Bodybuilding has several approaches laid out in front of an athlete to get gains and definitions with each path being different. Mike Mentzer had always sworn by his high-intensity training technique for his clients. However, he would always warn them of some rules to adhere to, one of them being about extended sets.
Generally, Mentzer was not a fan of spending too much time in the gym, where individuals might waste away hours working out. Instead, he believed in going all in on one set, with extreme intensity, to switch on the growth mechanism.
In a resurfaced video posted by Heavy Duty College, he talked about the downsides of extended sets and how people still made the mistake of performing them with hopes of gains. The idea of an extended set was to primarily increase endurance by going to failure in a regressive pattern with each set.
Mentzer wasn’t supportive of this, describing how he would see people go to failure first, remove an arbitrary amount of weight, and then go to failure again. He believed that this completely destroyed the purpose of gains and focused more on endurance.
“This is not a method of intensifying the effort but of extending the effort. Therefore, it is more of an endurance training technique…”
Mentzer also highlighted that the practice of going to failure multiple times with various weights would bring in anything but favorable results. The effects of this practice would lead to counterproductive consequences since it hinders the growth mechanism.
“Any exercise carried on beyond what is required to achieve the goal of flipping on the growth machinery is precisely what constitutes overtraining.”
All that being said, Mentzer has never discouraged his clients from pushing their boundaries beyond limits. Adding one extra rep to their normal routine could actually help in growing muscles.
Mike Mentzer once urged to go for the one ‘Impossible’ rep
If the goal is to build muscles and grow in size, one cannot afford to stick to a fixed number of reps and expect change. Stagnancy is common even in high-intensity training, and therefore, it’s crucial to up one’s limits from time to time.
Mentzer talked about this once, where he explained how if one normally performed ten reps, there was no harm in pushing for the eleventh. After a point, muscles need stimulation to grow, and that would come in the form of stretching one’s existing capacity.
