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Mike Mentzer Workout

Routine: Heavy Duty
Bodybuilding
September 25, 2023 by Andreas
Abelsson

Mike Mentzer’s “Heavy Duty” workout

routine is a high-intensity, low-volume
approach to weight training.

The philosophy behind the training

method is to stimulate muscle growth
with maximum efficiency while
minimizing the risk of overtraining. It
emphasizes lifting heavy weights and
pushing your muscles to failure in a
brief, intense workout, followed by
complete rest and recovery to allow
maximum growth.

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While Mentzer’s approach was

unconventional at the time, it has had a
lasting impact on the industry,
influencing how many bodybuilders
approach strength training and muscle
development.

This article details Mike Mentzer’s

training principles and techniques, with
a complete workout routine to try his
method for yourself. It is available in
our workout tracker as Heavy Duty
Bodybuilding, and you can download it
for free for your device with the
buttons below:

Who Was Mike Mentzer?

This is a short biography of Mike
Mentzer, the man, the fitness icon, and
the story behind the legend.

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>> Click here to jump directly to the

workout routine!

Early Life
Born in 1951 in Germantown, PA, and
raised in Ephrata, PA, Mike Mentzer
took up bodybuilding at the age of 12,
inspired by images of golden-age
bodybuilders on the cover of muscle
magazines.

He trained using a set of weights his

father got him, following the
instructions that came with them. After
a year of working out alone at home,
Mike’s father contacted an old friend of
his, John Myers. He was a powerlifter
with a fully equipped gym in his
garage.

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Mike started working out in the garage

gym with Myers and his training
partner, who was an Olympic lifter.
Their training styles heavily influenced
the young Mentzer, who incorporated
both powerlifting- and Olympic-style
lifting in his routine.

At age 15, Mentzer could bench press

370 lb at a bodyweight of 165 pounds.
His ultimate goal at this time was to
achieve the physique of his hero, then
2-time Mr Universe contest winner Bill
Pearl.

After finishing high school, Mentzer

spent the next four years in the United
States Air Force. At this point, he
started training like the bodybuilders
he read about in the muscle magazine
articles. He was in the gym six days per
week for at least two hours a day—a far
cry from the training philosophy he
later adopted and developed.

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Early Bodybuilding Career

In 1971, at 19, Mentzer entered the
prestigious Mr. America contest. He
has already competed in and won a
couple of bodybuilding shows,
including the Mr. Pennsylvania contest.
However, this was his first major
competition.

It did not go well. Mike finished tenth,

outclassed by another 19-year-old
bodybuilder, Casey Viator. Viator was a
disciple of the High-Intensity Training
(HIT) system developed by inventor
Arthur Jones two years earlier.

Viator, impressed by Mentzer’s

potential, told his mentor about him.
Soon after, Mentzer received a phone
call in the middle of the night. It was
Arthur Jones, who wanted to talk about
HIT. That phone call laid the foundation
for the evolution of the Heavy Duty
training philosophy.

After a forced layoff between 1971 and

1974 due to a severe shoulder injury,
Mentzer returned to training in 1975.
This time, he followed the principles
laid out by Jones. His workouts were
highly intense but brief, using heavy
weights to failure.

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He responded extremely well to the

new training style and competed in Mr.
America the same year, placing third.
During this time, he also attended the
University of Maryland as a pre-med
student, reading everything he came
across about genetics, physical
chemistry, and organic chemistry.

Peak Bodybuilding Career

In 1976, Mike Mentzer claimed the
coveted Mr America title. He went on
to dominate several high-level
bodybuilding contests over the next
few years, including the 1978 Mr
Universe title, which he won with a
perfect score of 300, the first
bodybuilder to ever do so.

In 1979, Mike Mentzer placed 1st at the

Mr. Olympia. However, at that time, Mr
Olympia had two divisions, and while
Mentzer won the heavyweight division,
Frank Zane took the overall title.

