Mike Mentzer Workout – 3-Day One-Set-to-Failure Rotation

Mike Mentzer workout, the three-workout high-intensity bodybuilding rotation Mike Mentzer published in his 1993 book Heavy Duty: one all-out set per exercise, pre-exhaust supersets for chest, triceps, back and legs, and plenty of rest between sessions. Start on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and space the workouts further apart as you get stronger. Hardy tracks every set for you: log your reps, and the app raises or lowers your working weights automatically according to the rules below, so you never touch a spreadsheet.

The Mike Mentzer split

Mentzer's split divides the body into three workouts done in rotation:

• Workout 1 (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps): pec deck straight into incline bench press, lateral raise, rear delt fly, tricep pushdown straight into dips
• Workout 2 (Back, Biceps): dumbbell pullover straight into close grip lat pulldown with palms facing you, barbell row, shrug, deadlift, curl
• Workout 3 (Legs, Abs): leg extension straight into leg press, leg curl, calf raise, hanging leg raises

The paired exercises are pre-exhaust supersets: the isolation movement tires the target muscle, and you move to the compound with no rest so the fresher helper muscles carry it past that point. Mentzer alternated the leg press with the squat from one leg workout to the next, and allowed a hyperextension in place of the deadlift; swap them in Hardy when you do.

Sets, reps and rest

Do two or three warm-up sets with progressively heavier weights, each stopped a couple of reps short of failure, then one working set taken to true failure. Warm-up sets are not written into the routine; the warm-up calculator lays out a ramp for any working weight. Mentzer prescribed 6–10 reps on the upper body, 8–15 on the legs and 12–20 on calves; this routine uses 6–10, 8–12 and 12–20. He used forced reps or negatives only occasionally and warned that doing them on every set quickly leads to overtraining. Rest at least 48 and ideally 72 hours or more between workouts, and longer as you get stronger. A workout takes about 45 minutes including warm-ups.

Progression

Every weight exercise uses double progression. Start with a weight you can take to failure at about 6 reps; once you reach the top of the range in good form, Hardy adds weight (2.5 kg / 5 lb, or 1 kg / 2 lb on dumbbell exercises), following Mentzer's rule of raising the weight as soon as you pass the top of the range. Fall below the bottom of the range and Hardy takes the same amount off; that step down is Hardy's, not Mentzer's. His own answer to a stall was more rest: a week off, then an extra rest day between workouts.

Which Mike Mentzer routine this is

The Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty method went through several versions. The 1993 rotation above is the one with a complete exercise list, and it is the version most training apps carry. Later he published the Ideal Routine, four workouts spaced four to seven days apart (chest and back, legs, delts and arms, legs again), and finally two-exercise consolidation workouts once every week or more. If you have run the 1993 rotation for a few months and progress slows, the Ideal Routine is the next step.

Tips

• A set to failure ends on the rep you cannot complete, not on the last comfortable one; use a spotter on the incline press and the leg press.
• Log only the full reps; forced and negative reps come on top.
• The hanging leg raises replace the sit-ups in Mentzer's leg workout; one set to failure.
• Prefer a little more volume at slightly lower effort? The Clark Kent Upper Lower Split uses two sets per exercise in the 4–7 rep range.

Based on the routine Mike Mentzer published in his 1993 book Heavy Duty. Not affiliated with Mike Mentzer, his estate or mikementzer.org.