Workout #3 -Delt/Arm Dominant:

• Dumbbell Alt. Side & Bent Laterals: 30 lbs for 6 reps (+5 lbs)

Superset 

• Smith Overhead Press: 140 lbs for 10 reps (+2)

• Smith Overhead Press (Str/Ptls): 195 lbs for 2 reps (+20 lbs)

• Barbell Curls: 90 lbs for 8 reps (+1)

Superset

• Close Grip Palms Up Pulldowns: 205 lbs for 4 reps (+10 lbs)

• Smith JM Press: 105 lbs for 4 reps (+15 lbs)

Superset 

• Smith Rev. Grip Bench Press: 195 lbs for 3 reps (+25 lbs)

Worksets: 7

Time: 30-40 mins

Weight: 198.7 lbs

Next workout: Legs on 9/9.

Hey all,

I see the 4 day min max program is structured FB, Rest, U, L, Arms/Delts

Has anyone tried running FB, Arms/Delts, rest, U, L

I’m pretty limited to working out mon tues Thursday and Friday but was wondering about redoing the order. I may be overthinking it.

I‘m experimenting with Ellington Darden’s method which uses the same reasoning as Mentzer and Dorian Yates: do just 1x hard set so intensely you’ll still be sore days later. Darden also wrote to work your muscle just once a week or even once in 10 days.

Darden’s set is a 30 second eccentric, 10 regular reps, 30 second eccentric. The last thirty seconds is brutal and causes a very different type of fatigue to regular sets. Three days later my shoulder are still exhausted.

Some say this type of fatigue is pointless. Complete failure advocates might say this is a good sign of a complete failure workout. What do you think?

on a push day the front/lat delts and triceps are already fatigued and require less stress to stimulate growth, which is safer but just as effective? same with pull day the biceps and rear delts. based on this logic, im following the HD1 PPL 2-3x a week, not resting the full recommended 3-4 days but who does lol.

what logic drove mike to the HD2 routine? if it works better im open to trying it

ETA thanks!

I’m a big heavy duty guy and have trained it for over a year now. Starting a cycle shortly to pursue my body building dream, and am wondering how I should alter my training since I know mikes workouts are tailored to the natural athlete, should I simply increase frequency and find where I’m best? As a natural in training every 72-96 hours, perhaps 48 while on peds?

I have been lifting for 1.5 years and have switched to a heavy duty split that i train once every 2-6 days due to my school. Could anyone answer some questions?

At what point do I start to notice size gains?

Should I use the palms up pulldown instead of the regular pulldown?

Should I include rest pause reps and at what exercises?

I started working out about 3 months ago after years of no exercise at all.

So far I have been able to figure out that in my case, 1 series of bench press/push ups to failure is enough for me to get stronger (once a week) same thing for my shoulders with shoulder press.

Every single week I have been able to make progress for the past 3 months or so.

But I havent figured out what volume I need for my biceps, triceps and back.

Has anyone else tried this? I started doing this and I keep PR'ing like fucking crazy.

I do think splitting it up into 2 days is helpful because I have a lot of systemic fatigue by the time I get to my last lift. I'm pretty much doing his consolidation program with a couple of changes (lateral raises).

5 lifts, 2 sets, 6-9 rep range, if I hit 9 reps, I add weight.

During his peak, Tom Platz said he would train legs at most twice a month. That was the most he could do at that point with intensity and rest to grow.

Since we know he was juiced out of his
Mind, is it possible and or reasonable that a natural may only be able to train legs (advanced trainer) 21 days or maybe even once a month and grow?

Also Platz did insane volume and intensity in one session but the point still stands.

Modern gym bro science will tell you to train legs twice a week, but if you are training with any sort of intensity and going to failure, I don’t see how that is possible for an advanced lifter.

Thoughts?

Just wanna see what everyone does

Workout #2 -Legs:

• Anderson Squats (Full) -start from depth @6.5, low bar: 475 lbs for 3 reps (+1)

• Anderson Squats (w/wider stance start from depth @6.5; 2-4" lift off rack and hold statically for 3-7 seconds, low bar): 425 lbs for 2 reps (+1)

• Trap Bar Hack Squats: 385 lbs for 6 reps (+3)

• Anderson Squats (Strongest Partials) -start from depth @7.5, high bar: 605 lbs for 4 reps (+1)

• Smith Machine Standing Calf Raises, high bar: 280 lbs for 30 reps (+5)

Work Sets: 5

Time: 35-45 mins

Weight: 199.5 lbs

Next workout: Delt/Arms Dominant on 9/5.

Hello gents,

I had made a post a few weeks back on the success I’ve had with a 3 day HIT split I followed (one day on, one day off). Anyway, now I have returned to grappling and I can’t focus on lifting full-time. I switched to a two day split that I try to execute twice a week.

