I know more about Iron Game history than most here. I'm just asking if people tried the training method.
I like getting peoples takes on different methods.
If anyone knows anything about Mentzer, lets just say I hang around w/ his ex-best friend and a book is being worked on).
So yes, again, I know my history...
Are you talking about Dave Mastorakis? Mike started using the typical volume workout. After being influenced by Arthur Jones and Viator he began his high intensity training. He won Weider's version of the Mr. America using a whole body routine three days a week. He sometimes worked out with Dave using about 5 work sets a body part.
After that he use a two way split. He didn't adhere to the calendar but in general he did Thighs, chest and triceps on Monday and Thursdays. On Tuesdays and Fridays he did back, delt and biceps. Wednesdays, Saturday and Sundays was off. In his later days he was against cardio but during these days he use to ride a bike or run for cardio.
After reading about Frank Calta who was Mr. Florida he was influenced to use his split that he called "Rotation for Recuperation." Mentzer now split his routine to Monday: Thighs, chest and triceps. Wednesday: Back, shoulders and bicep. Friday was Thighs, chest and triceps. Wednesday, Saturday and Sundays was off. Next week he would rotate. Monday: Back, Shoulders and bicep. Wednesday was Thighs, chest and tricep. Friday was now back, shoulders and bicep. Again days of the week meant nothing. If he missed a day he just did it the next day. This is the split he used for the 1980 Olympia. Again about 4 to 6 work sets a body part.
When he retired he came up with the one work set to failure and letting many days go between training days. Nothing that he ever used to compete. Did he do this because it was a more cost effective way to train clients? Never met one personal trainer that used volume with clients.
David Young use to train in the same gyms as both Viator and Mentzer. He said Mentzer used more sets than he claimed in writing. Were they warm ups? Don't know. It was reported that the poster boy Viator for Arthur Jones used a lot of sets to compete once his employment was Arthur Jones was over. Some say his best ripped shape was the result of his volume training. On a side note Viator in correspondence over the internet told me his blood test came back perfect. I told him and I regret typing that I felt there was more to health than blood results. Cardio capacity and being over weight was a risk in its self. He died shortly after. Rest in peace.
Personally I have been using low sets to failure my whole life. I couldn't win a Mr. No where title. I will say in my younger years I was always muscular and in shape but I will never claim to be a bodybuilder. I have been lifting weights for over 40 years. I have been heavily influenced by Mentzer and Jones. I own Jones original writings on the subject that was bound with staples. He believed in basic weight workouts working the whole body in one workout. He was opposed to splits.
Getting back to DC it seems to be little difference from any other low set routine. It's a solid way to train. No magic unless you are using magic syringes and pills.
The older I get the more I wonder if my obsession with high intensity was a wrong approach. If intensity was the magic bullet then wouldn't sets of one rep be the highest intensity one could achieve? I'm beginning to believe the best approach is what Bill Pearl preached. Bodybuilding is about muscular endurance and not strength if this one sentence resonates. Danny Padilla would do a set of 12 and quit knowing he could have got a more reps and it was the first of 5 sets of an exercise. By set four or five he would be at failure. Meanwhile he was pushing the muscular endurance envelope not to be confused with aerobics. Increasing strength will make you bigger as in increasing your squat from 400lbs to 500lbs. What will make your muscles grow faster than pure strength gains is increasing your muscular endurance capacity. Decreasing the rests between sets is part of that. The vast majority of champs have used volume. HIT guys like to say they would have been better off using HIT. If low sets to failure was the magic bullet wouldn't all champs use it?
In the end I think like Jeff Everson said, "You don't have to be a scientist to be a bodybuilder." Some of the dumbest guys on earth are successful bodybuilders and some of the most scientific stink. If you don't know who Everson is he competed in Olympic lifting, power lifting, field events in Track and bodybuilding. When he saw Mentzer compete on the SuperStars on ABC struggling to jerk 300lbs he went in the gym the next day and jerked 300lbs over head ten times in a row. Genetics and drug use trump all training methods. In the end the best you can do for yourself is to have a work ethic.
