Rating: 
Summary: A TRULY GREAT BOOK -- THE FINAL WORD ON HIT
Review: Let me start by saying that it is impossible to do this book justice in such a brief review, although I will do my best.This is without doubt the best book I have read on weight training/body building, and I have read a lot. The book provides a detailed explanation of what exactly is meant by High Intensity training. Mike explains the theories behind High Intensity/Low Volume exercise, providing sound logical reasoning and common sense explanations as to why HIT is by far the best way to train. Throughout the book you are encouraged to think for yourself, rather than just take the author at his word, and apply his theories to your existing program and its results and how the theories of HIT apply. Detailed workouts are listed, including all the information needed like: Exercise selection.
Number of sets.
Target Reps.
Rep Speed.
Rest period between sets.
Workout frequency. Each of the above is explained diligently, and an explanation is given for why a particular route is recommended. The book also encourages you to analyse your results and explains what to do if you stop getting consistent strength increases. I myself started using Mikes HIT regime a year ago now (having purchased another one of his books) and in the past year I have had the best strength and size increases since I started training 8 years ago. Believe it or not since starting HIT I have been stronger on every exercise, every workout for the last year! However the other book that I read by Mike was much briefer and left some unanswered questions in my mind. This, much more comprehensive, book has answered all those nagging questions and provided me with a much deeper insight into the science of HIT. Although the amount of training required with conventional methods never really caused me a problem (I would have trained 7 days a week if it provided the best results) Mike regime provides you with more than adequate rest time, and means that by the time I come to a work out I am so full of energy I feel like putting the weight through the roof. If you are into weight training/bodybuilding stop wasting time with all of the ridiculous, un scientific workouts listed in the current "Muscle Mags" doing the rounds and base your training on the sound principles of HIT and watch your strength/size sky rocket. As many of you will know Mike sadly passed away in 2001, so rest in peace Mike, and thanks for leaving us such a great legacy.
Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: Mike is a genius. I am a serious bodybuilder. Current 5'10" 210lbs 9%BF. I had been stuck on a plateau for a while (like 6 months). Little weight or strength gain. I tried currently in vogue routines, like 5-5, Polaquin, Westside, HST, etc, nothing helped. I thought I had reached my potential. Just before quitting, I bought this book on a whim. Incorporating some of its principles, though I need to absorb them fully -- I'm 1/2 through different parts, I am growing vastly in all lifts and the scale is moving. I had been exposed to similar ideas a long time ago when I started in Stuart McRobert's books, but I unwisely discarded them as I "advanced". Mike's books are more brilliant, succint and comprehensive, and I believe he truly figured out how to grow. It's quite good. Give it a try. Beginner's can't go wrong with a clear path, and the advanced can break down some walls. I'll see you at 260lbs!
Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: Mike is a genius. I am a serious bodybuilder. Current 5'10" 210lbs 9%BF. I had been stuck on a plateau for a while (like 6 months). Little weight or strength gain. I tried currently in vogue routines, like 5-5, Polaquin, Westside, HST, etc, nothing helped. I thought I had reached my potential. Just before quitting, I bought this book on a whim. Incorporating some of its principles, though I need to absorb them fully -- I'm 1/2 through different parts, I am growing vastly in all lifts and the scale is moving. I had been exposed to similar ideas a long time ago when I started in Stuart McRobert's books, but I unwisely discarded them as I "advanced". Mike's books are more brilliant, succint and comprehensive, and I believe he truly figured out how to grow. It's quite good. Give it a try. Beginner's can't go wrong with a clear path, and the advanced can break down some walls. I'll see you at 260lbs!
Rating:
Summary: Utterly brilliant
Review: Mike Mentzer is the Bruce Lee of strength training. He started with the revolutionary research of Arthur Jones and carried it to the highest level, that of pure and absolute science. Any body builder who doesn't train properly, i.e. using the high-intensity method Mike writes about, is merely wasting their time, or taking years longer than necessary to reach their muscular potential. After using many other techniques, discovering Mike's method has been like walking out of the fog -- finally I can see! Having used HIT for several months, I'm easily surpassing people whom previously I thought were years ahead of me. I almost hate telling people about this book, because I like to think of this as my secret weapon. But, after talking to many other weight lifters at my gym about Mike's methods, it's now obvious to me that most people are too stuck in their ways to change to Mike's system. Their loss. My gain. Literally.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable knowledge for those who want results
Review: My reason for praising this book is simple. Mentzers techniques deliver awesome results! This training is brutally taxing and takes a lot of determination and willpower to keep it up. follow the advice in this book exactly, you cant just use bits and pieces, High Intensity Training is just that, INTENSE! I disagree with the reviewer above who gave this book two stars, Genetic differences most certainly are accounted for in this book, Perhaps he should read it. This book is not a nutrition guide, if you want a nutrition book, I recomend "Optimal Muscle Recovery" by Edmund R. Burke. This book is well worth the money if you're willing to excercise some serious discipline and get awesome results.
