Training

The program that built the greatest physiques of the 1970s. High volume, high frequency, emphasis on the mind-muscle connection and pump.

Train heavy or go home. The mass era prioritised progressive overload on compound lifts with enough volume to drive growth. If Arnold's era was about the pump, this era was about the weight on the bar.

The anti-volume approach. Mentzer argued that one all-out set taken to failure and beyond was sufficient to trigger maximum growth — anything more was junk volume that impaired recovery.

Meadows' system is defined by its exercise sequencing philosophy: activate, stretch and overload, pump and squeeze, finish with controlled stretch. Every session follows this four-phase structure.

Yates won 6 consecutive Mr. Olympia titles (1992-97) training each body part once per week with low volume but maximum intensity. Warm up, then one to two all-out sets per exercise, each taken beyond failure.

No dogma, no tradition — just what the research says works. Volume, frequency, exercise selection, and proximity to failure all optimised based on current evidence. This is the program a sports scientist would write.

Aesthetics over mass. This program prioritises the V-taper, shoulder-to-waist ratio, and proportional development over raw size. Higher rep ranges, more isolation work, emphasis on the muscles that create the classic physique look.

The best of both worlds — heavy compound strength work and targeted hypertrophy training in a 4-day framework. Ideal for athletes who want to train hard but also need recovery days for other activities or life.

Maximum frequency, minimum per-session fatigue. By spreading volume across 5-6 sessions, each workout is short, recovery is rapid, and protein synthesis is elevated near-constantly. The Norwegian Frequency Project found that powerlifters training 6x/week outperformed those training 3x/week at matched volume.