Heavy Duty · Blood and Guts · 24 weeks
Twenty-four weeks.
One number to beat.
A training system that starts by teaching you to squat and ends with a genuine all-out set — built on the parts of Mike Mentzer's and Dorian Yates's training that survive scrutiny, and honest about the parts that do not.
All twenty-four weeks, free. No account, no card, nothing to cancel.
Both men trained enhanced, and the strongest form of their argument is not settled. Every claim here is marked with how well it is supported.
The architecture
Effort climbs. Volume falls. Rest grows.
That descent from three reps in reserve to zero is the entire programme. It is how you arrive at Blood and Guts having earned it rather than survived it.
| Week | Phase | Reps in reserve |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GROUNDWORK | 3 |
| 2 | GROUNDWORK | 3 |
| 3 | GROUNDWORK | 2 |
| 4 | GROUNDWORK | 2 |
| 5 | THE APPROACH | 2 |
| 6 | THE APPROACH | 2 |
| 7 | THE APPROACH | 1 |
| 8 | THE APPROACH | 1 |
| 9 | THE APPROACH | 0 |
| 10 | THE APPROACH | 0 |
| 11 | BLOOD AND GUTS | 0 |
| 12 | BLOOD AND GUTS | 0 |
| 13 | BLOOD AND GUTS | 0 |
| 14 | BLOOD AND GUTS | 0 |
| 15 | BLOOD AND GUTS | 0 |
| 16 | BLOOD AND GUTS | 0 |
| 17 | BLOOD AND GUTS | 0 |
| 18 | BLOOD AND GUTS | 0 |
| 19 | HEAVY DUTY | 0 |
| 20 | HEAVY DUTY | 0 |
| 21 | HEAVY DUTY | 0 |
| 22 | HEAVY DUTY | 0 |
| 23 | HEAVY DUTY | 0 |
| 24 | HEAVY DUTY | 0 |
Phase 1 · Weeks 1–4
GROUNDWORK
Learn the patterns. Nothing goes to failure.
- Effort
- Stop 3 reps short (weeks 1–2), then 2 short (weeks 3–4)
- Frequency
- 3 sessions per week — Mon / Wed / Fri
Phase 2 · Weeks 5–10
THE APPROACH
Walk the effort down to zero reps in reserve.
- Effort
- Weeks 5–6: 2 reps short · Weeks 7–8: 1 short · Weeks 9–10: true failure
- Frequency
- 4 sessions per week — Mon / Tue / Thu / Fri
Phase 3 · Weeks 11–18
BLOOD AND GUTS
Yates's split. One all-out set per exercise.
- Effort
- Every working set to momentary failure. No forced reps yet.
- Frequency
- 4 sessions on a 6–7 day cycle — two on, one off, two on, two off
Phase 4 · Weeks 19–24
HEAVY DUTY
Mentzer's consolidation. Test how little you actually need.
- Effort
- One set to failure, plus one intensifier on the final exercise only
- Frequency
- One session every 4–6 days — extend to 7 days if the log stalls
Where this comes from
Two systems, one disagreement, and a slower on-ramp
Mentzer reasoned from principle and Yates from his logbook, and each thought the other overdid it. Both were arguing about how little training you can get away with. Neither was writing for a beginner.
Heavy Duty
MIKE MENTZER
- One set per exercise, taken to momentary failure
- Very low frequency — as little as one session every four to seven days
- Reasoned deductively from stated principles
- His final routine was two exercises per workout
- Built by, and for, a professional using anabolic steroids
Blood and Guts
DORIAN YATES
- A thorough ramp, then one all-out working set
- Two to four working sets per muscle group
- Four sessions on a six to seven day cycle
- Reasoned from his own logbook rather than from principle
- Also a professional, also enhanced — and he has said the heaviest forced work is what tore his biceps and triceps
The Ledger
THIS PROGRAMME
- Effort walked down from three reps in reserve to zero across ten weeks
- Volume falls and rest grows as effort climbs
- Starts with technique, ends with the Temple Gym template
- Loads calculated from your own submaximal tests, never a one-rep max
- Written for an unenhanced beginner with an ordinary recovery capacity
This product is independent. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Mike Mentzer, Dorian Yates, their estates or their businesses. Their published training ideas are discussed and critiqued here as subject matter, not as a sponsorship.
The training log
The screen you will actually use
Everything else on this page is context. This is the thing you hold in one hand between sets.
Logging a set
Incline Barbell Press
3 RAMP · 1 × 8–10
LAST · 80kg × 10 · 82.5kg × 8
Set three is the one to do. Beat 8 reps at 82.5 kg and the weight goes up next session.
The weight and the reps, one thumb, between sets. The set you are on shows the target rather than an empty box.
The rest timer
Rest
A depiction of the rest timer with two minutes and fourteen seconds remaining.
OF 3:00
Three full minutes before a working set in the back half of the programme. The long rest is part of the prescription, not slack in it.
