As the title says, there is a lot of material in youtube and there is a 'hype' nowadays about this revolutionary Mike Mentzer method of high intensity "Heavy Duty". I'm curious and I want what is your opinion guys, please only serious replies. Try to be objective as possible.
Could be possible that Mike was right all along??. Let me explain:
I was thinking in modifying my calisthenics full body, 2 days split week workout and applying this method with heavier weights and do mostly negative movements with very slow tempo and a few of explosive reps. By now I was doing:
Full body routines like murphs (with good form pull ups, not crossfit shitty butterfly pull ups).
Always pull ups, push ups, dips, squats and situps with variations (Ex. close grip chin ups instead of pull ups or diamond push ups instead of normal push ups).
2 days split week workouts (I have a very busy week schedule and high time demanding job).
Almost always with only bodyweight and sometimes with 40 lbs weight vest in murphs.
LOTS of reps -> Really High Volume
GOAL: achieve a balanced ground between being actually strong (High functional full body), overall healthy and look strong.
Then watching youtube I came across with this video
->
For me that was an open mind video, so let's say Mike was right. How I can modify my workouts applying to this method?. I have a few ideas. But I want to read you. What do you think guys?.
anyways low volume giga failure protocols can be great to force you to really learn how to kick it into high gear and admittedly cheaper than therapy taking heavy leg compounds extremely closer to failure but they arent the silver bullet because people have gotten huge off high volume and everything in between as volume usually has a negative relationship with intensity.
plus on a more practical level it just doesnt really help to follow dogmatism such as "if you dont progress you are underrecovering from 1 set per week or you aren't pushing hard enough". the logical conclusion of that is that you end up doing a set of dips every 2 weeks looking at old texts from your ex as preworkout and bleeding out of your asshole for the last 5 reps.
granted yes getting close to failure does reduce how much volume you need to do to grow and that's probably a good enough reason to train very close to failure if you are working out 2 days a week. i do not think that you are in a position to worry about overtraining unless you actually feel real and persistent symptoms off of 2 days so you can probably just spam as much 0-2RIR volume of compound pushing,pulling,squatting that you can fit into your workouts and use a weighted vest as a progression metric.
@withhope2022 Why do people think mentzer is smart. As with every bodybuilder he was juiced to the gills. Most bw exercises are relatively low intensity so you'll need to be using a dip belt for almost all your moves. Good luck developing the tendon strength you need with 1 set.
@walterroger we literally got over 20 years of data that says homeboy was wrong but people still think he had a good idea.
hell, if anything recent studies show basically the polar opposite of what he's preaching, if you want maximum hypertrophy on a muscle group you drop everything to maintenance and ramp up to insane volumes on that one group (RIP to those people that had to do 52 sets of quads per week)
@walterroger They think he was smart cuz his idea of how to train was more efficient than others at the time who prioritised higher reps over weight. Ofc he wasnt 100% spot on but most bodybuilders nowadays have training based off what Mentzer did. Just cause he was juicing doesn't mean he didn't work hard.
@walterroger Nobody trains 100% like Mentzer but the modern method stems from Mentzers idea. Nobody trains like arnold either. Also efficiency isnt relevent for pro lifters? Wtf are you on broski?
@withhope2022 All you need to do is your is try and hit a rep range of 6-8 where you either hit or are 1 rep from failure in that range. This is the challenging (or fun really) part with calisthenics. Pull-ups, dips, and squats are easy to just add more weight with dumbbells or a belt, but pushups you will need to play around with like you said. Also, start doing pike pushups and rows for your shoulders and back, respectively.
Rest at least 2-3 minutes between sets and only do 2-3 sets per exercise (as the increased intensity prevents more sets/reps from being needed according to “science based lifting”).
@withhope2022 The problem with going to failure on bodyweight movements compared to traditional body building movements in the gym is that its much more difficult to actually take the target muscle to true zero reps in reserve. This is because there is so much other musculature providing stability that also gets fatigued during a set. This is what makes body weight exercises slightly less effective for hypertrophy. You can still build muscle of course, but just not as much as you could with weights, particularly isolation movements.
Even if hypertrophy isn't your goal, strength is going to be most effectively gained by doing your movements controlled and with proper form, practiced often to enhance the neurological component. This is something low volume high intensity completely fails at.
Unrelated but you can tone down the comments like "shitty crossfit pull ups". I'm not going to start an argument about their merits, but putting another form of exercise down like that just comes across as childish.
@power1 TIL that it's hard to do low volume with bodyweight workout. Maybe because I run out of breath after 6 push up.
Dang any suggestion to build a effective routine with a tight time budget ? I can spend some time to train on weekend but week days no luck, commute time is a bitch that keep digging your time.
Also I have 13 floor to climb everyday not sure if it can replace some legs training ?
@dalytec The guy has been dead for over 20 years, scientific research into hypertrophy and training methods has progressed a lot since then. And even on his own merit: Mentzer was never the best and lost to Arnie. He had more muscle than the average Joe, but he also took more steroids than the average Joe. It is beyond me how anyone could think Menther's training methods are the best use of their time.
