Arnold Schwarzenegger Training routine
Strong as an Oak: an authoritative retrospective of Arnold Schwarzenegger's
bodybuilding workout program—every bodypart, every exercise—from the last
35 years of muscle & fitness
Chest
It's misleading, really, to mention Arnold's chest and back routines separately;
he supersetted the two exclusively for most of his bodybuilding career. (We can,
however, focus on the exercises for each bodypart separately, keeping in mind
that he paired them up in his routines.)
He had a few simple reasons for employing supersets: One, it saved time and
allowed him to train chest and back in just one hour combined; two, he felt he
could handle more weight this way and develop greater muscle density (as is the
logic behind training opposing muscle groups together); and, of course, he
relished having both his chest and back--essentially, his entire upper
body--pumped up at the same time. "When the chest and the upper back are pumped
simultaneously, there is an indescribable feeling of growth stimulation and
massiveness," he said.
But Arnold warned beginners about this style of training, recommending that they
work into it slowly because of the demands it places on endurance and stamina.
Even non-beginners can struggle. Arnold once told a story about how he
introduced his chest/back workout to several experienced bodybuilders while
visiting South Africa. According to The Oak, two of his training partners
"passed out cold and a third became so ill that he lost his breakfast!"
Did we mention that he performed this workout three days a week?
OAK TIPS
* Despite relatively high rep ranges, Arnold
went as heavy as he could when training chest to elicit maximal growth. He
typically used the pyramid principle, increasing weight and decreasing reps on
each set of a given exercise.
* He also regularly employed straight-arm
pullovers in his training using either a dumbbell or barbell, despite their
exclusion from this routine. Arnold felt that pullovers expanded the thorax and
enlarged his ribcage, though this was never proven to be fact.
* In addition to supersets, he also
frequently performed forced reps, iso-tension (holding poses between sets and
after workouts) and peak contractions (squeezing the muscles at the top of each
rep) in his training. He did whatever it took to increase intensity.
EXERCISE
SETS REPS
Bench Press
1 30-45 (warm-up)
Bench Press
5 20-6*
Incline Barbell Press 5
10-15
Flat-Bench
5 10-15
Dumbbell Fly
5 10-15
Weighted Dip
5
15
* Pyramid up the weight and lower your reps
set to set.
* FLAT-BENCH DUMBBELL FLY
Arnold did flys much like anyone would, with one small yet noticeable
difference: Instead of bringing the dumbbells together to touch at the top of
each rep, he stopped when they were about 10 inches apart, then lowered them
back down. He felt this offered constant tension on the pectorals, especially
the outer pecs.
Back
It wasn't just recently that bodybuilders of all levels coveted an immensely
wide, thick and chiseled back, a la Ronnie Coleman and Dorian Yates. Arnold,
along with Franco Columbu and others from their generation, also knew the
importance of the back double-biceps and lat-spread poses for winning major
competitions.
When Arnold trained back, he didn't just concentrate on lifting the weight to a
desired position--that would've been way too concrete and typical. He would
never be the best doing, and thinking, the way everyone else did. With lat
pulldowns, he attempted to pull the sky down on top of him, not simply move the
bar to his upper chest. When deadlifting, those weren't weight plates on the
ends of the barbell, they were massive planets. The thinking was abstract, sure,
but effective nonetheless.
Which brings us to Conan the Barbarian, naturally. "Had I been aware of Conan
during my competition years, I probably would have imagined I was him during my
workouts," Arnold said leading up to his role in the movie. He was intent on
developing his back for the picture because he knew it would be easily visible
from many camera angles. The last thing he wanted was less-than-stellar lats if
he was to be a proper barbarian. "I'll want my back muscles to bristle with
power," he said. "If my back is writhing and rippling during fight scenes, the
public will know that I am a rugged fighter."
