Activity
Mon
Wed
Fri
Sun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
What is this?
Less
More

Memberships

The Meditation Community

258 members โ€ข Free

High Intensity Business

286 members โ€ข Free

30 contributions to High Intensity Business
In memoriam: Mike Mentzer
*EDIT: Share your best stories about Mike. Who was he to you? What did you learn? How will you keep his legacy alive?* I propose todayโ€™s coffee hour should be in memory of Mike Mentzer. He passed 25 years ago today. I encourage everyone to bring their best stories and what we all have learned from him. Cheers, Jeremy
2 likes โ€ข 10h
I first met and was trained by Mike in 1993 when I visited California from Melbourne, Australia. He was very focussed during our sessions as he took me through his Ideal Routine. Very intense. I recall a leg session at Gold's in 93. I know how to go to failure and I did. Mike did an aha remark that "Sir, you get intensity". The problem for me was that my hotel, The Cadillac, required me to walk competently and cross roads. Not today, I found a viaduct under the road. On that visit, every session, and we only did 3, the IR rotation, I gained 2kgs in 2 weeks. Not fat as my weights increased too. Fast forward, 1998, I'm back in California and Mike has moved to an excellent gym in Marina Del Rae. I called him, booked some sessions. He was great, again, super on board during the session which only lasted 15 minutes. Yes, it was his modified Consolidation Routine. Two exercises, 2 routines. Total failure, slow cadence, 4 up/ 4 down/ 2 second hold if required. I'm a veteran trainer, many years but not gifted for hypertrophy. On this Routine, bang, 2 kgs in 2 weeks, 2 workouts. Mike, after the sessions, was very engaging, personable and laconic with his sense of humour. During the session, ๐Ÿ˜ฌ. I recall our Marina Del Ray sessions. Mike trained me and invited me to have lunch with him. My then girlfriend, now wife was there but apart from the conversation. Mike realised we were together. I suppose the accents gave it away. Once he did realise this, he very cordially invited her to join us. Mike had his demons, yes. Don't we all. My experience with him was always positive, intellectually invigorating, educational but, best of all, he was a thoroughly decent man. RIP, sir. ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ‹โ€โ™‚๏ธ
2 likes โ€ข 9h
An addendum. I met Ray when he presented a seminar in Melbourne in, I think, 1986. Phew! He didn't f__ around or soft cell. He was very direct in his delivery, very clear, which I thought was great. I do recall his approach annoyed some people there. Ray responded intellectually but probably lacking some diplomacy. Ray was very intelligent, knowledgeable re HD and could put his point across. He was a very different character to Mike, who was staunch in his philosophy and prepared to discuss/debate, but always from a more personable perspective. Ray was a bit of a firebrand. Very smart but with a more abrasive manner. More aggressive. They are cornerstones of reason, proper exercise and the readiness to stick by your standards, despite the crowd. RIP to both men and iconoclast. ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ™
No Coffee Hour this week.
From tomorrow, I'm away for the week in Dingle, County Kerry (Ireland) for a short break with the family ๐Ÿ˜ Have a great week guys!
No Coffee Hour this week.
2 likes โ€ข Apr 8
@Lawrence Neal I love Ireland. Some background. My ancestor, just 18, a young girl, was sent as a convict to Australia for some petty theft. Seven years in NSW, which back then was a life sentence in a very harsh and dangerous land. She lived and died here. I first went to Ireland as a solo traveller in 1990. I loved it, the Irish ladies are simply magnificent. ๐Ÿ’˜ The men could drink a dam, which was a downfall one night in a bar by the Liffey. Never do a shout with Irish boys. We took the kids in 2009, they were 9 and 7. We were touring through Dublin and saw The Temple Bar. You know it's history. so, we went in ordered some drinks. After a while, we noticed that our son, Ciaran [7] was absent. I found him in the bar, on the bar, dancing to to band's Irish jig. The crowd clapping, him performing. Today, at 23, he is the state manager of a multi-national lending fund on over 200k p/a. His sister, Caitlin, now 25, has a double degree but, as you know, under the pump atm. She's going to Thailand on Saturday for some headspace but will come back for surgery. They grow so fast, Lawrence. Enjoy their "littleness".
