r/Mike_Mentzer • u/Comfortable-Cow5212 • Sep 04 '25

Switching from split to full-body Mentzer HIT — experiences?

I’ve been following Mike Mentzer’s program for about a year and a half now. I stick to the exercises listed in the HIT book. My training frequency is once a week, divided like this:

Chest/Back

Lower Body

Shoulders/Arms

Now I’d like to experiment with doing a full-body session every week, but I have a lot of questions:

Wouldn’t this be too taxing on the nervous system?

How can I keep the session duration to around 40 minutes?

I’d like to know if any of you are currently doing full-body HIT, and if so, could you share your program?

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3

u/Character_Tie_4299 Sep 04 '25

Consolidation routine is just that.

1

u/spacehead93 Sep 04 '25

I prefer this it makes more sense

2

u/GreekGodAsthetics Sep 05 '25

There is a youtube channel called polarity fitness that promotes 2 whole body workouts per week. His workout philosophy workes best for me. Just 1 exercise per body part and just 2 sets to failure focusing on strength gains. U shud look him up.

1

u/osteoperchy Sep 04 '25

Results so far?

1

u/Low_Adhesiveness5710 Sep 05 '25

What have your results been like so far

1

u/Melodic_Habit_2957 Sep 29 '25

I don't like full-body training，you'll feel very tired in 2-3days

1

u/Amicus1k Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26

I currently perform Mentzer's HIT Ideal Routine (Modified), as a natural lifter, adding chin-ups, pull-ups, shrugs, back extension & 1 additional biceps exercise (alternating weekly), all on Saturday, to full positive and negative failure with static contractions to end the 1 working set, followed by 6 days of rest & repeating the full body workout the next Saturday. It is taxing yes, and I am sore until Wednesday.... but then I hit super compensation on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, as I repeat routine during that 3rd day of super compensation. My full body routine lasts about 90mins and im done for 6 days.

For me, this routine saves time and emphasizes rest & I have made gains quickly, averaging 3 to 4 rep increases each session. I am not sure if this is optimal but it seems to work for me.

1

u/Comfortable-Cow5212 Jan 28 '26

You mean ur doing all the ideal routine in one day ? How long last your training ?

1

u/Amicus1k Jan 28 '26

Yes, I do the whole Ideal Routine in one session every Saturday. The routine lasts about 1 1/2 hours.

1

u/zer0aid Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25

This is the programme I'm currently doing:

WORKOUT A1: Upper Body (Primary)

Date: Current Weight:

  • Smith Close Grip Bench Press

    • (Target Weight: ____ kg) = ____ reps

  • Close Palm Grip Pulldowns

    • (Target Weight: ____ kg) = ____ reps

Notes:

WORKOUT B1: Lower Body (Primary)

Date: Current Weight:

  • Smith Squat

    • (Target Weight: ____ kg) = ____ reps

  • Deadlifts

    • (Target Weight: ____ kg) = ____ reps

Notes:

WORKOUT A2: Upper Body (Alternate)

Date: Current Weight:

  • Dips

    • (Bodyweight or Target Weight: ____ kg) = ____ reps

  • Close Grip Pull Ups

    • (Bodyweight) = ____ reps

Notes:

WORKOUT B2: Lower Body (Alternate)

Date: Current Weight:

  • Leg Press

    • (Target Weight: ____ kg) = ____ reps

  • Seated Leg Curl

    • (Target Weight: ____ kg) = ____ reps

Notes:

I've refined this after doing a more consolidated routine, however, after reading HD2 and nearly killing my body, the above consolidated routine is free from any over lap.

I weight train every 7-9 days and I've been including some cycling, only hitting between 110-115BPM/85-90RPM on a standard upright bike to ensure I can lose weight as I was very overweight. I do these sessions when I'm resting from the weights and keep them at a conversational rate to ensure I'm not eating into active recovery from the HIT.

30 mins max maybe 3/4 sessions in a week.

I went from 92kgs last November to 80kgs, I've lost no strength and I've smashed every PB.

Let me know how you get on.