OAK TIPS
* Arnold believed that the best way
to train back was to train all areas of it--outer, upper, lower and middle--and
finish the workout with a power movement, like deadlifts or cleans, that works
all the back muscles.
* After each back exercise, Arnold stretched
his lats by pulling hard on a stationary object with either one or both arms
fully extended. This, he figured, helped him achieve great overall lat
development, and remain flexible and limber in the upper body.
* When he wanted to hit the lower lats, he
always used a narrow grip for chin-ups, pulldowns and any type of row. The lower
lats were important to Arnold when doing twisting back poses onstage, as they
complemented his immense width nicely.
EXERCISE
SETS REPS
Wide-Grip Pull-Up 5
15-8*
T-Bar Row
5 10-15
Bent-Over Barbell Row 5
10-15
Chin-Up
5 12
Barbell Deadlift
3 6-10
* Pyramid up the weight and lower your reps
set to set.
* WIDE-GRIP PULL-UP
When Arnold said wide, he meant it; many vintage photos show his hands much
wider than shoulder-width apart when doing pull-ups. (Hint: That makes it
tougher.) He started from a complete hanging position and pulled himself as high
as possible, usually touching the bar behind his head. His first eight or so
reps were strict, then he'd cheat a bit to get the last few up.
Biceps
Legendary Weider writer Dick Tyler once wrote of Arnold's first visit to a gym,
inspired by photos of Reg Park in the German magazine Der Muskelbilder. The
young Oak watched gym members lifting weights and did his best to commit to
memory the exercises they did so that he and his friends could do them at home.
Four in particular stood out, all arm exercises: the cheating barbell and
Zottman curls for biceps, and pressdowns and the close-grip bench press for
triceps. At the time, having big arms interested Arnold the most and would serve
as his starting point in bodybuilding.
When Arnold arrived in America, he'd never even seen a preacher bench, an
apparatus he would soon use religiously to build biceps that would surpass those
of predecessors Larry Scott, Rick Wayne and Sergio Oliva, who Arnold once
regarded as having "the biggest arms I've ever seen."
He found that bodybuilders in America trained more methodically, and had a firm
understanding of anatomy and physiology. Despite having already won a Mr.
Universe title and possessing two of the biggest arms in the world, he felt he
could do better. "I wasn't reaching my fullest potential," he said. "The deep
fibers of my muscles were untouched. It was as if I had built a large building
on top of a foundation of sand." He recalled watching Larry train and was
"particularly fascinated watching him bomb his biceps on a curling machine. His
arms looked deep and thick from training."
OAK TIPS
* Arnold wasn't afraid to cheat on arm
exercises, especially standing curls. He felt that going very heavy was the best
way to gain size, and if a little body english was required to get the weight
up, so be it.
* To achieve full development, Arnold always
included at least one exercise in his routine, like a dumbbell curl, in which he
rotated his palm up (supination) as he lifted the weight.
EXERCISE
SETS REPS
Barbell Cheat Curl 6-7
6-8
Incline or Seated 6-7
6-8
Dumbbell Curl
6-7 6-8
Preacher Curl
6-7 6-8
Concentration Curl * 5
6-8
FOREARMS
Barbell Reverse Curl 5
8-10
Reverse Preacher 5
8-10
Curl
Barbell Wrist Curl 7
10
* CONCENTRATION CURL
The Oak didn't always sit down for this one, as most people do nowadays. He'd
often just bend over at the waist, holding a 65-pound dumbbell in one hand and
supporting himself with his elbow on his knee. He kept this one strict--no
cheating.
Triceps
Though the majority of credit for his 22-inch-plus arms was attributed to his
eye-popping biceps, Arnold acknowledged early on that two-thirds of that girth
resided on the other side of his humerus. After initially focusing more on his
bi's, Arnold wised up and sought to build hulking triceps by employing
multi-joint movements like the close-grip bench press and weighted dip to go
along with his old-standby pressdowns (on a lat pulldown machine) and french
presses.
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