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 nowadays. Or maybe the algorithm thinks I’d recognize Mentzer’s superior mustache since its majesty rivals my very own.
Regardless of the motive, because of Instagram, I’ve been studying loads about Mike Mentzer and his iconoclastic coaching philosophy that he referred to as “Heavy Responsibility.”
The younger bros on social media are completely bonkers about Heavy Responsibility. 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 Seventies hair and stache gave him numerous cool cache. On high of that, he introduced a uncommon philosophical bent to bodybuilding. His tear-drop spectacles evinced his bookish persona, and he beloved finding out and discussing totally different faculties of thought (notably Ayn Rand’s Objectivism), artwork, and listening to good music. For lots of fellows, this mixture of brains and brawn actually represents the best of manhood.
However Mentzer’s Heavy Responsibility program is getting a whole lot of hype nowadays on social media as a result of it guarantees distinctive muscle development by doubtlessly solely doing a single set of workouts per physique half per week.
Mentzer’s concept that you would get hypertrophic development with rare and quick exercises flew within the face of the bodybuilding orthodoxy of the Seventies and 80s. Throughout that point, excessive quantity was king. Bodybuilders again then, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, educated for 2 hours, twice a day, each day. The aim was to slam your muscle mass with double-digit units to stimulate development.
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 Responsibility, 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 Responsibility
The very first thing to level out is that Heavy Responsibility isn’t a completely distinctive coaching philosophy. It’s a variation of high-intensity coaching wherein 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 Responsibility philosophy advanced over time. Most bodybuilders (and plenty of sports activities scientists) assume Mentzer’s early model of Heavy Responsibility received a whole lot of issues proper. Nonetheless, Mentzer turned extra excessive along with his views as he received nearer to his demise, notably concerning quantity and frequency.
It ought to be identified that Mentzer had genetics that made him well-suited to bodybuilding, and he achieved his physique partly by using anabolic steroids. However he thought his really useful lifting regimens equally utilized to common, drug-free people who wished to realize their pure muscular potential.
Excessive Depth
Depth is the important thing to Heavy Responsibility. 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 share 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 development. And also you solely know in case you’re attending to 100% exertion by lifting till failure.
Mentzer on depth:
That final rep the place you’re making an attempt as arduous as you possibly can, and also you barely make it! That’s what activates the expansion mechanism in your physique. That final nearly not possible rep the place you’re bearing your tooth, 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 rigidity” as what stimulates muscle development. As you get nearer to failure with a raise, your muscle fibers begin experiencing extra mechanical rigidity. You realize once you’re reaching mechanical rigidity if the motion of the raise begins slowing down and feeling arduous. These reps are the “stimulating reps.” They’re those that start a cascade of alerts in your physique to start out rising extra muscle tissue.
To make sure you obtain ample depth, the actions in your lifts must be managed. Raise and decrease the burden easily and slowly, with out jerks or sudden actions. You don’t wish to add any momentum to the raise, making it simpler. A typical cadence of high-intensity practitioners is 2-2-4. Two seconds on the concentric a part of the raise, a two-second pause, and 4 seconds on the eccentric a part of the raise.
To extend depth, Mentzer advocated issues like “pre-exhausting” a muscle group, utilizing assisted lifting (the place you’ve somebody assist you with the ultimate reps), and holding the burden regular at totally different factors within the raise. All of those strategies had been designed to assist a bodybuilder get nearer to failure quicker.
The massive takeaway from this precept is that to stimulate muscle development, it’s essential to do every train till failure. It’s received to be Heavy Responsibility, child.
Low Period (or Low Quantity)
The massive draw of the Heavy Responsibility methodology is the low quantity you do.
Whilst you can obtain mechanical rigidity with a excessive or a low variety of reps, it’s simpler to realize the depth mandatory for mechanical rigidity with the latter.
For those who’re utilizing lighter weight, you’ll must do extra reps earlier than your muscle mass begin entering into mechanical rigidity. 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 rigidity sooner.
Consider it like this: in case you’re doing bicep curls with 10-pound dumbbells, it might take you 50 reps to realize the depth wanted for muscle-building mechanical rigidity, and also you may get fatigued earlier than you even attain that time. For those who’re curling 50-pound dumbbells, you may obtain mechanical rigidity in simply 3 reps, saving you fatigue and time.
Mentzer figured you would use that saved time for finding out philosophy or artwork.
