MIKE MENTZER: MR. NORTH AMERICA 1977

[Straw Man]

This is a pretty cool blast from the past
I'd never seen this before

Mentzer starts at about seven and a half minutes into the video

[MAXX]

John Little who owns that channel is a big Mentzer fan. He was a friend of Mentzer IRL.

Here's a new video he uploaded aswell.

[oldtimer1]

I was such a huge fan of his around this time. I kept a binder of everything he ever wrote in magazines. I might have the most complete Mike Mentzer collection of his thoughts on training.

He evolved in so many ways concerning training. He won the Mr. America training three days a week on a whole body routine. From there he went to training four days a week dividing his body in half using a split of thighs, chest, tricep and the next back, delt and biceps. He further refined his training going into the 1980 Olympia training three days a week primarily on a Frank Calta type rotation. During his best years he included cardio  using running and biking. After he retired he was against supplementing with cardio.

 As I matured as a young adult I saw him as a very flawed person.  No one to look up to. He also got of mileage out of being a drop out pre med student.  He still influences my training today though.  He certainly influenced pros like Dorian Yates. Mike retired in his 20's I believe.  Tragic end to his life and his brother's.

[Straw Man]

I was such a huge fan of his around this time. I kept a binder of everything he ever wrote in magazines. I might have the most complete Mike Mentzer collection of his thoughts on training.

He evolved in so many ways concerning training. He won the Mr. America training three days a week on a whole body routine. From there he went to training four days a week dividing his body in half using a split of thighs, chest, tricep and the next back, delt and biceps. He further refined his training going into the 1980 Olympia training three days a week primarily on a Frank Calta type rotation. During his best years he included cardio  using running and biking. After he retired he was against supplementing with cardio.

 As I matured as a young adult I saw him as a very flawed person.  No one to look up to. He also got of mileage out of being a drop out pre med student.  He still influences my training today though.  He certainly influenced pros like Dorian Yates. Mike retired in his 20's I believe.  Tragic end to his life and his brother's.

Yep, I fell for his bullshit when I first started training.  Lowering the volume certainly has some merit, especially for those not taking drugs.   His thoughts on nutrition were idiotic and his pre-contest diet appears to have been a combination of starvation and meth.

I wonder if anyone else thought it was odd that his "less is more" philosophy didn't extend to steroids and meth. 

[Taffin]

John Little who owns that channel is a big Mentzer fan. He was a friend of Mentzer IRL.

Didn't he write for Kennedy/MuscleMag back in the '90s..?  (John Little, I mean)

[BB]

Didn't he write for Kennedy/MuscleMag back in the '90s..?  (John Little, I mean)

Probably. Peter Sisco was his writing partner for many years. They wrote for everyone, Ironman, MuscleMag, MM2K, some karate mags, etc.... They did a lot of stuff - Static Contraction, Power Factor Training, those were their two main topics. John Little now mainly writes on Bruce Lee and Mike Mentzer.

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[Taffin]

Probably. Peter Sisco was his writing partner for many years. They wrote for everyone, Ironman, MuscleMag, MM2K, some karate mags, etc.... They did a lot of stuff - Static Contraction, Power Factor Training, those were their two main topics. John Little now mainly writes on Bruce Lee and Mike Mentzer.

Christ - Power Factor Training... I actually remember that through the cobwebs LOL

On a sort of tangent, now I've disturbed the sediment in my memory, I am recalling the Iron Man POF Positions of Flexion(sp?) system.  3 exercises per muscle  - one in the midrange, one in the contracted position then one in the stretch position... I may even have tried it for a few months

[youandme]

Christ - Power Factor Training... I actually remember that through the cobwebs LOL

On a sort of tangent, now I've disturbed the sediment in my memory, I am can recall the Iron Man POF Positions of Flexion(sp?) system.  3 exercises per muscle  - one in the midrange, one in the contracted position then one in the stretch position... I may even have tried it for a few months

I think Ironman magazine had a routine that was like that for many years. I think it’s good for natural bodybuilding to avoid overtraining.

