3 HIT Training Programs From Mike Mentzer, Dorian Yates, & Dante Trudel

Heavy Duty, Blood and Guts & DoggCrapp

High-Intensity Training (HIT) has been generating debate for decades, but has now overflowed into the mainstream. Traditional bodybuilding has always emphasized volume for building muscle; lift more = grow more.

However, HIT training challenges this by emphasizing intensity over volume, leading to shorter yet brutal sessions. Of all the HIT lifters over the years, 3 stand out—Mike Mentzer with Heavy Duty, Yates with Blood and Guts, and Trudel with DoggCrapp. 

Specifics of their training vary, but they all preach intensity of effort as the key driver of muscle growth. Understanding their differences can help you understand the philosophy and how you can modify HIT training for you, or just do theirs!

What Is HIT Training?

High-Intensity Training (HIT) is a bodybuilding methodology based around the idea of using very high intensity with minimal volume. Lifters often use just 1-set but bring it past failure.

Proponents believe this ultra-high intensity is the primary stimulus for muscle hypertrophy. In fact, they believe that additional sets only increase fatigue and recovery demands without producing more growth.

What Is The HIT Training Philosophy?

It's important to realize that HIT is not a specific protocol but a philosophy of training. This means it has core central tenets that different figures interpret differently depending on their needs.

The foundational rules of HIT include:

• Very low volume: Often one working set per exercise.
• Maximum effort: Sets taken to absolute, technical failure; usually past.
• Slow, controlled execution: Eliminating momentum to increase muscular tension.
• High recovery emphasis: Lower frequency, more rest days, and an aggressive focus on sleep and nutrition.
• Exercise selection: Emphasize compound movements to hit more muscle mass with greater load.
• Heavy loads: Usually use heavier loads (6-8 reps) than mainstream bodybuilding (especially Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates)
• Progressive overload: Tracking performance in the logbook and improving consistently.

In short, the overarching methodology of HIT is: High Intensity, Low Volume, Maximize Recovery.

Mike Mentzer: Heavy Duty Training 

Learning the original concept from Arthur Jones of Nautilus, Mike Mentzer is the figure most associated with HIT.

Calling his version of HIT, "Heavy Duty". It took the low-volume principles to the extreme with an obsessive emphasis on failure and recovery.

Mentzer believed the biggest mistake lifters make is training too long and too often. His solution was short workouts, long rest intervals, and brutally intense sets.

What Is Heavy Duty Training

Heavy Duty training is the style of HIT training created by Mike Mentzer. It emphasizes very low volume, very high intensity, and less training frequency to maximize recovery.

1. One All-Out Set Is Enough

Mentzer argued that once the muscle reaches momentary failure, the growth stimulus is complete. Any additional work only delays recovery. 

This meant that he often used 1 set per exercise. Heavy Duty sessions were often 30–45 minutes and contained as few as 3–5 total working sets.

2. Low Frequency and Full Recovery

Unlike modern routines that hit each muscle twice weekly, Heavy Duty trained each muscle every 5–10 days; that's often less than once a week.

Mentzer believed recovery, not the workout, was the limiting factor for growth. Therefore, if you shorted recovery, you shorted growth.

Of the three training styles in this article, Heavy Duty is farthest from modern guidelines of hitting a muscle twice a week with 10-20 weekly sets (Schoenfeld et al., 2016; Schoenfeld et al., 2017)

3. Ultra-Strict Execution

Reps were always performed with slow and controlled movements to remove momentum. Mentzer intentionally increased time under tension to ensure maximum stimulation with minimal sets.

This is in great contrast to the philosophy of "move big weight" that many lifters have, then and now. 

4. High-Intensity Techniques

Forced reps, negatives, pre-exhaustion, and rest-pause were essential to his training. The single working set was often so demanding that it required longer rest periods before moving to the next exercise.

5. Logbook Progression

Every workout demanded a measurable improvement: more reps, more load, or slower execution. If progression stalled, the solution was often less training and more recovery.

How Heavy Duty Trains

A typical Heavy Duty uses a body part split with 3-4 exercises total. Each exercise uses one working set and is taken to failure.