The pain flag
S2 · 82.5 kg × 6
A depiction of the three set flags — missed target, form broke, and pain — with pain selected.
Excluded from your records. Stop the session for sharp or joint-line pain.
Every set carries one. A set flagged for pain or a form breakdown is excluded from your records rather than counted.
Three stills of the workout screen, not the live app. Start the free phase to use the real one.
What you get
Built for the gym floor, not for a screenshot
A workout screen built for a gym floor
Set-by-set logging, a rest timer, the load you managed last time, and the one you should be aiming at. One-handed, large targets, no essays in the way.
Loads from your numbers, not a chart
Six submaximal baseline tests set your starting weights. Never a one-rep max — testing one as a novice tests where your form breaks, not how strong you are.
A movement screen that actually changes the programme
Six tests. If your hip hinge is not clear, the app substitutes the deadlift and barbell row for machine work and tells you why, rather than printing a warning you will ignore.
Progression the log decides
Hit the top of the rep range on every set and the weight goes up next time. Fail to beat the same lift across three exposures and it tells you to take days off rather than add sets.
Fuel and recovery that corrects itself
Energy and protein targets with the uncertainty stated, then weekly bodyweight averaging that tells you when the estimate was wrong and by how much.
Your data, exportable, permanently
One file, versioned, restorable. No account required to train, and nothing about your body is sent anywhere.
Fit
Who this is for
You are new, or returning after years off
The first four weeks assume you have never been shown how to squat. That is the point of them — the programme teaches the patterns before it asks anything hard of you.
You will actually write things down
The whole system runs on beating your last logged number. Without a record, "high intensity" is a feeling, and feelings drift downward.
You have access to a gym with machines
Cable, plate-loaded and selectorised machines carry a lot of this programme, particularly early on, because they let you work hard without technique being the limit.
You want few sessions, taken seriously
Three to four sessions a week for the first eighteen weeks, most under an hour. The final phase asks for one session every four to six days. If you enjoy two-hour sessions six days a week, this will feel insultingly short.
And who it is not for
Said plainly, because a programme that suits everyone suits no one.
You want a bodybuilding contest peak
This is a first 24 weeks of structured training, not a contest prep. It ends where a specialised programme would start.
You have an injury or a condition that needs managing
An app cannot examine you. If you have a joint, heart or blood-pressure history, or anything currently painful, see a clinician first — and bring the programme with you.
You want to be told training is easy
The back half asks for genuine all-out sets. It is short, not soft.
You are already an advanced trainee
If you have years of consistent logged training, the early phases will be far below what you need, and you would be walking a ramp you do not need. Start at phase three if you use it at all.
Safety and evidence
What this programme will not claim
The useful parts of high-intensity training are well supported. The strongest versions of the argument are not, and the men who made them were not training under the conditions you are.
Both men were enhanced professionals
Both competed at the top of professional bodybuilding and both have been open about anabolic steroid use. Recovery capacity is the exact variable their arguments turn on, and drugs change it.
The volume argument is not settled in their favour
Sets close to failure clearly drive growth, and junk volume clearly wastes recovery. That the least possible work is optimal is a further claim, and a weaker one.
Failure has a cost, and Yates paid it
Yates has said that heavy forced negatives are what tore his biceps and his triceps. This programme therefore stops at momentary failure and does not prescribe forced reps.
This is not medical care
No app can examine you, and nothing here diagnoses or treats anything. Get clearance from a doctor before starting if you have any joint, heart or blood-pressure history, and stop any set the moment form breaks or anything hurts.
Questions
The ones worth answering before you start
Do I need a gym membership?
Effectively yes. The programme leans on machines — leg press, chest press, pulldown, cable row, leg curl — particularly in the first half, because they let a beginner work genuinely hard without technique being the limiting factor. A well-equipped home gym with adjustable dumbbells and a bench can run most of it with substitutions, but you would be working around the programme rather than with it.
I have never trained before. Is this too advanced?
The first four weeks assume no experience at all: nothing goes near failure, every exercise carries a form cue, and the movement screen runs before you load anything. That said, an app cannot watch you squat. If you can afford a handful of sessions with a coach at the start, that is a better use of money than any app, this one included.
How is my starting weight worked out?
You do six submaximal tests — a set stopped with about two good reps left — and the app estimates a one-rep max from each using the Epley formula, then scales every exercise from the relevant test. It is an estimate and the app says so on every row. The first session of anything new is calibration; the logbook takes over from the second.
Why not just do Blood and Guts from day one?
Failure is precisely the point where technique collapses, so taking a movement to failure before you can perform it reliably means discovering that your failure point and the point your back rounds are the same point. There is also good evidence that untrained lifters asked to stop one rep short routinely stop with four or more left — so "go to failure" and actually going to failure are different events for the first couple of months. The ramp exists to close that gap deliberately.
All twenty-four weeks are free
The movement screen, the baseline tests, and twenty-four weeks of programmed sessions. No card, no account, nothing held back. The first session is calibration rather than training.