Mentzer Routine

Mike Mentzer was one of the greatest bodybuilders in history, and the first guy who, through his
writing, got me excited about High Intensity Training. I was in my early twenties at the time,
frustrated by my lack of progress training 6 days a week with multi-set workouts.

In April of 1996, my wife (then my fiance) Patty and I arrived at Golds Gym in Venice, California so I
could go through a workout personally supervised by Mike.

We started with a chest workout, which consisted of a pre-exhaustion supersetthe Nautilus 10

degree chest fly, followed immediately by the Icarian incline press. The fly, a single-joint exercise,
would isolate the pecs; the incline press would then utilize the fresh muscles of the shoulders and
triceps to push the pecs to a deeper level of fatigue.

The chest fly consisted of one set to failure, followed by a static hold, where I held the arm pads
together in the contracted position for as long as I could, then fought the weight inch by inch back to
the starting position.

After the static hold, we literally ran to the incline press for a set of 1-3 reps; that set was concluded
by performing a few strongest range reps, working only in the last 15-20 degrees of movement
nearest the lockout position, until no further movement was possible.

After that was over, my chest was fried. The whole thing probably took all of five minutes.

Now it was on to the back workout.

Once I finished with the incline press, my chest, shoulders and triceps were smoked. Now it was time
to work the back, so we made our way over to the pulldown machine, also located in the third room.

Once we got there, I noticed Mike was looking at me kind of funny. He said you look a little pale. Go
walk around for a few more minutes.

I was so super-motivated working out with him, and so intent on doing my best, that I had pushed
myself to the point of almost passing out.

On the back wall of the gym they had garage doors, and since it was nice out they had the door in
the third room open. I went over to it, took in a few deep breaths of fresh air, and tried to relax a
little.

After a couple minutes I was ready and anxious to continue. I stood before the pulldown machine,
and Mike explained this would just be one set to failure-no pre-exhaustion superset (which was fine
with me!).

I took a narrow, underhand grip, sat down, and began my set of slow, controlled reps. After several
reps I reached the point of failure, where I couldnt pull the bar under my chin any more. At that
point I stood up and re-racked the weight.

As I stood in front of the machine huffing and puffing, Mike said reset yourself psychologically for a
static hold.

After about 10 seconds I grabbed the bar again, sat down, and pulled it down to my collarbones and
locked it in there. I held it for as long as I could, fighting every inch of the way back to the starting
position as my strength gave out.

My lats, rear delts and biceps were toast. We moved on to shrugs, my final exercise for the day.

We proceeded to a plated-loaded shrug machine, where you stand in between the handles and load
barbell plates on to the machine in front of you (sort of like a wheel barrow). This was a great way to
do shrugs, since it was more comfortable than using a barbell, and you could really load up the
machine safely, unlike using dumbells.

Mike actually had me do a few warm-up reps, mainly to prepare me to lift the heavy weight from the
floor for my work set without injuring my low back. You havent done anything to warm up your
hips yet, he said. Safety first.

Once the machine was loaded up, I got into position, lifted the handles and started shrugging. Mike
really emphasized getting a full contraction at the height of the movement. Shrug your shoulders
up to your ears, then squeeze it up another fraction of an inch, he urged.

During the set, a couple of people walked in front of me, and I must have looked at them for a split
second, because all of a sudden Mike started yelling really loud: Dont worry about these other
people! They dont care about you-theyre all narcissists! Im the only one here that cares about
you!

Nobody really paid any attention-except me of course. Maybe they were used to it, or maybe he was
right about them. Probably both. Anyway, it did the trick and got me re-focused. As with the
pulldown, I finished the set at the point of failure, then rested a few seconds and performed one last
static hold.

And with that the workout was over. I distinctly remember my arms being numb from the elbows
down, and my whole upper body felt swollen. There was no doubt I had activated untapped muscle
fibers, and stimulated new growth.

As we walked out of the gym together, Mike turned to me and said, today you learned something
about intensity. (File that under understatement of the year). And he was right-that one workout
made an impression on me that has remained ingrained to this day. It was literally the learning
experience of a lifetime.

After the workout, we sat outside in front of the gym where Mike reviewed the workout with me,
and gave me a written outline of what to do when I returned home.

The routine was as follows:

Monday:
Chest
1. Pec deck or flat bench dumbell flyes, 6-10 reps
supersetted with
2. incline press (preferably on a smith machine), 1-3 reps
Back
1. Nautilus pullover, 6-10 reps
supersetted with
2. Close grip, palms-up pulldown, 1-3 reps
(every other workout-just pulldown)
3. Regular (not stiff-legged) deadlift, 5-8 reps
(can substitute shrugs occasionally)

Friday:
Legs
1.Leg extensions, 8-15 reps
superset with
2.Leg press, 8-15 reps
3. Standing calf raise, 12-20 reps

Tuesday:
Shoulders and arms
1. Dumbell laterals (preferably Nautilus laterals), 6-10 reps
2. Bent-over dumbell laterals (preferably pec-deck), 6-10 reps
3.Standing Barbell Curl (preferably Nautilus curls), 6-10 reps
4. Tricep Pressdowns, 6-10 reps, superset with
5. Dips, 6-10 reps

Saturday:
Legs
1. Leg extensions, 8-15 reps, superset with
2. Squats (preferably in a Smith machine), 8-15 reps
3. Calf Raises, 12-20 reps

Wednesday:
Start the four workout protocol over with chest and back.

As far as nutrition, Mike instructed me to complete a 4-day food diary and get a daily average of my
calorie intake; then on day 5, increase the average calories by 300-400. He advised me to keep the
macronutrient percentages at 60% carbohydrate, 25% protein and 15% fat.
After our discussion, we had a photo-op, and then Mike was off.

I started the routine as soon as I returned home, and raised my daily calorie intake to 2900. After
about a month, my progress stagnated, and I consulted with Mike by phone to discuss what to do
next.

At that point, he told me to take a week off, then begin this routine:

Workout A:
1. Squat or Leg Press, 8-15 reps
2. Pulldown, 6-10 reps
3. Dips, 5-8 reps

5 days later-

Workout B:
1. Deadlift, 4-6 or 5-8 reps
2. Overhead press, 5-8 reps
3. Calves, 12-20 reps

He also told me to raise my calories from 2900/day to 3200/day.

Following this routine, I reached my highest ever body weight (193 pounds), and achieved my
highest ever strength levels in those exercises, including 3505 on the deadlift and bodyweight +
808 on dips.