Yesterday I mentioned Mike Mentzer’s training style. While he tended to use a fast Speed Set tempo on his sets, despite saying otherwise, he often ended sets with slow forced reps and pure negatives…
So at positive failure, a partner would help him, giving him just enough assistance to slowly raise the weight. Then he would lower slowly through the negative on his own.
After a couple of forced reps, his partner would raise the weight for him, and he would slowly lower for a few pure negatives.
Extended sets like that create loads of damage; however, he was only doing three to four sets per muscle at that time. Plus, he was on anabolic drugs…
It’s interesting that once he retired and began training people who weren’t using steroids, he discovered that forced and negative reps were too demanding, creating way too much damage for drug-free bodybuilders…
So he got rid of forced reps and pure negatives, and he also reduced volume for his trainees to only one or two sets per muscle. But he still had them lower the weight slowly on every rep of every set.
I believe his trainees would’ve gotten better gains by using one standard set with 1/3 tempo. Then one or two more as Speed Sets to reduce the damaging “garbage negatives.” Maybe I could’ve convinced him. Nah, probably not…
Even so, in one of his last interviews before his death in 2001, he was more adamant than ever that high-intensity resistance training is much more damaging and severe than people realize…
In fact, he said trainees who are considering a volume increase should not be thinking about adding sets, but only reps. Adding a set is too big of a jump in volume and damage.
I’ll have examples of what he was saying tomorrow with training applications. Stay tuned.
Note: For more on Speed Sets and a Mike Mentzer-inspired stretch-emphasized Positions-of-Flexion workout, see Old Man, Young Muscle.
Sculpt your perfect physique: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best stretch and contracted add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
Recommended
ATTENTION OVER-40 TRAINEES
One of the most interesting read-me pages on Testosterone and other muscle-building hormones we’ve seen is The Truth About Testosterone.
It even talks about a fruit, a specific part, that can up your T naturally. Cranking up your testosterone will not only get you jacked in the gym, but in the bedroom too—not to mention help rip up your midsection as it ignites fat burning. If that interests you, there’s more from our colleague and registered dietician, HERE.