Near the end of his personal training career, Mike Mentzer determined that he was recommending workouts to his clients who had a number of sets that was too high for maximum muscle growth. He had been using 2-4 sets of maximum intensity per muscle group, but he noticed that his clients’ results had stopped.

This puzzled him, but after careful analysis, he decided that to reinvigorate new muscle growth he needed to reduce the sets to 1-2 for small muscles and 2-3 for larger ones. His clients began breaking plateaus and building new muscle mass. All sets were taken to muscle failure.

When he got a call from bodybuilder Dorian Yates, who was training for the upcoming Mr. Olympia contest, he built a new program designed to quickly add muscle to Dorian’s body. Believe it or not, he only used one set for biceps and triceps as described in the program below. Since Dorian was used to hard training, he quickly took up this program and made excellent gains.

It is extremely important to go all out for this HIT routine or it won’t work. You must train harder than ever. Try to add repetitions and/or weight in each session to overload the muscles. Try Mike’s routines to reinvigorate your training!

Leg extensions: 1 x 12-15, 15 second hold at top at end

Leg press: 1 x 12-15, 2 forced reps, 15-second hold at top

Squats-1 x 12-15

Leg curls: 1 x 12-15, 2 forced reps, 15-second hold at top

Stiff Legged Deadlift-1 x 12-15

Calf raises or toe presses: 1 x 12-15, 15-second hold at top

Nautilus Sweaters: 1 x 8-10, 15 second hold at top

Lat Pull-downs-1 x 8-10.2 forced reps, 15 second hold at end

Cable rows: 1 x 8-10, 15 second max contraction hold at end

Shrug Machine: 1 x 8-10, 15-second max contraction hold at top

Pek Dek-1 x 8-10.2 forced reps, 15 second hold at end

Machine Bench Press: 1 x 8-10, 15-second hold at top

Machine Lateral Raises: 1 x 8-10, 15-second hold at top

Machine presses: 1 x 8-10, 2 forced reps, 15-second hold

(Do 1 set of only lateral raises or power presses if you add 2 forced reps and 2 forced negative reps at the end of the set)

Machine curls: 1 x 8-10, 2 forced reps, 15-second hold at top

Cable Pull-downs Palms-Facing-1 x 8-10, 15 second hold at top

(Do 1 set of curls only if you add 2 forced reps and 2 forced negatives at the end of the set)

Seated triceps extensions: 1 x 8-10.2 forced reps, 15-second hold at end

Close-grip bench presses: 1 x 8-10, 15-second hold at top

(dips can be substituted)

(Do 1 set of triceps extensions only if you add 2 forced reps and 2 forced negative reps at the end of the set)