When one thinks of bodybuilding, the picture that comes to one’s mind usually involves a jacked person sweating it out at the gym. Intense exercises for prolonged periods have always had the impression of resulting in bigger muscles. Mike Mentzer, however, had other ideas.
During his days as a bodybuilding champion, the legend introduced his style of working out. This involved applying logic and science to a regular gym routine. But the results were astounding, to say the least.
Mentzer pioneered the one-set-to-failure technique, where the bodybuilder just performed one set but pushed hard to ensure that the last rep forced the muscle to failure. This, according to the icon, cut down on training time and consequently reduced the risk of injury. However, unlike what the popular idea suggests, working out itself did not cause muscle growth, according to a resurfaced video of his.
“You have to understand that the workout doesn’t produce the increase, as Arthur Jones pointed out brilliantly years ago.”
Actual muscle growth, according to Mentzer and his inspiration, Arthur Jones, comes from recovery. In fact, workouts only carry the risk of injury if performed for long periods with high intensity.
“If the rest period is not sufficiently long, i.e., if there are any more sets or any more workouts conducted or performed in a given unit of time than required to stimulate the increase, to that extent you overtrain, you will hamper and possibly prevent the production of the increase.”
The reason why a single set works is because it gives you the perfect balance of intensity and rest, thus enabling muscle growth. It takes a lot of patience and doesn’t come in overnight.
Mentzer championed his method over others, so much so that he would go forth and make bold claims about his signature routines over others.
Mike Mentzer cried over the waste of resources over generic bodybuilding techniques
Following Jones’ principles, Mentzer put forth the idea of training at a higher intensity for shorter periods. His claims were backed by tons of research and development. So much so that he strongly felt that he could convince scientists of the efficiency of his methods.
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However, when it came to viewing generic bodybuilding training techniques that involved multiple sets, Mentzer slammed them. He claimed they wasted the body’s resources and only increased the chances of injury. Given how we now know that muscle growth takes place only during recovery, it further proves how profound Mentzer’s ways were.