Workout A – Chest & Back

• Pec Deck → Bench Press (pre-exhaust superset)
• Pulldown or Pull-up
• Barbell or Machine Row

Rest 4–7 days before next workout

Workout B – Legs

• Leg Extension → Squat or Leg Press (pre-exhaust)
• Leg Curl
• Standing Calf Raise

Rest 4–7 days

Workout C – Shoulders & Arms

• Lateral Raise → Overhead Press
• Barbell Curl
• Triceps Pressdown or Dips

Heavy Duty is effective for lifters who can push to legitimate failure, recover slowly, or have limited time. 

Its weakness is that extremely low frequency may not be ideal for many lifters, and the demand for true failure is greater than most realize. 

Dorian Yates: Blood and Guts

Dorian Yates was heavily influenced by Mentzer's HIT framework. However, he adapted it into a more practical bodybuilding system.

Known as Blood and Guts, Dorian Yates' style of HIT training is more moderate in volume compared to Heavy Duty, yet still low compared to traditional prescription (6-8 weekly sets vs. 10-20 weekly sets).

However, it still practices extreme intensity.

Yates believed you didn't need many sets, but the sets you do perform must be brutally hard. He built his six Mr. Olympia titles on this exact approach.

What Is Blood And Guts Training?

Blood and Guts Training is the style of HIT training created by Dorian Yates. It emphasizes single, all-out sets per exercise while using multiple exercises in a session to train a muscle once a week. 

1. One Working Set Per Exercise

Like Mentzer, Yates performed multiple warm-ups but usually one true working set; he did sometimes perform two. His sessions typically included more exercises per body part than Mentzer's minimalist approach.

2. Higher Volume Than Heavy Duty

Where Mentzer might use 2–3 exercises for a muscle, Yates often may have used 4-8, each with one all-out set. This preserved the low-volume spirit while ensuring complete muscle coverage.

It's important to point out Yate's separated body parts. So when we say he trained back with 8 sets, he might say he trained lower back with 2 sets, rear delts with 2 sets, and the main back with 4 sets.

For example, during his Mr. Olympia reign, Yates' Back and Rear delt day included;

• Hammer Strength Pulldown
• Barbell Rows
• One-Arm Hammer Strength Rows
• Cable Rows
• Rear-Delt Hammer Strength
• Bentover Dumbbell Raises
• Hyper Extension 
• Deadlift

This equates to training each body part with around 6-8 working sets per week.  Of the three HIT training styles on this list, this is more in line with modern guidelines. New research actually suggests 5-10 working sets per week are most efficient, delivering the most results per set (Pelland et. al, 2025)

3. Higher Training Frequency

Yates trained each muscle roughly once every 5–7 days, more frequently than Mentzer. His split resembled a traditional bodybuilding routine adjusted for HIT principles.

4. Controlled, Powerful Reps

Reps were explosive on the concentric, controlled on the eccentric. Yates emphasized technical failure—not sloppy, grinding reps.

5. Use of Intensifiers

Yates regularly used:

• Forced reps
• Negatives
• Rest-pause
• Partial reps

He rarely stopped at simple failure. His goal was to recruit and exhaust the highest-threshold motor units available.

How To Use Blood and Guts Training?

Blood and Guts typically uses a body split of some sort while hitting the gym 3-4 times a week. Check out this article for a full, detailed look at Dorian's full program!

A Yates-style back thickness session might look like:

• Hammer row: 1 set to failure
• Barbell row: 1 set to failure
• Deadlift or rack pull: 1 to failure
• Machine row: 1 set to failure

Or chest:

• Incline barbell: 1 set to failure
• Chest press machine: 1 set to failure
• Incline dumbbell flyes: 1 set to failure
• Cable crossover: 1 set to failure

More exercises but low total working sets. In a way, Blood and Guts can look similar to a traditional bodybuilding program, except you only use one all-out set per exercise. 

Blood and Guts is well-suited to lifters who enjoy compound movements, want clear structure, and prefer the intensity-first approach without Mentzer's extreme frequency reductions.

Dante Trudel: DoggCrapp Training

Dante Trudel's DoggCrapp (DC) Training is often lumped into HIT, but it's actually a hybrid system. We're mentioning it because it's a unique approach that still focuses on HIT methodology.

