Mike Mentzer programs.....15 days between workouts. Not 15 days to rest a muscle group, 15 days between workouts.
Thoughts?
This is a real thing and Mentzer's ideas work. There are two issue with Mentzer's ideas though.
1. Mentzer spoke so loudly no one could hear him. He came across to many people as being arrogant and too sure of himself.
2. People misinterpret his ideas, twist them, and then they get repeated with more twists - leading to more misunderstanding.
Should you follow Mentzer to a T? Maybe for a while. It WILL work, if you follow him to a T. Is he the only way or the best way? His ideas do provide a useful framework with which to progress, and even when I don't follow his programs, his ideas are in my mind.
If you are interested, get his book, "Heavy Duty II". You will understand much more. He does NOT recommend 15 days between workouts except in very extreme circumstances. He does recommend 4 days between workouts as a starting point for most people. 15 days between workouts would be for people who are basically on the crapiest end of the genetic spectrum and just cannot recover.
As far as his training leading to CNS burnout....it can. So can volume training. The difference is that Mentzer gives a lot of rest time between workouts to compensate for recovery and over compensation. People say to use common sense, but then they believe that doing a light workout is better for recovery than complete rest which is not common sense and relies on mixed data from studies.
In 18 months on HIT I dropped 45-50 pounds and gained almost 20 pounds of muscle and A LOT of strength without ever changing my diet. 6 months ago I decided to get serious about losing weight and have dropped another 50 pounds since then, but with the extreme dieting and life getting in the way (not working out for 2 months) I lost some strength recently.
I'm 5'8'', 195 pounds right now. I have about 35 pounds to lose to get to 10% bodyfat hopefully, maybe 40 pounds. A couple months ago I could deadlift 435 for reps and squat 285 for 8 reps AFTER going to exhaustion on leg extensions. Not super impressive, but I'm a small guy in a fat guy's body right now. I rarely do more than 2 sets of an exercise, most of the time just do 1 set, and when I am not dieting I see progress on 8 out of every 10 workouts even after almost 3 years of training. Maybe not big progress, but progress.
The hardest substance I've ever used is 11-Oxo, and I used it for fat loss.
Mentzer did not get big using the principles he finally recommended. He used steroids and had a routine that had less volume than most bodybuilders during his day, but he went even further with his principles once he started training the average guy who wasn't on steroids. People miss this point - his books are the result of him training NON-steroid users.
Also, anyone arguing that steroids make a night and day difference is fooling themselves, but that's OK, because most people have NO idea what natural looks like anymore. Steroids have been used for so long and are so prevalent, that most people have really false ideas of what is possible naturally.
John Grimmek was the eye opener for me. The Russians discovered steroids in the 40's or 50's and Grimmek MAY have had access to steroids, but if he didn't use, he is in a graduating class of bodybuilders that was probably the last not to have access. He was around 200 pounds at 5'8'' and about 10% bodyfat. He had some of the best genetics in the world and was arguably the best in the world. If you think you can beat that naturally....you have the best genetics in the world and you still may need to check your view of reality.