As talked about above, Mentzer’s philosophy in the direction of quantity advanced because the years handed. When he first introduced Heavy Responsibility, he prescribed 1 to 2 units of 6 to eight reps for every train, accomplished to failure. For those who might get to 12 reps in a set, you wanted to extend the burden by 10%, drop your reps again down to six, and begin working your approach again up with the reps at that new weight.
So what does that appear to be?
Let’s say you’re coaching your quads; a Mentzer-style Heavy Responsibility program may appear to be this:
- Leg extensions: 2 units, accomplished to failure
- Squats: 1 set, accomplished to failure
- Leg press: 1 set, accomplished to failure
That’s 4 complete units for the quads.
A high-volume exercise might need you doing 4 units of every train, providing you with 12 complete units to your quads.
4 units in comparison with 12 units. You may see why Heavy Responsibility is taken into account a low-volume program.
Within the Nineties, Mentzer developed Heavy Responsibility II, which proposed exercises the place you solely did a single set for a whole muscle group. One instructed program seemed like this:
Exercise 1
- Squats: 1 set, accomplished to failure
- Shut-grip, palms-up pulldowns: 1 set, accomplished to failure
- Dips: 1 set, accomplished to failure
Exercise 2
- Deadlift: 1 set, accomplished to failure
- Presses behind neck: 1 set, accomplished to failure
- Standing calf raises: 1 set, accomplished to failure
That’s it.
As talked about above, most bodybuilders assume Mentzer received issues proper in his earlier model of Heavy Responsibility. The scientific analysis appears to substantiate Mentzer’s authentic quantity suggestions.
In response to 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 development, it’s seemingly not sufficient for max hypertrophy. In response to Paul, the analysis means that 3 units every week per muscle group appears to be the ground for hypertrophic positive factors.
Nonetheless, some bodybuilders and a few analysis suggests that you just get extra hypertrophic development 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 had 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 as we speak. They’ll most likely have flame wars about quantity on some 3D digital actuality platform 20 years from now.
So long as you raise to failure, doing both excessive or low quantity goes to work wonderful for rising muscle for the typical dude, so go together with whichever methodology you favor. The massive benefit of going the low quantity route is which you can get swole in much less time.
Low Frequency
Restoration was a necessary a part of Mentzer’s Heavy Responsibility 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 Responsibility, he prescribed doing 1 to 2 units for a muscle group simply as soon as every week. The opposite six days can be used for restoration.
The analysis is combined 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 in case you prepare a few times every week.
So, let’s say you goal to do 6 units per week to 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 burden by 10% and going again down to six reps per set.
You may have a chest day the place you get all 6 units for the week in that single exercise.
It might appear to be this:
- Fly deck: 2 units, accomplished to failure
- Incline bench press: 2 units, accomplished to failure
- Cable crossover: 2 units, accomplished to failure
You’d then do your chest day once more every week later.
You may additionally cut up up these 6 units over 2 exercises, like so:
Exercise 1
- Flydeck: 2 units, accomplished to failure
- Incline bench: 1 set, accomplished to failure
Exercise 2
- Cable crossover: 2 units, accomplished to failure
- Bench press: 1 set, accomplished to failure
In response to the meta-analysis referenced above, both breakdown can be wonderful.
However one other latest examine 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 full units are the identical.
I couldn’t discover any robust settlement on frequency amongst bodybuilders. It usually got here down to private choice. So long as you’re getting your quantity between 3 to eight units every week for a given muscle group, how continuously you prepare will depend on what you wish to do.
Progressive Overload
For Mentzer, progressive overload is how you already know 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 can assist drive hypertrophy are occurring.
One factor Mentzer identified is that on the subject of muscle development, energy comes first. You’ll discover your self getting stronger earlier than you discover your self getting greater. That’s as a result of we purchase neural diversifications that enable us to raise heavier quicker than we create muscle tissue. Count on it to take a number of months earlier than you begin seeing noticeable will increase in muscle dimension.
How I’m Utilizing Heavy Responsibility Rules in My Coaching
I’ve included a number of the massive rules from Mentzer’s Heavy Responsibility 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.
By way of quantity, I goal to get 6 to eight units per muscle group per week. It’s not the tremendous low quantity of Mentzer’s Heavy Responsibility II, however extra consistent with his authentic Heavy Responsibility methodology.
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 development. Whereas I don’t assume Mentzer received 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 wanting ahead to experimenting and studying extra.
To study extra about hypertrophy and methods to develop your muscle mass, take heed to our podcast with Paul Carter:
