People are always claiming that Mentzer didn't train the way he exposed. He did so to make money. How exactly would he profit if you, I, or anybody else trained using his protocol? He didn't work for Nautilus and never profited from the sales. Why is it that people that make all these claims about how he trained never witnessed themselves what he actually did in the gym?
Why don't we ask Samir Bannout who actually trained with Mike?
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Here's how he trained, don't think it's a lie.
https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/heavy-duty-mike-mentzers-most-productive-routine/AT HOME WORKOUTSTHINKING ABOUT COMPETING? FULL CHEST WORKOUTCucumber lime mint spinach protein drinkRECIPE: GREEN PROTEIN DRINKbodybuilder pumping ironTIPS: ON HOW TO GET TWO INCHES ON YOUR ARM IN 12 WEEKS
OVER-40 TRAININGJULY 1, 2003Heavy Duty: Mike Mentzer’s Most Productive RoutineIt was the essential basic Heavy Duty routine consisting of four to five sets per bodypart and broken into two workouts.
JOHN LITTLE
SHARETWEETPINBUILDING THE ULTIMATE PHYSIQUE
MONTH 7: SHOULDER TRAINING WITH THE MAX CONTRACTION SYSTEMAB-SESSION: MIDSECTION MADNESS FOR A MORE COMPLETE PHYSIQUE
He stood only 5'8' yet packed 215 pounds of rock-solid muscle on his frame. His triceps, in particular, when viewed from behind, reminded one of two large watermelons hanging out of a T-shirt. Reports varied as to the actual size of his arms. When Mike Mentzer was asked how big they were at one of his seminars, he responded with characteristic wryness, 'Very big.'
I once asked Mike what his arms had taped at their largest, and his answer startled me: 'About 18 1/2 inches.' I was incredulous. 'But they look well over 20 inches!' I exclaimed. 'Pumped, they probably are, John,' he replied, 'but measured cold'which is how you should measure your arms'they never stretched the tape beyond 18 1/2.'
Upon hearing that, I quickly realized how much deceit was being practiced in the bodybuilding world, where champions whose arms were obviously far less substantial than Mike's would loudly proclaim measurements of 21 inches or, in some instances that stretched credibility to the breaking point, 22 inches.
The Role of Genetics
Without question genetics played a huge role in providing the foundation for the muscular mass that Mike built'as he was the first to admit. In later years, however, he confided that he had reservations about making such a strong case for genetics. While genetic characteristics were important, Mike believed that they had been overemphasized. He worried that the notion that you have to have good genetics to achieve a championship physique had actually served to destroy the motivation of certain bodybuilders. 'Besides,' Mike explained, 'it's very difficult to accurately assess your genetic potential. At best you might be able to get a suggestion of where you might go based on your muscle belly lengths, your bone structure and metabolism and neuromuscular efficiency, but the most important thing, I think, is motivation'everyone can improve themselves, and that's important. Not everyone is going to become Mr. Olympia, but we can all improve ourselves.'
In 1986 I was living in Canada and searching for answers concerning the 'ultimate truth' of bodybuilding, and I set out to interview those who, in my estimation, had tried to decipher this Rosetta stone themselves. I interviewed Lou Ferrigno, John Grimek, Paul Anderson, Doug Hepburn, Frank Zane, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, Lee Labrada, Steve Reeves and both Mike and Ray Mentzer, among others. It was during a trip to California to interview Steve Reeves, in fact, that Mike invited me to stay with him as his guest at his apartment in Hollywood. I readily accepted, for I knew that it would afford me an opportunity to talk not only bodybuilding but philosophy, a passion that Mike and I shared for more than two decades.
Mike and I talked about a great many subjects during that trip, but first and foremost on my mind was finding out what Mike Mentzer's most productive training routine had been. I knew that he'd been all over the board in terms of sets and reps throughout his early career, starting out with a whole-body workout performed three days per week, on which he gained no less than 70 pounds over three years, bringing his bodyweight up from 95 pounds at age 12 to 165 pounds at 15. From there Mike moved on to the routines advocated in the various muscle magazines that espoused 20-sets-per-bodypart training, even at one time extending that to 40 sets per bodypart. That brought his bodyweight up again, but only slightly.
