You’re never too old or too experienced to learn something, and Patty was sure she would do exactly that at this fine facility.

As usually happens to us, her flight was seriously delayed, and she got in to her hotel in the wee hours of the morning.  What else is new.

But once she arrived at Discover Strength, she quickly forgot all about those problems.  She was instantly made to feel right at home, and there was plenty of serious High Intensity Training going on all over the place.

Discover Strength performs High Intensity Strength Training exclusively with their clients.  No throwing things.  No balancing on anything.  None of the circus act stuff you see going on at other gyms.  Just straight up hard work.

They have a ton of Nautilus, Hammer Strength, and Med-X equipment, something like 10 trainers, and train hundreds of clients every month–in a 900 square foot space.  (Read that again a few times, until it sinks in.)

Take the guided virtual tour:

Somewhere along the line, Patty got talked into a workout with trainer Dan Conway.  I can guarantee it was one of the most intense she has ever gone through–and she’s gone through plenty over the years.

She got a full body workout, starting with lower body; first some isolation stuff for the hips, then some brutal post-exhaustion for the legs.  Ouch.

Watch this to feel Patty’s pain: 

Once that torture was over with, she still had upper body to do.  That consisted of a pre-exhaust cycle for the chest, and a post-exhaust cycle for the back.  Holy nausea.

Check out the nausea-inducing upper body workout:

I hope you took note of all the advanced intensity-raising techniques Dan used in these workouts, such as: max contraction, forced reps, negatives, and finishers.  Not to mention an awesome demonstration of outstanding coaching by Dan the trainer, and a maximum effort by Patty the trainee.

So if you’re ever in Minnesota for some crazy reason, be sure to make it your business to get to Discover Strength and get the workout of your life.  I guarantee it will be an experience you won’t soon forget. 

(Note: Many thanks to Luke and all of the staff at Discover Strength for providing Patty with a very special experience.  You guys are a class act, and an awesome representative of the High Intensity Nation.)

Check out the Luke Carlson audio interview:

Leave a comment below:

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Kick back and enjoy these High Intensity Training Routines-I hope you find them entertaining, and I’m sure you’ll learn something as well.

High Intensity Training-Arm Specialization

Performed at the original STG basement gym-great intensity, great coaching, classic old equipment, nice furniture, very interesting hat.

“Nautilus Girl” Valerie Deadlifts 250

Performed by Valerie Clement, Owner of Feminine Physique by Valerie, at STG Strength and Power, Ontario Canada (check out the “strong is the new skinny” shirt).  Well done Valerie!

400 Pound Trap Bar Deadlift-Connor

Dang, do they have enough equipment at STG STrength and Power?  Nice job Connor! (Are you starting to see that people who work out at this place are pretty strong?)

500 Pound Trap Bar Deadlift

Performed by Michael Petrella, owner of STG Strength and Power.  Watch the trailer at the end, where it says all deadlift training was performed on the Hammer Deadlift Machine.  C’mon Mike, everybody knows machines don’t work.

Discover Strength: Negative-Only Leg Press

Performed at Luke Carlson’s Discover Strength in Minnesota.  These are waaaaay hard-for the lifter and all those spotters

Discover Strength: Chest Press 20-Rep Breakdown 

Wow, that looked really hard

Discover Strength: Sled Pull Finisher

I’m pretty sure this is illegal in a few states…

Leave Comments Below!

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Time’s up-let me help you out a little.

If it were duration, aerobics instructors and marathon runners would have Mr. Universe caliber physiques. 

If it were duration, the best way to get really big and strong would be to lift weights literally all day long.  And there are people around who do have all day to workout.  But nobody does this, because on some level they realize there’s a limit to how much intensity the body can withstand.  I’m sure you realize how ridiculous it would be to see somebody in the gym working out all day, from the time the gym opened in the morning until the time it closed that night.

So it’s not duration.

Intensity is the crucial variable in a workout responsible for building muscle.

And if the intensity of your workouts is high, the duration of your workouts will, by default, be brief.  That’s the trademark of a productive workout-brief and intense. 

So what exactly does intense mean?

Recall that the definition of intensity is the percentage of possible momentary muscular effort being exerted.  The higher the percentage, the better the muscle building results, with the ultimate goal being to exert 100% of your momentary ability.

