The MIKE5 Training Concept

Yes. And this simplification is not a compromise, but rather the prerequisite for it to work.

Effective strength training begins when you push a muscle beyond its performance level. This requires a mental readiness that hardly anyone can sustain for a full hour—you pace yourself, hold back, and the effective muscle stimulation never even happens. In 5 minutes, you can build that readiness.

Sure, anytime. You just don’t plan it. Your plan sticks to one basic exercise and the specified interval. You decide after the basic exercise whether to do more—depending on whether you have the time and energy. Additional exercises aren’t worth it anyway until you’re confident that you can stick with the basic exercises at high intensity all year long.

For athletes with a very high fitness level, it becomes increasingly difficult to even provide an effective stimulus—one way to do this is by increasing volume. Professionals have also learned to consistently push themselves to the limit, even during long workouts. An amateur athlete is far from this level. For you, therefore, stick to 5 minutes—additional exercises are only worthwhile once you’re confident that you can perform the 5 basic exercises at high intensity throughout the entire year.

Absolutely! MIKE5 offers you the perfect start to efficient strength training with the beginner workouts. Through these introductory sessions, your body gets used to the load and builds the foundation for sustainable muscle building. This way, from the start, you set the right focus on efficient training and learn the movements. After a few weeks, you then switch to the MIKE5 Big 5 workout and benefit from intelligent interval training.

In fact, quite a few. Competitive athletes have phases lasting several weeks or months during which they build up their training volume significantly. During the rest of the year—especially during the competition phase, when time and energy are devoted to their own sport—strength training is reduced to basic exercises. It is precisely then that they train according to the same principle: few movements, high intensity, short sessions.

No, the assignment to the days of the week remains the same, but the exercises rotate on a 5-week cycle. Each basic exercise includes several variations—sometimes the leg press instead of the squat, sometimes the shoulder press with a narrower or wider grip. Each variation targets the same muscle chain from a different angle. The routine stays familiar to you, but the challenge is always fresh.

In exercise science, intensity refers to the selected weight in relation to your one-rep maximum. On this page, we use the term in its colloquial sense: how hard a workout feels to you.

A short warm-up set is always recommended. To do this, use the same exercise with less weight and perform it slowly and with control for 30–60 seconds. This gets your blood flowing. Your mindset is just as important. During these seconds, you get yourself in the right frame of mind for what’s coming next—and this mental preparation determines the effectiveness of your workout.

No, it goes without saying: Pushing yourself to your absolute limit is a skill that takes time to learn, and for most people, it takes several weeks. During this time, you’ll develop a feel for the movement, your form will become cleaner—and at the same rate, the intensity level you’re able to achieve will increase. Skill and intensity grow together.

Yes, but it should remain the exception. Two consecutive training days leave your body hardly any time to raise the intensity level between workouts—spread out over the week, each session fits within this window.

Even more important: The high intensity demands full mental readiness every single time. You can muster it for one basic exercise, but hardly for four in a row—then you start to pace yourself, and the effective muscle stimulation fails to materialize. Spreading the workouts over 5 days is exactly what prevents this from happening.

Yes, it’s intentionally structured that way. Two pressing exercises are spaced as far apart as possible—bench press on Monday, shoulder press on Thursday, with a pulling exercise (lat pulldown) in between. The same goes for squats and deadlifts, the two heaviest exercises. This way, every muscle chain gets a chance to recover, even though you’re training 5 days in a row.

Still, you don’t have to take it too strictly. If you don’t feel ready for squats on Tuesday after a tough weekend hike in the mountains, just opt for the lat pulldown instead and do it on Wednesday. So there’s some flexibility built in.

Not for the vast majority. Even competitive athletes base their training plans on the same basic exercises—a personalized plan primarily adjusts the volume and timing, rarely the exercises themselves.

In addition, the plan is largely independent of your specific goal: Whether you want to reduce body fat, build muscle, or strengthen your back—the 5 basic exercises cover it all. A customized plan is worthwhile when there’s a specific requirement, such as training for a competition.

Compound exercises are exercises that involve multiple joints and entire muscle chains simultaneously—in contrast to isolation exercises, which target a single muscle. Technically, they are called multi-joint exercises; they are known as the Big 5: bench press, squats, pull-ups, shoulder press, and deadlifts.

Yes, all major muscle groups—as primary or auxiliary muscles. The lower back works during deadlifts, and the abdominal muscles stabilize during deadlifts, squats, and shoulder presses to such an extent that isolated abdominal training is unnecessary. The biceps engage during lat pulldowns and stabilize during deadlifts; the triceps push during bench presses and shoulder presses.

