38 Facts About Mike Mentzer

Michael John Mentzer was an American IFBB professional bodybuilder, businessman, and author.

Mike Mentzer won several amateur bodybuilding competitions before turning professional in 1979, including the 1976 Mr America title and the heavyweight division of the 1978 IFBB Mr Universe.

Mike Mentzer was born on November 15,1951, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and his father was of German descent and his mother was of Italian descent.

Mike Mentzer said his ultimate goal during that period was to become a psychiatrist.

Mike Mentzer's father had bought him a set of weights and an instruction booklet.

The booklet suggested that he train no more than three days a week, so Mike Mentzer did just that.

Mike Mentzer started competing in local physique contests when he was 18 years old and attended his first contest in 1969.

In 1971, Mike Mentzer entered and won the Mr Lancaster contest.

Mike Mentzer considered his presence at this contest important later on, as he met Viator, who gave Mike Mentzer the contact information for his trainer Arthur Jones.

Mike Mentzer went on to win the competition the following year in 1976.

Mike Mentzer won the 1977 North America championships in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and competed a week later at the 1977 Mr Universe in Nimes, France, placing second to Kal Szkalak.

In 1978, Mike Mentzer won the Mr Universe in Acapulco, Mexico with the first and only perfect 300 score.

Mike Mentzer became a professional bodybuilder after that 1978 Universe win.

In late 1979, Mike Mentzer won the heavyweight class of the Mr Olympia, again with a perfect 300 score, but he lost in the overall to Frank Zane that year.

Mike Mentzer retired from competitive bodybuilding after the 1980 Mr Olympia at the age of 29.

Mike Mentzer maintained that the contest results were predetermined in favor of Schwarzenegger, and held this opinion throughout his life.

In 2002, Mike Mentzer was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame.

Mike Mentzer appears in the music video for the Nantucket's cover of "It's a Long Way to the Top".

Mike Mentzer followed the bodybuilding concepts developed by Arthur Jones and endeavored to perfect them.

Mike Mentzer's theories are intended to help a drug-free person achieve his or her full genetic potential within the shortest amount of time.

High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way was Mentzer's final work.

However, in his book Heavy Duty Nutrition, Mike Mentzer demonstrated that nutrition for athletes did not need to be nearly as extreme as the bodybuilding industry would lead one to believe.

Mike Mentzer's recommended diets were well balanced, and he espoused eating from all four food groups, totaling four servings each of high-quality grains and fruits, and two each of dairy and protein daily, all year-round.

Mike Mentzer's reasoning was simple: to build 10 pounds of muscle in a year, a total of 6000 extra calories needed to be ingested throughout the year, because one pound of muscle contains 600 calories.

Mike Mentzer learned that Viator trained in very high intensity, for very brief and infrequent training sessions.

Mike Mentzer learned that Viator almost exclusively worked out with the relatively new Nautilus machines, created and marketed by Arthur Jones in DeLand, Florida.

Mike Mentzer emphasized the need to maintain perfectly strict form, move the weights in a slow and controlled manner, work the muscles to complete failure, and avoid overtraining.

Casey Viator saw fantastic results training under the direction of Jones, and Mike Mentzer became very interested in this training philosophy.

Mike Mentzer began training clients in a near-experimental manner, evaluating the perfect number of repetitions, exercises, and days of rest to achieve maximum benefits.

Mike Mentzer pushed sets beyond failure with such techniques as forced reps, negative reps, and static holds.

Some time later, Mike Mentzer attracted more attention when he introduced Dorian Yates to high-intensity training, and put him through his first series of workouts in the early '90s.

Mike Mentzer read the more traditional philosophers then, and "probably" didn't fully embrace Ayn Rand until the mid- or later 1980s.

Mike Mentzer described Objectivism as the best philosophy ever devised.

Mike Mentzer criticized the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, which he described as an "evil philosophy," because according to him Kant set out to destroy man's mind by undercutting his confidence in reason.

Mike Mentzer criticized the teaching of Kantianism in schools and universities and said it's very difficult for an Objectivist philosopher with a PhD to get a job in any of the universities.

Mike Mentzer had met Dorian Yates in the 1980s and made an impression on Dorian's bodybuilding career.

Mike Mentzer died on June 10,2001, in Rolling Hills, California.

Mike Mentzer was found dead in his apartment, due to heart complications, by his younger brother and fellow bodybuilder Ray Mentzer.