Your goal with every set that you do is to reach a point where the muscle cannot possibly perform any more work at that moment.  Doing so insures that you have crossed every possible muscle growth threshold, and given proper time and resources to recover, the muscle will be forced to become bigger and stronger.

Intensity means going all out.  It’s not just working hard; it’s putting forth a maximum effort. It means performing rep after rep (with good form) until you can’t do any more-and then attempting one more anyway. 

This is what is known as training to failure.  In order to get the most out of your training, you must regularly attempt the momentarily impossible.

Training to failure, with brief workouts performed infrequently (1-2 workouts/week), will yield excellent results for a majority of trainees for quite a long time.  However, at some point a plateau will be reached.

Even though you are lifting heavy weights until you can’t lift them anymore, you are keeping your workouts brief, and you are providing enough rest days between workouts for full recovery, the time will come when that won’t be enough to stimulate more size and strength.

The reason is that even though you are taking each set to a point of failure, where you can’t possibly lift the weight any more, the truth is there is still a lot of strength left in that muscle.  And in order to continue making gains, you have to tap into that unused strength.

The way to do that is to incorporate techniques that will exhaust these remaining strength levels—and that’s what Hyper Intensity Training is all about.

(Excerpted from Hyper Intensity Training, Chapter 2)

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In the accompanying video, you’ll see Michael “Big Mike” Potts, former NCAA Wrestling National Champion, demonstrating what I’m talking about.  (You’ll know why I call him Big Mike as soon as you start watching–the dude is a freakin’ giant.)  He performs a set of pulldowns with a maximum effort, going all-out (I guarantee he gets 1 more rep than you think he’s going to get).  Then he takes a few seconds rest, followed by a “static hold” rep to tap into his unused static and negative strength levels.

That is what 100 percent intensity looks like–transcending positive failure, and moving into the Hyper Intensity Training zone.

(Note: The full-length video of Big Mike’s entire workout is part of the Hyper Intensity Training program, which will be available next week.  Friday I’m going to be offering a fun way for somebody to get the program FREE, so check back here Friday.)

Comment on Big Mike’s workout below 

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It’s my new Special Report on Advanced Training- “5 Ways To Smash Through Training Plateaus, Pile On New Muscle And Get Freaky Strong”.

And as a Thank You for all your support, I want to give it to you FREE.

If you’ve been training for a while, and reached a point where your progress has slowed way down-or worse yet, stopped all together-then this report is for YOU.

You’ll also enjoy this report if you are just looking for some cool advanced techniques to add to your workout, to jazz up your motivation a little.

 CLICK HERE TO GRAB YOUR COPY 

 Enjoy! 

Dave Durell, MS, PTA, Master HIT Trainer 

P.S. My new program, Hyper Intensity Training, will be out very soon (after we film a few more workout videos).  I’ll let you know when it’s available. 

We start out with normal positive/negative reps, then do 2 forced reps where I give him barely enough help to finish the rep. (This is different than drop sets, where you just take weight off the bar–usually much more intense if you do it right).

After the forced reps, I had do Jon do 2 negative only reps, where I lifted the weight for him (since he couldn’t lift it himself any more) and he lowered it slowly, under strict control, for 2 final reps.

At that point, he couldn’t control the descent of the bar anymore, meaning we had exhausted all 3 strength levels in his biceps. From this, we knew we had stimulated a size and strength increase, so we terminated the exercise.

The video has been pretty popular–it has been viewed 8,949 times as of this writing.

One of those viewers posted a comment, asking me how long the negative reps should take (he actually said “how many count negative?). I responded by telling the viewer that the way we do it is 8 seconds on the negative to start out, we stop when the speed of the negative can’t be controlled.

A few weeks later, I get another comment from somebody else. This one says that my negatives are only 4-5 seconds.

My policy with internet comments of that nature is to ignore them, but this one actually stimulated my thinking.

And my thinking is that lots of people who are into High Intensity Training focus on a lot of secondary, fairly unimportant details–such as whether a negative-only rep takes 8 seconds or 4-5 seconds to perform, or how perfect their turn-arounds are at the beginning and the end of each rep, or whether the gym temperature is 68 or 72 degrees.