1 like โ€ข Apr 9
@Lawrence Neal haha. No, a solo tour. ๐Ÿ˜‰ I guess not too many get sloshed at the bar with those prices.
How to talk about HIT (Max Strength Fitness)
I just LOVE this intro video from Max Strength Fitness. Not only does it inspire me to run through walls, it's an excellent example of how to talk about what you do. Jeff articulates their differentiators, workout process, and the benefits really, really well. See how you can adapt some of the ideas to your business to help you attract and retain more clients. MSF are a fast growing HIT franchise with 20 locations (6 pending) across the US. Two of their original corporate locations generate >$900k in revenue with 30% net profit margins.
2 likes โ€ข Feb 25
Great presentation!
๐Ÿ’ช Client of the Week: Strength Studio (Brainerd, MN)
Tom and Emily Fairbanks run Strength Studio โ€” a husband-and-wife team building a thriving HIT business in rural Minnesota. They just hit their 2025 goal early: - 125+ intro sessions booked this year - 86% conversion rate - 100% referral-based growth โ€” no ads, no funnels - Team of 6 trainers and expanding - Currently preparing to buy a building and move out of their leased space They use ARX, MedX, and Nautilus โ€” but theyโ€™re not dogmatic. Everything is programmed based on client needs, with high-touch instruction and thoughtful progressions. Their growth strategy? Keep it simple: - Blow people away with the first session - Educate clients well - Ask for referrals (especially spouses) - Get 1x/week clients training 2x/week - Let great workouts and great systems do the talking
๐Ÿ’ช Client of the Week: Strength Studio (Brainerd, MN)
1 like โ€ข Nov '25
Well done, guys. ๐Ÿ‹โ€โ™‚๏ธ
Are you ready for HIT to go mainstream?
I just stumbled on this community in the craziest way. I uploaded a YouTube short about failure showing footage of Mentzer with a client. I was telling some guy on the forum about it only to find out he's the guy in the footage! I probably wouldn't have glazed Markus the way I did, had I known I was immedietly going to talk to him about the footage ๐Ÿ˜…. It seems to me this is a community that has been focused first on bringing value to customers. I respect it. But I think the time will come when the HIT philosophy will reach a wider audience. I notice nobody on this forum is talking about the Mike Israetel PhD drama. Again I can respect that. But I think it is relevant to where we are at in this moment. Brief overview: Isreatel of YouTube channel Renaissance Periodization is known for bragging about being super high IQ and being a leading expert in his field (field unspecified). Solomon Nelson gets ahold of his PhD and tears it to pieces, in a YouTube that now has 1.4 million views, but also has countless reaction videos throughout the fitness YouTube space. Mike then has his personal PR team upload a forged document to the academic archives. This forged document was so poorly done it was extremely obvious it was fake. Plus the meta-data showed it was Mike Israetel's PR company that had recently uploaded the file. How does Mike Israetel's PR team have access to the academic archives? I can't be certain, but most likely through Mike Stone. Who is Mike Stone? Mike Stone is the protรฉgรฉ of Tudor Bompa who brought Periodization to the west after it's inception in Lysenkoism error Soviet Union. Periodization took off during the error when the Olympics were not testing for PEDs, and steroids were being used by athletes. The Soviet Union looked to a Physiologist in Medveyev to perscribe exercise based on his presumed understanding of how steroids would work. The precedent of letting physiologists dictate exercise perscription was thus set during a time when steroids were not only the cutting edge new technology, but kept secret and without any oversight from the Olympics.
3 likes โ€ข Nov '25
@Jeremy Amin most sacred cows stand on shaky ground and need to be challenged from a position of reason and critical thought. Let's go!
1-10 of 30
Sean Bowring
4
76points to level up
@sean-bowring-5360
I'm a high intensity strength trainer and martial arts instructor and have been in the fitness industry for 30+ years. I was trained by Mike Mentzer.

Active 9h ago
Joined Dec 13, 2024
Prime Melbourne, Australia
Powered by