Often Criticised for Their High Intensity Training Style, Dorian Yates Reminisces on How Mike Mentzer Helped ‘The Shadow’ Reach to Complete Failure With Only One Working Set

Dorian Yates was an ardent promoter of HIT training, which helped him to win six Mr. Olympia titles in the 1990s. However, the method is not followed by many other bodybuilders, given the heavy weights that are involved. Yates considers Mike Mentzer as his inspiration and has had sessions with the late bodybuilder as well.

The 6x Mr. Olympia continues to carry forward Mr. Heavy Duty’s legacy by preaching to his followers about the infamous HIT bodybuilding method. In his latest Instagram post, Yates recounted his exhausting training session with Mentzer.

Dorian Yates sheds light on his ultimate bicep workout with Mentzer

It was Arthur Jones who proposed the High-Intensity Training technique in the 1970s. Mike Mentzer, who won Mr. Universe in 1978 and 1979 heavyweight Mr. Olympia with a perfect score of 300, followed suit and became a great proponent of the technique. Mentzer wrote several articles in bodybuilding journals on HIT, which further influenced Yates during his prime. But a workout session with Mr. Heavy Duty was even more eye-opening for Yates. 

Mike Mentzer once happened to observe Yates perform two final sets to failure and advised him to reduce it to one. Later, Yates, the reigning Mr. Olympia, had the opportunity to do a memorable bicep workout. The session started with a warm-up with a Nautilus biceps machine, and the focus was on ultra-perfect form, failure between 6-8 reps, tension, and time. “A 3-second positive, followed by 2 seconds in the static hold and finally, a 4-second negative,” Yates noted. The English bodybuilder did seven reps in one minute, which felt like an eternity. However, the session did not end soon after. 

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Mentzer helped Yates perform two extra forced reps with extra pressure on the negative phase with an added 25 lbs. The exercise was brutal and exhausting, but a great learning lesson for Yates. After Jones and Mentzer, Yates became one of the great proponents of the HIT Training method. 

The 6x Mr. Olympia’s Colorado Experiment

The Shadow was often puzzled by the fact that bodybuilders denounce HIT training without even giving it a chance. However, Yates trusted the method to the core and won six Mr. Olympia titles training with heavy weights. The 61-year-old even introduced HIT to Paul Baxendale, a fellow bodybuilder. 

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The training method intrigued Baxendale, and he continues to practice with just one working set even three decades later. Now, Yates is a HIT crusader online, advocating the principles involved in becoming a mass monster.

Yates and Mentzer contributed to the art of bodybuilding with their knowledge of the HIT training method. Few reps, high intensity, and high recovery periods are the ideal principles of the HIT method that Yates mastered during his prime. Now, he wants rookie bodybuilders to follow in his footsteps.

Would you try out HIT? Let us know in the comments below.