Instead, they would be better served to focus on the one element of primary importance, which is INTENSITY OF EFFORT.

In his book Heavy Duty 1, Mike Mentzer defines intensity as “the percentage of possible momentary muscular effort being exerted”.

That’s the name of this game, folks-reaching the highest possible level of momentary muscular effort, on every set of every exercise every workout.

And that’s what we need to focus on. Getting to that last impossible rep, and struggling with every ounce of our remaining strength to finish it.

I have been personally trained by 3 legends of High Intensity Training: Mike Mentzer, Dan Riley, and Mark Asanovich. And while each of them made sure I was performing each rep without the use of momentum, and not cheating through improper body positioning, none of them were timing my reps with a stop watch or telling me not to make faces.

And trust me, in each case, there was absolutely no doubt I had achieved maximum intensity of effort.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for proper form, moving the weight through muscular force alone without momentum. I just see a lot of people getting so wrapped up in timing everything with a stopwatch they forget to go all out.

And all out is what works, when it comes to getting bigger and stronger.

When you have actually gotten to that point after an exercise or series of exercises, you know it. It’s a great feeling of triumph, knowing you have done absolutely everything in your power to achieve your muscle building goal.

Like when you complete a super set of leg extensions and leg presses, and when you get off the leg press you find out you can’t stand up under your own power for more than a few seconds.

Or after finishing your back workout, your arms feel like they’re frozen solid from the elbows down.

When you can train yourself to exert that level of effort, there is no way in the world you’re not going to stimulate muscle growth.

So calm down a little with all the nitty-gritty details. Just concentrate on putting in a maximum effort, following the principles of High Intensity Training, and bigger, stronger muscles will be forthcoming.

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Will the Functional Dark Side take over and rule the fitness universe with the traumatic forces of evil?

Or, will we be saved by somebody taking the ball, so to say, and inventing some machines with motorized resistance, similar to “The Motivator” that Joel Waldman described in his High Intensity Interview of the Month?

And then, all of a sudden, I came across this e-mail in my inbox–and I knew The Force was with the Nation.

The E-Mail:

Hi Dave,

I thoroughly enjoy your interviews and appreciate you taking the time to conduct them.

I just wanted to let you know that somebody has “taken the ball” so to say on inventing some machines with motorized resistance similar to the Motivator Joel described.

Check out some of our videos:

Take care,

Mark Alexander

WOW. Did you see that? (And, the guy repeated what I was thinking like word for word. Weird.)

I immediately e-mailed Mark back and said:

Hi Mark,

Glad you are enjoying the site, we are working on some really cool stuff for next year (2011).

That machine looks bad ass. Where did you guys get that thing? Do you mind if I post your e-mail and that video on my site?

Thanks,

Dave Durell, MS, CCS, PTA

And this was his reply:

Hi Dave,

I have teamed up with Randy Rindfleisch, the machine inventor, to bring this line of equipment to market. The CZT-V (vertical axis machine) is ideal for the HIT practitioner that knows what he is doing; it is extremely versatile and brings the function of negative only, hyper reps, and even double negatives all a possibilities.

Yes, you are more than welcome to post any of our videos and what emails you want to your site.

Keep up the good work Dave.

Take care

Mark Alexander
President – Efficient Exercise
CEO – CZT Fitness System

Now you and I have both seen the future of exercise–and it is good.

Check out another video of the CZT machine:

Click here to check out the Efficient Exercise Website

Click here to check out the CZT Machine web site

Leave A Comment Below!

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There are 2 aspects to training success. The first, and most readily observable, is the physical aspect. This involves the practical application of the principles of effective training.

This is the “how to”.

The second aspect is much harder to identify, but there is no denying its existence. This is the mental aspect of training. It includes your reasons for training, your goals, and your attitude toward, and during, your workouts.

This is the “why”, and the “want to”.

The “how to” can be acquired rather easily from many sources, and comes in the form of books, video, audio, and live seminars and classes. In statistical terms, it can be considered the dependent variable, since any workout will obviously consist of some form of a training program.

The mental aspect can be viewed as the independent variable, the “make or break” factor that can mean success for one trainee, and failure for another, who are both using the exact same training regimen.

The “why” and “want to” are not available in your bookstore. They only come from one place-inside of you.