Three, in particular.

The complex movement sequences improve the interaction of multiple muscles during a single movement—intermuscular coordination. Your body awareness improves, your form becomes more precise—and your risk of injury in sports and everyday life decreases.

The heavy loads also train the control of individual muscles—intramuscular coordination. This is the reason why you’ll get significantly stronger in the first few weeks.

And these are exactly the movements you need outdoors: standing up, pushing, pulling, lifting something heavy off the ground.

You can, but you don’t have to. The 5 basic exercises will bring you the greatest results.

So decide anew every day. If it’s dark and wet outside and you have the time and motivation, throw in a few exercises. On another day, skip it—you won’t miss a thing. Much more important than any extra exercise is that you stick to the 5 basic exercises at high intensity throughout the year.

The pull-up is originally one of the “Big 5.” The difference is that you’re relying solely on your own body weight—and very few people can manage a circuit consisting of multiple sets this way.

On the lat pulldown, adjust the weight to suit the specified interval. Same muscle chain, same movement—but with the weight that provides the optimal muscle stimulus.

Through periodization. After a few weeks, the muscle adapts to a specific load—you’re training just as intensely as before, but the effect diminishes. A good indicator of this is the absence of muscle soreness.

Conversely, this also explains why beginners make such rapid progress: Their muscles aren’t used to the strain and react strongly as a result. That’s exactly what periodization aims to achieve. With each new interval, the strain catches your muscles off guard again—you’re, in a sense, constantly putting yourself back in the beginner’s shoes.

You don’t have to worry about that. You’ll receive an email for each new block, and the training program will automatically adjust the intervals and exercise variations.

Based on two proven elements.

The 5 basic exercises have been around for as long as strength training has existed. They became widely known to the general public in the 1970s, in part thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who trained according to the Big 5 program.

Equally effective is the method of spacing out workouts: one training day, one focus—known as the “bro split.” Research supports this. With the same weekly volume, one workout per muscle group per week yields as much benefit as several. What matters is the quality of the muscle stimulus, not the frequency.

MIKE5 combines both: Each training day focuses on one movement, and one movement always engages an entire muscle chain. We didn’t invent anything—but we left a lot out.

Schoenfeld, Grgic & Krieger (2019): Meta-analysis of 25 studies on training frequency. Grgic et al. (2018): 22 studies on maximal strength, subgroup with matched volume.

A well-planned year: ten 5-week blocks, each with its own interval and its own exercise variations.

Every day, you’ll receive the main exercise with the specified interval, along with matching assistance and core exercises that you can add. Exercise videos and the instructions in the exercise database show you how to perform each exercise.

Register now easily for the MIKE5 training plan. The first six months are free and give you enough time to try MIKE5 without obligation. In conjunction with yourEISENHORN strength stationMIKE5 enables you to have an extremely effective full body workout – plan just 5 minutes a day and strengthen your entire body.

Yes, you can test MIKE5 for free for 6 months. Simply register as a member with MIKE5 as a member and you can test our most efficient training program for free for 6 months. During these 6 months, you have enough time to test MIKE5 extensively. If you are not convinced, you can easily cancel your membership monthly.

One membership per household is completely sufficient. When purchasing a fitness station EISENHORN S or DS, you get the first 6 months free. This gives you ample time to comprehensively test our time-saving and efficient MIKE5 training program.

Installing the MIKE5 Web App is very simple and straightforward.

If you are using an iPhone:

1. Open the MIKE5 training program and tap the "Share" icon in the menu bar.

2. Scroll down and select "Add to Home Screen."

3. Tap "Add" to save the app.

If you are using an Android device:

1. Open the MIKE5 training program and tap the three dots in the menu bar.

2. Select "Add to Home Screen."

3. Confirm by tapping "Add."

We are currently working on developing a native MIKE5 app for training with your EISENHORN fitness station. Until then, you can use our web-based MIKE5 training programme, which you can easily access via your browser. For even faster access to your training plan, you can save the MIKE5 app as a desktop shortcut. You can find out how this works here in the description of the MIKE5 training programme.

MIKE5 is specifically tailored to your strength station EISENHORN S or DS adjusted and offers you an extremely effective workout - plan just 5 minutes daily for it. If you want to pause or cancel your MIKE5 subscription, simply follow these steps:

1. Open your account.

2. Navigate to "MIKE5" to view details of your subscription.

3. Select the option "Cancel" to pause or terminate your subscription.

Would you like to MIKE5 to use it again at a later time, then you can easily reactivate the training program.