A short history lesson before we get to the (veggie) meat of this week’s article. YouTube took me back in time by offering me a video on the feud between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mike Mentzer. You all know the Austrian Oak. He won Mr. Olympia every year from 1970-1975. He then retired from bodybuilding to become an actor.

After Arnold left the sport, there was a collective sigh of relief the top spot was once again up for grabs. One of the men with his eye on the prize was Mike Mentzer. In 1978, Mike Mentzer became the first bodybuilder to get a perfect score at a pro event (Mr. Universe). In 1979, he won the heavyweight division of Mr. Olympia but lost the overall to the legendary Frank Zane. This was despite Mentzer achieving his second perfect score.

Mentzer was an outlier in the sport. Arnold, like the large majority of pros, did high volume, split set training. Mentzer trained and ate differently from other pros. Mentzer was using macros and intermittent fasting before they were a thing. He ate plenty of carbs, including pancakes and ice cream.

Mentzer had been introduced to Arthur Jones, the inventor of Nautilus machines, who changed his thinking about training. Mentzer became an acolyte of High Intensity Training (HIT).

HIT’s principles are straightforward:

• Growth is correlated to exercise intensity.

• Sets must be pushed to absolute failure, and such sets must be kept to a minimum.

• Workouts must be brief and infrequent.

• Emphasis on the eccentric (negative portion of reps) is crucial.

• To go beyond failure, do pre-exhaust supersets. For example, do a set of dips immediately after triceps extensions.

Mentzer used the HIT method to great success during his all too brief career. He refined the HIT method into what he called Heavy Duty. The Heavy Duty workout basics are:

Go to full-rep failure in the 6-9 rep range. Try to grow increasingly stronger in this range.

• Always maintain proper exercise form.

• Push sets past failure with forced reps and negatives. Train with a partner, so he or she can assist you.

• Rest-pause is another method of transcending failure. Mike Mentzer had a unique method of doing rest-pause. He advised doing a set of four to six maximum reps with rests of 10-15 seconds between reps (and a 20% weight reduction near the end), so, in essence, the set would be a series of all-out singles.

Mentzer wrote two books (booklets really) Heavy Duty and Heavy Duty Journal. He had gained a significant following and he was in a great position to win the 1980 Mr. Olympia.

Arnold was scheduled to cover the event for CBS. The day before the contest, Arnold announced he was entering the competition. There was an uproar among the competitors. The judging for the event was rather obviously biased and there were several irregularities at the event. Arnold won it and Mentzer tied for 4th place. There is almost universal acknowledgement Arnold was not at the same level as the other competitors. I won’t go so far as to say Mentzer was a lock to win but plenty of fans thought he should have.

Mentzer was so enraged he quit bodybuilding. It was a terrible loss to the sport. He was pioneering new training regiments and nutrition plans. All of which contradicted the best advice of the time.

This week’s music.