Mike Mentzers workout A on page 130 of the incredible HEAVY DUTY II MIND AND BODY. Is the greatest routine of ALLTIME as far as im concerned. All major muscle groups hit. With just 3 exercises once a week. I put on 16lbs of muscle in 9 months with this. SQUATS/DEADLIFTS (SWAP EVERY WEEK) PALMS UP CLOSE GRIP PULLDOWNS DIPS And got strong. The pulldowns made my biceps fill out and grow like no barbell or dumbell curl ever did. They even developed my upper pecs better than any incline press. Mentzer was a genius. I will forever be grateful for his dogmatic push to get the truth about intensity, volume and frequency across.
I did pulldowns last week for the first time ever and felt my forearms and biceps get super worked and I thought to myself I wonder if I even should do forearm or bicep work? Did your forearms grow as well
@@sirvaant I need direct forearm work. But my biceps have gotten bigger. I suffer from small wrist, and small forearm insertions so even if I get my forearms up to standard I will still have tiny arms. Heavy duty did put 30 pounds on me in 2 months.
I started training after a layoff when I was 21 using M. Mentzer's Heavy Duty 2, which was a 3 way "bro-split" with a 1 on 2 off frequency, with every muscle being trained once every 9 days to failure, with 3 sets per bigger muscles and one per smaller, and I exploded in size with a decrease in body fat. These days, in my 40's I respond better to training every muscle twice per 7 days.
I'm 42 and took my full body routine that I was doing 3x per week and split it in half one at the beginning and one towards the end I trained each exercise in HIT fashion slow and controlled that week I ate in a calorie surplus for 5 days weighed in on the 6th day and to my surprise I lost two lbs. my muscles felt fuller could it be I peeled off fat and gained some muscle I would think so
I am a believer in Body By Science. I have tried to go back to the gym due to training angst and after one set realized that my body wasn't ready. I took from the book that listening to your body and having an understanding of how my body works gives me the best results.
Would like to hear you get a nice clip on mic so we could hear you much clearer. What you say is much more important than watching. You are the best and want more.
Understandable, If you work with 100% intesity, its impossible to use this type of workout many times per week! If your intesity drops, you can add volume and frequency and so on... same with running.. You can jog every day.. but sprint? No way!! You can sprint max twice per week. Maximum! Otherwise, you can get hurt and be overtrain...Actually, I have a great experience to sprint only 1x week with great results! Other days are rest, light tempo work and weightlifting. I do not know any world class sprinter who sprint with max more than 2, rather 1x. HIT is the same....
It's great that Doug acknowledged Jay Vincent. Jay started his journey with Doug's Body by Science I believe and then eventually found Drew Baye. Fortunately Jay is starting to become nicer about HIT advocating. But the damage he has done to his own reputation by calling people morons for training with Volume has already been done.
I like Jay Vicent because his the one that started me doing H.I.T, Besides is more engaging the Drew (very monótone tone of voice). What I don't like is that his name calling other people. That shows a lot of disrespect for other human beings. He could just do like Mike Israelti, doing reaction videos without name calling.
Fantastic video Dr Doug, another tool in the toolbox that's certainly worth a try. Thanks so much for the time and effort to produce and make these videos available, much appreciated
Thanks! I use your HIIT system and have had great results. One comment regarding the videos. They are hard to watch and to see what you are doing due to the fish bowl effect of the camera (shot w a go pro?) This is especially true if I’m out and about viewing them on my phone. Maybe recording with a regular camera or using a smart phone would be better? Ciao!
Ich machte mit seltenen Hit Training nie Fortschritte. Habe es oft getestet in 43 Trainingsjahren. Meine muskeln wuchsen erst bei mehr Sätzen,höherer Frequentz,und kein Versagenstraining. Hatte mal mit Mike Mentzer ein Coaching,und befolgte alles was er sagte. Nach 6 Monaten verlor ich mehrere kg Muskeln und Kraft. Bin dann wieder zu meinen HFT training zurück.
It’s refreshing to see your open minded to sub failure training and greater frequencies. Many high intensity proponents aren’t. The same is true of high volume proponents. I believe both have merit, but high intensity is a great approach for those that don’t want to spend much time exercising. I personally enjoy hitting the gym four days a week on an upper-lower split.