Rating: 
Summary: I didn't know Mentzer was so smart
Review: The first thing I thought as I started reading was this book was "dude, I'm stupid!" Mike Mentzer is brilliant and his writing is so eloquent and, well, he's so "good with words" that it makes it hard to ever call this former top bodybuilder a "dumb jock!" However his book is not just about spouting off detailed descriptions of scientific protocols or hiding behind big words. No, if you read this it really does make sense. The biggest problem with most bodybuilders and fitness buffs today, in my opinion, is overtraining. I don't think the general population at the gym realizes how easy it is to overtrain, and Mentzer explains why and how this overtraining occurs. The theory behind his principles are to totally blast the muscles. The key to making muscles grow is to tax them beyond what they are used to, then to get out of the gym and grow. Most people, in Mike's view, are using too much volume, too many sets and much too often. Mike proposes 1-2 WORKING sets (after warming up) per bodypart. Not 1-2 exercises - 1-2 SETS! So I am doing my chest, I warm up with a few sets of light bench presses, and then do one set of about 90% my max, as many times as possible (mike describes going beyond total muscular failure, and in reading it there are nostalgic thoughts of Arnold in Pumping Iron). Then I do, for example, a set of dumbell incline press, again very heavy and beyond failure. That's it. I'm done with chest. There are more theories and specific tips in the book but I don't have room in this review to mention them all (cardio work, fat loss and muscle gain, as well as the importance of resting between workouts). I'm not sure if this workout is for everyone. Provided you are taking in the right nutrients and for some (though not me), the right drugs, you could recover faster and therefore work with more volume. For the majority though, I do believe that at least lowering your volume and making sure your intensity is always extremely high is the only way to go. Once I myself started dropping my volume and incorporating extremely intense failure techniques, my chest blew up and my stomach shrinked!
Rating: 
Summary: Okay in Moderation
Review: The HIT system is brutal and okay for brief periods of training.It is not the last word on how to train and certaintly not the st way to train for a bodybuilding contest.
Rating:
Summary: for those who can think outside the square
Review: The one thing you have to do before reading this book is forget everything you think you know about building muscle, because the stuff in here is going to disagree with probably everything you know. I don't know if HIT will ever become mainstream because I too had a hard time accepting it. But it is true that you only need 1 set to grow and not more than once a week. I took 8 months off from the gym because of injury and started HIT, within 3 odd months I had regained all I had lost and was pressing more weight than I had ever done on my old volume routine. And this was from only going once a week to the gym, which was a turn around from my 6 days a week as a volume trainer. You'll probably be itching to get back in the gym sooner but it's a mistake to go again before you are fully recovered. I agree with the reader from Baltimore who said you need to give 100%. If you are rolling up once a week and giving a half- hearted effort then you will fail. Going to failure and even beyond is just that, gut busting effort. When your brain is screaming for you so stop but there's still movement in your muscles then you have to keep on going. I always feel I can improve after i've done my workout. This book is chock full of thought provoking ideas by Mike, who was quite a smart man, who wasn't afraid to disagree with what was considered the norm in body building. This book is for people who aren't swayed by what "everyone else" is doing, who want to reach close to their genetic potential and aren't afraid of pain. The harder you work the better results you will see. Mike will be missed.
Rating:
Summary: a fitness book for those of independent mind
Review: There are any number of people out there who would tell you to avoid Mike Mentzer and anything to do with Mike Mentzer.Mentzer was the most controverisal writer in the history of the Iron Game. All of these critics are wrong.Mentzer's system is only method which takes into account the simple physiological fact that,through resistance exercise, strength increases at a far greater rate than recovery ability.One must therefore progressively reduce the volume and/or frequency or training as the training poundages continue to rise.The stronger you are,the easier it is to overtrain.For the genetically average man (not on steroids or other drugs),avoiding overtraining becomes the key issue.
This book shares the intellectual and professioanl journey that became the life of a great man.Mentzer's struggle reveals how and why the most revolutionary system of training in world history was created through reason and experience.This book will educate the reader on the principles of correct training and eating.Mentzer was not only a true pioneer in a highly commercialized field.He was a man;he was a "mensch".Mentzer became,in his own way,the self-realized intellectual aristocrat envisioned by Aristotle.Thrill to the journey,and educate yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Careful
Review: Thi regime can and will lead to burn out and injuries.
| 
