THE 1-SET LIE: How Mentzer Actually Trained

Comments · 547

• MI

  @MikeBuillder · 4 days ago · pinned

  THE 1-SET WORKOUT BLUEPRINT (Exact exercises, rest intervals, and failure techniques Mentzer used in 1979–1980):<br>👇 Claim It 100% FREE Here (First 50 Lifters Only):<br><a href="https://vakkat.gumroad.com/l/mentzer-blueprint/FIRST50">https://vakkat.gumroad.com/l/mentzer-blueprint/FIRST50</a><br><br>🎁 (100% Free discount is auto-applied at checkout — all I ask is an honest rating if it helps your training!)<br><br>Drop your current split below — are you training High Volume or Heavy Duty?

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• MI

  @mikeloweryconsulting · 3 days ago

  Mike was my trainer at golds Venice in the early 90s for six months. I saw him in an advertising and Flex magazine. I was living in San Francisco at the time and two weekends out of each month. I fly down and train with him for two days. I didn’t know much about bodybuilding and I didn’t even know much about him at the time, but he showed me what going to failure meant, and taught me the basic lifts. I’m more grateful for that experience now than I ever knew I would be.

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• FU

  @futrMan-007 · 7 days ago

  I replied to someone else&apos;s comment but feel the need to be TOTALLY honest with people here. I trained the way Mentzer recommends after reading all of his books about 20 years ago. I already had a great physique but had been on an extended layoff and wanted to see how my body would respond to using this very brief and infrequent approach to training. My workouts ranged from 7-15 minutes in duration. I honestly do not believe that a new trainee is able to generate enough intensity in the gym to make meaningful progress training this way. I remember reading other people&apos;s accounts who had paid him to train them. They were bodybuilders (non-competitive) and wanted to see if it worked. People would say, &quot;if Mike is there with you, you can train that way. But once you are on your own you are not able to &apos;dig deep enough&apos; to get as many reps with the same weight you used when Mike was there supervising the workout in person.&quot; Having read all of Mike&apos;s books I can tell you that he advises beginners to begin training the old fashioned way, with volume, in order to teach the muscles how to handle and control the weight. The body will not give an all out effort if it doesn&apos;t feel safe. The body will protect/defend itself from injury. Anyway, I guess the easiest way to put this is that I believe you have to train using volume for MANY months before even CONSIDERING this approach. My results were good but I was already a VERY advanced lifter with a VERY good build developed naturally over 20 years of training.

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• SY

  @synitarthrax5618 · 7 days ago

  Back in the 80&apos;s I think, I bought Mike&apos;s Original Heavy Duty book when it first hit the market and it was much different than the routine he was eventually famous for. I trained for years with this book as a reference and it worked fantastic. It was a 4 day split ... Push,/Pull on Mon/Tuesday, Wed off and repeat for Thurs/Fri. Sat/Sun off. Squats were done on Push Day since the squat is a push exercise. The entire premise was the liberal use of Pre-Exhaustion. As an example, for Chest you would do a set of Incline Flyes followed by an Incline Bench press. What most people never seem to get is according to Mike, you only had 7 seconds or less to hits those Presses. Any more time than that and the muscle recovers up to 50% of it ability which makes the entire Pre-Exhaustion concept moot. The idea was by fatiguing the Pecs with Flyes, when you wen&apos;t to the Press your Front Delts and Triceps were temporarily stronger than your Pecs pushing the Pecs past failure. Letting the pecs recover too much made them the prime movers again if more than 7 seconds passed. <br><br>A study in using Pre-Exhaustion showed the second compound movement didn&apos;t provide greater activation for a particular muscle group because the smaller surrounding muscles took the brunt of it. Thus, Pre-Exhaustion was considered to be useless. The study and data seem valid but the researchers came to the wrong conclusion. In the Chest scenario, the Pecs were supposed to be weaker and the supporting muscles were also supposed to be stronger. This is what pushed the Pecs beyond failure. The data may be reliable but the researchers missed the point. <br><br>Biceps were done using Curls and Reverse Grip Pull downs. Back was Nautilus Pullover Machine or Reg Pullovers and Rows. The Posterior Chain was Hamstring Curls and RDL&apos;s. &nbsp;Pecs with Flyes and Incline Press. Delt&apos;s with Laterals and BN Presses. French Curls with Bench Dips for Tris and Leg Extensions with Squats for Quads. &nbsp;However, unlike his later routines, you would do these Pre-Exhaustion super-sets twice. That&apos;s 4 sets for Chest per workout and 8 sets over the week. This is still considered low volume but not to the extreme his later revisions would incorporate. <br><br><br>I think Mike was right about a lot of things but the argument between High Intensity vs Volume always was a showdown of extremes. I think Mike&apos;s original routine was the best since it combined High Intensity with Volume but not to the extreme either way. I know it changed my body and did it rather quickly at that. Just something to think about I guess.

