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Mike Mentzer Tributes

In Loving Memory of
Mike and Ray Mentzer

Messages from Mike and Ray's Friends and Colleagues

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A MESSAGE
FROM
BOYER COE

"It is amazing how quickly time passes. It has already been a year since I received the news that Mike Mentzer passed away. I still think about Mike a lot. Every time I received a new issue of Ironman, his articles were always the ones I read first. Mike was an excellent writer, he presented the facts, forced you to think, and he was a true scientist of bodybuilding.

When I think of Mike, integrity is the first thing that comes to mind. I feel fortunate that I knew him and that we became friends."

-- Boyer Coe
Four-Time Mr. Universe Winner - 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975

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A MESSAGE
FROM
DORIAN YATES

It is hard to believe that a year has passed since we lost Mike and Ray. It is difficult to believe they are gone, as they were larger than life and had such an impact on the sport and everyone they came into contact with.

I will never forget them, their spirits live on.

-- Dorian Yates
Mr. Olympia winner six consecutive years 1992-1997

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A MESSAGE
FROM
RICHARD A. WINETT, PhD

"Although a good part of my writings over the last year have questioned some of the basic directions that Mike's training approach took in the last few years of his life, in essence, Mike had most things about right. This was starkly brought in focus recently when I trained for two weeks at a commercial gym. There was everyone from 16 to 80+, male and female, "serious" trainer or not, doing set after set of the same exercise, and then moving on to set after set of a similar exercise for the same muscle group, and so on. It brought home to me that if Mike had lived and furthered his very positive influence, literally millions of people world-wide would reach personal goals in a tiny fraction of the time they are now spending in what amounts to mostly futile and frustrating efforts.

Mike was an original who made a difference and clearly has had a profound influence, albeit on too few people. He is greatly missed and we need to carry on the cause".

-- Richard A. Winett, Ph.D.
Heilig-Meyers Professor of Psychology
Virginia Tech
Owner and Publisher, Master Trainer
Ageless Athletes, Ent.

