Heavy Duty Training by Mike Mentzer

Program Description

This program is designed to help you reach your own muscular size and strength potential as fast as possible. For this Programm I have used The book " Heavy Duty Training " by Mike Mentzer and John little, while also implementing suggestions from Mr America Hearts YouTube channel. Important to know is that you should perform each rep controlled and slow but not so slow so as you fall asleep. This means that you raise the weight for 4 seconds, hold the contraction for 2 seconds, and lower the weight for 4 seconds. Although you may perform the raise of the weight for the lateral raise with a little swing at the bottom and for the Hammer curl you don't have to hold the contracted position, since there is no resistance at the highest position. If you want to perform the Programm to its fullest I'd still suggest you read the book by Mike Mentzer and John Little. I'm not advertising here, just suggesting something based on my own knowledge. I'd suggest you warmup up before each workout. This means warming up the joints which are stressed. For upper days this means the shoulders and wrists. And for lower days the knees and hip joints. You should also do some form of cardio for 5-10 min to limber up. Warmup sets per exercise should be performed as such: For each superset you warmup on the second exercise, so for the chest you would warm up on the incline press. Now using the deadlift as an example, if you are able to 70 kg for 7 reps, you would begin with 50 kg for 7 to reps 10 to get the blood flowing into the area, and then one more set with 60 kg for 2 or 3 reps to mentally prepare for the heavier set to follow. After a workout you should also perform a cool down stretch so that you won't damage your body and help recovery. (Hold each stretch for 30 to 40 seconds. Lastly you should also perform cardio two times a week for 30 minutes. This can be on or off your Workout days. Preferably before a workout if you do it on your workout days. And of course of the utmost importance each working set must be performed to a point of complete momentary muscular failure within the recommended rep range. If you are able to complete 10 or for the legs 20 reps of the suggested exercise, with your chosen weight, you will add 2.5 kg -5kg the next session, so that you will stay in the suggested rep range. In short you will perform progressive overload. And I guarantee that you will hit PR's every session if you follow the workout Program accordingly. Rest periods between workouts should be at least 48 to 92 hours. So for example if you start with chest and back on Monday you'd train legs the earliest on Wednesday and the latest on Friday. This depends solely on your ability to recover since this varies for each individual. On a side note I modified the program to fit my specific weaknesses. I added the Dumbell row and hammer curl, if you don't have problems in those areas you can leave them out.

Program Overview