This is because Doug is an intellectual that sees the world as it is not how he would like it to be. And he has nothing to prove to anyone. Unlike many other fitness "gurus".
I don't think in terms of "times aweek" as much as times per month. I find that if I do six times a month, or maybe 2x a week then 1x week over 4 weeks, it really works.
I have a simple question for the "you need more volume" advocates. The other day, I was waiting for the pec dec to come open. The guy using it did 4 sets of 8 which each took less than 15 seconds. I did one set of 7 that took 70 seconds. Who did more volume? He certainly did more reps. I was using a lot more weight, but I'm a lot stronger than that guy, and that's not the question. Anyone? Who did higher volume?
Depends how you define volume but this is like saying, person A pushed a car ten total feet in 15 seconds, person b pushed a car ten total feet in 70 seconds, who moved the car farthest." Nobody, equal distance. So I guess your argument really is about time under tension, which I'm not sure leads to better muscular gains, if anything I just think it increases endurance, which in my opinion does not lead to hypertrophy
Very happy you upgraded your camera Doc. I know you're very busy, but an upgrade of your mic arrangement would be extremely welcome, particularly to this coclear implant user. Perhaps a client or patient familiar with audio recording would be more than willing to set you up. Think RODE brand. Your information is too valuable to be passed over for technical reasons. Thank you for your work.
When it comes to HIT principles people are too hung up on the "1 set till failure" paradigm. Lets first ignore the fact that most people don't know what failure or beyond failure even feels like nor do they understand that the time under tension for these 1 set till failure is usually more than 3 sets of "normal" workouts. What HIT takes into consideration more than _ANY_ other program is the concept of adequate recovery. What Doug is saying here is that you can go to 70% of failure and still achieve results as long as you increase the volume and work out frequency sufficiently, so long as you are forcing some kind of progressive adaptation. Going to max intensity (HIT) is simply more time efficient and energy efficient.
Do you think daily stretching or jogging would interfere with the recovery stage of workingout once a week. And what about sprinting, should that be done with the workout.
I haven't personally, but friends have. I'm afraid, given my ER schedule, it would never give me the green light to train! Check out SkylerTanner.com for his take.
Thank you for the advice! Out of interest, is there any particular reason for specifying a 3,6 cadence? As opposed to, say, 3,3 or 6,6? I keep hearing recently that slow negatives cause too much muscle damage. Is there any truth in that? Thanks again.
Yo Doc., really appreciate your time & info. Yet, I have to say it's tough to see your white board notes. I'm not sure if it's because of the fisheye lense look, the distance f/the board or a combination of both. -But again, thank you, thank you, thank you for the uploads.
+Dr. Doug McGuff 😁 Lol.!!!. Awesome.!. I take it that might've been a "Black Friday" find.?. -Congratulations either way & excited to see what's to come.
Great video Dr. McGuff! I feel almost embarrassed to admit this after more than 2 decades of heavy reading and strength training but I always believed that neural firing rate could not be improved training with weights (relatively) light enough to result in sequential recruitment of motor units made up of different muscle fiber types. I always just assumed that neural firing rate could only be improved through using very heavy weights that require all muscle fiber types to be recruited at the same time. I would love to hear more about this, if you have the opportunity to discuss it. This has always been my one area of doubt and concern in regard to the effectiveness of my workouts for developing strength and power. Thanks and keep up the great work! Nathan
You are correct. Rate coding is very easy to improve through explosive movement or lifting weights heavy enough to require synchronous recruitment of different motor units. What I was referring to was Doug's mention that increased neural firing rate is occurring when the speed of movement can no longer be sustained at the end of a set using the (relatively) lighter weights you would select (say 70-ish%) during a HIT workout with a longer time under load that results in sequential recruitment of motor units (ie IA exhausts, then IIA, then IIB, and then hypothetically IIX). It's very difficult to find any mention in any literature that the body will compensate and improve neural firing rate at the end of relatively long set, using relatively light loads in the same way that it would using very heavy weight or explosive exercise. If an athlete can improve rate coding and not just recruitment while still performing exercise in a safer manner, that is huge deal. I've had enough adductor, hamstring, and calf pulls doing heavy deadlifts, squats, and sprints to take notice.
