets do u guys do for chest a week?
@@heibaimao I do 3 sets press, 3 sets flys, do higher reps less weight on flys twice ish a week
The editing recently has been great, not too over the top, very smooth and well done. Keep it up
Nice try undercover Scott the video guy
Dude, I’ve never paid for any extra content on UA-cam videos but damn… you tempt me. You’re good…
…Too good.
Loving the banter between the team! Keep it up!
Shoutout Scott the camera guy for always powering through 👍🏻
I was looking for a comment in support of Scott the camera guy. I am here for him too, the best camera angles in the fitness industry and he put up with Dr Mike kinks to boot.
I think the whole Mike Mentzer resurgence thing is mostly just an aesthetics thing. Mike competed in an era of bodybuilding that we now know was chock full of bro science and misinformation (literally watch any video of Arnold explaining his training, it’s actually comical how much volume he did), but in his training days he spoke in a way that sounds very reasonable and scientific, which I think gives him some ethos when combined with the whole underdog appeal. It helps that he was sort of kinda getting at what we know now about aiming for higher intensity and lower-ish volume on lifts. He definitely took it way too far tough, that’s for sure.
Yeah that’s I think as well, we started to realize that it really was about effective reps and not so much just do a crap of volume. The amount of volume is going is going to vary a little depending on if your gonna bulking or cutting phase but 1 set to failure isn’t enough and going 15+ sets or more per week for a muscle group is also not as effective
I think part of it is the illusion that you can go in, do your stuff quickly, get out, and tell yourself you are smarter than the guys working for a much longer period of time.
@Mantastic-ho3vm yeah they knew nothing like we know now lol cbum doesn’t even train with that much volume as Arnold
@Mantastic-ho3vm oh yeah no doubt. before he went off the deep end he had a great method , Yates took it and improved it but to him and Arthur jones were wildly off , isn’t true as well. They provided us with a great foundation, we just know that 1 set to failure is enough
@@Mark-oq9fl this. Everyone who has little to no experience lifting at all (or have "20+ years of high volume with no results" allegedly) watches a couple of Mike Mentzer videos and suddenly they think they know everything. Not only that, but they speak with such conviction and yet are so ignorant. Dunning Kruger effect I believe its called??
I wasn't even aware of Mentzer, until another channel advocated his training methods. Now it seems like everyone is talking about Mentzer. The internet is funny like that. But I decided to try HIT, just to see what's up. And I quickly realized how laid-back my normal training was. That helped put things in perspective.
0:12 Terrible video. Albert Einstein was dripped out and you should care about what he says about fashion. Do better…
Lies! Einstein actually was very careless about fashion, he would show up to formal events with casual clothes and unkempt hair and he thought it was a silly thing to care about
@@aidanhaskell5556 casualmaxxing
Okay actually interesting story Albert Einstein hated his sandals and wrote the company who made it a letter along with a design for a wide toe box sandle and shoe so that way his toes could spread out the man was ahead of the game when it came to footwear.
@@aidanhaskell5556I have a counterpoint. Nu uh
Mike mentzer is regaining popularity because it answers what the public wants to hear. The answer to growing is simple, doesnt take much time, and is just a mental challenge to get to failure.
That being said, it can be legitimately effective, and the guy endorsing it looked incredible
Real deal HD mentzer training is hard AF. The public doesn’t realize what it really is
Kudos to scott for editing in his disrespect, mike’s patience, and that final straw moment. Publicly shaming himself is a classy way to admit his mistake and atone
I don't understand what Scott even did wrong. Mike got really serious for no reason.
@@hiddenleafshinobi2608dw lol they were both just joking with each other, it’s a common thing on the channel.
@@drewpy14 Yeh nah, that didn't look like a joke and neither of them played it off like it was one.
@@Matt_Alaricthat was fs a joke 😭
@@twizdestroyer1772 Yeh nah, you just suck at reading people.
I've not seen anything about Mike Mentzer in ages and suddenly he's mentioned under every fitness video.
It's kind of like fashion trends from decades prior. Every new generation rediscovers him and gets their mind blown until they try it out for a while and realize that they're not making any more progress. And then they continue to learn like we all did. I got on the Mike mentzer train about 20 years ago and had the same Journey that kids today are having with him.
