The legendary bodybuilder, Mike Mentzer has been an inspiration to fitness enthusiasts for decades. The way his techniques prioritized intensity over several sets, many witnessed a difference in their approach. The late bodybuilder’s routines have been followed to date by bodybuilders who wish to grow their muscles effectively with the help of heavy-intensity training.
In a recently resurfaced video, Mentzer slammed bodybuilders who trained their calves in the wrong manner. The calf muscles are one of the most crucial sets of muscles in the lower body. They are responsible for carrying our whole body weight and it consists of two primary muscles, the gastrocnemius, and the soleus.
Mentzer, in the video, mentions that calves are stubborn because we run, walk, and climb stairs. Therefore, they need more work is the most ridiculous argument of all. This routine however never sat well with the veteran. He believed that the only natural route to efficient training was the heavy-duty routine.
“If overtraining is the problem, how can overtraining be the solution? What the calves require is not more work but a radically different type of work.”
Furthermore, the late bodybuilder suggests that the calves require less work than every other body part, not more. Mentzer furiously mentions that if you consider overtraining as the problem and you’re suggesting more training as the solution, that’s like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.
“What the calves require is very intense heavy training. Because they’re already overtrained you got to be very careful.”
Therefore, Calf muscles can be trained in a variety of ways, like bodyweight workouts, weight training, and resistance bands. And what Menzter suggests to fitness enthusiasts is to follow a heavy-duty routine for the muscles. While suggesting how to train the calves, Mentzer also recently debunked the biggest myths of bodybuilding in a resurfaced video.
Not longer hours of gym time, but this is what Mike Mentzer believed helps in muscle growth
The perfect workout need not always mean grinding in the gym for hours to the point of overdoing it. Mike Mentzer, one of the most celebrated icons in bodybuilding stands by this idea.
Mentzer coined the one-set-to-failure technique, where the individual omits his exercise to just one set rep but uses maximum intensity for the last rep to the point of making the muscle to failure. He accounted this routine for a lesser risk of injury and time.
“You have to understand that the workout doesn’t produce the increase, as Arthur Jones pointed out brilliantly years ago.”
The reason why they are effective is because they strike the perfect balance between rest and intensity, boosting muscle growth. He also added it takes a lot of patience to master it and isn’t achievable overnight.
