HighIntensity.net View Mike Mentzer Bodybuilding Topic

I have my first session back at the gym on friday after many years off. I have been doing yoga and calisthenics/cardio to prepare myself for the past two months and in that time I have been reading all I can on the current research into hypertrophy.

It seems that alot of research is pointing towards mechanical load and time-under-tension as the main stimulators of hypertrophy and not fatigue. In fact alot of articles reccommend NOT training to failure since it is so taxing on the CNS which takes much longer to recover than the muscles do.

Without me going into alot of detail in this post it would be easier if I just link so that you guys can have a read about what I am thinking of trying and ponder it for yourselves:

http://www.hypertrophy-research.com/

It′s not strictly speaking a high volume program. You perform around 6-8 basic exercises for 20 reps each using initially your 10 rep max. How is this possible ? – by using rest time BETWEEN reps from the very first rep onwards – kind of like an extended rest/pause set – but with lower weight. The load is then varied in a progressive wave like fashion (in fact you start with 75% of your 10RM and progressively increase the load 5% each session until you are doing 20 reps with 110% of your 10RM.) The cycle is then repeated with your 8RM then 6RM etc.

BTW in no way am I dissing HIT since I know that it works. What is attractive about max-stim is the avoidance of lactic acid burn and shorter recovery times (avoidance of failure). You are still going to be working goddam hard (which I never minded) but without the awful burn (which I hated).

Maybe this technique could be incorporated into a more traditional HIT routine.

Let me know what you guys think !

′It seems that a lot of research is pointing towards mechanical load′

Would someone please explain what the hell mechanical load actual means. I looked at the HST site and there was no definition just mumbo jumbo blabbering…

Just a fancy way of saying ′weight′ I think, but the weight must be of a certain magnitude eg >70% of 1RM, to induce growth.

I thought about doing HST too (Max-Stim is essentially the same set of principles but with the advantage of the fatigue management).

Total horseshit.why are you bothering even looking at this?have you not been convinced of the effacasy of hit? obviously not,as you are considering not training to faliure.Go back and re-read MM.

I believe you′re correct about mechanical load – esentially it means Mechanical OVERload, which in turn refers to the overload principle of weight training.

In strength and mass training one must increase the demands placed on the muscles to ′force′ an alarm reaction. If not, the muscle wil not be forced to adapt to the demands ie. get bigger and stronger.

I therefore contend that Heavy Duty (HIT) indeed follows the overload principle or as these funky new muscle wanker writers put it nowadays – mechanical load.

Are we all agree with this statement ?

Next, could someone define Time under tension (TUT) or Time Under Load TUL (TUL) which I beleive are essentially the same.