High Volume vs High Intensity Training
by Paul Becker
Mike Mentzer vs Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the better bodybuilder, which is better high volume or high intensity training and what about the controversial 1980 Mr. Olympia contest?
Back in the 1970's Arnold Schwarzenegger was the king of bodybuilding. Arnold was a high volume trainer, he did 20 sets per body part, training for 2 hours twice a day, 6 days a week. And of course everyone wanting to be like Arnold trained the same way.
Arnold retired in 1975, having won the Mr. Olympia 6 times in a row. Then in 1976 along comes Mike Mentzer, winning the IFBB Mr. America contest and announcing that the Arnold, high volume training system is illogical, non-scientific and amounts to gross overtraining. At the time Mike Mentzer was doing no more than 3 to 4 workouts a week, lasting less than one hour each. He told the bodybuilding world that it was intensity not volume that was responsible for muscle growth, and that is was only Arnold's superior genetics and steroid use that allowed his to get away with overtraining on both volume and frequency of workouts.
This angered Arnold who called Muscle and Fitness writer Jack Neary and said "Tell Mike Mentzer for me that he is an asshole. If I ever hear or read once again that he says my training system is wrong, I will see to it that nobody ever takes his training seriously. Tell him that!"
Of course, Mike Mentzer never stopped and he kept getting bigger and better as a result of high intensity training. Mike went on to win the 1978 Mr. Universe contest, becoming the first person to get a perfect 300 score from the judges.
Now people were taking the Mike Mentzer training system very seriously and his books and courses even started outselling Arnold's, which made Arnold even more angry.
Next, Mike won the 1979 Mr. Olympia heavyweight class on his first try, but he lost the overall title to Frank Zane, who was the reigning champion, due to Zane's superior muscle definition.
Mike trained and dieted for almost a full year for the 1980 Mr. Olympia and come the day of the contest he was bigger and more ripped than ever, many expected him to easily win the contest.
But in a twist of fate, Arnold Schwarzenegger who was training for the movie Conan, decided to enter the Mr. Olympia at the last minute. Arnold even though still impressive was in far worse shape than he had ever appeared in any of his Mr. Olympia appearances. His leg's were particularly lacking.
But, here was Mike in the best shape of his life!
Yet in a highly controversial decision Arnold was crowned the 1980 Mr. Olympia. Many thought the contest was fixed, as most of the judging panel were personal friends of Arnold, also there was a film being made called Arnold's Comeback, that some of the judges just happened to be investors in the film, and Arnold losing would not be good for business.
Mike never claimed he should have won that contest, but he always said that Arnold didn't deserve to win that day. The majority of the other competitors and even the audience also felt something was wrong and Arnold was literally booed as he was announced the winner.
I remember when the magazine came out I was shocked to see the comparisons of Arnold and Mentzer, Mike's arms were at least as big as Arnold's, and Mike's legs were actually bigger than Arnold's, despite Mike only being 5'8" and Arnold being over 6" tall. They also weighted the same, 225 pounds, which means Mike was packing on as much muscle but on a smaller frame.
So maybe Arnold was trying to keep his earlier threat that he would see to it that no one would take Mentzer's high intensity training seriously anymore. Maybe Arnold thought that by beating Mike he would prove that volume training was superior.
But did he actually prove anything?
He may have proved that genetics and height have a lot to do with winning a contest, or that his reputation was more important than his current condition, or even that it's possible to influence the results of a contest by having friends on the judging panel.
But Arnold has never proven the superiority of volume training, he has never logically explained the reasoning behind it, or given any science to show why it would be better.
On the other hand Mike Mentzer very logically laid out the sound reasoning behind high intensity training, he talked about the science of it and even studies that showed that intensity of effort was the biggest factor in muscle growth.
You may say that both high volume and high intensity training have produced champions. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sergio Oliva, Lou Ferrigno, etc. were all volume trainers. And Casey Viator, Mike Mentzer, Dorian Yates, etc. were all high intensity trainers. But even if they both worked equally well, which I don't actually believe because most people just overtrain and get burned out on volume training, which would you rather do - over 20 hours a week of training or 3 to 4 hours a week of training?
Who in the world would train over 20 hours every week just to get the same results he could get with only 3 to 4 hours each week?
The truth is you get much better results by doing high intensity, short and infrequent workouts that you get from high volume, long duration and every day workouts.
Don't you think it's worth at least giving Mike Mentzer's high intensity training a try?
If you have any questions about Mike Mentzer or High Intensity Training email us and we'll get back to you with an answer as quick as we can.
Click Here to Sign Up for Your Free Bodybuilding Magazine Subscription