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• RE

  @redmeth07 · 6 days ago

  I train 3 days a week with weights. I try push it weight strength goes up and down. All relative to your lifestyle. And what you put into your body, that’s pharmaceuticals? Food, calories, supplements. Sleep. <br><br>I’ve trained high volume low volume. I’m a type of hybrid nowadays. I have average genetics not from a sporty background at all. Been training 20 years. Went from 135lbs to 238lbs currently and biggest 260lbs. Your body chemistry, biology can be enhanced engineered accordingly, you just have to dedicate yourself. Finding what works for you. <br><br>You just have to be real. Not everyone is gonna lift 6 plate 4 plate squats. Bench presses. Strength size always goes up and down. Only true advice I would give is focus on mobility.

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• WA

  @warrenbrenner4972 · 5 days ago

  The loud music is unacceptable and I&apos;m gone.

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• МИ

  @Миша-к4ь7ъ · 7 days ago

  Громкая музыка мешает воспринимать информацию, лучше совсем без музыки

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• DE

  @delanoarts3703 · 7 days ago (edited)

  Absolutely true I wasn&apos;t having much noticeable growth until I start doing 2 big sets to fail the first is get to get to fail 2nd is just to make sure hit fail muscle growth is 💯 and fail and recovery you follow that simple rules at least 2 times a week you will grow me i do every other day sometimes it takes 2 days to recover that&apos;s the other thing make sure your fully recovered before going back and you will grow way more then volume aas long as your hitting true fail

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• SA

  @saighdiuiranaithnid9719 · 5 days ago

  I didn’t realize there were so many ways to spell Mentzer!

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• DA

  @DARTH-KTULU · 7 days ago

  Slowing down the rep speed simply makes it so you cannot use as much weight. You should explode on the concentric, drive the weight up as fast as possible under control, and lower the weight controlling the momentum. The bar will slow naturally as you approach failure. That last clean rep where the bar slowed down is the one rep before you fail. Try to grind through the next rep. Then when that rep fails, try to push out 2-3 bottom end partials. The cadence method only limits your strength progression. <br><br>I’d also argue that pre-exhausting a muscle limits how much stronger you can get, and that it makes more sense to, for example, bench press first, then go to a cable fly, so that you can take the chest to failure on bench, and then squeeze out more reps on a fly. <br><br>I do 2 sets after my warmup.<br>The first set is to 5 on bench. This informs me on if the weight goes up on the bar. This primes me for the next set. The next set I take to absolute failure. If I get more than 5 reps, this again tells me that weight needs to be added to the bar next week. If I fail before 5 reps, then I stay at the current weight until I get 5 or more.

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• MA

  @markhagan3653 · 14 hours ago

  I trained volume for several years and saw few gains. This year, at age 56, to reduce the chance of injury through volume and try something different, I tried training the way Mentzer explains and I&apos;ve seen more gains, more strength, less fatigue and ache or injury. I&apos;m in and out the gym in 15-20 but I work as hard as I can. Don&apos;t be afraid to try it.

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• MI

  @MikeBuillder · 8 days ago (edited)

  THE 1-SET WORKOUT BLUEPRINT (Exact exercises, rest intervals, and failure techniques Mentzer used in 1979–1980):<br>👇 Claim It 100% FREE Here (First 50 Lifters Only):<br><a href="https://vakkat.gumroad.com/l/mentzer-blueprint/FIRST50">https://vakkat.gumroad.com/l/mentzer-blueprint/FIRST50</a><br><br>🎁 (100% Free discount is auto-applied at checkout — all I ask is an honest rating if it helps your training!)<br><br>Drop your current split below — are you training High Volume or Heavy Duty?

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