M4:D48 (D348) H.I.T. Bodybuilder – Mike Mentzer

Mentzer liked H.I.T. because he felt it made it possible to avoid over training.  When challenged by others about his approach and how it was not the norm, Mike liked to quote Victor Hugo, who once said "Nothing in this world is so powerful as an idea whose time has come."  Mentzer took the H.I.T. principles espoused by Arthur Jones (inventor of the Nautilus line of equipment) and spelled them out very carefully.  If Mike Mentzer was anything, it was passionate about H.I.T. and the scientific approach to explaining it.  He broke things down into seven principles as follows.

First Principle: Identity

Mike states that your body and mind are unique to you.  This is your identity.  Because everyone is different there is no reason for everyone to train exactly the same way.  H.I.T. allows for this individuality by having you pick weights and intensity levels that give you enough stimulation for you to grow.  I may deadlift 300 pounds, but you might only deadlift 200 pounds.  It doesn't matter as long as we both find the intensity level that causes growth in our muscles. 

Mike taught that you use your mind to determine reality.  By using your reasoning powers you can determine what is right and what is wrong.  Logically training 3 sets on every exercise is just over doing it.  It is extremely easy to understand that taking 1 set to failure is far less training than taking 3 sets to failure.  Thus, when trying to avoid over training, it is clear that 1 set is going to keep you further from over training than 3 sets.

Second Principle: Intensity

This principle states that the harder a person trains, the less time s/he will be able to spend in such training.  Intensity and duration of training exist in an inverse ratio to one another.  You can either train hard or you can train long, but you cannot really do both.  We have already discussed how we can increase the intensity of our workouts.  Using those techniques and hitting your body with high intensity will cause growth.  That's what H.I.T. is all about.

Third Principle: Duration

This is the point where most weight trainers screw up.  They do too many sets and they workout too often.  When you are lifting with intensity you need time to recover.  Mentzer states "With a truly scientific, theoretical approach to exercise, there is no room for the traditional or the arbitrary."  (High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way, p. 45).  The point is clear–don't just stick to the old sacred cows, but be prepared to try some new and different ways of training.  That's how you will achieve results.

Fourth Principle: Frequency

The body can only cope with a limited amount of stress.  Training causes stress on the body.  Once you have used enough intensity to stress the body sufficiently, you need to then leave it alone to recover.  This is why H.I.T. proponents recommend starting out at 3 days a week and if over training signs pop up, back off to 2 days a week.

Fifth Principle: Specificity

"As a rule of thumb, the level of stress must exceed 50 percent of the individual's existing capacity.  The more the stress exceeds the 50 percent level, the greater the rate of improvement.  Therefore, if you wish to achieve the greatest and most rapid improvement that your genetically predetermined capacity will allow, you must exercise at the 100 percent level of your existing functional capacity."  (High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way, p. 60)  In order to induce specific changes you must hit 100 percent intensity and you must use very specific plans of attack.

Sixth Principle: Adaptation

Muscle growth is the body's way of adapting to the stress you are putting on it through exercise.  At the same time, the body will "get used to" the workouts you throw at it unless you do something to force it to continue to adapt.  This is done (in H.I.T.) by continually increasing the load pushed during a specific exercise.  Progression is the concept that helps keep the body growing.

Seventh Principle:  Progression

In order to continually grow something in your workout must progressively change.  If it is the repetitions or the weight lifted, something has to be changing constantly.  Mentzer was a huge believer in this concept.  He spent alot of time teaching on this concept. 

Conclusion

Mentzer preached the H.I.T. concepts to everyone that would listen.  He is partially responsible for Dorian Yates training using the H.I.T. methods.  He took a very scientific approach to H.I.T., studying it from many different angles.  He practiced H.I.T. principles until the day he died of heart disease (genetic in his family).