High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

"I have trained for years improvising,following routines from most well known bodybuilding magazines and off suggestions from people at gyms.Making some gains in strength but little in how my physique looked, as a result of training without any true insight to what I was actually doing.I am a type of person who can overtrain too easily and it was refreshing to study Mikes` HIT book.I have never been so enthusiastic about my approach to training.These past few months I have made more gains in strength and shape of my body by following the principles outlined in this book than ever before.I have improved so much physically and mentally that my wife and those around me have seen the difference.
If you are after answers,then get a copy of this book and open your world to a true alternative way of training.I can honestly say that this HIT book is something special from the great one himself.
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~ Written on 2008-06-17

"Fantastic book, cant fault it at all. Mike was a very clever man make no mistake. I have wasted many hours volume training with very little to show for it but as soon as i used the principles outlined in this book i have been gaining regularly and continuing still. Ask any hard gainer what its like trying to build muscle and they will tell you its a nightmare, usually because they have been given the wrong advice. But with the advice in this book you will gain no matter how bad your genetics are for bodybuilding as long as follow the guidelines. The book is clear, well explained and above all makes sense. Another great book is-The wisdom of mike mentzer. I will add that this training is very uncomfortable! and can take alot of psyching up before starting your workout but the results are more than worth it. Give it a go you wont be dissapointed. thanks mike."
~ Written on 2008-06-09

"Wow, this book has certainly opened my eyes to the new science of bodybuilding. At first I literally saw the principles of bodybuilding, like the old explorers who thought the world was flat and you'd be burned at the stake if you said otherwise, now this new approach which has completely amazed me, has been so well explained by the science behind it how we have been duped for so long with the old idea of 2-6 hours in the gym. After just one week of applying the principles i've so much time the dog has to take me a walk! and when i looked at my biceps i could have sworn they belonged to someone else, two weeks later my shoulders have made me chuck out a lot of my old t shirts and move up a size! I've never seen such quick results nor would have ever believed it possible. Well, mike will explain why!"
~ Written on 2007-09-01

"After having trained the traditional 3 sets per exercise, 3 times a week for the whole body, and finding it too much, I had come to the same conclusion that Mike Mentzer has in his books, that HIT was the answer, after reading this book and his other 'The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer' they all made such perfect sense, I felt I had found the holy grail of bodybuilding, but reading about something and actually doing it are two different things.

Following HIT for 7 months, I got stronger in every exercise every single workout without fail, even if it was only an extra rep. I was able to go to failure on every single exercise, every single workout. 45KG dumbells felt as if they were made of paper. I even had a one month lay off when I went on holiday and when I came back, to my amazement I was even stronger, so much for the view that you have to train every other day, and if you have too long away from the gym you start to lose it. But the fact is, HIT training builds tendons and strength, not so much muscle size, I didn't get much bigger at all, and I should have because I was still in my first year of weight training. With traditional training I'd already got my calves up to 17 inches in just 5 months but with HIT I actually lost 3/4 of an inch on my calfs during the period of hit training. I trained about once every 5 or 6 days and split the full body routine into two, and was able to train to failure as I said, then when I felt the last rep coming I'd do partials and then when I could no longer do partials i'd hold the weight statically. This is a heck of a lot of intensity and I never once got overtrained, but despite training with such intensity muscle gain progress was very poor. The fact that I could go to failure and then add partials and statics is a clue in itself, one set of an exercise isn't enough to break down the muscle fibres, and its breaking down the muscle fibres that causes muscle size, all I was doing was making my tendons stronger and doing enough to keep the size I'd built with traditional training methods.

I think in bodybuilding the only truth is your own truth, you have to find your own way through personal experience, as there is no other topic with such contradictory information. Since finishing with HIT, I went back to 3 sets of an exercise, but with a difference, the difference now is I've learnt how to structure a routine to suit my recuperative abilities.

Mentzer also built his body with the traditional sets routines that all the others use, so trying to build a huge physique with HIT is a tall order, now for a natural like Mentzer maybe it can work for him, guys like him build muscle whatever they do, although in truth all it did and all I suspect it would do is just sustain the muscle he already had, like it did for me, but for 99.9% of people HIT will not build any significant muscle, it's there in black and white in every bodybuilding book, low reps for strength, higher reps for muscle, and one set even of 10 reps is low, explains how even with using more weight how my calfs shrunk on one set of 30 reps when calfs traditionally need loads of reps ie 4x 30 = 120 reps.

I would never recommend HIT training to anyone now, but I do agree with many of the principles Mentzer advocates, that you should have longer rest periods between workouts, if you need more time than that to recover then take it, and having smaller workouts at a time is also good advice. I've proved to myself what works and how, it's all about breaking those muscle fibres down but making your workouts fit what your body tells you, not some book.

There's an interesting book on High Intensity Training by Ellington Darden, entitled 'The New High Intensity Training', in which he talks about the time Arnold visited Arthur Jones to try HIT training and basically wimped out, he just couldn't train that hard and went outside to be sick, Darden made out that Arnie traditionally trained for set after set with weights that were easy for him to lift until the last set, well that's actually the key to massive size, break the muscle fibres down with sets before the last set to failure. My parting word is, read this book if you wish, it has some good advice in places and even try HIT training if you really want to, but don't say I didn't warn you, should you find you aren't growing in size then you'll have your answer, I feel every bodybuilder has to train themselves and find what works for them, and what suits their own constitution, once you do that, you'll have the success you are looking for."
~ Written on 2007-07-09

"what a great insight into the man and some great advise for training backed up well with solid science and logic, Since reading this i have trained according to some of the methods in this book and have made some amazing gains. I have also applied this to my clients and their gains have also gone through the roof. Never again be duped into illogical and irrational training regimen."
~ Written on 2006-11-29