Mike Mentzer was right about the pump

By Sean Nalewanyj

Community Score: 50% | 4.0K views | 3w

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Mentzer definitely went a bit off the rails in his later years, and a lot of his specific recommendations are probably not ideal based on what we know now. You don’t need to take every set to failure. You need more than one set per muscle if you want to maximize gains. And you don’t need a bunch of intensifiers like forced reps and heavy negatives. But his pushback against aimless high volume, pump style lifting in favor of a high effort, progressive approach was spot on. Pump, burn and soreness might feel satisfying, and they can be one sign that you hit the muscle you were intending to hit. But they don’t directly drive muscle growth or mean you had a productive workout, since they’re natural byproducts of any repetitive loaded movement. You can train with light weight for high reps on a bunch of 10RIR sets and get a huge pump, feel tons of burn, and be sore for days while still stimulating little to no actual growth. What actually tells you your training is on the right trac

Tags: bodybuilding, fitness, build muscle, gym, workout, hypertrophy, muscle building, muscle growth, fat loss, burn fat, weight loss, fat burning, diet, nutrition