A MESSAGE
FROM
WAYNE GALLASCH

"Knowing Mike and Ray has been one of life's privileges for me. They were both fine gentlemen, great friends, and wonderful to work with. Of all the guys I have filmed over 35 years, Mike was the most hard working model I have ever come across. He would pump and pose till he dropped or till I ran out of film. Nothing was ever too much for him. His life in bodybuilding will always remain a model and inspiration to all future bodybuilders, what ever their goals and aspirations. They are both sadly missed, and on this one year anniversary, I pay them both a tribute once again. You both will never be forgotten." Best regards, Wayne Gallasch GMV Productions www.gmv.com.au A MESSAGE FROM M. DOUG MCGUFF, MD THE CENTER OF THE COMPASS When Joanne Sharkey called and asked me to write a short memorial to commemorate the first year anniversary of Mike's death, I was surprised to find myself re-living the shock of a death notification. The shock was not that a year had already passed; sometimes the span of the last year seems short, and sometimes it seems like a decade. The shock came because, in my mind, Mike was not dead. Perhaps it is the power of denial. It is also that it is Mike's ideas that have made Mike real to me since I was 14 years old. You see, Mike's ideas are still alive and well. When I contemplated what to write about, I found myself stumped. What more could I say that was not said in my original article that would convey my love and respect for my boyhood hero? I decided to peruse some of the current muscle magazines for inspiration. There was an excellent article by John Little demonstrating Mike's influence on the training of Dorian Yates. The photos that accompanied the article were awe-inspiring. However, nothing I could say about these events could possibly hold a candle to Mr. Little's writing. Besides, my only knowledge of those events was courtesy of the excellent writing of Mr. Little. My answer came as I perused other sections of the magazine. When I looked at articles throughout the magazine, even by authors who opposed Mr. Mentzer, I noticed a pattern that was distinctly different than what I was seeing in muscle magazines 20-25 years ago. Even the workouts of the genetically gifted or drug-assisted bodybuilders involve 3-4 movements per bodypart and 1-3 sets per exercise. Workouts are commonly described as lasting less than 90 minutes and frequently 45 minutes or less (because growth hormone starts to wane after 45 minutes). Bodybuilders who either oppose Mr. Mentzer or are not really familiar with him are performing workouts as short as Mike used in his competitive days. You see, when Mike came on the scene, the common recommendation was marathon workouts lasting two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, six days a week. If that didn't produce results, you were expected to do even more. Almost every bodybuilder today is performing workouts that are "in the ballpark" that Mike built. For twenty years Mike stood on the pitcher's mound in the ballpark that he built. If we imagine all the various training methodologies as a circle covering a certain area, I believe it is Mike who is at the center. To draw a circle, the point of the compass must be firmly planted, and Mike is like the point of the compass firmly planted in reality. You may find your own training philosophy at some other place in the circle, (or some other part of the ballpark). But what almost all bodybuilders must realize is that even if they disagree with Mike's approach to intensity, volume, and frequency, they could have never even found the ballpark if it were not for the work of Mike Mentzer. Mike further refined his system of Heavy Duty as he applied it in his booming personal training business. Rather than try to apply what worked for him to those less genetically gifted, Mike was able to ferret out fundamental principles that led him toward unheard of reductions in volume and frequency. While many bodybuilding and fitness enthusiasts insist this is too little exercise for optimal results, Mike knew that for many clients this consolidated approach is the only thing that will produce any results. Typically, someone will seek the help of a personal trainer only if they have failed to produce results under their own tutelage. Mike recognized this as a marker for the hardest of the hard-gainer and reduced volume and frequency to minimal levels. Subjects who never produced results from resistance training were now astounded to be experiencing progress for the first time in their lives. This spurned Mike to try volume reduction in his more gifted subjects with positive results (see the article by John Little in the June 2002 issue of Iron Man). Whether you agree with Mike's system of Heavy Duty/HIT or if you take some other approach, I bet you are somewhere in the ballpark built by Mike. Without Mike's influence, many who think they have improved his system, would never have been in the ballpark. I believe Mike's theories are spot-on and will live on long after his passing, because reality doesn't budge; but more importantly, the general reduction in volume that has occurred as a result of Mike's influence. It is because of this influence that the great masses of bodybuilders are not burning 25-30 hours per week in the gym. Regardless of your personal training theories or genetic makeup, we all owe a debt of great magnitude to the late Mike Mentzer. -- M. Doug McGuff, MD, FACEP President, Ultimate Exercise, Inc. Seneca, SC A MESSAGE FROM JACK NEARY In a sense for me, Mike Mentzer died not last year, but nearly 20 years ago, the last time I saw him. Until he phoned out of the blue a few weeks before his actual death last year, the last time I had talked to him was 1983. I regret this more keenly than ever now that he's gone for good. Sadly, when Mike called we were not vital in each other's lives, if for no other reason than friendships fade in the absence of regular, meaningful contact and the shared experiences it brings. For seven intense years beginning in 1976, we were close, very close. For a time we lived together. He was a bodybuilding wunderkind with ambitions to become a writer. I was a wide-eyed-with-wonder writer with ambitions, however modest, to be a bodybuilder. Let's just say that Mike scaled much higher heights writing than I did bodybuilding. (The world can breathe a collective sigh of relief at having been spared the pathetic sight of me barely clad atop the posing dais. Mike once described the color and texture of my legs as, "boiled chicken skin".) I was there at the IFBB Mr. America competition in New York in '76 when he burst suddenly onto the international scene. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who judged the event, was impressed with Mike's mass, confidence, and unadorned posing style. "Look at that," Arnold said during the pre-judging. "Look at the way he hits his side-chest pose. So basic, so pure." His rise was meteoric. While his impact on stage was electrifying, his greatest achievements came away from the competitive fray. There are many bodybuilders with much longer lists of titles won than Mike's own, but few, if any, revolutionized the sport the way he did. Maybe it was because Mike was a first-rate thinker, and an effective communicator. Maybe it was the strength of his convictions on training theory. Or perhaps, it was his fondness for challenging conventional wisdom. All of these qualities combined made for an irresistible force that ruffled feathers and won disciples at once. Indeed, Mike openly and often called into question, the training methods of the greatest names in the sport making him a target for much of the establishment, not least Arnold, Franco, and Mike's occasional employer, Joe Weider. These men earned a substantial portion of their living from the bodybuilding courses they sold to eager, young students. Mike's high-intensity alternative set the proverbial cat among the pigeons. Mike's critical voice must have served at least in part as the impetus behind Arnold's enmity toward him. This was displayed most openly in a showdown at a Sydney Opera House dressing room moments before the controversial 1980 Mr. Olympia contest. I covered the event for Muscle and Fitness. I witnessed Arnold's now-famous attack on Mike and his "big stomach." We were all stunned at the ferocity of the emotion in the room that day. Although, looking back, we should not have been surprised. I was heartened a few months ago to read that Arnold and Mike became much closer in recent years. Arnold had even offered to help Ray Mentzer, who was undergoing the living hell of dialysis. That says a lot about Arnold's character. Mike's iconoclastic personality did not make him difficult or disagreeable. He was quite open-minded naturally. He was approachable, and had a delightful, even impish, sense of humor. Once I dared Mike to whinny and prance like a Lippizaner stallion through the sepulchral galleries of New York's Museum of Modern Art. He took the dare. The reserved patrons around us that day are probably only now recovering. The first meaningful conversation I had with him was shortly after he moved from Maryland to California in late 1976. He approached me in Gold's Gym because I'd made a passing reference to the American writer Henry Miller in an article for Muscle Builder & Power. Mike was an ardent admirer of Miller. He seemed surprised that someone else on the bodybuilding scene even knew of Miller's work. It was refreshing to talk with a top bodybuilder about something slightly more substantial than donkey raises. In this way, Mike reminded me of Ricky Wayne, Armand Tanny, Artie Zeller, and Frank Zane. Their horizons of interest were more panoramic than most in the sport at that time. Our friendship flourished from there. I well remember pulling the occasional all-nighter with Mike racing against deadline, as we desperately pounded out stories for our boss, Joe Weider. We consumed Balzacian amounts of coffee and other substances to see us through to dawn. After these writing marathons, we often rewarded ourselves with grand feasts at Mike's favorite restaurant, The Palm, in West Hollywood. His appetite for Nova Scotia lobster deserved an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. I saw him eat a lobster the size of a Labrador retriever. I was particularly honored when Mike asked me to write an epilogue piece about him for his first Heavy Duty training book. I cannot remember much of what I reported, and, sadly, cannot find my souvenir copy nearly 25 years later. I suspect what I wrote then is not unlike what I write now, if not a little more naive and fawning. I will always cherish the memory of our rich time together. Our friendship very likely cost me a good measure of objectivity as a journalist covering the bodybuilding scene back then. That, in turn, might have lost me the respect of some of Mike's leading competitive contemporaries. For all that, though, I do not regret for a second knowing Mike the way that I did. What I do regret is losing touch with him after I returned home to Canada in '83. I do not know the details, but I have heard that Mike went through a tough patch not long after that as he confronted a few personal problems. For my own part, I made a new life for my family and me in Canada in the advertising business. Over time, my ties to the bodybuilding world, and Mike in particular, dissolved. I have no idea how great his demons were, nor how deep his abyss, but it is clear from the outpouring of support and affection from the many friends, fans and students, who knew Mike more recently, that he came roaring back to make a real difference in so many lives. Nor do I do know why, after so many years without contact and only a few weeks before he died last year, Mike tracked me down to call me at my home in Toronto. What a wonderful half-hour we had catching up. Maybe he had some sort of premonition. Shortly after, I was appalled to read in The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, a half-page obituary of Mike accompanied by a large photo of him at his competitive peak. Old friends such as John Balik and Cathy Gelfo were kind enough to find me to share the news in case I hadn't heard. Even though we were no longer close, since his death irresistible waves of sorrow have washed over me at unexpected times. I think of Mike often. And, like you, I miss him. We all owe Joanne Sharkey a debt of gratitude for keeping his legacy alive. -- Jack Neary A MESSAGE FROM DR. GREG BRADLEY-POPOVICH It is hard to believe that a year has passed since the loss of the Mentzer brothers. I recall learning of the double tragedy with astounding clarity. Oddly enough, I was performing a set of Heavy Duty arm curls when a friend called out across the gym that a reliable source had informed him that Mike Mentzer was dead. For me personally (as it likely was for many who were fortunate to truly know Mike), it was devastating news. It may sound peculiar, but for quite a while following Mike's death, my personal quest for fitness suffered. My workouts were devoid of the typical vigor, zeal, and intensity. Can anyone relate? In hindsight, I had developed an association between training and Mike's passing. It was difficult to focus both mind and body, because the gym environment and the process of exercise elicited thoughts of Mike-our first conversation, our last conversation, stimulating conversations that would never be... My clouded mind would wander: what destiny would Mike have ultimately created for himself if he were to live on? More recently, I have rationalized that Mike would have advised me that it was normal for me to feel and acknowledge such emotions. Furthermore, I realized that each practitioner of Mike's teachings-likely including you-is a living tribute to Mike and the training ideology that he spent decades practicing, refining, debating, and espousing. May we use our own physique transformations as testimony to the efficacy of Mike's training approach! Indeed, Mike left behind a living legacy of likeminded training enthusiasts, with who rests the venerable responsibility of sharing Mike's teachings. In death, as in life, Mike Mentzer will continue to be a voice of reason so long as his students assume a Heavy Duty responsibility. Respectfully, Dr. Greg Bradley-Popovich NW Spine Management, Rehabilitation & Sports Conditioning Portland, OR If you have any questions about Mike Mentzer, Heavy Duty, High Intensity Training, Diet, etc. email us and we'll get back to you with an answer as soon as we can. Click Here to Sign Up for Your Free High Intensity Training Magazine Subscription Home | Articles | Book | Video | Training