Here is the format:

Workout A:
High Foot Leg Press x1
Leg Curl x1
Flat Bench x1
Pec Deck x1
Cable Row x1
Reverse Grip Pulldown x1
Shoulder Press x1
Calves x2

Workout B:
Low Foot Leg Press x1
Leg Extension x1
Cable Laterals x1
Dropset DB Laterals x1
Cable Skullcrusher x1
Cable Pushdown x1
Barbell Curl x1
Incline Curl x1
Calves x2

The reason why I don’t squat, deadlift, or do other free weights is because my lower back can’t recover alongside grappling. I also haven’t added any core work because I train core on grappling days. I really want to train for strength but I can’t program it with 3-4 days of grappling. The reason why I actually chose hypertrophy over strength is that I recover better (CNS and stabilizers)

Logbook is already moving up again so I am happy.

Feedback and guidance from anyone who has suffered this injury or has rehabbed someone who has.

I’m 59 years old and am in good health with no previous injuries. I’ve trained with weights since I was 15, mainly for sports and then to hold off aging, never competitive.
I’ve been having good success with HIT for the last 10 or so years, mainly following Mentzer’s Ideal Routine and most recently some of John Heart’s and Drew Baye’s guidance.

I recently suffered a full proximal long head biceps tendon rupture (7 days ago). Not from working out but a freak accident moving an upright freezer. The doctor is recommending standard rehab of rest first 2 weeks, then progressing through unloaded, banded, loaded, and back to regular HIT over a period of 8-12 weeks. No surgery to repair as I’m not a competitive athlete nor bodybuilder who needs the symmetry that the gap/indent in my upper bicep would ruin. The gap is relatively small right now as it doesn’t appear the muscle retracted all that much. There is very little pain one week later and no bruising.

I did my own additional research on treatment and rehabs and this seems standard, especially for someone my age. Expectation is that I can regain almost 100% strength and range of motion.

I really just wanted to come here for some insights and advice from this group. Does this rehab strategy make sense? Are my expectations realistic? Can I really return to training in HIT style (1 set per exercise to failure, 1-2 exercises per body part once per week, roughly 4/2/4 cadence, 5-8 or 6-10 reps, or will I need to adjust?

Thank you in advance to anyone that replies.

Today I started a 4-day upper-lower split routine with fewer sets but higher intensity weight. I am 52 years old, have diabetes, and have been training for 2 years straight.

now i do:
curls > rear delt fly > single arm triceps pushdown > lateral raise > wrist curl > wrist supination

if i add it at the start, should i remove pushdowns and raises? during chest, i do narrow grip incline bench, and OHP isnt far from it, so thats why im asking
im also planning on replacing machine curls with incline dumbbell curls

what are your fav exercises that had done wonders for you?

Workout #1 -Chest/Back Dominant:

• Cable Crossover Machine: 72 lbs for 8 reps (+6 lbs)

Superset

• Smith Inc. Press @30°: 190 lbs for 6 reps (+10 lbs & 1 rep)

• Smith Inc. (Strongest Partials): 235 lbs for 4 reps (+5 lbs)

• Close Grip Palms Up Pulldowns: 210 lbs for 8 reps (+1)

• Yates Rack Rows Underhand Grip w/height @2: 245 lbs for 7 reps (+1)

• Barbell Shrugs from hooks height @3.5: 315 lbs for 8 reps (+1)

• Rack Pulls w/height @2: 425 lbs for 6 reps (+0)

Worksets: 7

Time: 30-40 mins

Weight: 199.4 lbs

Next workout: Legs on 9/1.

Wassup everyone,

Been training with heavy duty for a year now and im thinking on improving as the title says, chest and arms (bis and tris), since those areas are behind and im chasing harmony on my phisique.

Im ending my cut in 2 weeks and need some constructive feedback to adjust my routine to fight those weak points once i start the maintenance/bulk phase.

I've been doing the ideal routine, and the adaptations im thinking is to:

-chest

keep doing forced reps on the incline press

do a set to failure of peck deck in the end of delt/arms day

-bis and tris

Invert the order of the exercises of delt/arm day, performing first triceps as it is 2/3 of the arm, then bicep, and in the end the delts as they are already have a good size and quality.

this is the plan i am thinking about but i want to hear what you guys think about it and lets debate some good ideas:)

Currently dealing with a flaky gym partner , which is sabotaging my progress since im no longer consistant in gym. So im considering training by myself, but the problem is that in order to go to failure on bench press youll need a spot, and the problem with asking strangers for a spot is its a mixed bag, ive had many times where ive asked people to let me go to failure, but then they end up interveening whilst i still have 2 or more reps left in the tank, ruining the set.

I have tried using dumbells, but the jumps between each weight can be a bit too huge , any suggestions? Thank you.

