The Mentzer files- Lost and found

[AbrahamG]

^The final days of Mike Mentzer

LMFAO.  Haven't seen that movie in 20 years. 

[Rambone]

LMFAO.  Haven't seen that movie in 20 years.

  One of my favorites

[Humble Narcissist]

LMFAO.  Haven't seen that movie in 20 years.

Classic.

[Palumboism]

MIKE MENTZER: DETERMINING YOUR MAINTENANCE NEED OF CALORIES

[Palumboism]

MIKE MENTZER: HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO YOU REALLY NEED?

[MAXX]

So whats the deal? Always heard stories that by the mid eighties he was bat shit crazy, running down street naked, doing meth, drinking piss.? Wtf. Is any of that even remotely true? By early 90's he was writing for M&F in addition to his Heavy Duty stuff.

So he fell hard but pulled himself back together? Surely a lot of that stuff's exaggerated?

No he was in fact institutionalized, sadly. I don't know for how long in total, but as he says at several occasions for up to 3 months. Mike was an intense person and so was his lifestyle. He used amphetamines as means to get energy and focus to be more productive in his writing and work. But it was also his downfall. This is what I gather from various interviews and sayings from other person knowing him.

Talks abit about it himself here

[MAXX]

New video is up.

The Heavy Duty training system

[Palumboism]

@37:00

John Little: What kind of bodybuilders annoy you the most? 

Mike Mentzer: The kind that lie about steroid use.

[Pray_4_War]

The guy was nuts...built his body by using  volume and gear then flipped the script to make big coin.....believe otherwise and be a sheep.

He is still popular because of his personality. All of his training ideas have long been debunked.

I can't disagree.

[ESFitness]

seems there's 2 different kinds of drug using bodybuilders.. the ones who used opiates, and the ones who used amphetamines. the ones who used amphetamines always seemed to remain 'in the sport' for longer.

can't help but imagine what it woulda been like to be born 15-25yrs earlier, when it was all who took the most test and dbol... and speed and stayed focused on training and diet. but then again, for every 1 bodybuilder from that era we know, there are 1000 we never will, who took the same path.

[Rmj11]

Why are we still talking about this failed human being? He was nothing but a junkie with a mental illness along with a narcissistic personality disorder. John Little really does seem to have a huge hard on for Mentzer which makes me wonder if they had an intimate relationship at one point since Mentzer was gay. Little can't stop praising Mentzer enough it's embarrassing.

As for the 1980 olympia there really is no controversy. This ongoing myth really needs to die now. Controversial? Not really, big guys always have the advantage. Dorian over Ray and mostly Cutler over Dexter etc. Arnold was big and developed while the other competitors were tiny compared to him. Bigger is better in the real world.

First up. The story of CBS sports, which was covering the event, had supposedly Mentzer pegged as the winner before the contest results were announced. After the contest, they pulled their crew and never aired the coverage and never covered the O again. Well that’s all a lie.

The reality is there was never any statements by CBS about a fix or anything at all. No footage was broadcast because the filming crew had run out of tape. That’s all it was. They never filmed the whole thing. The story about CBS pulling because of a "fix"was conjured up by Coe and Mentzer since they were bitter losers and wanted to discredited Arnold. The story is still being kept alive by fans of Mentzer’s training philosphy who want to rewrite history, because what else do they have to hang on to? Nothing.

Secondly. Mentzer was never a contender. Mentzer still would have been in 4th place even if Arnold never entered. This whole Arnold vs Mentzer thing was created years later he was never a real threat onstage. He was a footnote and nothing more. Revisionist history. He became a contender years after the fact when he had a resurgence of popularity from his HIT training system. Back in 1980 he was just a footnote now somehow he was better than Arnold. People can’t seperate their need to embellish his brief competitive record because they like HIT. So they make it seem like Arnold and Mentzer were rivals, when Arnold barely knew Mentzer existed most of the time. Arnolds only rivals were Sergio and Ferrigno. Mentzer just wasn’t worth noting as competition and no one would remember him if he hadn’t become an author of HIT books later in life.