In his book High Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way, Mike describes what I’m talking about here as “an attitude befitting a hero”. He goes on to say “Once he enters the gym, all else is forgotten and he is transformed into a valiant warrior with girded loins, ready to do battle with the weights.”

(I’m not exactly sure what girded loins are, but it sounds pretty warrior-like).

It stands to reason that somebody who chooses High Intensity Training as their “how to” should also choose a High Intensity mental attitude to go with it, if he wants to get the best possible results.

I call this high intensity mental attitude the warrior mentality.

Having a warrior mentality means viewing your workout as a challenge-not something to be feared, but something to be conquered.

A trainee with a warrior mentality does not take the easy way out by mindlessly going through the motions with a sub-maximal weight, which is tantamount to surrender. He views the workout as a battle to be won, no matter how high the cost of effort and fatigue.

He enters the gym with a feeling of aggression toward his goals, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings as he shuts out distractions and demonstrates single-minded focus and resolve to take out one target at a time-his next exercise.

But what if the trainee isn’t naturally warrior-like? Is he just fated to have sub-par workouts, and therefore sub-par results?

Cultivating a warrior mentality is a skill, and like any other skill it can be learned.

The foundation of this mentality is, as Richard Machowicz said, “believing so strongly in a cause that you are fighting for that you refuse to quit.” In the case of your training, the “cause” is your personal reason for training in the first place.

Take some time periodically to review your training goals, and why you are committed to them. What does training mean to you personally? Why is it important to you to include this activity in your life? Why is getting good results meaningful to you? Answering these types of questions will reinforce the commitment in your mind, strengthening your resolve.

The more intensely you care about the outcome of your workout, the more intensely you will train during that workout.

Visualization is another valuable technique for developing a warrior mentality. Take a few minutes before your workout to sit somewhere quiet by yourself, close your eyes, get real relaxed, and see yourself in your mind’s eye tearing through your workout, setting new personal bests on every exercise. Picture how you expect to look and feel, in the most vivid detail you can imagine. Once you open your eyes and enter the gym, strive to recreate your vision.

Listening to music or reading something that you find uplifting and motivating can also help you program yourself for a highly intense workout.

Completing successful workouts will provide you with positive memories that you can access to psyche yourself up for future workouts. As they say, “nothing succeeds like success”.

Take the steps necessary to cultivate and maintain a warrior mentality, and you will consistently win your battles in the gym and ultimately be victorious in your mission to achieve your training goals-and for that matter, any other goals you strive for in life.

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In the past few years, a fitness craze has been sweeping the industry-the operative word being “craze”.

They call it “Functional Training”.

I have witnessed this craze reach epidemic proportions in the fitness world, to the extent that many people equate this type of training with the field of personal training: in other words, so many trainers are training people this way, people think that so-called Functional Training is what personal training is, and that’s all it is; that they are one in the same.

I’ve had it.

In this article, and I’m sure in many more ways to follow in the future, I’m going to define and explain what is meant by the term Functional Training, point out the flaws in both it’s theory and methodology, and give my opinion as to why I think it’s a joke.

As my reference point for the definition and explanation of Functional Training, I will use the apparently impartial source Wikipedia.

Wikipedia defines Functional Training as “a classification of exercise which involves training the body for the activities performed in daily life.”

Wait a minute-isn’t that the goal of any form of exercise? The function of skeletal muscles is to produce movement. Therefore, any exercise program that strengthens the muscles will improve the body’s ability to move during “the activities performed in daily life”, whatever they may happen to be. High Intensity Training, as well as many other forms of exercise, can and do result in stronger muscles. Functional Training advocates give the impression that if you train with machines or conventional strength training equipment you are going to end up weak and uncoordinated. It doesn’t work that way. Strong muscles produce strong movements, no matter what your “activities of daily life” might be.

Wikipedia: “Functional training has its origins in rehabilitation. Physical therapists developed exercises that mimicked what patients did at home or work in order to return to their lives or jobs after an injury or surgery. Thus if a patient’s job required repeatedly heavy lifting, rehabilitation would be targeted towards heavy lifting, if the patient were a parent of young children, it would be targeted towards moderate lifting and endurance, and if the patient were a marathon runner, training would be targeted towards re-building endurance.”