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Mike Mentzer’s final bodybuilding
competition was the 1980 Mr. Olympia,
one of the most controversial in the
sport’s history.

The 1980 Mr. Olympia marked Arnold

Schwarzenegger’s return to
competitive bodybuilding after a five-
year retirement. His comeback was
highly anticipated, and he received
much attention and publicity leading
up to the event.

In a highly controversial decision,

Schwarzenegger won the contest,
ahead of Chris Dickerson and reigning
champion Frank Zane. Mentzer placed
5th.

Critics of the decision to place

Schwarzenegger first claimed that his
victory was influenced by his fame and
the fact that he was making a
comeback rather than his actual
physique.

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Convinced that the contest was fixed,
Mike Mentzer retired after the 1980 Mr.
Olympia and never competed again.
Note that Mentzer never claimed that
he himself should have won, only that
Schwarzenegger should not have won.

This event played a role in Mike

Mentzer’s disillusionment with
competitive bodybuilding and
contributed to his early retirement from
the sport. He believed that
bodybuilding competitions were
subjective and that the judging criteria
were inconsistent.

Post-Retirement
Following the 1980 Mr Olympia,
Mentzer’s career started to crumble.
He believed himself unofficially
boycotted by Joe Weider and Weider
publications and could not find
bookings for seminars. By 1982,
Mentzer’s income had plummeted to
close to zero.

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However, the following year, Arthur
Jones hired Mike and his brother Ray
for research for the Nautilus
corporation. While that venture did not
work out, it got Mentzer out of the
downward spiral, and in 1983, he
assumed the position of editor for
Workout magazine.

While Mike immensely enjoyed being a

magazine editor, it forced him to stay
awake during the night to meet
deadlines. In the process of doing so,
he was using a lot of amphetamines to
remain productive.

In 1985, three things happened to

Mentzer that resulted in five years of
progressive mental issues. He lost his
father, his romantic relationship ended,
and Workout magazine folded. In
combination with escalating
amphetamine abuse, his life fell apart,
and he spent the second half of the
80s at rock bottom, sometimes
suicidal, arrested several times, and
institutionalized.

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Mike Mentzer’s story could have ended
on that sad note, but it didn’t. Even
though medications and therapy had
proven ineffective, he pulled himself
out of the dark in 1990, starting a
business as a personal trainer out of
Gold’s Gym in Venice, California.
Before long, his personal training
servicers were doing gangbusters, he
was writing articles and books, and his
mail-order business was thriving.

Mike Mentzer passed away on June 10,

2001, from heart complications at the
age of 49, only days before the death
of his younger brother Ray, an
accomplished bodybuilder himself and
Mike’s long-time training partner.

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Death and Legacy

However, Mike Mentzer’s legacy lives
on. While his approach was
unconventional at the time, it has had a
lasting impact on the fitness industry,
influencing how many individuals
approach strength training and muscle
development.

Mike Mentzer’s impact on

bodybuilding goes beyond his
competitive achievements. He left a
lasting legacy through his innovative
training methods and philosophy and
continues to inspire bodybuilders
worldwide.

Emergence of HIT: High-

Intensity Training
Mike Mentzer did not invent High
Intensity Training (HIT). Arthur Jones,
the man behind Nautilus exercise
machines, developed the original
concept of HIT.

However, Mentzer refined and

popularized HIT, opposing the high-
volume training methods that were
prevalent at the time, into what is now
known as the Heavy Duty training
system.

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HEAVYDUTY

Mike “Mr Heavy Duty” Mentzer’s work

brought the effectiveness of HIT into
the limelight, turning it into a debated
yet impactful training method that
influenced many, including professional
bodybuilders like Dorian Yates.

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Core Principles of Mike

Mentzer’s Heavy Duty
Mike Mentzer based his high-intensity
training methods on seven
fundamental principles:

Identity: Every human being is

essentially the same and
requires the same kind of
stimulus to increase muscle
strength and size.
Intensity: The stimulus required
for muscle growth is high-