Mike Mentzer

Mike Mentzer (November 15, 1951 – June 10, 2001), was an American bodybuilder.

Mentzer was a follower of Objectivism, the philosophical system created by Ayn Rand, and insisted that philosophy and bodybuilding were the same thing. According to him, "Man is an indivisible entity, an integrated unity of mind and body." For this reason, his books contain both philosophy and bodybuilding.

Education and early years

In elementary school and Ephrata High School, he received "all A's". She credits her twelfth grade teacher, Elizabeth Schaub, for her "love of language, thinking and writing." In 1975, she began attending the University of Maryland as a medical student, where she dedicated her hours outside of the gym to the study of "genetics, physical chemistry, and organic chemistry." After three years of study at the University of Maryland, she dropped out. She said her ultimate goal during that period was to become a psychiatrist.

Career

Beginnings

Mentzer began bodybuilding when he was 11 years old with a body weight of 43 kg (95 lb) after seeing men on the covers of various muscle magazines. His father had bought him a set of weights and an instruction booklet. The brochure suggested that he train no more than three days a week, so Mike did just that. By age 15, his body weight had reached 75 kg (165 lb), allowing Mike to bench press 170 kg (370 lb). Mike's goal at the time was to look like his bodybuilding hero: Bill Pearl. After graduating from high school, Mentzer served four years in the United States Air Force. It was during this time that he began exercising more than three hours a day, six days a week.

Mentzer began competing in local physique contests when he was 18 years old and attended his first contest in 1969. In 1971, Mentzer participated in and won the Mr. Lancaster contest. In 1971 he suffered his worst defeat, placing tenth in the AAU Mr. America, which was won by Casey Viator. Mentzer considered his presence at this contest important later, as he met Viator, who gave Mentzer the contact information for his coach Arthur Jones. Due to a serious shoulder injury, he was forced to stop training from 1971 to 1974. However, in early 1975, he resumed training and competed again in 1975 in the Mr. America contest, placing third behind Robby Robinson and Roger Callard. Mentzer won the competition the following year in 1976. He won the 1977 North American championship in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and competed a week later at the 1977 Mr. Universe in Nimes, France, placing second to Kal Szkalak. In 1978, Mentzer won the Mr. Universe in Acapulco, Mexico, with the first and only perfect score of 300. He became a professional bodybuilder after that victory at the 1978 Universe.

Professional

In late 1979, Mentzer won the heavyweight class of the Mr. Olympia, again with a perfect score of 300, but lost overall to Frank Zane (who won his third title) that year. At the 1980 Mr. Olympia he placed fourth tied with Boyer Coe behind Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris Dickerson and Frank Zane.

Bodybuilding philosophy

Mentzer was an objectivist and insisted that philosophy and bodybuilding are the same, stating that 'man is an indivisible entity, an integrated unity of mind and body.' Therefore, his books also deal with philosophy and bodybuilding.

Mentzer followed the bodybuilding concepts developed by Arthur Jones and strove to perfect them. Through years of study, observation, knowledge of stress physiology, the most up-to-date scientific information available, and careful use of his reasoning skills, Mentzer devised and successfully implemented his own theory of bodybuilding. Mentzer's theories aim to help a drug-free person reach their maximum genetic potential in the shortest time possible.

Mike Mentzer-style high-intensity training was Mentzer's final job. In it, he detailed the principles of high-intensity weight training. Weight training, he insisted, had to be brief, infrequent and intense, to achieve the best results in the shortest time. Heavy Duty II also advocates critical thinking. In this book, Mentzer shows why people need to use their reasoning abilities to live happy, mature adult lives, and shows readers how to do it. Bodybuilding was endorsed as just one potential component of an individual's existence, encouraging many other valuable activities throughout his books.

Diet and nutrition

Diet has always been as important, if not more, than weight training for bodybuilders. However, in his book Heavy Duty Nutrition Mentzer demonstrated that nutrition for athletes did not have to be as extreme as the bodybuilding industry would have you believe. The diets he recommended were well balanced and advocated eating foods from all four groups, with a total of four servings each of high-quality grains and fruits, and two each of dairy and two of protein per day, throughout the day. anus.

Mentzer believed that carbohydrates should make up the majority of caloric intake, between 50% and 60%, rather than protein, as others preferred. Mentzer's reasoning was simple: to build 10 pounds of muscle in a year, it was necessary to eat a total of 6,000 additional calories over the course of the year, because one pound of muscle contains 600 calories. That's an average of 16 extra calories per day, and only four of them had to come from protein, because muscle is 22% protein, about a quarter.

Training method and#34;Heavy Duty#34;

While Mike Mentzer served in the United States Air Force, he worked 12-hour shifts and then followed up with 'marathon training' as was the accepted standard in those days. At his first bodybuilding contest he met the winner, Casey Viator. Mentzer found that Viator trained at very high intensity (heavy weights for as many repetitions as possible, to complete muscle fatigue), during very short (20 to 45 minutes per session) and infrequent training sessions. Mentzer also learned that Viator worked almost exclusively with the relatively new Nautilus machines, created and marketed by Arthur Jones in DeLand, Florida. Mentzer and Jones soon met and became friends.