First of all, by definition, rehabilitation patients are not functioning at a normal level-if they were, they would not need rehabilitation. As both a Personal Trainer and a licensed Physical Therapist Assistant, I can tell you first-hand that there is a BIG difference between rehab training to get back to a normal, functioning state, and trying to increase your levels of muscular size and strength beyond normal levels. For a person who is not injured or impaired to train with rehab techniques in order to get bigger and stronger constitutes context-switching and is ridiculous.

Furthermore, What if the marathon runner also has young children and works as a furniture mover? Does he do 3 different routines, or just one routine that is 3 times longer? I don’t know about you, but I don’t perform the exact same “activities of daily life” every single day. Does that mean I need to change my workout program every time I train, depending on what I’m going to do that day or the next day? Do I need to lift heavy weights the week I’m going to help my friend move, and lay around at the gym the week before my vacation in the Bahamas?

Wikipedia: “Functional training may lead to better muscular balance and joint stability, possibly decreasing the number of injuries sustained in an individual’s performance in a sport. The benefits may arise from the use of training that emphasizes the body’s natural ability to move in three anatomical planes of motion. In comparison, though machines can often be safer to use, they restrict movements to a single plane of motion, which is an unnatural form of movement for the body and may potentially lead to faulty movement patterns or injury.” (Italics mine)

The three planes of motion referred to here are the transverse (or horizontal) plane, the coronal (or frontal) plane, and the sagittal (or lateral) plane. These three planes of motion are not the exclusive domain of Functional Training; training the various muscle groups at different “angles” has been advocated since weight training was invented. For example, if somewhere in the course of your training program you perform a shoulder press or incline press (sagittal plane), a lateral raise (coronal plane), and a rear deltoid raise (transverse plane), all of which are included in the High Intensity Muscle Building program, you have trained your shoulders utilizing all three planes of movement.

I put the italics in the Wikipedia quote to point out the contradiction. On the one hand, Wikipedia is saying machines can often be safer to use, then they contradict themselves by saying that using machines may lead to injury. What they are probably trying to imply is that if you train on machines, you will be more prone to injury in your “activities of daily living” than if you perform Functional Training.

Here’s why that’s a bunch of crap: properly performed strength training, including High Intensity Training, strengthens the muscles by thickening the individual muscle fibers. This is called hypertrophy.

Hypertrophy is achieved by providing an intense stimulus to the muscle, forcing it to work at the limit of it’s existing capacity, causing it to respond by growing bigger and stronger to be able to successfully respond to such a stimulus in the future. Basically, muscle growth is an adaptation to overload. Just like getting a tan is an adaptation to exposure to intense ultraviolet sun light.

It doesn’t matter whether that overload comes in the form of High Intensity Training using fixed-movement machines, Functional Training using medicine balls and rubber bands, or going outside and lifting logs and rocks-if the stimulus is sufficient, your muscles will grow. Just like it doesn’t matter whether you go to the beach or lay in a tanning bed to get your sun tan.

Which can you break more easily-a pencil, a broom stick, or a baseball bat? The pencil. Why? Because it’s thinner.

Which is harder to injure-a thin muscle fiber, or a thick muscle fiber? (You answer this one).

How do you thicken your muscle fibers? I just told you the answer. Overload. (This is kind of like an open-book test).

Moreover, Functional Training inherently compromises effective overload in 3 ways (probably more, but I could go on forever here, and I’m getting tired):

1. Momentum compromises overload. Utilizing the force of momentum to move a weight decreases efficient musclular loading and increases joint trauma. Both are bad.

2. Instability compromises overload. It’s pretty hard to direct 100% of your possible momentary effort to an exercise when you are trying not to roll off an ustable surface and split your head open. Come to think of it, splitting your head open would probably compromise overload also.

3. Lack of record keeping compromises overload. The essence of proper strength training is progressive overload-increasing weight, reps, or both, in succesive workouts as you get stronger. I have never, ever seen a “Functional” trainer write anything down, or noticed any attempt at systematic progression from one workout to the next. It all appears very whimsical.

In summary, I believe that “Functional Training” is misguided, ineffective and dangerous.

I suggest you build your body using High Intensity Training.

Trust me, it will “function” just fine.

Watch this video to see “Functional Training” at its finest

Comments?

