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For instance, rather than train Monday and Tuesday on a split routine, working half the body on Monday and the other half on Tuesday, I would do the first half of the body on Monday, skip Tuesday to recuperate and then train on Wednesday, rest on Thursday and repeat the cycle again, starting on Friday. That was the most result-producing routine that I ever used.” I asked Mike why he thought that such a split routine was more productive than the three-days-per-week whole-body program that had carried him through to victory in the Mr. America contest. Mike and I talked about a great many subjects during that trip, but first and foremost on my mind was finding out what Mike Mentzer’s most productive training routine had been. I knew that he’d been all over the board in terms of sets and reps throughout his early career, starting out with a whole-body workout performed three days per week, on which he gained no less than 70 pounds over three years, bringing his bodyweight up from 95 pounds at age 12 to 165 pounds at 15. From there Mike moved on to the routines advocated in the various muscle magazines that espoused 20-sets-per-bodypart training, even at one time extending that to 40 sets per bodypart. That brought his bodyweight up again, but only slightly. Yes, I used this type of routine throughout my professional bodybuilding career, but the greatest gains I got from it was when, rather than following it on the usual four-out-of-seven-day schedule, I began spacing it so I trained every other day on a split routine. Mike Mentzer was born on November 15, 1951, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and was of German descent. In grammar school and Ephrata High School, he received "all A's." He credits his 12th grade teacher, Elizabeth Schaub, for his "love of language, thought, and writing." In 1975, he started attending the University of Maryland as a pre-med student where his hours away from the gym were spent in the study of "genetics, physical chemistry, and organic chemistry." After three years of study at the University of Maryland he dropped out. He said his ultimate goal during that period was to become a psychiatrist. [6] [9] Bodybuilding career [ edit ] Amateur [ edit ]
I asked him if he thought that the problem might have been more effectively remedied by simply taking protracted recovery periods in between workouts. In his last interview before his death, Mentzer said he was delighted to get so many phone clients and close personal bodybuilding friends, such as Markus Reinhardt, who had been influenced by him to become Objectivists. He described Objectivism as the best philosophy ever devised. He also criticized the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, which he described as an "evil philosophy," because according to him Kant set out to destroy man's mind by undercutting his confidence in reason. He also criticized the teaching of Kantianism in schools and universities and said it's very difficult for an Objectivist philosopher with a PhD to get a job in any of the universities. [19] Final years and death [ edit ] He said something to denigrate Samir Bannout that I thought was uncalled for. I passed on that, feeling Samir should have defended himself. As the debate progressed, there was a lot of arguing between Arnold and some of the guys. I wasn’t really concerned one way or the other – I thought I could win anyway. Then Boyer Coe stood up and, as the gentleman he is, said, ‘Why don’t we let Arnold explain to us right here and now his exact reasons for wanting to have two weight classes?’ Mentzer stated in the last interview before his death that he did not believe in God "as He is commonly defined", but that "There is what's called a rational view of a creator. As I said, there cannot be a God as He is commonly defined. God is infinite, God is everywhere, God created the universe - that's an interesting one. There's no such thing as creating the universe or causing the universe to come into existence, as the universe is the ground of all causation! If there was a God, He would have to consist of some material substance and He'd have to live somewhere. Therefore, existence always existed, even in the context you just gave. If, as you said, it was proven somehow beyond a shadow of a doubt there was a rational creator and a life hereafter, yes, I would grab at the chance to be with my mother and father again." [18] Objectivism [ edit ] Carrying a set to a point where you are forced to utilize 100 percent of your momentary ability is the single most important factor in increasing size and strength.”– Mike Mentzer Quotes 5. “Man, is an indivisible entity, an integrated unit of mind and body.”– Mike Mentzer Quotes
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While in school, Mentzer's father motivated his academic performance by providing him with various kinds of inducements, from a baseball glove to hard cash. Years later, Mike said that his father "unwittingly ... was inculcating in me an appreciation of capitalism." [6] It is the body that produces growth but only if left undisturbed during a sufficient rest period.”– Mike Mentzer Quotes 7. “Man’s proper stature is not one of mediocrity, failure, frustration, or defeat, but one of achievement, strength, and nobility. In short, man can and ought to be a hero.”– Mike Mentzer Quotes 8. “It is only within the context of having properly developed your mind that you will be able to truly enjoy the achievement of your material values, including that of a more muscular body.”– Mike Mentzer Quotes 9. “One cannot actualize his goals until he visualizes them clearly in the minds eye.” Mike Mentzer Quotes For more than ten years, Mentzer's Heavy Duty program involved 7–9 sets per workout on a three-day-per-week schedule. [13] With the advent of "modern bodybuilding" (where bodybuilders became more massive than ever before) by the early 1990s, he ultimately modified that routine until there were fewer working sets and more days of rest. His first breakthrough became known as the 'Ideal (Principled) Routine', which was a fantastic step in minimal training. Outlined in High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way, fewer than five working sets were performed each session, and rest was emphasized, calling for 4–7 days of recovery before the next workout. [14] He pushed sets beyond failure with such techniques as forced reps, negative reps, and rest-pause. [17] According to Mentzer, biologists and physiologists since the nineteenth century have known that hypertrophy is directly related to intensity, not duration, of effort (Mentzer 2003;39). Most bodybuilding and weightlifting authorities do not take into account the severe nature of the stress imposed by heavy, strenuous resistance exercise carried to the point of positive muscular failure. [13] I wasn’t interested so much in his theories (they were not as advanced as they would become from 1993 on, when he reduced the sets to one on a split routine that saw his clients training but once every four to seven days) as I was in learning what he actually did; i.e., how he’d trained to build the incredible muscle mass that he was known for and what he’d personally found to be the most productive muscle-building routine of his entire career. Mike was seated at his desk, and I was directly across from him on a sofa in the living room when I first asked him about it. Mike smiled, knowing that it was the question all aspiring bodybuilders wanted the answer to and, indeed, the very question he himself had posed to his idols, like the great Bill Pearl, when he was starting out in bodybuilding.
