Mike Mentzer - bodybuildersRead More

Anthropometric data
Mike Mentzer Biography
His achievements
The beginning of a coaching career
Mike Mentzer's Disease and Death
Mike Mentzer Super Training
Mike Mentzer Training Program

Mike Mentzer, distinguished by the versatility of his talent, since he has many achievements, both in sports, in business, and in literature. In addition, he comprehended the mechanism of the training process, puzzling many famous athletes.

Content

1 Anthropometric data
2 Biography of Mike Mentzer
3 His achievements
4 Beginning of a coaching career
5 Disease and death of Mike Mentzer
6 Mike Mentzer Super Training
7 Mike Mentzer Training Program
- 7.1 Monday
- 7.2 Tuesday
- 7.3 Saturday

Anthropometric data

Height - 173 cm.
Weight - 102 kg.

Mike Mentzer Biography

This unique man was born in Pennsylvania in 1951 on November 15. At the same time, his youthful years are tied to a small city called the Euphrates. Mike became interested in this sport at the age of 11 when he was looking through a magazine about bodybuilding. It was at this moment that the young man looked at the world in a new way and began with all responsibility to deal with the structure of his body. This is quite early, compared with how many famous athletes reached their heights. He never hid the fact that he took steroids and other supplements for the sake of good results. He began to consciously take various drugs, which subsequently resulted in a deterioration in his health, although Mike himself did not adhere to this opinion, as he was philosophical about life.

The first time he began to take part in various tournaments at the age of 20. His ambitions were very high, as he set himself the goal of becoming the best bodybuilder in the world. A year later, he takes part in the Mr. America competitions and takes only 10th place, which for such an age cannot be called a modest result. But Mike himself is not happy with his results, realizing that it is necessary to change the entire training process. After participating in Mr. America, Mike managed to get to know the famous coach Arthur Johnson, after which his whole approach to the training system changed, since he trained according to well-known and simple schemes. The writer Ein Reid also seriously influenced the psychological state of the athlete. When he read her trilogy “Atlas Shrugged”, he began to completely differently evaluate the events happening around him. He became more confident and peremptory, which allowed him to rise one more step, in psychological terms. He proclaims for himself the motto "The Connection of Reason and Reality."

Mike was not pious and considered himself an atheist, having his own opinion on this: the existence of God raises many questions, since the place where he lives has not yet been discovered. That’s what Mike Mentzer said about the existence of God.

His achievements

Mike first took part in the Mr. Olympia competition in 1979, performing in the heavyweight division. Here he confidently triumphs, but takes second place in the absolute category, remaining behind Frank Zane. The following year, he decides to participate in this prestigious tournament again, but he managed to take only 5th place. As for the winner, it turned out to be the well-known Arnold Schwarzenegger, who decided to return to bodybuilding. Then there were rumors about the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger did not show anything unique in the competition, but for some reason he was the first. There were also rumors that everything was bought in advance. In fact, the contrast was visible between Arnold in 1975 and Arnold in 1980, which Mike Mentzer himself admitted.

The beginning of a coaching career

After 1980, when Mike failed, he no longer participated in tournaments, but switched to coaching. His further success was due to the fact that he opened a completely new training system, which led to the emergence of new approaches to the training system of bodybuilders. His theory was confirmed in the person of Dorian Yates, who won 6 times at the prestigious “Mr. Olympia” tournaments, despite the fact that Mike started training with this athlete from the age of 20. According to sports criteria, this is quite late, although not so early, given the age at which Mike began training himself.

When the coaching career was just beginning, he applied a slightly different scheme of the training process for his student Jones, but this did not give the desired result, and Mike decided to create his own technique. After analyzing the whole process, he comes to the conclusion that the problem is related to muscle overload, so he works on exercises that are more energetic, but which take less time. The fact is that muscles grow in the process of rest, and muscles need to be fully restored. After several years of hard work, it turned out that students achieve optimal results when the number of approaches is reduced. He reduces their number to 2-4 approaches, over 4-7 days. Such a theory was seriously criticized, but Mentzer did not back down from it and insisted on his own. After some time, he managed to prove his case. Mike himself considered himself a workaholic who is ready to work 12 hours a day to get great pleasure.

Mike Mentzer's Disease and Death

Mike often had problems with blood circulation, problems with the spine and lungs. Despite this, he worked hard, not paying attention to problems. When Mike was sick, he was called by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was ready to help this athlete at any moment. Mike was distrustful of the “terminator, ” but after this call he changed his mind about Arnold.

In 2001, Mike Mentzer died of cardiac arrest. A few days later, his older brother Ray died. After the autopsy, experts found a large dose of morphine. The brothers took this drug to reduce pain attacks.

Mike Mentzer Super Training

If you correctly draw up a diagram of the entire training process, the athlete is able to raise his potential after each training. Inexperienced athletes for some couple of months have been able to increase the strength of the quadriceps from 80 kg and 7 reps to 113 kg and 10 reps. As you can see, the growth is quite noticeable. David Paul, one of Mentzer's students, performed 33 repetitions with a weight of 113 kg. At the same time, in the first lesson, he did only 15 repetitions of leg extension with a weight of 113 kg, and after that, the superset already did 15 repetitions, but already weighing 240 kg. A week later, he was able to do 27 repetitions of leg extension and 38 repetitions of leg presses with the same weight. By the end of the second week, the athlete was ready to do 33 extensions and 70 leg presses.

Only a couple of classes Paul needed in order to increase the strength of the leg muscles by 388%. At the same time, in a month he managed to build 3 kg of muscle. The duration of the classes was only 15 minutes. If we compare with the fact that Mike had to study for 2 hours for 6 days and 5 years in a row, while having minimal effect, then we can safely say that his new methodology significantly won. By the way, with the help of super training, decent results can be achieved by any athlete, not even the most gifted ones.

Before mastering Mike Mentzer’s super training, you need to take a break in classes for a couple of weeks to fully restore all the biochemical processes that occur in the athlete’s body. You should be aware that high loads negatively affect human health, therefore it is better to perform super training as rested and healthy as possible. If this is not done, then counting on high results simply does not make sense.

Mike Mentzer Training Program

If all the conditions are met, you can proceed to the start of classes. They must be performed on every fourth day, that is, 96 hours after the end of the previous one. All training according to the Mike Mentzer method are in high-intensity failure mode. The set of classes consists of 1-2 exercises for each of their muscle groups, which are done separately or in super series. The main principle of the technique is complete muscle failure with 1 or 2 approaches, but at the same time, 1-2 warm-up approaches must be performed. As a result, a load of one muscle group occurs once every two weeks, which leads to complete recovery and good muscle growth.

Monday

Chest

Reduction of hands in the simulator or breeding lying on a horizontal bench, superset with ...
Bench press on an incline bench (preferably in Smith's simulator).

Back

Pullovers in the Nautilus simulator or pullovers with dumbbells, superset with ...
Pull down with a narrow reverse grip.
Normal (not on straight legs) deadlift.

Friday Feet