@@kpsiex Bro you did not gain 44.8 lbs of muscle in 6 months and only 6 pounds of fat. If you did make a video or post your transformation
@@kpsiex Lets be real here, you're just another Methzer cultist that never touched the weight in life and making shit up to defend your idol. When this trend ends, you will also disappear.
@@kpsiexYou put on 44.8lbs of muscle in how long? What is the proper mindset/technique you claim to have? What exact program did you follow?
@@Gargarks same reason kids have mullets and mustaches now
Mike Mentzer is great because his style of training gives people more progress rather than spamming PPL 6 times a week with RPE style boring training and constant tired and no time to recover inbetween workouts.
Not to mention no life and all gym life aspects of 6 day lift week. I do three a week and I’m done why more I want freedom and free time.
max taylors style is just a modernization of mike mentzer. The only flaws that can be found with mentzer are due to knowledge that came about after his death. He took us in a different direction, away from feel and 7 days a week 20 sets of arms a day to systemic, scientific growth. Beautiful
Thanks for the content. This channel is the best
Dr. Mike - Your content is incredible. Your humor opens the door to a whole host of knowledge concerning health and fitness. I started a casual gym-goer watching your videos for a laugh, and I enter 2024 with the Hypertrophy app downloaded, technique dialed in, and feeling better than ever. Thank you Dr. Mike - you rock!
I bought Mentzer's "Heavy Duty" about 25 years ago. 80% Ayn Rand, a little bit about training. His nutrition advice was the "4 food groups" poster I had on my classroom wall in the 60s.
And just like Ayn Rand. Teenage boys love it. But as we become adults we should grow out of it. Daily reminder Ayn Rand died penniless and alone, sucking up Medicare.
@@KevinJDildonikayn rand was a very mediocre philosopher that said nothing that Aristotle and John Locke handnt said before. Years behind her time in terms of where academic philosophy was. But of course, since she supported American ideology the public ate her up
@@KevinJDildonik Truuu
@@kpsiexlmao
The DBZ tier list was perfection.
Came for the workout critique, stayed for the DB breakdown!
I was a big fan of Max not very long ago because of his personality, but as I started consuming more fitness content I came to be weary of his affinity for Mike Mentzer's extremely low-volume training philosophy and I haven't watched him very much in a while. I was expecting this video to be a lot more critical of Max, but I was pleasantly surprised when I heard him emphasizing the stretch. Great video, I might find myself watching more Max content now, thank you very much
So enjoyable when Dr. Mike finds a young fitness influencer who actually knows what they are doing and telling people 🔥
Good video, very objective.
For me, training for muscle failure 3 times a week with a full body workout and about 2-3 sets per muscle works very well. But because I just don't have time to train more at the moment. I think if you have a lot of time, and I used to have that, then more volume and less intensity works. People simply have to adapt to the life situation. Many roads lead to Rome.
Thanks for the good explanation as always!
I think that’s what works best for me. Since I also train mma as well. I can’t lift 6 times a week and train mma.
I train all the time low weight high volume it works good for me
Damn I just noticed RP got almost 1Mln subscribers! Wow it's been so long!
1.8mil in just 5 months after your comment.. this channel is rightfully blowing up in popularity 🎉
October 2024 2.8 mil
Dragonball Z tier list is the content I'm subscribed for
Absolutely pro list.
Only missing Gotenks who is both the most underutilized character and has the most unique creative techniques.
If Dr. Mike was a Saiyan, his Ki attacks would be silly and ridiculous like Gotenks.
@@nickf.6027 Gohan is a little bitch and should be cut from dragon ball. He's easily the worst character in the series.
Dr. Mike - I see your point regarding champion physiques being built by training methods antithetical to HIT, but respectfully, on the surface, that sounds like an appeal to authority argument. That being said, personally, I'm on the fence and have seen gains using various training methods periodically over my lifetime. The one thing that I always go back to, is - what is the effect of these methods on the natural bodybuilde when PEDs are not a factor. A strong point made by HIT proponents is that the body (naturally) has a limited biochemical reserve from which muscle growth can be obtained. It stands to logic that the objective of bodybuilding should be to do NO MORE than what is required to stimulate growth and thus avoid overtraining. So my question to you would be how much is enough? When have you put the growth mechanisms into motion? One set...twenty sets? It has taken me 20 years to actualize that answer in my own body, and I can say that I am more HIT than volume oriented at this point. But, maybe I just like the time efficiency aspect of HIT, so my mind has created a placebo effect. Either way, is there any scientific proof of what we would call the growth stimulus (the point that we have stimulated the muscle enough to make it grow) and the dynamics of that? How much time under tension is required, does it require multiple attacks of timed tension to happen, and how much hrowth can be achieved once triggered? Again, I guess my question to you would be how much is enough? Thank you for reading this. Love your work.