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For many women weight training is an afterthought, something they might play around with after they’re done with their aerobics class if there’s time, or after toning and shaping on the stairmaster or treadmill.

Not Patty.

She understands the value of weight training for weight loss and fat burning by permanently raising the resting metabolic rate via increasing lean body mass.

And she knows what High Intensity Training means, and how to put in a maximum effort.

A credit to the Nation, to be sure.

This workout features a nice double pre-exhaustion sequence–starting with the Med-X sidelying hip extension machine (you probably haven’t seen this before), then isolating the lateral hip muscles with the hip abduction machine, then finishing everything off with one set to failure on the Med-X leg press.

Keep in mind that if you’re going to target a certain body part in a workout with extra exercises, it is wise to decrease the amount of exercises you do for the rest of your body, in order to keep your total workout volume low enough that you will still be able to adequately recover in a timely fashion. You only have one gas tank; if you make one part of your workout longer, you need to make the rest shorter-otherwise you risk overtraining, and your efforts will be wasted because you won’t build muscle.

The rest of Patty’s workout that day consisted of 1 set of chest press, 1 set of seated rows, and 1 set on the old-school pink Nautilus ab machine. That’s it. (The remainder of the workout is shown on the second video below).

Check out this video for the butt-blaster workout:

Check out this one for the rest of the workout:

Don’t forget to leave a comment about Patty’s workout below!

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Mike Mentzer was one of the greatest bodybuilders in history, and the first guy who, through his writing, got me excited about High Intensity Training. I was in my early twenties at the time, frustrated by my lack of progress training 6 days a week with multi-set workouts.

In April of 1996, my wife (then my fiance) Patty and I arrived at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California so I could go through a workout personally supervised by Mike.

We started with a chest workout, which consisted of a pre-exhaustion superset–the Nautilus 10 degree chest fly, followed immediately by the Icarian incline press. The fly, a single-joint exercise, would isolate the pecs; the incline press would then utilize the fresh muscles of the shoulders and triceps to push the pecs to a deeper level of fatigue.

The chest fly consisted of one set to failure, followed by a “static hold”, where I held the arm pads together in the contracted position for as long as I could, then fought the weight inch by inch back to the starting position.

After the static hold, we literally ran to the incline press for a set of 1-3 reps; that set was concluded by performing a few “strongest range” reps, working only in the last 15-20 degrees of movement nearest the lockout position, until no further movement was possible.

After that was over, my chest was fried. The whole thing probably took all of five minutes.

Now it was on to the back workout.

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Once I finished with the incline press, my chest, shoulders and triceps were smoked. Now it was time to work the back, so we made our way over to the pulldown machine, also located in the third room.

Once we got there, I noticed Mike was looking at me kind of funny. He said “you look a little pale. Go walk around for a few more minutes”.

I was so super-motivated working out with him, and so intent on doing my best, that I had pushed myself to the point of almost passing out.

On the back wall of the gym they had garage doors, and since it was nice out they had the door in the third room open. I went over to it, took in a few deep breaths of fresh air, and tried to relax a little.

After a couple minutes I was ready and anxious to continue. I stood before the pulldown machine, and Mike explained this would just be one set to failure-no pre-exhaustion superset (which was fine with me!).

I took a narrow, underhand grip, sat down, and began my set of slow, controlled reps. After several reps I reached the point of failure, where I couldn’t pull the bar under my chin any more. At that point I stood up and re-racked the weight.

As I stood in front of the machine huffing and puffing, Mike said “reset yourself psychologically for a static hold”.

After about 10 seconds I grabbed the bar again, sat down, and pulled it down to my collarbones and “locked it in” there. I held it for as long as I could, fighting every inch of the way back to the starting position as my strength gave out.

My lats, rear delts and biceps were toast. We moved on to shrugs, my final exercise for the day.

We proceeded to a plated-loaded shrug machine, where you stand in between the handles and load barbell plates on to the machine in front of you (sort of like a wheel barrow). This was a great way to do shrugs, since it was more comfortable than using a barbell, and you could really load up the machine safely, unlike using dumbells.

Mike actually had me do a few warm-up reps, mainly to prepare me to lift the heavy weight from the floor for my work set without injuring my low back. “You haven’t done anything to warm up your hips yet”, he said. Safety first.