It’s great that Body By Science may help to market HIT to the masses as it seems so many people don’t understand what they’re doing in the gym.. Doug, I started training at 15 years old, using the same Arnie and bodybuilding guides you would find online. It wasn’t until I discovered Mike Mentzers heavy duty book and Dorian Yates (who lived nearby!) that I managed to make considerable gains. I was at my biggest and strongest doing high intensity training with free weights (1 set only) at home 3 days a week (back and chest 1 day, arms and shoulders another and legs a 3rd days - sometimes skipped legs on occasion depending on my energy and strength levels). After a 6 year break, emigrating to California and having a hectic schedule I read Body By Science and decided to start training again with the 5 exercise routine listed, once per week. However, I haven’t made any gains. My nutrition and diet is good, sleep is 8+ hours, I’m training to failure and only exercising once per week. I took 2 weeks off thinking I may have overtrained (although my energy levels are great) and came back even weaker! Please, if you have any advice let me know as I’m stuck and can’t figure out why my strength isn’t increasing (ps - tracking TUL and reps to extra precise). Thanks for you help Doug,
Hi Doug I find my upper body recovers quickly after intense workouts but I nerd at least 4 days rest between workouts or my knees begin to ache. I was wondering what your thoughts were on active recovery? I was thinking of doing some bodyweight band work and cardio on one of my rest days to help speed up my recovery.
Hi Doug, great video. Wanted toask your opinion on stretching post workout. Do you still think this is unnecessary? I tried the MedX super stretch machine after a HIT workout this week, felt it did me some good, although may have just been a placebo effect! I normally don't stretch Thanks Matt
Matt, I don't advocate it as necessary, but if you experience a positive effect from it then I would not tell you to stop. I am a HUGE fan of the placebo effect. Exploit it for all it's worth!
I have been following the HIT program and has had amazing health and muscle benefits so far, my younger Friend wants to try is it okay for him he is around 14
in your video on Graveyard and the invisible majority" you said you didn't train to failure and higher volume 3 days a week did not work for you (in another interview you said you felt like hammered dog shit) but in this video you say that your older higher volume 3 times a week did work well for you and that you did go to failure, I'm confused?
cory- What I meant to convey was that I did high volume training prior to HIT based using Arnold's approach and Muscle and Fitness magazine in the 1970's as my guide. Initially in my garage I did well, then found muscle magazines. Then with the Nautilus approach, good results but over time (2 decades) I just kept on with 3 days per week, to failure and 15-19 exercises. My results were "good", but I did feel like crap all the time (I was also in college, med school and residency). When I finally dropped volume and frequency, I had renewed results and felt much better. One thing to keep in mind (that I now realize) my enthusiasm for low volume training was based on a response after 2 decades of too much volume. If I did consolidated training for 20 years and then increased volume, then I would likely be a high volume advocate. The baseline you deviate FROM matters in your assessment of things.
Interesting thank you for the clarification. You might have also done well staying at full body 3 days a week but dropping weight /intensity a couple of those sessions and not going to failure in any of those 3 days, i.e. one day high volume 1-5 sets body weight and or moderate weights with 15-30 reps, 2nd day similar moderate load but 1-2 sets and 10-15 reps, 3rd day heavy weights 5-10 reps and 1 set... which is what I'm trying now because studies do show that brain benefits are much more improved from 2-3 days a week strength training compared to only once a week (the strengthening of the neurones etc). As well as protein synthesis is only elevated for about 48 hours in naturals apparently. Finally how i physically and mentally feel (more Alpha, robust, witty, productive, attractive to the opposite sex etc) is better on 3 days a week compared to 1 day (though if i went to failure a lot perhaps that would change the story and lead to burn out)
Another question - Have you noticed any particular hints that applicable to ectomorph phenotype ? Should one somewhat lower his expectations for results due to this phenotype (and probably genotype) ?
I would start on the big compound movements, lower volume/frequency and stopping intensity at failure (no intensity extenders). Only if that fails would I try higher volumes/frequencies.