Mentzer worked off of some basic physiological principles to create very interesting hypotheses. The idea that there’s a minimum stimulus required to create growth and that going beyond that may overtax the system and interfere with recovery is very interesting. There’s some sense to it, and it’s certainly worth exploring.
The problem comes when you start treating your hypothesis as a conclusion without sufficient experimentation. The most attractive and reasonable hypotheses sometimes don’t survive rough contact with reality.
There’s a certain occult attraction to Mentzer’s ideas as well. If there really is a golden standard for hypertrophy that’s hard to see and requires *less* time and volume than others are putting in, you’d have to feel pretty special if you knew about it, wouldn’t you? Again, though, he starts with an obvious truth (like diminishing returns for high volume) and then confects a hypothesis in the opposite direction that has no more scientific underpinning than the the idea he doesn’t like.
A lot of the Mentzer ideas work well for me, but I’m not a bodybuilder. I’m integrating strength training with a whole lot of general performance stuff, and hypertrophy is incidental to that (though I do get strength and some mass out of my HIT-like stuff).
@@kpsiex No, that was me, just now. But anyone who understands scientific method is capable of saying roughly the same thing.
It is very convenient for most of the people to think that you can get a great natty body by doing one set and spending in the gym 45 mins three times a week...if only that was the case...
Mentzer DID NOT build is body via the methods he SOLD to the public (several years after he retired). He built his body the same way all bodybuilders of his era did. The first book he published after he retired was in 1982. It contains typical training advice and even included Olympic weight lifting exercises. But Mentzer knew he could not make a living from this. So he came up with HIT as a way to generate income for himself. He made a good living training people privately...and you can train more people in a day making them do HIT than he could with conventional training methods. But hey, don't let facts get in the way.
@@idx1941 Nothing you said has anything to do with what I posted, though. The original question dealt with the resurgent interest in Mentzer’s ideas. What did I say that you think you’re contradicting? And where did you come by the information that Mentzer developed a fake training system solely to bilk a few clients out of their hard-earned cash? Some of his trainees apparently did pretty well and still swear by his ideas. I think the body of scientific research calls them into doubt, at least in part. I have no problem accusing Mentzer of treating an hypothesis like a conclusion, but I don’t have any evidence of anything more sinister.
@@pablov1323 As I said, the general principles work for me, but I’m not going for outlandish hypertrophy. I just look like a strong, athletic old guy. But I’m also doing a lot of swimming, riding, and martial arts work. I have to assume that it’s not the greatest protocol for pure hypertrophy, simply because most people concerned with that are succeeding with other approaches.
Ever since I started training low volume, I've had good results, I'm out of the gym in ~ 30-45 minutes, which leaves me a lot of time to do other things that I love, and I don't walk around tired all day from all the volume that used to tax me so much systemically.
Any good programs you recommend?
Also it’s more forgiving on your nervous system
Its great to do cycles of high intensity training. But you want to cycle back to high volume too.
@@sirslime1687if you go to failure all the time every time you train that fries your nervous system way more than higher volume and not going to failure.
@@movestattoo4561Not true if you're training every 4-7 days or more. It leaves tons of time for recovery (and trust me , you'll need it, even if your workout is less than 30 minutes and 2 sets per muscle group).
The Mentzer resurgence is because its attractive in that one set to failure is 1) fast, no giant workouts and 2) fun as shit if you have the right mindset. Granted, he wasn't right and studies show that, but its not like it will NOT grow you, so people see results which means its not easily disprovable at the individual level. Ultimately anything that is the One True Secret that is also a shortcut will be popular.
I train using HIT principles, and it works beautifully within my overall fitness regimen. It’s helped me gain strength and some mass in my 50’s, but my focus is a balanced approach of strength, endurance, and mobility. If I were all about hypertrophy (especially at a competitive level), I have doubts that it would outperform conventional protocols.
That 1 set will beat your nervous system up more than your entire volume training.
It isn't a shortcut if you do it properly. It's blood and guts for a reason.
