Find out what secrets the great champion and coach in bodybuilding has revealed. The truth that shocked the whole world of iron sports right in front of you. Mike Mentzer passed away in 2001, and two days after that his brother Ray died. A week before his death, Mike gave his last dying interview to Mike Mentzer in bodybuilding magazine IronMan. In it, he shares his opinion on modern bodybuilding and talks about his personal life. Perhaps not everyone will agree with his words, but in his dying interview with Mike Mentzer in bodybuilding, he said everything he thinks, as he did all his life.
Mike Mentzer's deathbed interview
IronMan: What have you been doing lately?
Mike Mentzer: As always I work. I receive a lot of letters that need to be answered, they support the performance of their web resource, create a new mailing list, write new articles, shoot video clips. All this takes a lot of time. However, I enjoy working 12 hours a day, because practically my whole life has been going on like this for many years. It would be right if I say that work is very important to me.
IM: Lately nothing has been heard about you. Something happened?
MM: Minor health problems, including surgery. He was treated for bronchitis and pneumonia. Not so long ago, doctors found blood clots in my lungs and now I am taking medication. By the way, this happened at the moment when Ray was undergoing surgery. You probably know that he has serious kidney disease and needs dialysis three times a week. In the course of research, he was also found that blood is highly clotting and that close relatives may have similar problems. This is exactly what happened to me.
ІМ: What thoughts did you have during your stay in the hospital?
MM: Of course, the diagnosis of doctors caused some concern, but I completely trusted them and I am sure that everything will be fine.
ІМ: How did your brother's illness affect you?
MM: It is very difficult to realize that a loved one is seriously ill. Ray was diagnosed with a very rare disease - Berger's disease. He himself tries to keep a stiff upper lip and understands that he needs dialysis, since his kidneys are essentially already dead. He was a little depressed about this, but together we will overcome everything.
IM: Have you always been that close with your brother?
MM: Throughout our lives, our relationship can hardly be called ideal, but at the same time, it was not bad either. After we were diagnosed with various diseases, we became much closer and support each other.
IM: We learned that not so long ago Rhea was in for a pleasant surprise?
MM: That's right. You may not believe it, but Arnold Schwarzenegger called my brother. He found out how things are with Ray and asked to call at any time if you need help. I confess that I was very moved by this call and thanked Arnie from the bottom of my heart for his concern for his brother.
IM: Do you believe in God and the existence of heaven with hell?
MM: No, I don't believe in God, and, therefore, in heaven or hell. For this reason, I do not expect to meet my parents after death. I adhere to the philosophy of Eina Rand, which is based on the idea that people should connect their minds with reality and themselves. This is the philosophy of objectivism and I like it.
IM: Did this philosophy somehow affect your perception of bodybuilding?
MM: I convinced many of my students to accept this philosophy, as they had problems with the perception of being. Now their worldview has seriously changed and I am very proud of one of my students - Markus Reinhart. I am sure that a great future awaits him in bodybuilding.
IM: Why did you decide to write the second part of your Heavy Duty training system?
MM: When I decided to start coaching, I took my new job very seriously. My main task is to pass on to the students all my knowledge accumulated over the course of a sports career. At first I used the theory of Arthur Jones in my work. My students had to train three times a week and perform 25 or even 20 approaches in one lesson. However, there was no constant progress, and the main reason was severe overtraining.
This is the main problem with Jones' theory. She suggests that training can only be effective when the sessions are intense, but short and relatively infrequent. On the issue of intensity, I completely agree with him, but the question remains about the frequency of training and their duration. Whereas Vader's system offers six-session training with 20 sets for each muscle group, Jones suggested training half as often. Seeing the lack of constant progress among my students, I decided to gradually reduce the frequency of classes and their volume. As a result, we started training once every 4-7 days and in one lesson we perform 2-4 approaches. After that, we started to progress.
ІМ: Then it’s not clear why many people recommend using training programs that will not be productive for most athletes?
MM: For many people, it is a postulate that more is always better. However, it is completely inapplicable to bodybuilding.
IM: I would like to ask a question regarding athletes who will soon leave the sport, for example, Kevin Levron or Ronnie Coleman
MM: (Interrupting) They are bright personalities and I am sure that after the end of their sports career they will quickly find themselves in ordinary life.
ІМ: Your web resource is very popular
MM: Yes, it is, and I am proud of this fact. It can hardly be called ideal, but its appearance is quite attractive, and its main task is to educate young athletes.
ІМ: You propose to perform only three exercises for the development of the back. Do you think that this will be enough, because this is a large group?
MM: The word “big” is the key one. You say that I suggest training large muscles with a small number of sets, but size is not so important here. One approach is enough to activate tissue growth. The main question here is how many approaches a particular athlete needs in order to effectively pump muscles. I'm sure it's best to start with one set and increase the number as needed until it progresses. Without using AAS, a large number of approaches will definitely not bring you success.
IM: Let's talk about some famous people in the world of bodybuilding and start with Dan Duchein
MM: This person does not bother me at all. Before he was a great guy, but steroids changed him and I can perfectly see all his attacks on me.
IM: Ben Weider
MM: I don't know Ben well enough to tell a lot about him. I didn't really like his passion for the politics of the bodybuilding federation. In every conversation he mentions only this and it bores me, because I have long since moved away from this topic.
IM: Charles Poliquin
MM: I can confidently say that this person is a crook. He positions himself as a leading expert in strength training and at the same time advises on basketball drills. This is very dangerous from the point of view of injury.
IM: What do you think of the IFBB?
MM: (Sighs) You could say the federation is not trying to make bodybuilding an Olympic sport. This is its policy and, to be honest, I am not at all worried about what its leaders are doing. When people voted for the Vader brothers, it seemed to them that they were choosing strong personalities who could develop bodybuilding further. However, by all accounts, they were wrong.
IM: What do you think of Mike Mentzer?
MM: (Chuckles) Not a bad writer, good mentor and communicator. My purpose in life is to help people and that is why I was cursed. Ayn Rand has written a great article, The Age of Evil. She is sure that now we all live in this era and I need to go through it.
More on the life and career of Mike Mentzer in this video:
