This impressive shot of Mike Mentzer was taken by Wayne Gallasch on a beach in Australia. It really captures Mike’s herculean mass that captivated the bodybuilding world back in the 1970s…
Mike was 5’8” and competed at around 220 pounds. He won the 1978 Mr. Universe with a perfect score of 300 points, but the Mr. Olympia title eluded him. He did place second to Frank Zane in his first attempt in 1979, only to place fourth the next year when Arnold made his comeback in Australia. Mentzer retired as one pissed off hombre after that contest…
Mentzer died in 2001 of a heart condition at the age of 49. But even today in 2020, his Heavy Duty training is still very popular in the bodybuilding world, with its short, intense workouts. Sets were taken to failure and beyond with forced reps and negatives.
Mentzer considered himself a student of scientific protocols for hypertrophy, and his workouts actually attacked multiple muscle-fiber types. When he was training for the ’80 Mr. Olympia, IFBB judge and Pennsylvania gym owner Roger Schwab put him through many of his workouts.
Roger said Mike used a full-body routine three days a week, and he used the modified Pre-Ex method. For example, for chest he did a higher-rep set of Nautilus flyes (isolation), rested only briefly, then did a heavy lower-rep set of Nautilus decline presses. Yes, one set of each exercise only—higher-rep isolation followed by lower-rep compound, both with slower, controlled repetitions. (For more on Mentzer and how he built crazy mass with Pre-Ex, see The Pre-Ex 3X Mass Workout e-book.)
Mentzer’s modified Pre-Ex with a higher-rep slow-twitch set followed by a lower-rep fast-twitch one is a version of our STX method, slow-twitch exhaustion, which we outline in our newly expanded Quick-Start Muscle Building ebook.
The new STX workouts in that ebook are two different full-body workouts (similar to Mentzer’s). You can alternate them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or attack them on only two nonconsecutive days a week—we like Monday and Thursday. You could also customize them into a split routine, upper body one day, lower the next.
Each workout is tailored to build muscle with the anabolic STX method in a bare-bones home gym with only moderate poundages—all you need is an adjustable bench and dumbbells (we have the 50-pound PowerBlock set, and it’s working great for us, which is why we updated this ebook)…
You can add this newly updated ebook to your mass-building library by clicking HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
What Would You Do to Protect Your Family?
Mike Westerdal is a renowned personal trainer and national best-selling physical preparedness author, but he’s also a father and a husband… who would do anything to protect his family.
He used to get pushed around when younger and spent years building up his body and becoming stronger, getting mentally and physically tough the hard way. As he got bigger, he learned to handle himself, and working in security, he learned first-hand how violence really plays out.
Some of the other guys online who show off their self-defense videos and books need to get a grip. The level of skill needed to pull off their basic moves is CRAZY for most ordinary people.
- If a defense system requires more than a few hours to master, it’s not a program.
- The only techniques you will ever use are the simple ones.
- They need to work for an ordinary person without prior training, technique, or ability.
- So even if you think you don’t have time to learn how to defend yourself…
- You don’t need to spend years training to be a martial artist.