Dr Mike, I love you. You are the first sixty-year-old who knows his anime. And watching you do the full lockout on the hack squat puts my teeth on edge.
Certain muscle fibers aren't activated/stimulated until you reach failure. There is a SLIGHT benefit between 2 rir and 1 rir, between 1 rir and 0 rir, and between 0 rir and failure. That's with individual sets. Yes, you CAN get "similar" results with 1 set to failure vs 3/4 sets no to failure, but 1 set to failure saves time and fatigue vs 4 sets say 1-2 rir especially if the last set is to failure. But like i said, why the extra time and fatigue for similar results? I personally do 1-2 sets to failure or beyond per exercise no more than 6 sets for a muscle in a workout. Works wonders
Goku was all about pushing yourself and going past your limits but also he understood the importance of recovery, Goku is the man and very inspiring
Loved recovery so much he tossed Cell a senzu bean so he could recover too.
I think the Mike Mentzer and HIT resurgence is mostly because people appreciate his ability to articulate a more seemingly scientific approach to bro science back in the day. I myself tried low volume high intensity training and quickly realized that its implications are that after a phase of high volume training, the body may respond very well to reduced volume giving short term results, but after adapting to low volume, it ends up not being enough to stimulate growth for many body parts (shoulders, arms, chest, lats, quads, calves), which goes against the whole philosophy of one set to failure if more sets are required. Good concept but factoring in athleticism and how it changes depending on physical activity, you really can't just generalize one set to failure as the end all be all for any muscle group.
Talking about bro science… very ironic
What does this mean?@@sebbiesydenham3077
I personally just do 2 sets to failure instead of one on those specific body parts you've mentioned and it always ended up being enough for me. If it doesn't work for you then keep trying until you find what works for you! We are not the same and don't have to be so do what's good for you .
Yeh your anecdote isn't evidence or science, it's essentially exactly the same bro science you're complaining about.
@@Matt_Alaric What is the point of this comment??? I get it, I'm wrong, but why? Where is your opinion and experience?
Help me understand why you need to state the obvious that my comment is not evidence or science, but it was never stated as such either.
I will wait for your condescending reply...
Cancel
Reply
Low volume made me strong and small. More sets and more frequency is what finally made my arms grow after years of power lifting. I do 1 compound and 1 isolation exercise twice a week. (Row + curls) and then (pulldown + curls). Similar routine for triceps. For forearms i do wrist curls 2x a week and reverse curls 1x a week.
So 12 sets biceps, 12 sets triceps, 9 sets forearms a week. They are blowing up 😊
After a long time of being disappointed by myself for not being able to lift as heavy as I wished for and of course not seeing much results in the mirror I got down a little bit in weights and doing more reps and sets. I got stronger and yes I grew more. I prefer a quite easy workout with not so many different exercises. For example, Dumbbell deadlifts, bench presses on slightly incline shrugs, and for arms skull crushers and hammer curls. I do the heavy ones with a barbell one or two times a week
Wait. If you do wrist curls 2x and reverse curls, thats 3 sets in total. Where did the 9 sets for forearms come from? I would also like to see your program, as I find myself being strong and small also.
@IS-vy2yh I'm assuming each time he says he does an exercise it's a classic 3 sets of 12 or 12,10,8 or whatever
Because you can't train with proper intensity. Frequency and volume suits weaklings like yourself better indeed.
Same here. I did low volume, low-medium frequency for a while and while i did get really strong, hypertrophy was nonexistent until i took a little weight off and increased my volume and frequency. I feel sorry for all the naive beginners out there who will miss out on a lot of gains because they fell for the MM/HIT tropes.
That being said, HIT and low frequency can absolutely yield results as well...particularly in people who are experienced lifters and already have a considerable amount of muscle mass 👍
21:57 - that's 92.34%. I didn't know Dr. Mike was giving A's...
As a beginner to the gym, observing from a distance, Mentzer has the whiff of intellectual superiority. It’s esoteric and simple with a healthy machismo when followed properly. It’s also a quick workout. I, following Dr. Mike’s advice, have not joined the Cult of Mentzer, but I see the appeal and it clearly can yield very positive results.