Mentzer couldn’t even beat Zane or Dickerson and they were pretty small. HIT devotees want to deify their idol though so they won’t stop claiming he was the rightful winner despite the evidence. Ludicrous. Mike Mentzer places lower than he felt and spends the rest of his ‘career’ whining about it.
And another thing about Mentzer- his HIT is BS. Did he train like that? Nope. First he says train 4 days a week, then his HIT gets more minimal over the years so he can get some attention. Finally, how often did he advocate training a bodypart- once every 12 days or something? Just a pile of BS to generate money. Nothing more.

As for Arnold not being at his best is he didn’t need to be. He didn’t have to be at his best. Do you know why Arnold risked his legacy to compete one more time? Because it was a WEAK line-up. All the major contenders were gone like Sergio, Ferrigno and Nubret and all Arnold had to do was beat a bunch of B-Listers who were half his size. None of them could be a dominate Mr Olympia they were just keeping the seat warm until a guy like Haney showed up.

Zane beat Mentzer at the 79 Olympia but both guys were pretty small, and in 1980 Mentzer finished a distant 5th while Zane got 3rd. There were a lot of guys in the contest but they were all B-list or C-list in some cases so stacked doesn’t mean much at all just a lot of filler. Now if an A-list guy like Sergio had of competed Arnold may not of entered. Only Samir had the potential and drive but he finished 15th in 1980. So yeah full but weak line-up at this contest.

The big guys had moved on, and the second tier guys were left or do you really think a small guy like Dickerson could have beat Sergio? Nope. Between the Arnold and Haney years was the rise of the smaller, skinnier Olympians who put more emphasis on conditioning rather than mass.

Anyway Zane was way off, Dickerson was too small and Samir was a long way from achieving his potential so none them posed a significant threat to Arnold which is why he entered and won.

And finally, people tend to believe what other people tell them about the 1980 contest, that is until they get to see the actual evidence for themselves and realise it was really was much ado about nothing. For some people it can be quite a surprise to realise that the judging wasn’t some great scandalous betrayal of everything that was good and holy like Mentzer constantly claimed in his articles up until death finally let him get over it. It’s funny how people always say how Arnold’s prestige affected the results, when all this “controversy” is due to Mentzer’s constant crying about the result! It was MENTZER who has created a hype around himself! He didn’t like Arnold’s training style, so he didn’t like Arnold. Mike just could not stop acting like a little child, very bad sport.

[Humble Narcissist]

Bro....

[pamith]

The guy was nuts...built his body by using  volume and gear then flipped the script to make big coin.....believe otherwise and be a sheep.

Brutal if true

[Taffin]

--snip--

Hello Governor Schwarzenegger

[beakdoctor]

A lot of that makes sense. Although pretty sure Mentzer was a bit more popular at the time than you're describing here. But I see your point. His legend definitely benefited more from his post competitive career than his actual onstage performance.

The TV coverage makes total sense. It's conspiracy talk. CBS doesn't lose out if its controversial.  In fact controversy is good for television   I remember Ali vs. Norton III was controversial.  They didn't stop covering boxing because of it. It boiled down to a cost/benefit analysis and projected tv ratings. No corporation is going to take a loss because of a little controversy. As if the executives over at CBS were so furious that Mentzer lost. Ridiculous.

The other thing is a few people were pissed at the placings. Zane and Coe were upset and those guys are on record, interviews and whatnot, saying Arnold shouldn't have won but none of them ever said Mike should've won either.

[wes]

My buddy Dave Mastorakis aka "Dave Mass' was the youngest kid who ever entered in the IFBB Mr. America the year when Dave Draper won....he was fifteen years old at the time and was a thick kid.

Anyway he saw Mike Mentzer and was impressed so became his pen pals with him....no internet back then obviously.

He ended up training with the Mike and Ray oon thereafter.....Dave and Ray made meager progress while Mike grew like a weed....then after some questioning he admitted to them that he was on gear......all three had superior genetics to begin with.

