Mike Mentzer > Quotes

“It is only within the context of having properly developed your mind that you will be able to truly enjoy the achievement of your material values, including that of a more muscular body.”
― Mike Mentzer

“Theoretical knowledge is not the exclusive domain of ivory tower intellectuals, but is, in fact, a crucial necessity of man's proper survival. Every bit of your mental contents is derived from some theory, and your success and happiness hinge on whether it is true or false, good or evil.”
― Mike Mentzer, Heavy Duty

“What is required if a bodybuilder hopes to realize the most from his workouts and become a champion? The answer: an attitude befitting a hero, one full of fury—an attitude I call siege mentality. Once he enters the gym, all else is forgotten and he is transformed into a valiant warrior with girded loins, ready to do battle with the weights.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“Nietzsche was the only other philosopher who stimulated me. It was be of his sense of life. He had a marvelous feeling about the greatness of man... nature in order to be commanded has to be obeyed”
― Mike Mentzer

“In order to lead the orchestra, you must first turn your back to the crowd.”
― Mike Mentzer, Mike Mentzer's High Intensity Training Program

“Don’t just be a bodybuilder—be the greatest bodybuilder that you can possibly be.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“I would languish in the sack until noon, hoping reality would somehow go away by virtue of my simply refusing to acknowledge it.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“Everything that exists has an identity, a nature, including muscle tissue. Once you understand this, you can better direct your training efforts for superior development.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“mens sana in corpore sano—”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“bodybuilding is but an adjunct to a better life and not the reason for one’s life.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“advanced techniques such as forced reps, cheat reps, negatives, partials, static contraction, and rest-pause.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“Philosophically, those who claim knowledge is available without thought are referred to as mystics, while those who claim that knowledge is not possible are skeptics”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“volitionally”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“so much time looking outside to new scientific advancements and technology, that they overlook the inner possibilities of the greatest transformative device in the world: the human mind.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“arbitrary”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“The human mind is thought to be the only self-evolving thing that exists, and the more evolved, the more we develop its natural capacities, the more control it will give us over our bodies.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“John Lilly, psychologist and dolphin researcher, has said, “The only limit man has is that which his mind conceives.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“paucity”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“poignancy)”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“abdicate”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“So keep in mind that even the most productive of the high-intensity training principles will prove fruitless if they are approached with a defeatist attitude.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“The genes (hereditary material within a cell) responsible for mature body size can’t find expression in an individual deprived of adequate nutrients during the early stages of maturation and growth. The very same applies to the full development of a person’s intellect; deprived of early intellectual stimulation, a person’s intellect will not develop very far, even if the hereditary material for it is present.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“Formulating farfetched, unrealistic goals only sets up a pattern of failure and hence frustration, dampening motivations. Don’t set a goal of gaining 10 pounds of muscle each week or month when you’ve heard it over and over from all authorities that a 10-pound gain of muscle per year is more realistic”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“efficacy”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“the gym became a Wagnerian landscape”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“William James, What Makes a Life Significant”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“Having been successful in my efforts to become both muscularly massive and very strong, I can assure you that the principle of intensity refers almost exclusively to the human will and the ability to command your muscles to contract against the only real resistance—your own mind.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“that the actual contests, like the consummation of all goals, are but single points, standing out like glowing peaks against the tapestry of our lives. It’s the travel from peak to peak, the interior process of goal fulfillment in which one must seek the enjoyment—that is what makes life worth living.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way

“evict oneself from the realm of reality.”
― Mike Mentzer, High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way