When his gains eventually ground to a complete halt on high-set routines, he happened to make the acquaintance of Casey Viator, then the youngest person ever to hold the Mr. America title, and learned of the high-intensity-training principles advocated by Nautilus creator Arthur Jones. After speaking with Jones directly, Mike decided to switch back to a three-days-per-week whole-body routine, performing approximately five sets per bodypart in high-intensity fashion. He won the '76 Mr. America contest at a bodyweight of 205 pounds while training on such a program, but he didn't stay with it, switching eventually to a split routine performed four days per week. Then, prior to his Mr. Olympia appearances in 1979 and '80'where he tipped the scales at a rock-solid 215 pounds'he spread out his routine even further, training only once every two to four days.
I wasn't interested so much in his theories (they were not as advanced as they would become from 1993 on, when he reduced the sets to one on a split routine that saw his clients training but once every four to seven days) as I was in learning what he actually did; i.e., how he'd trained to build the incredible muscle mass that he was known for and what he'd personally found to be the most productive muscle-building routine of his entire career. Mike was seated at his desk, and I was directly across from him on a sofa in the living room when I first asked him about it. Mike smiled, knowing that it was the question all aspiring bodybuilders wanted the answer to and, indeed, the very question he himself had posed to his idols, like the great Bill Pearl, when he was starting out in bodybuilding.
'The routine I followed was the essential basic Heavy Duty routine consisting of four to five sets per bodypart and broken into two workouts,' he began. 'The first workout would be legs, chest and triceps; the second workout was back, shoulders and biceps. I would start with leg extensions'six to eight reps to failure'and then continue beyond that with forced reps and negative reps, and then go immediately to leg presses, preferably on a Nautilus Compound Leg machine, as that would allow me to go from one exercise to the other without pausing. After that I would do one set of squats to positive failure, usually in the neighborhood of 400 to 500 pounds, and then proceed on to leg curls for two sets.
'Then I'd work calves, typically two sets of standing calf raises on a machine, followed by one set of toe presses on a leg press machine to failure. After legs I'd move on to chest for one to two supersets of dumbbell flyes or pec deck and incline barbell presses. I'd follow that up with one or two sets of dips. I always selected weights for my exercises that allowed me to get at least six good positive repetitions and then continue with forced and negative reps. With any preexhaust set, such as leg extensions to leg presses or pec deck to incline presses, I would take no rest at all between exercises, but I would rest long enough to catch my breath, and I'd only do the negatives once a week on each exercise. Moving on to triceps, I'd limit myself to fewer than four sets for triceps, doing one preexhaust cycle of triceps pressdowns followed immediately by a set of dips. Then I might finish off with two sets of lying triceps extensions. That would be it.'
ALL'What about your second workout of the week?' I inquired. Mike's forearms rippled as he carefully placed a pen on his desk and answered, 'That would be back, shoulders and biceps. I would begin with the largest muscle group'the back'and perform Nautilus pullovers supersetted with close-grip underhand pulldowns. I'd complete two cycles of those two exercises and then move on to two sets of bent-over barbell rows to finish up my lat work.
'From there I would move on to traps and perform two preexhaust cycles of Universal machine shrugs supersetted with upright rows. Then it would be on to shoulders, for which I would do two superset cycles of Nautilus lateral raises followed by Nautilus behind-the-neck presses and two sets of either rear-delt rows'performed by sitting backward in a pec deck machine and squeezing your elbows as far back as they can go'or two sets of bent-over dumbbell laterals. And finally, I'd finish up with biceps, where I'd do one set of standing barbell curls to failure followed by one or two sets of either seated concentration curls or preacher curls.'
Workout 1 (Monday)
Legs
Superset
Leg extensions 1 x 6-8
Leg presses 1 x 6-8
Squats 1 x 6-8
Leg curls 2 x 6-8
Calf raises 2 x 6-8
Toe presses 1 x 6-8
Chest
Superset
Dumbbell flyes or pec deck 1-2 x 6-8
Incline presses 1-2 x 6-8
Dips 2 x 6-8
Triceps
Superset
Pushdowns 1 x 6-8
Dips 1 x 6-8
Lying triceps extensions 2 x 6-8
Workout 2 (Wednesday)
Back
Superset
Nautilus pullovers 2 x 6-8
Close-grip pulldowns 2 x 6-8
Bent-over barbell rows 2 x 6-8
Traps
Superset
Universal machine shrugs 2 x 6-8
Upright rows 2 x 6-8
Shoulders
Superset
Nautilus laterals 2 x 6-8
Nautilus presses 2 x 6-8
Rear-delt rows 2 x 6-8
Biceps
Standing barbell curls 1 x 6-8
Concentration curls 2 x 6-8
He talks the full body workouts in this article.
