Paul Becker - My Mike Mentzer Training Experience

[webmaster]

Paul Becker is back with a superb article and interview of the great Mike Mentzer! Find out what Mike has to say about his training and his life!

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/becker22.htm

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Hey man, we may not know each other but we do have one very common interest: High Intensity. Without a doubt, its the greatest training method developed and Mike Mentzer truly is the greatest bodybuilder. I have been training on and off 3 days a week Heavy Duty style for the past year and my strength has grown incredibly. I feel everyone's eyes on me as I load up a cambered bar with 40 kgs (for warm up) and then another 10 kgs for my main set of curls. I have the typical ectomorph physique but I've managed to gain a considerable amount of muscle mass over the amount of time I've been training (I currently weigh 92 kgs). I put strength before size, therefore Heavy Duty is the best method for me.
I'm only 21 so I am far from done in weight training. I plan on being the strongest guy in the gym so I'll continue taking the poundage to the next level.
Anyway, thanks for reading this and wish me luck in my training.

I knew Mike personally back in 76 when he worked at this old doctor's office in Olney, MD. Mike would sell treatments with his EMS machine for $15 bucks a whack. I didn't think much of his 1 set principle back then. Now I do. Probably cause I'm older and have less energy. I don't even do warmup sets. I have custom made equipment in my basement that fits like a tailored suit. Everything is preloaded with weights. I'm lucky if I do 10 minutes of actual resistance exercise a week. My exercise equipment and machine tools are all co-located in three rooms in my basement. The welders and dirty stuff like grinders are in the garage. So basically it's do a set, and then do some machining on whatever my next equipment project is. So I like Mikes 1 set to failure. Eventually I want to get it to 1 Rep to failure. Every month or so I'll add some more weight to each machine. The machine I'm working on now uses no weight. It's an improvement on the old Gravity Edge/NordicTrac UltraLift. But it does only one of the features of that machine. Those machines had the correct idea, but by putting all the various machines into a do-it-all configuration with cables going everywhere it turned into a real 'sponge'. So here's to you Mike, wherever you are. You were an animal even back then. It might have taken 40 years, but you eventually made a believer out of me.

[reflexions]

In not just my opinion, mike mentzer was the greatest bodybuilder that ever lived.

when i used volume approach to building size, i was constantly halted by one thing or another, in a year i gained about 7lbs of LBM. when i started HEAVY DUTY i was shocked into how much size & strength iv gained, a total of 70lbs in just under 2 years beleive it or not (i dont care anyway).

When i trained with volume, i thought just about building mass, now with heavy duty, i have the best of both worlds, my current deadlift is 450lbs for 6 reps, thats a 230lbs (& that was my 1 rep max) increase than when i followed arnies approach!

all i can say to people who disagree with heavy duty is, before you come ranting your mouth, get evidance to back yourself up rather than something you read out of magazines, heavy duty is totally based on science! to those who are wondering, i train for 10minutes performing 2 sets, every 7 days!

"The principle that I am advocating, the one that makes it possible for the bodybuilder to actualize his potential in a very short time, is that neither "more is better" nor "less is better," but "precise is best."
--- Mike Mentzer


p.s. web master, is it possiable for you to try & get john little onto the bb.com forums? im sure theres members including myself, wanting some profesional advice on heavy duty, & then perhaps instead of some namby pamby members, constantly trying to put mike mentzers theorys down, actually have a taste of their own medican!

Originally Posted by reflexions

In not just my opinion, mike mentzer was the greatest bodybuilder that ever lived.

when i used volume approach to building size, i was constantly halted by one thing or another, in a year i gained about 7lbs of LBM. when i started HEAVY DUTY i was shocked into how much size & strength iv gained, a total of 70lbs in just under 2 years beleive it or not (i dont care anyway).

When i trained with volume, i thought just about building mass, now with heavy duty, i have the best of both worlds, my current deadlift is 450lbs for 6 reps, thats a 230lbs (& that was my 1 rep max) increase than when i followed arnies approach!

all i can say to people who disagree with heavy duty is, before you come ranting your mouth, get evidance to back yourself up rather than something you read out of magazines, heavy duty is totally based on science! to those who are wondering, i train for 10minutes performing 2 sets, every 7 days!

"The principle that I am advocating, the one that makes it possible for the bodybuilder to actualize his potential in a very short time, is that neither "more is better" nor "less is better," but "precise is best."
--- Mike Mentzer


p.s. web master, is it possiable for you to try & get john little onto the bb.com forums? im sure theres members including myself, wanting some profesional advice on heavy duty, & then perhaps instead of some namby pamby members, constantly trying to put mike mentzers theorys down, actually have a taste of their own medican!

Relax sonny. You're just a kid. Why don't you just do a search and look for information on a Doctor John Bosley Zeigler. Read some of the info on him and you might get some kind of insight into Mentzers thinking. Mentzer didn't just pop onto the scene one day preloaded with those Heavy Duty ideas. You sound like you're at that 'know it all' age.

Originally Posted by Billy Bob

Relax sonny. You're just a kid. Why don't you just do a search and look for information on a Doctor John Zeigler. Read some of the info on him and you might get some kind of insight into Mentzers thinking. Mentzer didn't just pop onto the scene one day preloaded with those Heavy Duty ideas. You sound like you're at that 'know it all' age.

What a sound argument Billy Bob. I shall refrain from using any personal attacks myself. Reflexions' age has no bearing on his statements. Your attempt to intimidate him does not go unnoticed here. Although this is the first time I have heard of him, I did a search and found one article pertaining to Doctor John Zeigler. From what I can gather he is the Father of Isometrics. The article I found was not complimentary and pointed out his connections to the Anabolic Dianabol and the US Olympic lifting team. However, I don't have enough information to form an opinion on him at this time. I will only say that if you have read any of Mentzer's books you know the development of his Heavy Duty theory. His ideas came from the fundamentals of productive strength training he learned from Arthur Jones. I don't know what if anything Jones learned from Dr. Zeigler. The only common link I see is muscular contraction, hardly a concept discovered by Dr. Zeigler.

[verbatim9]

In the program it says for the leg workout 1 set of leg extensions followed by leg press - this is the pre exhaustion technique to concentrate on the quadriceps muscles. But what about hamstrings, wouldn't be better to do a set of leg curls also? Because hamstrings won't get hit the same as quads.

[andyukguy]

Originally Posted by verbatim9

In the program it says for the leg workout 1 set of leg extensions followed by leg press - this is the pre exhaustion technique to concentrate on the quadriceps muscles. But what about hamstrings, wouldn't be better to do a set of leg curls also? Because hamstrings won't get hit the same as quads.

Do Romanian Deadlifts if you want to hit hamstrings.