I never have doubted the frequency of his training during the majority of his lifting career. What I doubt is how frequently he lifted in the beginning to get near where he wanted to be physically and then imply that too much time in the gym is not only useless, but detrimental. I guess that frequency debate can go on and on. The thing that really tarnish his results are the steroids. Take that out of the equation and the physique he had cannot possibly come from his low frequency training. I am now convinced, thanks to you Mr. Fred, that less is in fact more, especially as we age, but finding the proper training frequency is an individual thing and is not at all static through one's training life.
As I recall from what I had read about him, Mentzer said that he trained in the normal volume fashion for some time and got good results. But then he plateaued. It was, according to him, when he then adopted a high intensity/low volume/low frequency approach that he continued to make improvements in strength and mass. As for steroids, that's a given. They all took it so that was pretty much a constant. Mentzer never denied taking them, unlike many of his competitors, some of whom deny taking any to this day. And, yeah, Mentzer said that while all the other principles of high intensity training ~uniformly apply, recovery (ergo frequency) was the one unique variable for every individual.
The man who made the video makes a living writing books extolling the Mentzer way. Biased much? Some of his comments are ridiculous, such Mentzer never trained at Gold until he relocated to California, guys made trips there all of the time. Mentzer was officially a weirdo who saw himself as some luminary and was unstable as they come
I can't comment on the video guy's bias or the veracity of the details relating to gyms and timelines. Where, specifically, do you disagree with the video's commentary? I agree that Mentzer was a bit off and took himself a bit too seriously. (And don't get me started on his devotion to Ayn Rand!) But I think his contribution to strength training/bodybuilding is meaningful even though he may have strayed to the extreme of workout minimalism towards the end.
Just curious. How often are you guys working out these days, and was your last change an increase or decrease in frequency?
Generally this is what I'm doing with some flexibility in schedule. Weight training upper. Four days off what I'll call active rest which range from simply walking to heavy bag work, some row machine. Most of this is 30 minutes. Then another weight training for lower body and repeat the 4 day active rest. Seems like about once every 3 weeks or so I'll take a complete rest day. Been doing this since last October. I had gained some weight over 2023/24, about 30 lbs. Just kinda got sloppy with nutrition and workouts were just going through the motions. Decided I'm not dead yet last fall, so the journey began. Current weight is 205 with a target of 195. At 6'4" that's about as lean as I want to get. Shred Citaaay here I come. Sadly the 70 something body doesn't look like the 20 something body even at the same exact weight.
Well, regarding the Mentzer's arrival in Cali for one. I've read several times that after high school, Ray went to Cali to be a BB. So he was 18/19 years old and was born in 1953, well before World Gym was a dream. So he would have trained at Gold's when all the boys were there. I know it's Ray but with Mike being older and Ray's idol, I would suspect Mike was there at that time as well.
It just reeks of Colorado Experiment baloney. If it was so effective why isn't the preeminent way to train and actually never was. Question if anyone knows. Mentzer got crushed by Viator in 1971 and took off 3 years of training after that. Some reports said he suffered a severe shoulder injury causing the layoff. Anyone know details on the shoulder? Knowing what we know now, I think he was just butt hurt like in 1980.