Heavy Duty by Mike Mentzer and it’s correlation with my personal training philosophy

2026 Day 207. #TrainingDays.

One of the most wonderful things about learning to code is to realise that you have all the power to manipulate things. If you fail it is not because the language is not enough, but possibly you do not have the right skillset.

It is thus important that you learn a little, some formal knowledge is extremely integral to success, but practical ideas help you get the edge.

I have come to realise that biology draws a similar parallel.

We all have the same two eyes, nose, a brain, legs and so on, barring the exceptions. Thus we all have similar capabilities in terms of a bare minimum. The maximum potential can be different, depending on our genetic factors, diet, region we live in, and so on. But to try and be fitter (and grow stronger) is an effort that we all make in a similar way.

A few blogs ago I talked about how the biggest improvements usually came after long periods of rest. I would miss a week of training and come back feeling much better and fitter at the same time. This was surprising to observe in that point of time.

I speculated that this had to with my body getting extreme amounts of rest to recover which boosted my energy levels as well.

Reading Heavy Duty by Mike Mentzer has provided me with an explanation. Whether this idea is rooted in science or philosophy is not mine to speculate. What I do agree with is that the practical came before the theory, and this theory sits extremely well with it. So I must accept it and transform the way I train now.

According to Mike, the fastest way to grow your muscle is to train much lesser. Instead of going to the gym six days a weak and feeling sore, limit yourself to twice or thrice a week.

The intensity of the exercise matters much more than the number of sets or reps completed. Mike argued that this is the fastest way to build muscle because muscles are not built in the gym.

When you are training, you are hurting your muscles and depleting your energy. Thus it is really important that you must give them ample rest and refill your energy.

While you might workout a different set of muscles everyday (in a six day plan) you only have one tank of energy. This tank helps you recover after a rep, after a set, after a workout, and after a long day. It helps to go to work, and perform your daily actions, and finally when you rest, it helps repair muscles and then build them stronger and bigger.

Thus rest is where you do the muscle building. Training is the simple trigger for it. With this in mind would you spend more time initiating a stimulus or accomplishing the task you created the stimulus for?

This is not to say that regular training is completely useless and we should avoid it like the plague. In my reading I realised that the focus of the book is on building bigger muscles, it is for a body builder, it is not intended for a person looking to build cardiovascular fitness.

Thus if your goals are well aligned with what Mike shared and believed, it would be great idea to follow his advice.

For building endurance however long sessions and low intensity can be very useful. They train your heart to beat faster for longer, training it better, but with minimal damage to your muscles since intensity is low.

This understanding has landed me into a small dilemma. I am working towards a plan, but with all of this in mind I feel like I must commit to either short intense sessions or long easy sessions.

However, I have decided to run a little experiment.

Instead of focussing on only one, I will play around with a mix. While this might not be optimal overall, it is a step in experiment. This one is for science (or me?). I am going to attempt two days of high intensity training that helps me build bigger muscles. I will use Zone 2 running as a low intensity workout to help manage my weight as I eat a little extra calories.

See you tomorrow.