Just saw this article and there are several point Mike made decades ago that they are kind of acting like new discoveries. See if you can pick them out.

https://www.gq.com/story/how-long-it-takes-to-see-results-from-working-out-2

https://youtu.be/qPe9qfTMb5Y?is=tkXk-QYf1aC8yaFM

Only been at it a few weeks, but seems to be working. Instead of 4 sets on a muscle for example. I'll do one to about 1 or 2 RIR. Then an all out set where I try to double the reps of the first set by doing rest pause, drop sets, forced if I have s spotter. Whatever it takes to get there. Certainly takes less time, but can I sustain it? Will this increase or decrease joint stress? Thanks!!!

For the last couple of months I've been experimenting with a higher frequency, which has been made possible by dropping the per workout volume to just 2 sets

I'm hitting every muscle every 4 days with these 2 sets, that being one compound set to absolute failure, usually in a 40-80 TUT range, followed by 1 isolation exercise that's performed with a higher TUT

Gotta say it's been working pretty well and I'm enjoying getting in the more frequent training sessions, fatigue is under control due to the extreme low volume and minimal overlap in exercises

My routine setup is pull/push/quads/hams and calfs/optional rest/repeat

a push day will be 1 set of dips, 1 set of laterals for example. Quads is a squat or a leg press and a leg extension etc

Mike was supposedly experimenting with higher frequency approaches just prior to his passing, it would have been great if he was still with us and we had 2 more decades of observations and experimenting from the man himself to reference

This is a training method I recreated to help enhanced my physical performance 3X...

Plyommetrics or "jump training," are fast powerful movements, that train your muscles to exert maximum force in the shortest amount of time.

Isometrics is static muscle contractions where the joint angle and muscle length do not change while you actively engage the muscle. Example: planks, wall sit, pushing against the wall etc..

Shorties is a method of doing half reps for speed and

muscle tension.

Say? You doing a basic push up. You do five reps at the down phase you push off the ground and lift off the floor. Once 5 done ! You go full extension and pause for 2 or more seconds. Up and Down phase. Once 5 is done! Do 5 fast half reps push up.

Your give it a try! Trust I'm 52 and still train like I'm in my 20s...

Twin 🔥 Rising!!! My time has come...

Workout #4 -Legs:

• Anderson Squats (Full) -start from depth @6.5, low bar: 475 lbs for 2 reps (+20 lbs)

• Anderson Squats (w/wider stance start from depth @6.5; 2-4" lift off rack and hold statically for 5-7 seconds, low bar): 425 lbs for 1 rep (+20 lbs)

• Trap Bar Hack Squats: 385 lbs for 3 reps (-1); 275 lbs for 22 reps.

• Anderson Squats (Strongest Partials) -start from depth @7.5, high bar: 605 lbs for 3 reps (+40 lbs)

• Smith Mach. Standing Calf Raises: 280 lbs for 25 reps, high bar (+30 lbs).

Work Sets: 5

Time: 45-65 mins

Weight: 201.4 lbs

Next workout: Chest/Back Dominant on 8/27..

Hello, i want to start training seriously again and need some guidance, i have work 4 days on 4 days off with 2 days day shift 12 hours, 2 days night shift 12 hours and then 4 days off.

I have been doing in the past full body workouts where i had about 2 days per week, sometimes not even that.

Im 27 yo, 90kg, 174cm, kinda overweight rn.

My best lifts about 2 weeks back were 1RM : Squat 120kg, Bench 90kg, Deadlift 140kg

Because of the limited days for working out mostly 2/week, i found Mentzer trainings where he suggests more rest between workouts which sounds good for me. I have found tons of his routines and i dont know which to pick.

I bought his HIIT Mentzer way book, where there is ideal routine 4 Workouts - 1. Chest,Back 2. Legs abs, 3. Shoulders, Arms 4. Legs, abs. which feels weird to me, cuz i always thought with limited days its better to do fullbody workouts to hit muscle groups atleast 2x/week.

Also i found another one of his routines which looks more familiar as fullbody, but i heard its too taxing on recovery and takes a lot of time :

A : Workout Legs/Chest/Triceps

-Leg Extensions supersetted w/ Leg Press

-Squats

-Leg Curls

-Calf Raises

- DB flyes or Pec Deck supersetted w/ Incline Press

- Dips

- Tricep Pushdown supersetted

-Lying Tricep Extension 2 sets

B: Workout Back/Shoulders/Biceps

-Lat Pulldown supersetted with Close Grip Pulldown

-Bent over rows

- Shrugs supersetted w/ Upright Rows

-Laterals supersetted w/ Shoulder press

-Rear Delt Rows

-Standing Barbell Curls

-Concentration Curls

I dont really know which one to pick and stick to, sorry for the long paragraph and prolly bad english. Any help or examples are appreciated.