For the previous a number of months, the Instagram algorithm has been blitzing me with content material about legendary bodybuilder Mike Mentzer.
Possibly it’s as a result of the algorithm has picked up on the truth that I’ve transitioned away from powerlifting and am doing extra bodybuilding-type exercises lately. Or maybe the algorithm thinks I would admire Mentzer’s superior mustache since its majesty rivals my very own.
Regardless of the purpose, because of Instagram, I’ve been studying so much about Mike Mentzer and his iconoclastic coaching philosophy that he known as “Heavy Obligation.”
The younger bros on social media are completely bonkers about Heavy Obligation. And I can perceive why.
First, there’s the attraction of Mike Mentzer himself. He had an incredible physique (he was the primary and solely man to earn an ideal rating within the Mr. Universe competitors), and his Nineteen Seventies hair and stache gave him a lot of cool cache. On high of that, he introduced a uncommon philosophical bent to bodybuilding. His tear-drop spectacles evinced his bookish persona, and he liked finding out and discussing totally different faculties of thought (significantly Ayn Rand’s Objectivism), taking a look at artwork, and listening to good music. For lots of fellows, this mix of brains and brawn actually represents the best of manhood.
However Mentzer’s Heavy Obligation program is getting loads of hype lately on social media as a result of it guarantees distinctive muscle progress by probably solely doing a single set of workouts per physique half per week.
Mentzer’s concept that you could possibly get hypertrophic progress with rare and quick exercises flew within the face of the bodybuilding orthodoxy of the Nineteen Seventies and 80s. Throughout that point, excessive quantity was king. Bodybuilders again then, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, educated for 2 hours, twice a day, every single day. The objective was to slam your muscle mass with double-digit units to stimulate progress.
Influenced by Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones’ philosophy of high-intensity coaching, Mentzer thought doing a lot coaching was a waste of time and led to suboptimal outcomes.
Intrigued by the hoopla and claims of Heavy Obligation, I made a decision to take a deep dive into this system and its claims. Right here’s what I discovered about the way it works, and whether or not it really works.
The Rules of Heavy Obligation
The very first thing to level out is that Heavy Obligation isn’t a completely distinctive coaching philosophy. It’s a variation of high-intensity coaching during which athletes are prescribed to coach their muscle mass to failure. As talked about above, Arthur Jones pioneered high-intensity coaching. Mentzer most likely did probably the most to popularize high-intensity coaching because of his work with Dorian Yates.
Mentzer’s Heavy Obligation philosophy advanced through the years. Most bodybuilders (and plenty of sports activities scientists) assume Mentzer’s early model of Heavy Obligation bought loads of issues proper. Nonetheless, Mentzer turned extra excessive along with his views as he bought nearer to his demise, significantly concerning quantity and frequency.
It must be identified that Mentzer had genetics that made him well-suited to bodybuilding, and he achieved his physique partly by way of the usage of anabolic steroids. However he thought his advisable lifting regimens equally utilized to common, drug-free people who wished to attain their pure muscular potential.
Excessive Depth
Depth is the important thing to Heavy Obligation. For Mentzer, the depth of the train is what drove muscle hypertrophy, not quantity. So, what did Mentzer imply by depth?
He outlined it as “the proportion of doable momentary muscular effort being exerted.”
Mentzer (and different high-intensity coaching proponents) believed you wanted to get reps as near 100% exertion as doable to stimulate muscle progress. And also you solely know if you happen to’re attending to 100% exertion by lifting till failure.
Mentzer on depth:
That final rep the place you’re attempting as onerous as you may, and also you barely make it! That’s what activates the expansion mechanism in your physique. That final virtually not possible rep the place you’re bearing your enamel, you’re shaking throughout, you want help! That rep may be very particular, that rep may be very totally different. There’s one thing particular happening inside your physique when that occurs.
Scientific analysis has verified this declare. In my interview with bodybuilding coach Paul Carter, he defined the idea of “mechanical pressure” as what stimulates muscle progress. As you get nearer to failure with a carry, your muscle fibers begin experiencing extra mechanical pressure. You recognize once you’re attaining mechanical pressure if the motion of the carry begins slowing down and feeling onerous. These reps are the “stimulating reps.” They’re those that start a cascade of alerts in your physique to begin rising extra muscle tissue.
To make sure you obtain ample depth, the actions in your lifts have to be managed. Elevate and decrease the load easily and slowly, with out jerks or sudden actions. You don’t need to add any momentum to the carry, making it simpler. A typical cadence of high-intensity practitioners is 2-2-4. Two seconds on the concentric a part of the carry, a two-second pause, and 4 seconds on the eccentric a part of the carry.
To extend depth, Mentzer advocated issues like “pre-exhausting” a muscle group, utilizing assisted lifting (the place you may have somebody enable you to with the ultimate reps), and holding the load regular at totally different factors within the carry. All of those strategies have been designed to assist a bodybuilder get nearer to failure sooner.
The massive takeaway from this precept is that to stimulate muscle progress, you could do every train till failure. It’s bought to be Heavy Obligation, child.
Low Period (or Low Quantity)
The massive draw of the Heavy Obligation technique is the low quantity you do.
When you can obtain mechanical pressure with a excessive or a low variety of reps, it’s simpler to attain the depth essential for mechanical pressure with the latter.
For those who’re utilizing lighter weight, you’ll should do extra reps earlier than your muscle mass begin stepping into mechanical pressure. Consequently, you’ll expertise extra fatigue, making it more durable to maintain up the muscle-building depth of your lifts.
For those who’re utilizing heavier weight, you are able to do fewer reps whereas leaping into the depth wanted to create mechanical pressure sooner.
Consider it like this: if you happen to’re doing bicep curls with 10-pound dumbbells, it might take you 50 reps to attain the depth wanted for muscle-building mechanical pressure, and also you would possibly get fatigued earlier than you even attain that time. For those who’re curling 50-pound dumbbells, you would possibly obtain mechanical pressure in simply 3 reps, saving you fatigue and time.
Mentzer figured you could possibly use that saved time for finding out philosophy or artwork.
As talked about above, Mentzer’s philosophy in direction of quantity advanced because the years handed. When he first introduced Heavy Obligation, he prescribed 1 to 2 units of 6 to eight reps for every train, performed to failure. For those who might get to 12 reps in a set, you wanted to extend the load by 10%, drop your reps again down to six, and begin working your means again up with the reps at that new weight.
So what does that appear like?
Let’s say you’re coaching your quads; a Mentzer-style Heavy Obligation program would possibly appear like this:
Leg extensions: 2 units, performed to failure Squats: 1 set, performed to failure Leg press: 1 set, performed to failure
That’s 4 complete units for the quads.
A high-volume exercise might need you doing 4 units of every train, supplying you with 12 complete units in your quads.
4 units in comparison with 12 units. You possibly can see why Heavy Obligation is taken into account a low-volume program.
Within the Nineteen Nineties, Mentzer developed Heavy Obligation II, which proposed exercises the place you solely did a single set for a complete muscle group. One prompt program seemed like this:
Exercise 1
Squats: 1 set, performed to failureShut-grip, palms-up pulldowns: 1 set, performed to failureDips: 1 set, performed to failure
Exercise 2
Deadlift: 1 set, performed to failurePresses behind neck: 1 set, performed to failureStanding calf raises: 1 set, performed to failure
That’s it.
As talked about above, most bodybuilders assume Mentzer bought issues proper in his earlier model of Heavy Obligation. The scientific analysis appears to substantiate Mentzer’s authentic quantity suggestions.
In line with Paul Carter, analysis means that, on the whole, past doing 8 units to failure per week per muscle group, there’s little to no profit to including quantity. For those who’re doing greater than that, you’re simply needlessly fatiguing your self. Whereas one set to failure per week will present stimulus for muscle progress, it’s possible not sufficient for max hypertrophy. In line with Paul, the analysis means that 3 units every week per muscle group appears to be the ground for hypertrophic beneficial properties.
Nonetheless, some bodybuilders and a few analysis suggests that you just get extra hypertrophic progress with extra quantity. Like within the 12-20 units per muscle group per week vary.
Which one is it? It’s been a subject of debate for a very long time.
Bros have been debating quantity on the bodybuilding.com boards 20 years in the past. They’re nonetheless yelling at one another about it on TikTok stitches at this time. They’ll most likely have flame wars about quantity on some 3D digital actuality platform 20 years from now.
So long as you carry to failure, doing both excessive or low quantity goes to work high quality for rising muscle for the common dude, so go along with whichever methodology you favor. The massive benefit of going the low quantity route is you could get swole in much less time.
Low Frequency
Restoration was an important a part of Mentzer’s Heavy Obligation philosophy as a result of restoration is when our muscle mass develop from the stimulus of weight lifting. To maximise restoration, Mentzer advocated for considerably spacing out one’s exercises. In probably the most excessive model of Heavy Obligation, he prescribed doing 1 to 2 units for a muscle group simply as soon as every week. The opposite six days could be used for restoration.
The analysis is blended on whether or not low frequency helps or hurts hypertrophy. One meta-analysis confirmed that so long as you get in sufficient done-to-failure units for a given muscle group throughout every week, it doesn’t matter if you happen to prepare a few times every week.
So, let’s say you purpose to do 6 units per week in your chest, once more making 6-8 reps per set the best vary, typically going as much as as many as 12 as you get stronger, earlier than growing the load by 10% and going again down to six reps per set.
You would have a chest day the place you get all 6 units for the week in that single exercise.
It might appear like this:
Fly deck: 2 units, performed to failureIncline bench press: 2 units, performed to failureCable crossover: 2 units, performed to failure
You’d then do your chest day once more every week later.
You would additionally cut up up these 6 units over 2 exercises, like so:
Exercise 1
Flydeck: 2 units, performed to failureIncline bench: 1 set, performed to failure
Exercise 2
Cable crossover: 2 units, performed to failureBench press: 1 set, performed to failure
In line with the meta-analysis referenced above, both breakdown could be high quality.
However one other latest research means that coaching a muscle group greater than as soon as every week has extra advantages than simply coaching it as soon as every week, even when the whole units are the identical.
I couldn’t discover any robust settlement on frequency amongst bodybuilders. It typically got here down to non-public choice. So long as you’re getting your quantity between 3 to eight units every week for a given muscle group, how often you prepare will depend on what you need to do.
Progressive Overload
For Mentzer, progressive overload is how you recognize if this system is working. For those who can add reps to a set earlier than you hit failure or add weight every exercise, the diversifications in your muscle mass that may assist drive hypertrophy are occurring.
One factor Mentzer identified is that on the subject of muscle progress, power comes first. You’ll discover your self getting stronger earlier than you discover your self getting larger. That’s as a result of we purchase neural diversifications that enable us to carry heavier sooner than we create muscle tissue. Anticipate it to take a number of months earlier than you begin seeing noticeable will increase in muscle measurement.
How I’m Utilizing Heavy Obligation Rules in My Coaching
I’ve integrated among the huge ideas from Mentzer’s Heavy Obligation philosophy into my coaching. I’m coaching to failure utilizing a weight that permits me to finish round 8 reps earlier than failure. That’s been probably the most vital Mentzer affect on my coaching.
When it comes to quantity, I purpose to get 6 to eight units per muscle group per week. It’s not the tremendous low quantity of Mentzer’s Heavy Obligation II, however extra according to his authentic Heavy Obligation technique.
Concerning frequency, I do an higher/decrease cut up the place I prepare my higher physique on Monday and Thursday and my decrease physique on Tuesday and Friday. So I break up my units for every muscle group throughout two exercises every week.
And every exercise, I attempt to add reps or weight so I’m getting the progressive overload in.
It’s been enjoyable studying extra about hypertrophy and muscle progress. Whereas I don’t assume Mentzer bought every part proper, he’s served as a gateway for me into the attention-grabbing world of high-intensity coaching. I’ve actually been having fun with it and am trying ahead to experimenting and studying extra.
To be taught extra about hypertrophy and learn how to develop your muscle mass, hearken to our podcast with Paul Carter:
