Recommended Reading;

A few weeks ago i purchased a book by the title of, The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer, By John Little with Joanne Sharkey, and i was amazed at some of the philosophies of the bodybuilder known as mike mentzer. Up to that point the only thing i knew about mike mentzer was that he was in most of the pictures that i've seen from the past where a handfull of some of the greatest bodybuilders stood side by side in some old photos. Mike was in the company of frank zane, franco colombo and so on to name just a few, and they were usually working out or watching some other easy to name great bodybuilder working out. I also was aware of mike's heavy duty training philosophy where he advocated using only a few sets per body part per workout. I myself am not a big believer in the heavy duty training philosophy as mike mentzer preached it, however i am a big believer in his training philosophy regarding high intensity and heavy weights. I just believe in more sets and more reps, but that is not here nor there for the purpose of this entry.
Mike mentzer's philosophy with regards to his bodybuilding competition transcends to all aspects of life in general. He believed that instead of trying to foil someone else's attempt at greatness, he believed in helping that person acheive greatness and in turn he would help not only himself but everyone else achieve the same greatness by trying to elevate themselves to be better than the best. In other words, when you go into a competition, regardless of what that competition is, it is better to win by beating the best than by winning because the best person did not show up! That, however is only the tip of the iceberg and i urge you to purchase and thoroughly read his book. Even if you are like me and do not agree with his heavy duty training philosophy in its entirety, you will get something out of his philosophies about competition and life in general. It doesn't matter if you are a competitior at all, as long as you have the drive to achieve the body that you are after, this book will inspire you on your journey as it has done for me.