How do you feel about this style of training?

[QuadDominant]

Training Monday and Thursday.
Going down the list of workouts and repeating.
GZCL Style Progression

T1
5x3 > 6x2 > 10x1
Last Set AMRAP

T2
3x10 > 3x8 > 3x6
Last Set AMRAP

T3
2x15
Last Set AMRAP


High Bar Squat
DB Bent Row
C.G Floor Press

Deadlift
OHP
Zercher Carry

SL Squat to SL RDL
Pull Ups to Dips
Farmer Carry

Low Bar Squat
DB Bent Row
C.G Floor Press

Rack Pull
OHP
Zercher Carry

SL Squat to SL RDL
Pull Ups to Dips
Farmer Carry

 

[Smont]

Unless your completely detrained from a long breakI think it would be fine for someone trying to do minimal things to maintain strength and stay functionally fit. But, If you have spent any significant amount of time under the bar you won't be making any progress training 2 days a week.

 

[QuadDominant]

Unless your completely detrained from a long breakI think it would be fine for someone trying to do minimal things to maintain strength and stay functionally fit. But, If you have spent any significant amount of time under the bar you won't be making any progress training 2 days a week.

Im looking into 2x a week because I do Muay Thai and I like Mike Mentzers philosophy. You think I should add another day? I'm trying my best not to over train lol

 

[SweetLou321]

Im looking into 2x a week because I do Muay Thai and I like Mike Mentzers philosophy. You think I should add another day? I'm trying my best not to over train lol

Liking a philosophy and getting results from it sadly do not always line up. You can always try it out, monitor recovery over 2/3 weeks. If you are not adding reps/weight after 2/3 weeks and feel great. You are liking undertraining and should add more volume. If you are progressing and feel great, leave it alone. If you are progressing and feel beat up, then a deload will be needed soon and this workload is not sustainable long-term, so after the deload, try a lower workout load. If you are not progressing and not recovering, then you are doing too much.

 

[Smont]

Im looking into 2x a week because I do Muay Thai and I like Mike Mentzers philosophy. You think I should add another day? I'm trying my best not to over train lol

I can understand what your saying, I lift, box and wrestle. But the whole Mike Mentzer thing is kinda nonsense because it's not how he actually trained, and Mike was also using meth when he trained like that. The whole Mike Mentzer craze right now Is the new thing that's gonna be responsible for nobody Making progress and everyone wasting there time. I 100% promise that the Mentzer principles you think you know are not how he trained to build that physique.

Every gym across the world right now is full of guys who think they're training smarter, not harder, and making no progress. And sometimes the smartest thing you can do is just train harder and more often if you want results.

You're going to make literally the 50th or more person I've told to go ahead and follow the Mentzer routine or the whatever routine for 4-6 months, Take before and after pictures and prove me wrong. But no1 ever comes back and says it works.

At the end of the day, I'm trying to help you succeed. So you don't have to do what I say obviously, you can do what you want. Either way, good luck

 

[Dustin07]

You're going to make literally the 50th or more person I've told to go ahead and follow the Mentzer routine or the whatever routine for 4-6 months, Take before and after pictures and prove me wrong. But no1 ever comes back and says it works.

I'm seeing a ton of that right now in my 40+ group. a lot of before and after pictures where.................. i honestly can't see the change anymore. lol. But I keep my mouth shut because if they see the change and feel better, I'm not going to be the one to burst their bubble... at least they're moving....

 

[Resolve10]

Im looking into 2x a week because I do Muay Thai and I like Mike Mentzers philosophy. You think I should add another day? I'm trying my best not to over train lol

That may be fine. I feel like the GZCL program usually has more than just three exercises though? Idk if it doesn't it feels a little low volume, especially if you aren't doing it as many days per week as it recommends. If your goals are just keeping or building a little of general strength to help with your Muay Thai then it will probably be fine. Follow SweetLou's advice though for gauging how it is working for you though and just make adjustments if it doesn't seem to fit your needs.

 

[QuadDominant]

That may be fine. I feel like the GZCL program usually has more than just three exercises though? Idk if it doesn't it feels a little low volume, especially if you aren't doing it as many days per week as it recommends. If your goals are just keeping or building a little of general strength to help with your Muay Thai then it will probably be fine. Follow SweetLou's advice though for gauging how it is working for you though and just make adjustments if it doesn't seem to fit your needs.

Yeah, I believe you can add as many T3 movements as you can handle. So the verdict is more volume? Thank yall for the input

 

[Resolve10]

Yeah, I believe you can add as many T3 movements as you can handle. So the verdict is more volume? Thank yall for the input

Ya it will depend on personal volume tolerances, but if only going twice per week you may need more volume than if you were splitting it into 3-4 per week.

 

[BBiceps]

I can understand what your saying, I lift, box and wrestle. But the whole Mike Mentzer thing is kinda nonsense because it's not how he actually trained, and Mike was also using meth when he trained like that. The whole Mike Mentzer craze right now Is the new thing that's gonna be responsible for nobody Making progress and everyone wasting there time. I 100% promise that the Mentzer principles you think you know are not how he trained to build that physique.