[BB]

I am can recall the Iron Man POF Positions of Flexion(sp?) system

Steve Holman and his buddy Johnathan Lawson, I think they had another version called MASS too. The POF stuff wasn't too bad -

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[youandme]

Haha nice. Talk about blast from the past.

[Omega Male]

This is a pretty cool blast from the past
I'd never seen this before

Mentzer starts at about seven and a half minutes into the video

Thanks for the upload. Hard to believe that those arms are "only" 18 inches. His biggest arm measurement was 18 3/8 and I guess that was off-season, so stage ready it won't be as high. Also in his interview you can clearly see that his pecs were only a little above average.

[pellius]

Yep, I fell for his bullshit when I first started training.  Lowering the volume certainly has some merit, especially for those not taking drugs.   His thoughts on nutrition were idiotic and his pre-contest diet appears to have been a combination of starvation and meth.

I wonder if anyone else thought it was odd that his "less is more" philosophy didn't extend to steroids and meth.

Actually, he modified his "less is more" philosophy which I never thought made sense as there are diminishing results. If less is more then nothing is best. The same applies on the other side of the coin where doing more is best then training during every waking hour is ideal. Mike was a thinking person and for better or worse he was constantly evolving. In one of his articles, he changed his "less is more" for "precise is best" and this varies among individuals. The principles are always constant and unchanging but the application varies greatly.

[pellius]

Yep, I fell for his bullshit when I first started training.  Lowering the volume certainly has some merit, especially for those not taking drugs.   His thoughts on nutrition were idiotic and his pre-contest diet appears to have been a combination of starvation and meth.

I wonder if anyone else thought it was odd that his "less is more" philosophy didn't extend to steroids and meth.

What kind of training protocol do you follow now and what were the improvements made after switching away from HIT?

[Taffin]

Steve Holman and his buddy Johnathan Lawson, I think they had another version called MASS too. The POF stuff wasn't too bad -

Thanks BB - so helpful as always - and Tom Varga - there's a name I haven't hear in a long time - wasn't he like 5 foot dead or something?

Thanks for the upload. Hard to believe that those arms are "only" 18 inches. His biggest arm measurement was 18 3/8 and I guess that was off-season, so stage ready it won't be as high. Also in his interview you can clearly see that his pecs were only a little above average.

I know what you mean - for me personally one of the main things that appeals to me about Mentzer's physique is his proportions, but despite that his arms do indeed look bigger than 18" - especially when he does that signature arms forward pose (which probably has a proper name LOL)

[Straw Man]

What kind of training protocol do you follow now and what were the improvements made after switching away from HIT?

I couldn't really follow HIT because when I read his booklet I was in high school and working out at home.  I had a 300 lb Weider  Olympic set and wobbly adjustable bench with an even wobblier squat rack attachment.  I had no way to do forced reps which seemed, according to Mentzer to be a requirement.

By the time I joined a gym which I think was either Jr or Sr year of high school I was following Calta's Routine which was ~ 6- 8 sets per body part per workout
At the time my gym (in Lewisville Texas) had a big room and a small room and they opened the big room to men on M-W-F and the women got the small room and then they reversed it on T-TH-Sat.   So it fit perfectly with Calta's routine.  I probably gained about 25 or 30 lbs in those two years doing that but also, of course I was still a teenager so just gaining weight/size by getting older as well

Later on in college I followed Lee Labrada's split and training with was similar in volume to Calta's routine. 

Mentzer's workout ideas in the 1990's were a much lower volume and frequency that he had previously advocated.  They seemed kind of ridiculous.

At the present moment I do about 9-12 sets per bp spread over 3 exercise per bp

[Straw Man]

Thanks BB - so helpful as always - and Tom Varga - there's a name I haven't hear in a long time - wasn't he like 5 foot dead or something?


I know what you mean - for me personally one of the main things that appeals to me about Mentzer's physique is his proportions, but despite that his arms do indeed look bigger than 18" - especially when he does that signature arms forward pose (which probably has a proper name LOL)

Mentzer had a great vacuum pose too and very few pro's today and do this pose and look as good

[BB]

Thanks BB - so helpful as always - and Tom Varga - there's a name I haven't hear in a long time - wasn't he like 5 foot dead or something?

