Mike Mentzer is known to many athletes for his. His vision of the training process differs from the generally accepted one. Find out how Mr. Olympia trained! Mike Mentzer is a very popular and extraordinary person in bodybuilding. His training methodology did not become very popular, but some of Mike's students managed to reach great heights. Mentzer is confident that a person is able to quickly realize muscle potential in bodybuilding. At the same time, many strength sports experts agree that this will take at least five years. Let's see what Mentzer has to offer.
Mike Mentzer training method
Today, many athletes, even often without knowing it, use the training theory of Arthur Jones and Joe Weider. Mentzer studied it for a long time and came to the conclusion that they have rather serious contradictions. Simply put, Jones is confident that only high-intensity sessions of short duration can be effective, and at the same time, training is often impossible.
Vader, on the other hand, convinces athletes of the need for frequent training. However, in both cases, the athlete can quickly get into a state of overtraining. As everyone knows, the main task of a bodybuilder is to create such stress on the body that it has to respond to the load with muscle growth.
If high-intensity training is used for this, then, as in the case of medications, an overdose in the form of overtraining may occur. After these observations, Mentzer began to preach a different training scheme among his disciples. Classes were held three times during the week, and on each of them, 7 to 9 approaches were performed. However, it turned out that this system does not work for every athlete. As a result, the approach to training was completely revised and training began to be carried out once every 4-7 days with 3 to 5 approaches. The exact number of sets depends on the individual's ability to recover.
According to Mike Mentzer, athletes need to train at high intensity, but not as often as most methods recommend. A very important factor in muscle growth is adequate recovery time. Of course, the time of realization of muscle potential in bodybuilding is a purely individual characteristic and it cannot be argued that any athlete can achieve this, say, in a year. But if you approach the preparation of a training program in accordance with the scientific facts available today, you can do it much faster in comparison with the theories of many years ago.
Learn more about Mike Mentzer's workout routine in this video: