Mentzer’s training style IMO definitely has it’s place now and again in one’s arsenal. I’ve made some very quick gains in strength and size training high intensity and using static contractions. Do I think that it’s “the only way to train” ? No. However, it is quick and somewhat enjoyable. Personally I found that it wasn’t any good after about 3 weeks or so i terms of progress and not enough to stimulate my legs. Overall I’d recommend you try it.
I’ve used it with some sucess but what I would do is conduct an internet search on Arthur Jones. He is who Mentzer took alot of ideas from. Mentzer just capitalized on it. I agree also that it never really did much for my legs. Check out Dorian Yates “Blood and Guts”. Sick stuff.
Mentzer always used philosophy as a validation for his training methods.
It made his really foundation-lacking training theories seem more profound and well sought.
From my experience I found HIT was just a simplification of the glorified BB mags routines. And a good catch, because people following the “Champions” routines will do 20 sets to failure for each bodypart twice a week, with forced reps, supersets, etc. So when people are showed HIT they get hooked, little time at the gym and more results…not because they are getting better, just because they have cut 20 times what they were doing so their bodies are somewhat returning to a normal state…
(i say this based on the fact that most people that i know that tried HIT did it after getting frustrated with Muscle mags routines…)
To be fair some people like Poliquin had said it works, but just for three weeks or so. But I found that even if training to absolute failure can give some results ( too litle for me…)the fried CNS and adrenal exhaustion that creates affects my everyday life too much to consider it a training option.
Like Warhorse said Metzer’s stuff definitely has its place. I tried the one rep failure concept a year and a bit ago for a month and I do remember gaining 50 lbs strength in the close grip lat pull downs. I can’t remember my other strength gains in the other areas, but I do believe they were comparable. Granted this is not something to do all the time but it is a good switch up. I achieved this without using any anabolic assistance either.
I love reading someone elses approach to the whole topic - don’t have to agree with them - but it’s still interesting.
I like his concepts on rest and recovery …
I know many of you say you can’t gain on his pronciples - but what I can’t figure out is - if you can’t - How did he??? and don’t say all thanks to the tabs of Russian Dbol …
One thing that Mentzer always conveniently avoided mentioning was that he built 95% of his physique using traditional sets and reps. He was already a Mr. America and Mr. Universe (if memory serves) when he developed his HIT stuff. Same thing with Yates.
Also, anyone with his genetics will grow using pretty much any routine. It simply doesn’t matter that much.