It uses the HIT principles of high intensity and low sets during sessions. However, 

• Uses a higher training frequency, hitting a muscle 2-3 times a week.  
• While other forms of HIT use rest-pause sets as an option, it's the primary set intensifier in DC training. 
• Uses a form of periodization known as blasting and cruising.

DC is one of the most progression-driven hypertrophy systems ever created. It's also not designed for beginners, as Trudel intended it for advanced lifters who understand bodybuilding fundamentals.

What Is DoggCrapp Training

DoggCrap Training is a style of HIT created by Dante Trudel. It emphasizes high-intensity with low volume, exercise variation, and constant progressive overload. 

1. Rest-Pause As the Primary Set Structure

DC's signature element is the rest-pause set:

• 6–8 reps to failure
• 15 deep breaths
• 2–4 more reps
• 15 breaths
• 1–3 more reps
• Slow, controlled negative

With rest-pause, one set is actually the volume of two intense straight sets compacted. This produces extreme intensity with minimal time.

2. High Frequency With Rotating Exercises

Unlike Mentzer or Yates, DC trains each muscle more than once a week (3 times every 2 weeks) using rotating exercise selections. 

In addition, each muscle uses three exercises it rotates through each session. This allows;

• High frequency 
• Mitigates excessive joint stress 
• Reduces stagnation or boredom
• Utilizes exercise variation for fuller muscle growth (actually shown by science!) (Baz-Valle et. al, 2019)

3. Extreme Loaded Stretching

DC includes "extreme" 60–90-second weighted stretches for each muscle immediately post-set. 

Trudel believed this would;

• Expand fascia
• Improve nutrient delivery
• Increased growth signals.

Regardless of the mechanisms, his stretching was notoriously painful.

4. "Beat the Logbook" Progression

Progression is everything. If an exercise stalls for several rotations, it's replaced. This creates built-in periodization and prevents stagnation.

5. Blast and Cruise Cycles

DC is run using a form of periodization called "Blast and Cruise". These cycles essentially work as hard training and deload weeks.

• Blast: 6–12 weeks pushing rest-pause intensity aggressively.
• Cruise: 1–2 weeks with reduced intensity to prevent overuse and systemic burnout.

How DoggCrapp Trains

DC training has a total of 6 different workouts that are rotated through. 

• "A" Workouts: Chest, shoulders, triceps, back.
• "B" Workouts: Biceps, forearms, quads, hamstrings, calves.
• "1, 2, 3" Workouts: Each number includes a different exercise for that muscle
• A1, B1, A2, B2, A3, B3

Therefore, weekly training looked like this;

• Week 1: A1, B1, A2
• Week 2: B2, A3, B3
• Week 3: A1, B1, A2

You then always perform progressive overload. If you stall on an exercise for 2 sessions, you swap in a new exercise.

DC is ideal for advanced lifters who prefer a structured system with variety. As you use very high intensity and train a muscle more than once a week, you need to ensure you have the recovery ability. 

Final Thoughts

HIT is getting a lot of attention these days, and most conversations are: "Is it good or bad?" 

Training rarely works on such a binary system. At the same time, there is a lot of variety within HIT training. Even if you don't adopt a full HIT training program, learning and using different techniques is always a plus and will benefit your training.

You can learn the fundamentals, then use or tweak components that might work for you. As we saw above, Mentzer, Yates, and DC all used the fundamentals of HIT but altered the specifics for their own style of training. You can too.       

References 

1. Baz-Valle, E., Schoenfeld, B. J., Torres-Unda, J., Santos-Concejero, J., & Balsalobre-Fernández, C. (2019). The effects of exercise variation in muscle thickness, maximal strength and motivation in resistance trained men. PloS one, 14(12), e0226989. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226989 
2. Pelland, J. C., Remmert, J. F., Robinson, Z. P., Hinson, S. L., & Zourdos, M. C. (2025). The resistance training dose response: Meta-regressions exploring the effects of weekly volume and frequency on muscle hypertrophy and strength gains. Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-025-02344-w
3. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2016). Effects of resistance training frequency on measures of muscle hypertrophy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 46(11), 1689–1697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8
4. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(11), 1073–1082. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1210197