I want Dr.Mike to push me all the way to failure 👉🏻👈🏻
Mike Menzters approach appeals to 2 types of people:
1. Those who want to get in and out of the gym in under 45 mins, and not having to go 3,4 5 times a week (in short those short on free time)
and
2. People who love to hammer their muscles into oblivion and not have to worry about having enough time to recover. That said, the mental fortitude needed to do that on so few sets takes a certain type of person.
I tried it, it wasn't for me, RP app all the way and getting results on just 3 full body workouts per week
Mike Mentzer is great because training like that is more fun and simpler (no periodization). That makes people go to the gym more consistently (fun) and it works better because of that for most people. Also, it works better since most people can't do periodization correctly if they need to. Another reason it works better is it incurs less systemic fatigue and it takes less of your time. So yeah, if you're a pro then it's not optimal but for most people it's actually optimal.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂❤😂❤❤❤ww❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😂❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
You’re point about “systemic fatigue” is just wrong and your other point is just that people are lazy. You can train however you want and yes it’s true that the best program is the one that’s gonna keep you coming back to the gym but the need to justify it is kinda silly.
Where does the need to deload come from if not systemic fatigue? @@connorhall8463
@@connorhall8463I would agree if people aren’t doing anything besides going to the gym. However, if you have a full time job, coupled with a social life and hobbies, is it really people being lazy?
@@icetray2727 No dude! You're lazy! you have to lift hours a day 5-6x's a week to look good, you also have to ignore all the natural systems your body has in place to tell you when it needs to rest and buy expensive pre-workouts to maintain energy level's as well as protein powder, because hey how are you going to have good meals with all that lifting you gotta do? Dude look at "X" bodybuilder! (This is sarcastic, please look into HIT training, it doesn't even need to be Mike Mentzer's routines, many other people have routines as well.)
I like Max Taylor, he has the whole “older school” type of vibe going. He managed to motivate me and some other people I know to get in the gym.
I lift in a similar fashion, and your training advice is absolutely the best, most realistic and most ego removed advice I’ve heard. Applying just the free advice I’ve got from your channel has definitely helped, could you comment a bit more on cardio? I haven’t heard your opinion on cardio and how to implement that ideally
I also follow the Mike Mentzer philosophy, i lifted for a few years, wasnt as good as Arnold, threw a tantrum and quit, and now im looking to spin my failure into a profitable self help style scheme.
Hopefully one day you will have sex with a woman too
That one tape where he breaks down what having a philosophy is and leaving the fate of your soul up to chance really opened up my way of thinking
Do you have a link or any way I could find it?
@@vaszhtas8126 mike mentzer philosophy who needs it
I’ve always liked Mike Mentzer, but Mike didn’t find out about HIT until his early 20’s via Casey aviator introducing him to Arthur Jones. If you look at pictures of Mentzer in his teens you can see he had most of his muscle mass (via conventional training) prior to finding the HIT/Heavy Duty methodology. As I say, always been a MM fan, so not hating, but a lot of HIT fans who quote Mentzer seem to assume he used the method to gain his mass, which he generally didn’t. He was already big by 18 years old.
He never used those methods to train, he just sold that bullshit to other people
The original routine he followed was quite high in volume. Even in his later years of bodybuilding, Franco caught him having long sessions at the gold's gym.
Casey Aviator looool
For H.I.T training.My personal experience follows like this,so i used to do moderate to high volume training and yes it was cool pumping non stop but my gains were really slow,sometimes it stopped completely.And i was lost in training,i had no inspiration to train because of the stop of my gains,i saw no change in muscle definition or growth.And when i wanted to give up training,Mike Mentzer became really popular so i decided to try out low volume/moderate volume high intensity training.With this change my gains came instantly,even faster and more than before.Before while it took me for example 4 weeks to increase weight,with this system im either increasing the weight or reps per week or training.My bench press pr was 70kg for a long time and 2 days ago i hit 100kg(225lbs) for 5 reps for 3 sets.I think that says enough about Mike Mentzers training system.
20:21 Mike be a little nice with Scott the video guy😢
I started training one year ago. I workout at planet fitness using all machines and some dumbbells. I do Mike Mentzers workout routine you can find on UA-cam. I started doing upper lower 4 days out the week. Then moved to 2-3 days. Eventually I moved it to chest triceps then legs then back shoulder biceps. As you get stronger you need more rest. I also used to superset everything, now I just do one set of every exercise because recovery was taking longer. I was 150lbs last year and as of today I’m 178lbs. I’ve also gotten leaner so the majority of that has to have been muscle. Heavy Duty all the way! Looking at 190-195 hopefully in the next year!
