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How often did Mike Mentzer train
Posted by: Paul
Mike Mentzer Workout Frequency
How often did Mike Mentzer workout? It's a question I get asked all the time. Now if you do an internet search you will get the answer that Mike Mentzer used a 4 way split and took 3 to 4 recovery days between workouts, hitting each body part only twice a month. And I say that is bulls**t!
Forgive me but I'm a bit semantic, but when someone asks "How often did Mike Mentzer train?", it means to me how often did Mike Mentzer himself workout, not what frequency did Mike Mentzer recommend in his final book Heavy Duty 2: Mind and Body. And I am pretty sure they want to know about the way Mike Mentzer trained when he was at his best, when he won the Mr. Universe with a perfect score, or come very close to winning the Mr. Olympia - looking massive and ripped.
So that is what I am going to answer, how often did Mike Mentzer workout when he was still competing in bodybuilding and what split and workout frequency gave his his best gains.
When Mike Mentzer won the Mr. America he was training 3 days a week doing his full body each workout, so he trained Monday, rested Tuesday, trained Wednesday, rested Thursday, trained Friday and rested Saturday and Sunday.
Full body workouts were too fatiguing so he switched to a two way split of Legs, Chest and Triceps on Mondays and Thursdays, Back, Shoulders and Biceps on Tuesday and Fridays, with Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays as rest days.
As he grew stronger he started taking 1 or 2 days off after each and every workout, so he might train half his body Monday take Tuesday off, train the other half of his body Wednesday, take Thursday and Friday off and on Saturday go back to the first half of his body, etc. The rest days weren't fixed he would take at least 1 day of full rest between workouts, but if he felt he needed 2 days, or more, he take them. You can see he was hitting each body part once or twice every week. This was the training frequency and workout routine that gave him his best gains.
Now remember Mike Mentzer had superior genetics for bodybuilding and used steroids when he was getting ready for a contest. After he retired from bodybuilding he became a personal training and explored what training frequency worked for people with poor genetics for bodybuilding and slow recovery abilities, and came up with the Heavy Duty 2 workout routine.
Now you know the truth about "how often did Mike Mentzer train", but now it's up to discover through trial and error exercise how often YOU should workout for you own body and your own personal recovery ability.
For full details on Mike Menzer Heavy Duty Training see the Mike Mentzer workout Video.
If you have any questions about Mike Mentzer, High Intensity Training or Diet email me and I'll get back to you with an answer as quick as I can.
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