Once the machine was loaded up, I got into position, lifted the handles and started shrugging. Mike really emphasized getting a full contraction at the height of the movement. “Shrug your shoulders up to your ears, then squeeze it up another fraction of an inch,” he urged.

During the set, a couple of people walked in front of me, and I must have looked at them for a split second, because all of a sudden Mike started yelling really loud: “Don’t worry about these other people! They don’t care about you-they’re all narcissists! I’m the only one here that cares about you!”

Nobody really paid any attention-except me of course. Maybe they were used to it, or maybe he was right about them. Probably both. Anyway, it did the trick and got me re-focused. As with the pulldown, I finished the set at the point of failure, then rested a few seconds and performed one last static hold.

And with that the workout was over. I distinctly remember my arms being numb from the elbows down, and my whole upper body felt swollen. There was no doubt I had activated untapped muscle fibers, and stimulated new growth.

As we walked out of the gym together, Mike turned to me and said, “today you learned something about intensity”. (File that under understatement of the year). And he was right-that one workout made an impression on me that has remained ingrained to this day. It was literally the learning experience of a lifetime.

After the workout, we sat outside in front of the gym where Mike reviewed the workout with me, and gave me a written outline of what to do when I returned home.

The routine was as follows:

Monday:
Chest
1. Pec deck or flat bench dumbell flyes, 6-10 reps
supersetted with
2. incline press (preferably on a smith machine), 1-3 reps
Back
1. Nautilus pullover, 6-10 reps
supersetted with
2. Close grip, palms-up pulldown, 1-3 reps
(every other workout-just pulldown)
3. Regular (not stiff-legged) deadlift, 5-8 reps
(can substitute shrugs occasionally)

Friday:
Legs
1.Leg extensions, 8-15 reps
superset with
2.Leg press, 8-15 reps
3. Standing calf raise, 12-20 reps

Tuesday:
Shoulders and arms
1. Dumbell laterals (preferably Nautilus laterals), 6-10 reps
2. Bent-over dumbell laterals (preferably pec-deck), 6-10 reps
3.Standing Barbell Curl (preferably Nautilus curls), 6-10 reps
4. Tricep Pressdowns, 6-10 reps, superset with
5. Dips, 6-10 reps

Saturday:
Legs
1. Leg extensions, 8-15 reps, superset with
2. Squats (preferably in a Smith machine), 8-15 reps
3. Calf Raises, 12-20 reps

Wednesday:
Start the four workout protocol over with chest and back.

As far as nutrition, Mike instructed me to complete a 4-day food diary and get a daily average of my calorie intake; then on day 5, increase the average calories by 300-400. He advised me to keep the macronutrient percentages at 60% carbohydrate, 25% protein and 15% fat.
After our discussion, we had a “photo-op”, and then Mike was off.

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I started the routine as soon as I returned home, and raised my daily calorie intake to 2900. After about a month, my progress stagnated, and I consulted with Mike by phone to discuss what to do next.

At that point, he told me to take a week off, then begin this routine:

Workout A:
1. Squat or Leg Press, 8-15 reps
2. Pulldown, 6-10 reps
3. Dips, 5-8 reps

5 days later-

Workout B:
1. Deadlift, 4-6 or 5-8 reps
2. Overhead press, 5-8 reps
3. Calves, 12-20 reps

He also told me to raise my calories from 2900/day to 3200/day.

Following this routine, I reached my highest ever body weight (193 pounds), and achieved my highest ever strength levels in those exercises, including 350×5 on the deadlift and bodyweight + 80×8 on dips.

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Tragically, Mike passed away on June 10, 2001 from heart disease. The memories of my experience with him stay with me and motivate me in my training to this day.

Mike Mentzer not only taught me how to train, but also how to think, and apply the lessons learned in training to the rest of my life: to analyze situations with logic and reason, make a plan first, apply the plan with 100% intensity, and reflect and adapt until the goal is ultimately achieved.

He also encouraged and inspired me with my writing, which led to the many training articles I have had published, and most recently my e-book, High Intensity Muscle Building.

He is missed, but the lessons live on.

(Click here to check out Mike Mentzer’s website, where you can also order his books).

Copyright © 2010 by Dave Durell. All rights reserved worldwide.

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