That's what's called newbie gains, absolutely nothing to do with mike mentzer,
As a newbie any stimulus will make you grow, but the more advanced you get you need more intensity , load & volume to stimulate growth.
Your body only grows as a last resort when it has no other option
Now do Dorian Yates. Guess he isn't advanced? Hahahaha
horrible, better stay home. useless
@@warrenchu5752 dorian didn't train anything ilike what mentzer advocated,
His back day was 8 exercises in total & his leg days were 7 exercises,
Apart from 1 top set they trained nothing alike
Source "trust me bro"
As a client of Dorian, I can outright exclaim that you are full of sh*t
The Mentzer resurgence is part of a larger cultural zeitgeist of disbelief in the contemporary knowledge of academics, preferring to believe that singular individuals have the "real" answers.
It's the same thing in many areas these days...
Very insightful point
@@kpsiex If someone dedicates years of their life for a doctorate in a field, I believe their authority trumps mine in said field. That doesn't mean that I should blindly believe everything they say, but it does mean that their opinion probably holds more weight than mine.
Well, you could blame what is going on by the general abuse and conning occurring throughout all structures of society, not just academics, but it extends into politics as well. You do know we are living in a time where politicians have connections to a certain man who had a certain island and was convicted of SA against children, no? You also know that academics has found it okay to teach children that gender is something that is on a spectrum and allows men dressed as women to read children's stories to said children. This is supported by the same politicians who I was initially writing about, not to mention, they control a lot of those academic structures.
So yeah, excuse us for being a little subjective of what we have to accept as fact.
@@blakeslide6919 well said my goat
I have my own theory on this ,people are noticing that corporations and marketers have influence over academia ,paying for results or over marketing for certain studies.
Mike mentzer sums a lot of this ,because Arnold was a selling machine ,for you to train six times a week ,2 hours every day you gonna sell pré workouts ,pos work outs ,protein shakes ,gym memberships ,magazines of men health , supplements .
With mentzer you don't need pre workouts to go 2 or 3 times a week in the gym ,only rest .you don't need pos work-out for recovery only rest .
Little to no equipment, so just a home gym will do the job ( his best exercise for arms was dips).
For people who want to lose weight he told them to just walk more .
How you going to sell a high speed treadmill like this .
Mentzer kept simple and cheap and this is just not good for business .
Switched from one set to failure to getting close to failure on 2-3 sets has changed my physique tremendously. With that being said, do what works for you. Mike Mentzer way might work for some but not all.
exactly, idk why everyone wants to pick a side so badly
Was the exact opposite for me.
The (~09:00) DBZ character ranking was the highlight of the video.
Dr. Mike knows his shit
Huge advantage to walking instead of running, You can watch Renaissance Periodization while you do your steps!
But on a serious note, it allows you to listen to something _other_ than music, if you want to study, research, or be entertained. Very under-rated.
Max is the real deal. In for a future collab between Max and the Doc
1:24 "No head on my hair" 💀💀💀 🤣
I would love to see you guys to a training session with Max.
I like Mentzer because his training methods align exceptionally well with my schedule of being a full-time employee, full-time student, and full-time father. With Mike Mentzer's HIT techniques, I can lift heavy every few days and still see results. I don't look like a bodybuilder, but it does wonders for my work/study/family life balance while simultaneously making me not fat in my 30s.
I strongly agree with losing fat through overall energy expenditure, whether that be through simply walking to do chores and such. Taking a few seconds less between sets is my go to plan. Great stuff
Love to see Dana White trying new things
BOOM SUBSCRIBED - i love this guy, please keep the brilliant content coming :D
HIT works for some people better than others. I think the people who hate on it the most have invested an unhealthy portion of their identity with the gym. I used to be in there 5-6 days week for 1-2 hours per session. Did that for years. I didnt start growing (after noob gains) till I cut things back to 3 days a week. The best gains in my life were when i cut it even further down to 1-2 days a week. Go figure...
9:00-10:00 speaking my language Mike! Vegeta is the man.
