Workout Training Log - How to Win the Weight Training Diary War

"I always considered preparing for a contest to be my moral equivalent of going to war," noted HEAVY DUTY author and bodybuilder Mike Mentzer. "Once contest preparation commenced, the gym ceased to be a mundane menagerie of grunting humans and was transformed into a mythical battlefield."

Yet despite such challenging endeavors, how many of us actually take the time to plan our strategy for our next mission to the gym?

Not many.

And it is this lack of military-style planning that often leads to frustration, confusion, and disappointing strength and muscle gains.

A HEAVY DUTY 3-step strategy shows how to win the weight training diary war.


Photo courtesy of Garrette

Workout Training Log 3-Step Strategy

1. Massive Attack.

Mike Mentzer would often pore over his weight training diary to plan his next massive attack on the weights.

The night before each workout, Mike and his brother Ray would take on the mindset of supreme military commanders as they decided upon those exercises and training principles that were required for a particular body part, and which scheme of sets and reps would yield optimal results.

Such a training diary is more valuable to you than a B2 Stealth bomber!

Why?

A workout training diary not only records your exercises and reps and sets, but charts your progress and each hard-won victory.

2. Engage the Enemy.

During their nightly summits, the Mentzer brothers would deliberately cultivate a "warlike" attitude that carried over into their workouts. This aggressive demeanor would become an about-to-erupt volcano as they entered Gold's Gym, making them feel the same anticipatory anxiety akin to that of a soldier about to engage the enemy.

How was this warlike attitude achieved?

By reading.

For example, when Mike Mentzer won the Mr Universe in 1978, he would read Frederich Nietzsche up to five hours a day; and later, when he was training for the 1980 Mr Olympia, Mentzer would get psyched by quoting G. Gordon Liddy's book, Will.

These inspiring words would arouse Mentzer's warrior instincts and ready him to do battle.

3. Go to War.

A weight training diary is more than a way to record your exercises, sets and reps - it is also a way to help you feel more powerful and prepare you to go to war.

To illustrate this, upon contact with the "enemy", Mike and Ray Mentzer would attack the weights with such an explosion of fury as to draw gasps from their fellow bodybuilders. The brothers would then incite one another to even more intense efforts with exhortations such as "Blitz those lats to hell!"

But can such high intensity training methods translate into muscle gains?

Mentzer would prove it.

Training from July 25th, to August 18th 1980, Mentzer would rocket his body weight from 207 to 214 pounds.

The result?

With later tests revealing a three pounds fat loss, Mentzer gained 10 pounds of lean muscle in less than one month.

In Summary

Is your workout training log a blitzed biplane or B2 Stealth bomber?

A HEAVY DUTY 3-step strategy shows how to win the weight training diary war.

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