He was Lee Priestish in height, 5' 3" maybe, but that could be just breaking 5' in real life, about 180lbs. He looked good though.

Here's the legs POF workout -

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Also Mentzer stuff, here's the interview he did with MM2k when he was first getting back into the scene, I forget if there is anything interesting on it, but it's kinda rare -

1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgX-rXQKCnM.
2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elIjfVOsnvA.
3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mzic0cz5e4.
4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQLz6BXbs8U.

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Mike Mentzer's last interview with "The Sandwich" (Josh Brown). This was when Ironman was going through its hardcore phase (98 - 2000) so it's a little more aggressive than other interviews. It cuts off at the bottom, I forget if they go farther in the mag, or if this was to be a two parter that never was -

https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/mike-mentzers-last-interview/ .

More Sandwich Stuff - https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/author/the-sandwich/ .
http://www.mesomorphosis.com/articles/duchaine/dan-duchaine-skullfucked.htm .

Also just so I remember it, the MesoRx article page, they published some good stuff over the years - http://www.mesomorphosis.com/articles/ .

[pamith]

Thanks for the upload. Hard to believe that those arms are "only" 18 inches. His biggest arm measurement was 18 3/8 and I guess that was off-season, so stage ready it won't be as high. Also in his interview you can clearly see that his pecs were only a little above average.

He said his arms were 18.5'' measured in a very strict way, not bad considering he was only 5'8''

[Omega Male]

Mentzer had a great vacuum pose too and very few pro's today and do this pose and look as good

There's only a 15 pound difference between the top pics.

[Omega Male]

He said his arms were 18.5'' measured in a very strict way, not bad considering he was only 5'8''

But I bet on that video they were actually a tad under 18 inches, because that was in a contest, and I believe he was around 200 pounds there. His biggest contest weight was 210 at the 1979 Mr. O

[pamith]

But I bet on that video they were actually a tad under 18 inches, because that was in a contest, and I believe he was around 200 pounds there. His biggest contest weight was 210 at the 1979 Mr. O

Oh well that Idk but I remember reading in an article he said himself his arms were 18.5'' measured in a very strict way. as a point of reference my arms were 18'' in my pic and I'm 5'7''

[Omega Male]

Oh well that Idk but I remember reading in an article he said himself his arms were 18.5'' measured in a very strict way. as a point of reference my arms were 18'' in my pic and I'm 5'7''

An 18 inch arm is a very big arm, but an 18 inch arm at 6% is much different than an 18 inch arm at 12%

[pamith]

An 18 inch arm is a very big arm, but an 18 inch arm at 6% is much different than an 18 inch arm at 12%

Tbh in my pic I was probable 15-18% body fat. Yes Mentzer was ripped af but he was on the sauce, I'm natty

[Humble Narcissist]

Probably. Peter Sisco was his writing partner for many years. They wrote for everyone, Ironman, MuscleMag, MM2K, some karate mags, etc.... They did a lot of stuff - Static Contraction, Power Factor Training, those were their two main topics. John Little now mainly writes on Bruce Lee and Mike Mentzer.

.

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Sisco and Little produced ridiculous programs that supposedly were "scientific" and the best way to build muscle while one guy was skinny as a rail and the other guy was fat.

[pellius]

I was such a huge fan of his around this time. I kept a binder of everything he ever wrote in magazines. I might have the most complete Mike Mentzer collection of his thoughts on training.

He evolved in so many ways concerning training. He won the Mr. America training three days a week on a whole body routine. From there he went to training four days a week dividing his body in half using a split of thighs, chest, tricep and the next back, delt and biceps. He further refined his training going into the 1980 Olympia training three days a week primarily on a Frank Calta type rotation. During his best years he included cardio  using running and biking. After he retired he was against supplementing with cardio.

 As I matured as a young adult I saw him as a very flawed person.  No one to look up to. He also got of mileage out of being a drop out pre med student.  He still influences my training today though.  He certainly influenced pros like Dorian Yates. Mike retired in his 20's I believe.  Tragic end to his life and his brother's.

What is a Frank Calta routine? I never heard of him nor do I remember any reference to him by Mike.