1:58 going back and forth between the pic and your description was like you were finishing a puzzle in my head that I was stuck on
i think the mike mentzer training method has come more to light from tnf(you should react to tnf) due to tnfs highly science based training and personally i enjoy the fewer sets(1 set i believe just isnt enough) and higher intensity and ive seen quite good progress from when i started HIT. Id really love you to react to tnf since id like too see the agrees and disagreements. Love the channel doc
Yeah, at the end of the day it’s about finding what works for you in terms of volume vs intensity. If you keep your intensity really high for all sets you’ll need less volume, on the other hand if you raise your volume you’ll need a bit less intensity. Dr. Mike usually goes for higher volume I think due to stimulus to fatigue ratio, but personally I think you should do what helps you being more consistent. I enjoy high volume for arms or chest, but I hate doing squats, I can’t do more than 2 sets per day without wanting to delete myself and taking way more time than necessary because I’m dreading it. So instead I just push those 2 sets to the limit and then I’m done with it
Obviously some people overtrain. The increased recovery is good for them.
Obviously some people undertrain. The increased intensity is good for them.
May not be optimal, but it makes sense why a lot of folks get results.
I have a question: how you do not essentially go to failure if you’re trying to beat your reps from the week prior? Assuming that to beat those reps you need to push pretty hard
Oh good question - because if your workout is effective, you get stronger (and hopefully bigger) which will shift your failure point. This is why progressive overload is either adding more reps or adding more weight. If you get stronger you can do more reps without going to failure, but yes, ideally beat your prev reps and go to new failure or add more weight and go to new failure. Dont forget to eat right and allow enough time for recovery to get more gains :)
I have the same thoughts. (Commenting so I could get a notif when someone answers lol.)
This information was more informative then the video.@@TheGhostofAdam
@@foxdogs1stthis info is in other RP videos
I originally bounced off of fitness as a whole, since the attitudes most people have towards it didn't really resonate with me. Like I follow Arnold on twitter, and it's great to see all the inspiration and encouragement he's dishing out, but that doesn't really do anything for me. Seeing Mentzer, on the other hand, really resonated with me, because he is a MASSIVE turbonerd. He was heavily into Objectivism, which would've gotten him shoved into lockers if he didn't have one of the best physiques of his era. Its fascinating to see how ahead of his time he was, and learning what he was wrong about and why he was wrong about it really helps that information stick. Furthermore, as someone who is not in good shape, it's very tempting to do way too much in the gym as some sort of penance or something, but his extremely low volume philosophy helps to disperse that anxiety that I haven't done enough that day. He's easily one of my favorite bodybuilders, but I don't hold up as some kinda god. Those mentzer videos that have been popping up are a good gateway to channels of people who know wtf they're on about, and I feel like they promote the mindset of actually following the science and taking a measured approach to the gym.
Honestly, I’ve only been doing Mentzer style training for about a month and every week I’m seeing results whether it’s going up in weight or getting a few more reps out, I do understand that one day the weekly pbs are going to slow down but compared to the PPL split I was doing before Mentzer’s training methods are working wonders for me and I’m reaching new heights that I could only dream of with how I was training before
Thank you for the input, mr. Wolfman
1:26 "no head on my hair"
I fast forward to get passed the ad read and was so confused why he was talking about dbz the next second😂😂😂 9:25
Mentzer is back because it works for natural athletes who can't go to the gym daily and also need more rest.
Can you do a Video about Mark ripptoe and starting strength?
I think its the Most recommended starting Point and i Started with it too.
Watching your triceps flex when you get passionate about bad info is funny. LUV IT!!!
I think the biggest thing about the HIT/Mike Mentzer resurgence is time spent vs gains; as opposed to time *passing* vs gains.
If you only have a 2 hour window per week to work out, failure training is probably going to do better for you, because you'll actually be able to stimulate every muscle group in 2 hours to a decent level.. And it doesn't matter if recovery time is longer if you're not working out for another 7 days, anyway.
Is it possible that 1 set to failure is too little volume but Arnold’s volume is probably unnecessary? These seem to be the two extremes that dominate the convos
Yeah unfortunately we living in a world where people like to pick sides and don’t want to compromise on the probably rather better happy medium that actually is 99.99% of the times the right solution
If i feel well rested and at my best i will happily do one set to failure, if I'm tired/not 100 percent ill do a few, seems to work for me, so yea it's weird people want to go to one end or the other. Best to just listen to ya body and try things and find what works
As someone who's trained at both extremes of the spectrum, I can tell one set is enough volume for musclegrowth but not optimal.