Every gym across the world right now is full of guys who think they're training smarter, not harder, and making no progress. And sometimes the smartest thing you can do is just train harder and more often if you want results.

You're going to make literally the 50th or more person I've told to go ahead and follow the Mentzer routine or the whatever routine for 4-6 months, Take before and after pictures and prove me wrong. But no1 ever comes back and says it works.

At the end of the day, I'm trying to help you succeed. So you don't have to do what I say obviously, you can do what you want. Either way, good luck

^This 100%^
Mentzer silly program is not the way he got big.

OP, what’s your goals? If it is to be on stage, this routine is not the way to go but if it’s just for general health/stay somewhat in shape, do whatever makes you happy and if you want to look good, eat better.

 

[GreenMachineX]

I can understand what your saying, I lift, box and wrestle. But the whole Mike Mentzer thing is kinda nonsense because it's not how he actually trained, and Mike was also using meth when he trained like that. The whole Mike Mentzer craze right now Is the new thing that's gonna be responsible for nobody Making progress and everyone wasting there time. I 100% promise that the Mentzer principles you think you know are not how he trained to build that physique.

Every gym across the world right now is full of guys who think they're training smarter, not harder, and making no progress. And sometimes the smartest thing you can do is just train harder and more often if you want results.

You're going to make literally the 50th or more person I've told to go ahead and follow the Mentzer routine or the whatever routine for 4-6 months, Take before and after pictures and prove me wrong. But no1 ever comes back and says it works.

At the end of the day, I'm trying to help you succeed. So you don't have to do what I say obviously, you can do what you want. Either way, good luck

What are your thoughts on Dogcrapp training?

 

[Smont]

What are your thoughts on Dogcrapp training?

I love it if people do it right, the problem with DC and other high intensity training styles is that you can't do it properly if you train solo. Without a training partner it's really hard and almost impossible to do the intensity techniques and widow makers. I got hurt a few times while doing DC but I still use DC principals in higher rep ranges and with machines. My knees and shoulders ain't as resilient as they use to be

 

[Stacks1]

I can understand what your saying, I lift, box and wrestle. But the whole Mike Mentzer thing is kinda nonsense because it's not how he actually trained, and Mike was also using meth when he trained like that. The whole Mike Mentzer craze right now Is the new thing that's gonna be responsible for nobody Making progress and everyone wasting there time. I 100% promise that the Mentzer principles you think you know are not how he trained to build that physique.

Every gym across the world right now is full of guys who think they're training smarter, not harder, and making no progress. And sometimes the smartest thing you can do is just train harder and more often if you want results.

You're going to make literally the 50th or more person I've told to go ahead and follow the Mentzer routine or the whatever routine for 4-6 months, Take before and after pictures and prove me wrong. But no1 ever comes back and says it works.

At the end of the day, I'm trying to help you succeed. So you don't have to do what I say obviously, you can do what you want. Either way, good luck

I did Mentzer's training for over 2 years straight and it really was an amazing workout. Problem is, nobody ever really does it right. People don't really know what failure is, and even then, you need to actually go beyond failure, and this can't be achieved without a trainer or workout partner. If your partner has a heart rate monitor on you can actually see when they are approaching failure as their HR will spike, and then you need to assist them to take them beyond this. Nobody can really do this on their own though. The training was absolutely exhausting. One person would essentially train the other for the entire workout and then that person would train the other for their workout. It was too exhausting to train each other back and forth as we were gasping for air and bodies were shaking. The biggest issue I always had with this routine is that when you're constantly hitting failure you're HR spikes higher and higher and some of the compound lifts would sometimes take you to ridiculous levels where I would get dizzy, nauseous, and even early on pass out.

But I really do believe that if Mentzer's HIT is done the proper way, it's as good as any routine out there. Also, 2X per week isn't enough for Mentzer's HIT training. Maybe you can start with 2X to get used to it but you won't get far with 2X per week. 3X per week would work though.

The biggest issue with it is that it is almost never done the right way.

 

[Resolve10]

Biggest issue with HIT is everyone always moves the goal posts and never has a concrete answer of what it is.

IMHO it is one of those things that works great short term for some people because they come from a program where they are overworked and doing lots of junk volume so they blow up with the increased focus on making each set count and the built in focus on progression. Volume just tends not to be high enough for most though (some people it can definitely work) so gains slow down and then they blow up again when they switch back to higher volume work.

If anything it is good as a way to show you should vary these kinds of things to take advantage of multiple ranges of volume, intensity, etc. to get the best results or to stave off psychological staleness.

 

[Stacks1]

This whole HIT thing has really become popular again and massively misunderstood. Mentzer kind of screwed people up because he would define failure as not being able to do another rep with proper form, however that's not how he trained or trained others. He always used forced reps, so he would take people beyond failure. I also think he strayed too far away Arthur Jones program. I believe Arthur Jones actually had it right, which was hitting each muscle group 3X per week, which is far different from what Mentzer preached.

I'm going to try to put together a thread on this to point out the common mistakes I'm seeing people make at the gym, some of the basic principles, and how to put together a program.