Jones pioneered the principles of high-intensity training in the late 1960s. He emphasized the need to maintain perfectly strict form, move the weights in a slow and controlled manner, work the muscles to total failure (positive and negative) and avoid overtraining. Casey Viator saw fantastic results training under Jones, and Mentzer became very interested in this training philosophy. However, Mentzer eventually concluded that even Jones was not fully applying his own principles, so Mentzer began investigating a more complete application of them. He began training his clients in an almost experimental manner, evaluating the perfect number of repetitions, exercises and rest days to achieve maximum benefits.

For over ten years, Mentzer's Heavy Duty program involved 7 to 9 sets per workout on a three-day-a-week schedule. With the arrival of "modern bodybuilding" (where bodybuilders became more massive than ever) in the early 1990s, he finally modified that routine until there were fewer work sets and more rest days. His first breakthrough was known as the 'Ideal (Principles) Routine', which was a fantastic step in minimal training. As described in Mike Mentzer-Style High-Intensity Training, fewer than five work sets were performed in each session and rest was emphasized, requiring 4 to 7 days of recovery before the next. training. According to Mentzer, biologists and physiologists since the 19th century have known that hypertrophy is directly related to intensity, not duration., of effort (Mentzer 2003;39). Most bodybuilding and weightlifting authorities do not take into account the severe nature of the stress imposed by intense and strenuous resistance exercise taken to the point of positive muscle failure.

Mentzer's training courses (books and audio tapes), sold through bodybuilding magazines, were extremely popular, beginning after Mentzer won the 1978 IFBB Mr. Universe contest. This contest attracted a lot of attention because in it he became the first bodybuilder to receive a perfect score of 300 from the judges. Some time later, Mentzer attracted more attention when he introduced Dorian Yates to high-intensity training and put him through his first set of workouts in the early '90s. Yates won the Mr. Olympia six consecutive times, from 1992 to 1997..

Reviews

Heavy Duty was and continues to be criticized due to its low exercise volume, something that contrasts strongly with the Weider method. Many people judge the Heavy Duty method as inefficient for natural people, so they are not useful for hypertrophy. However, there are several advocates who maintain its effectiveness thanks to the great stress placed on the muscles, increasing strength and muscle gains.

Retirement

Mentzer retired from competitive bodybuilding after the 1980 Mr. Olympia at the age of 29. He maintained that the results of the contest were predetermined in favor of Schwarzenegger, and he maintained this opinion throughout his life. While Mentzer never claimed that he should have won, he maintained that Schwarzenegger should not have won. However, the two eventually had a friendly relationship.

Legacy

In 2002, Mentzer was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame. He appears in the music video for the Nantucket version of 'It's a Long Way to the Top'.

Contest history

• 1971 Mr. Lancaster - 1
• 1971 AAU Mr. America - 10°
• 1971 AAU Teen Mr America - 2°
• 1975 IFBB Mr. America - 3.o (Medium)
• 1975 ABBA Mr. USA - 2nd (Medium)
• 1976 IFBB Mr. America - 1 (General)
• 1976 IFBB Mr. America - 1.o (Medium)
• 1976 IFBB Mr. Universe - 2° (MW)
• American IFBB Championship of 1977 - 1.o (general)
• American IFBB Championship of 1977 - 1.o (MW)
• 1977 IFBB Mr. Universe - 2° (HW)
• 1978 IFBB EE. against the world - 1.o (HW)
• 1978 Amateur IFBB World Championship - 1.o (HW)
• 1978 IFBB Mr. Universe - 1.o
• 1979 IFBB Professional Cup Canada - 2nd
• 1979 IFBB Florida Pro Invitational - 1.o
• 1979 Night of Champions IFBB - 3rd
• 1979 IFBB Mr. Olympia - 2.o general, 1.o (Heavy weight division)
• 1979 IFBB Pittsburgh Pro Invitational - 2nd
• 1979 Copa Pro del Sur IFBB - 1
• 1980 IFBB Sr. Olympia - 5°

1980s controversy

Some in the bodybuilding community believe that Mentzer should have won the 1980 Mr. Olympia, however, the title went to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who made a surprise return exclusively to the 1980 Mr. Olympia after 4 years formal retirement from sport. The 1980 Mr. Olympia is still an uncomfortable affair for many of the bodybuilders who competed in it.

Last years and death

In the late 1980s, Mentzer returned to training bodybuilders and writing for Iron Man magazine and spent much of the 1990s regaining his stature in the bodybuilding industry. Mentzer met Dorian Yates in the 1980s and left a mark on Dorian's bodybuilding career. Years later, when Yates won "Mr. Olympia" From Joe Weider, he attributed his training to the principles of 'Heavy Duty'. from Mike. Mike, his brother Ray and Dorian formed a clothing company called 'MYM'. for Mentzer Yates Mentzer, also known as "Heavy Duty Inc", in 1994. MYM was built on the success of bodybuilding clothing "CrazeeWear" by Don Smith. The three directors wanted to capitalize on the physically fit lifestyle, which has become widespread today. The trio manufactured and distributed their own line of cut-and-make sportswear.

Mentzer died on June 10, 2001 in Rolling Hills, California. He was found dead in his apartment, due to heart complications, by his younger brother and fellow bodybuilder Ray Mentzer. Two days later, Ray died from complications from his long battle with Berger's disease.