Example: 1 set of bench press per week, you keep adding one rep every week. You grow.
If you're doing extreme amounts of volume like Arnold did, you're gonna want to cut down on intensity so you don't dig a hole you can't climb out of.
I think Arnold's classic death by volume program was specific Olympia prep that lasted like 8-12 weeks or something and he'd do it once a year
So when is the RP shop gonna start selling the 100% authentic Dr. Mike fur sweaters?
Mentzer’s HIT is a great place to start when you want to train for both strength and size. Especially for strength I found it to be insanely effective. I no longer do it, but HIT took me to another level even after years and years of training before.
I’d say what made Mike mentzer so great for his time, was his use and understanding of basic exercise physiology and science. He applied it with the facts that they had at the time and made it important to understand the physiology before starting a training program. Also just his overall charisma and straight to the point philosophy is what I think makes mentzer such a talked about guy.
His understanding of exercise tempo was on point, but with his “1 set” scenario definitely not ideal.
What I like most about Mike Menzer's philosophy is making sure you pass the stimulus threshold when you reach failure. Maybe working with 2 RIR is enough, but how do you know how far you are from failure before you reach the failure?
I have observed many people that in situations where they think they cant do more, they are actually able to do 4-5 more reps when they are really push.
After training like a regular bber of the time (high volume stuff) for 10 years, I bought Heavy Duty and trained that way for many years and was the most jacked I ever was. I was strong, too. But this was in my prime, even though I ate like crap. But I was bigger and stronger than everyone else I knew and had surprising performance gains. I was never really fast. When I was training HD, I was faster than my buddies who were more athletic and faster than me. It was kinda wild, but again, I was in my prime.
Bro you killed me witn the uncut segment pitch with you fighting the camera man 😂 I love the content
the reasoning behind the mike mentzer resurgence is he explained in very good detail the WHY's and the HOW's of why certain ways of exercising is wrong, and the HOW's and WHY's certain exercising is better. Not only that, he shows new methods to working out. easy curl bar for biceps? no, use the straight bar because XYZ. wanna do arm workouts? do dips because XYZ. when you explain it in a clear and concise way that is simple to understand, it makes sense.
Also with mentzers programs, it’s kind of like peaking in powerlifting. Intensity goes way up, volume goes way down, and your strength goes through the roof for a week or two, so people think they’re seeing real gains
2:21 bro looks like waluigi
Literally said that and I saw your comment pop up lmao
I've been liking my adaptation of Mike Mentzer's training.
If you're like me, very sore after every session, and beat up systemically, I suggest you try embracing the soreness while cutting down the volume.
I'm still fairly new to the gym (leaving out all the breaks, around a year). When starting, I tried to do a semi-scientific approach - I did PPL, only one cycle in a week though, because of the lack of time and the fact that I'm getting really sore (even after months of consistent training with the same exercises I would get sore for like 3 days). I trained mostly close to failure and 6-12 sets per muscle group per week (except leg groups 3-4). I definitely saw progress, but that's to be expected as a beginner.
This summer I had around 2 months off and after that I decided to try something new. Since I was getting too sore to manage training most of the muscle groups more than once a week before, I decided to work with soreness as a measure of the quality of training (which even Dr. Mike says is a good indicator) and increase it even more. My adaptation of Mentzer's training is: one cycle of PPL per week, 2-4 sets per muscle group per week (except leg groups are a single set), always going to failure and beyond (be it with myo-reps, cheated reps when safe, negatives and combinations between all three). Now (after about 2 or 3 months) I'm getting sore for 5-7 days and feeling both bigger and stronger than ever spending probably 2/3 of the time I spent training before, that includes my expanded warm-up and post-workout stretching I added in the new program. Some of my results are probably due to muscle memory, but there's definitely something there, for example, doing my deficit pushups before I was stuck at 6 or 7 (I can't remember) reps for, I think, over 2 months, push workout number 2 or 3 of the new program, I managed 8.
mike, bro, doctor. you are not grotesque, you’re a very handsome guy with a fantastic voice.
Just came across your channel recently. An old school bodybuilder/oly weightlifter from the 1940's was way ahead of the curve on this. He had some other very interesting philosophies regarding mass gains. His name was was Louis Abele, and he was a beast
Mike training with 72+ hours rest works really great. By doing really heavy barbell curl + BB, Incline BB literally gave me serious growth within a week.