I'm 52 in May. I listened to a Mike Mentzer speech video about 15 months ago, and began high-intensity training. I have never seen better results. I was the goon who would train 4-5 times a week and do 22 sets! on the same exercise, and saw little to no results. May God Rest Mike Mentzer! ✝️ I pray for him, often, for what he's done for me!
I'm 49. No kid in his 20es can do a leg workout with me in my gym without being sick. Getlemen, work hard, and enjoy your life. We have still many good years ahead.
Never mind 50 - I'm in my 70s and have suffered chronic ME for 40 years and I'm still able to train intensively with Timed Static Contraction (TSC). I've also devised a TSC programme for my mother who is 92 and it's helping her preserve muscle. It's all about attitude. If you believe you can't do it, you're right. If you believe you can, you're also right. TSC is the ideal approach, or HIT if you'll really only trust dynamic work. Forget everything else - these are the safest and most time-effective methods.
There is NO better way to train for 50yo newbies than this. 1 - no time loss with treadmill, training with no effort and such 2 - no injuries 3 - no 3 hours a day in the gym (At 50yo you must have a busy schedule, Maybe a family, more important things to take care of)
Will be 52 soon. I like using Rest Pause too and other intensity techniques. I think the single most important aspect of HIT is the intensity - very hard to understand, a very subtle concept - I know I'm on the right path when I control weight in the negative, and thus can progressively increase weight or reps over time in a healthy and safe way. My strength and muscle gains are climbing up better than when I did a lot of junk volume.
Clarence Bass is rocking his 80s. Jacked with a grandpa face He’s a HIT guy. Don’t know his current frequency but it’s not more than a few times a week. His diet is devoid of processed foods. Can’t say the same here 😢 I’m aware of the big 5. It’s fairly comprehensive.
48 years old here. My workout is 1) Machine chest press, 2) Close grip pulldowns or chins, 3) Machine shoulder press, 4) Barbell curls, 5) Tricep pressdowns, 6) Leg press - all done for one set to failure after warmups, once, or sometimes twice a week. I'm much stronger than most men I know who are in their twenties and I train once a week for under an hour. This is not rocket science.
He is 100 % right , my wife and I cook at home lower carb all organic I'm 64 been doing HIT for almost 3 years now , it's been great for my strength, health and appearance, I use only machines except arms , I go 2 x a week I do full body , my first excersize is a seated lat pull down I use that as a kind of warm up I use moderate weight - then everything else is one set to failure, I then end with the lat pull and go all out -
At the beginning of HIT, I think it is good to do additional sets, rest-pause, drop sets, etc. I think that intensity is a skill, and it takes a while to get good at actually using a high intensity. If you are needing to sleep all day after your workout, back off the volume! And that last failure rep should be a grind, taking 15 or more seconds. If your muscles just instantly give out give yourself more recovery time.
Agreed. I tried this once a year ago, It definitely took some getting used to , doing 1 set to failure. I did about 2 or 3 sets just trying to get used to it. It's very exhausting. The rest pause method actually worked out better for me. I would take 12 breaths in-between each set.
I'm 50. 51 in June and do Mike Mentzer style training. Better for the joints and I make very good gaines this way. Admittedly I'm also on trt to keep my hormones in check.
When training a muscle 1 x week on a PPL split is it better to have an A/B exercise selection for each muscle and rotate those every week hitting the same exercise every 2 weeks like in DC training or better to stick to the same exercises weekly for a while then switch them a few mesocycles later?
I'm seeing massive gains in my legs folliwing Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty II program but after 9 months, my biceps haven't grown much. Do i need to add another set of the curls or add more weight (I fail at 8 reps w/55lbs and with 8 second reps)???
I experienced low bicep growth too and what i did was do 2 rest pause (20 seconds resting) sets after the main set, it's brutal and there's no way you bicep will not grow. In fact, this technique will do it for any lagging muscle group. Edit: do not ever think of do it for all muscle groups if you want to sleep at night!
Why 4 movements for upper body and only 1 for lower body? Hip strength is one of the primary losses as we age. I would think a squat variation and a deadlift variation would be ideal.
Jay said it isn’t optimal and just a starting point, and you can add stuff if you like. The big six also is this routine with the addition of a hip hinge
He’s talking about a new guy in his 50’s. Just starting out. I’ve been doing his routine for about 5 months. I’m 64. I made more gains in those five months than years of training. When I see adds come up for other training methods for exercise, I have the adds removed from my feed. I don’t even want to see them. For my legs I do leg extensions to absolute failure. I stagger when I first get off the machine. Same with hamstrings. I don’t do squats. I alternate in leg extensions every couple of weeks. I once felt a tinge of anger at the time lost with programs formed around false data. But it went away just by having good data. I was a football player up into college and a former Marine grunt, nobody will ever convince me to do anything else. If a conversation was started with me about this? I would just change the subject. The hardest part for me was filling in the excess time as I had been working so hard for so long. It’s a loosing battle that cannot be won. The most important key, I can’t stress this enough, is absolutely…the recovery time. Pushing to true failure, is so taxing on the central nervous system and muscular stress. At first I had to go every 5 days. My body just wasn’t ready. Now I go every four days. A couple of times, due to work or family things, I went once a week. That was where I showed the most strength gain. It was so alien to me. This is just me, but if you plateau…do a crushing, brutal, single set routine to failure. Give it everything you have. Throw in a drop set if you think you can get just a tiny bit more. Then don’t work out again for 7 to 10 days. Watch what happens to you.