According to David M. Sears, a friend of Mentzer and an editor and publisher of his Muscles in Minutes book, he stated that: [6] There were maybe 50 people at the competitors meeting and, as usual, Arnold wanted to be the center of attention. In every situation, he tries to be the standout, and on this occasion, he was the only athlete of the 16 in the contest who wanted to keep the two weight classes. Arnold duly showed up at the competitors meeting held prior to the contest cognizant of the fact that the 15 original entrants had previously signed a petition asking that the two weight classes be abolished and that the Olympia should henceforth be contested as one open class. The radical approach was criticized at first, but later on, open-minded people started using the method, and the results in muscle growth were incredible. Mike’s obsession was not to be defined or strong; Mike aimed to gain as much muscle as genetically possible. He was one of the most controversial bodybuilders at the time and a creator of an incredible physique. Mike Mentzer changed the course of history and professional bodybuilding. 10 Inspirational Mike Mentzer Quotes: 1. “Any exercise carried on beyond the least amount required to stimulate an optimal increase is not merely a waste of effort, it is actually highly counterproductive.”– Mike Mentzer Quotes High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way was Mentzer's final work. In it, he detailed the principles of high intensity weight training. Weight training, he insisted, had to be brief, infrequent, and intense, to attain the best results in the shortest amount of time. Heavy Duty II also espouses critical thinking. In this book, Mentzer shows why people need to use their reasoning ability to live happy, mature, adult lives, and he shows readers how to go about doing so. Bodybuilding was endorsed as only one potential component of an individual's existence, encouraging many other worthwhile pursuits throughout his books. [14] Diet and nutrition [ edit ]
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Mentzer retired from competitive bodybuilding after the 1980 Mr. Olympia at the age of 29. He maintained that the contest results were predetermined in favor of Schwarzenegger, and held this opinion throughout his life. While Mentzer never claimed he should have won, he maintained that Schwarzenegger should not have. Nevertheless, the two eventually had an amicable relationship. [11] [6] Legacy [ edit ] The 1980 Mr. Olympia contest staged in Sydney, Australia, remains by far the most controversial in the event’s history. The contention centered on the participation of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had announced his retirement from competition in 1975 after winning six consecutive Mr. Olympia titles. Seemingly only in Sydney to do commentary for CBS TV, Arnold stunned the bodybuilding world by, on the morning of the contest, declaring that he was returning to competition in pursuit of a seventh title. This set off a chain of events that culminated in Mike Mentzer and Arnold seemingly set to resort to fisticuffs as illustrated by the attached photo which has become somewhat iconic. I was seated 20 feet away from Arnold, who was standing holding court, and I perhaps allowed that comment to irritate me too much, as on impulse, I bolted toward him. As I approached him, I decided I wouldn’t hit him, but nevertheless I was surprised when Arnold sat down as I continued to berate him. Wagging my finger at him, I told him, ‘Look, Arnold, Boyer Coe said what he did as a gentleman – he didn’t deserve that response. You’re the one who’s acting like a baby, literally! Arnold couldn’t look me in the eye.” In 1986 I was living in Canada and searching for answers concerning the “ultimate truth” of bodybuilding, and I set out to interview those who, in my estimation, had tried to decipher this Rosetta stone themselves. I interviewed Lou Ferrigno, John Grimek, Paul Anderson, Doug Hepburn, Frank Zane, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, Lee Labrada, Steve Reeves and both Mike and Ray Mentzer, among others. It was during a trip to California to interview Steve Reeves, in fact, that Mike invited me to stay with him as his guest at his apartment in Hollywood. I readily accepted, for I knew that it would afford me an opportunity to talk not only bodybuilding but philosophy, a passion that Mike and I shared for more than two decades.
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