Then they all started using roids....took up Arthur Jones methods and the ret is history,but they all built their initial size by using volume with big weights.

This was told to me by Dace himself when we were hanging out in Masachusettes who couldn`t get over the fact that Mike tried to rob banks with just a note, drank piss, and ran around LA naked on top of parked cars.

 in case nobody knows who Dave is.....he competed and beat some legends and is a helluva` guy but got robbed a lot of times  IMO:

David Mastorakis

1965

Mr East Coast - IFBB, Teen Short, 5th

1968

Teen Mr America - AAU, 13th

1974

Mr America - IFBB, Short, 3rd

1975

Mr East Coast - IFBB, Short, 1st
Mr North America - AAU, Short, 1st
Mr USA - IFBB, Short, 5th

1976

Mr America - IFBB, Short, 3rd

1977

Mr America - IFBB, LightWeight, 3rd
Mr International - IFBB, MiddleWeight, 4th
Mr USA - IFBB, MiddleWeight, 2nd

1978

Mr America - AAU, Short, 7th
Junior Mr America - AAU, Short, 1st

1979

Mr Atlantic Coast - AAU, Overall Winner
Junior Mr America - AAU, Short, 3rd

1982

Nationals - NPC, Light-HeavyWeight, 15th
USA Championships - NPC, Light-HeavyWeight, 14th

Magazines

1979 October   Vol 16, Num 5   Muscular Development

[IroNat]

Heavy Duty published 1993.
Heavy Duty II published 1996.

Mike Mentzer last competed 1980.

[The Scott]

Heavy Duty published 1993.
Heavy Duty II published 1996.

Mike Mentzer last competed 1980.

It's like that book, "The Complete Book of Running".  There was a sequel.   

[beakdoctor]

My buddy Dave Mastorakis aka "Dave Mass'

I remember he would post on the ironage forum. Is he still around? Thought he was a proponent of Heavy Duty?

[pkaz]

another new video is up. A lost seminair recording

Funny watching this video. And others. I knew his brother Ray. We used to meet for breakfast at Rocky Cola Cafe in Hermosa Beach, CA. Ray's take on his brothers HIT was.... its all BS. "We trained like everyone else, including Arnold. 4 to 5  to 6 sets moving up to our final max set. Which my brother called his HIT set. So yea 1 set to failure and 4 to 5 sets to get there. Mike would leave out the warm up progression"....   

[wes]

I remember he would post on the ironage forum. Is he still around? Thought he was a proponent of Heavy Duty?

He was a Heavy Duty guy and also used Nautilus a lot......do youremember Joe Mullen from ironage.....he opened the first Nautilus facility in our are in the seventies.

I moved from Mass. but he`s a friend on Facebook,not that I ever go there....heard he recently injured his hip....great guy he and his wife are the best.

[Humble Narcissist]

He was a Heavy Duty guy and also used Nautilus a lot......do youremember Joe Mullen from ironage.....he opened the first Nautilus facility in our are in the seventies.

I moved from Mass. but he`s a friend on Facebook,not that I ever go there....heard he recently injured his hip....great guy he and his wife are the best.

Do they even make Nautilus equipment anymore?

[wes]

Do they even make Nautilus equipment anymore?

I`m not sure....I don`t think so though. 

[Humble Narcissist]

I`m not sure....I don`t think so though. 

Arthur Jones said they were the greatest invention since the barbell for athletes. Guess not.

[Palumboism]

Arthur Jones said they were the greatest invention since the barbell for athletes. Guess not.

Nautilus is still in business.  They make exercise bikes, elipticals, and treadmills.  The same company also owns bowflex.


Nautilus was the forerunner for just about every machine you see in the gym now, so I would hardly call them a failure.  When it comes to inventions, you always give credit to the first even though everything that follow will be better.  Look at how much innovation there's been in exercise equipment since the first Nautilus and look at how different the modern gym looks today.