“Bodybuilding Is Not Aerobic”: Mike Mentzer Once Slammed ‘Knucklehead’ Fitness Freaks on Their Gym Routine

With a successful history of changing the perspective of the fitness world to living a tragically short life, Mike Mentzer went down as a game-changer in the bodybuilding world. The icon founded the heavy-duty training technique inspired by Arthur Jones’ high-intensity training and grew famous for its effectiveness. However, he had made some bold claims about other training techniques during his prime.

For Mentzer, volume training was ineffective. It only meant that the individual spent too much time at the gym performing multiple sets that held no value. Instead, he believed in less time spent with increased intensity in every step.

“Bodybuilding workout is not an endurance contest. Remember, bodybuilding is not aerobic, it’s anaerobic.”

However, there was a catch to this theory. While Mentzer had always stressed the use of intensity and promoted the act of pushing oneself to failure in the gym, he firmly believed that everything had its limits. The ideal heavy-duty workout was a fine balance between intensity and knowing when to stop.

“You should go into the gym like an intelligent, rational, logical human being. Not to prove you’re a macho dummy with the idea more is better, or less is better. You should go into the gym and do only the precise amount of exercise required by nature.”

The key to finding out the precise amount of intensity lies in learning the science behind bodybuilding. Mentzer retorted that staying on any end of the spectrum, be it doing too many sets across every single training day to doing too few sets across selected days, is going to be detrimental.

Citing the example of going under the knife, the late icon explained how heavy-duty training resembled receiving the precise amount of anesthesia for any medical procedure. One wouldn’t want the doctor to inject too much or too little of the chemical. Similarly, the intensity while performing exercises should be precise and right in the middle.

“Exercise science, being a branch of medical science…in this particular instance where life and death is obviously the issue, it is very easy to see, or grasp, why scientific precision is so crucially important.”

Mike Mentzer once revealed the reality behind muscle growth in heavy-duty training

The late veteran has often spoken about how he divided heavy-duty training into two parts – active workout and recovery period. While both held equal value in a routine, they played different roles in contributing to muscle growth.

According to Mentzer, active exercises did not directly lead to growth. They only stimulated the conditions necessary for the muscles to grow big. The real work took place during recovery periods, where the body would heal and strengthen during rest. This induced the growth. Theories like this are the reason why bodybuilders still follow the icon’s techniques to build muscles.