Arnolds Workout
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout
During this program you must also do 10 minutes of abs each day.
Since you'll be working each body part once every three days, this ensures that you are allowing enough time for a full recovery.
This is how your week’s layout will look:
Day 1
Chest and back
Chest
* Bench press
* Incline press
* Pull-overs
Perform four sets of 8-12 reps each.
Back
* Chin-ups, done to fatigue (progressively working up to doing 50 reps at a time)
* Bent-over rows, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Deadlifts, three sets consisting of 10, then 6, then 4 reps
Day 2
Shoulders, upper arms and forearms
Shoulders
* Barbell clean and press, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Dumbbell lateral raises, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Heavy upright rows, three sets of 10, 6, 4 reps to failure
* Push-presses, three sets of 6, 4, 2 reps to failure
Upper arms
* Standing barbell curls, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Seated dumbbell curls, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Close-grip press, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Standing triceps extensions with barbell, four sets of 8-12 reps
Forearms
* Wrist curls, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Reverse wrist curls, four sets of 8-12 reps
Day 3
Thighs, calves and lower back
Thighs
* Squats, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Lunges, four sets of 8-12 reps
* Leg curls, four sets of 8-12 reps
Calves
* Standing calf raises, five sets of 15 reps each
Lower back/Hamstrings
* Straight-leg deadlifts, three sets of 10, 6, 4 reps to failure
* Good mornings, three sets of 10, 6, and 4 reps to failure
Note that for abdominal training, you should alternate between crunches and reverse crunches, performing five sets of 25 reps every single day you train.
On the seventh day of the week you are to rest completely and allow your body a chance for full recovery.
Advanced techniques
After you’ve been doing this Arnold Schwarzenegger workout program for a while, you can focus on starting to incorporate more advanced techniques into your program such as forced reps, partial reps, isolation training, negative reps, forced negatives, and cheating reps.
Arnold recommends that you get a good grasp of the basic program first before even thinking about the more advanced principles. By doing so, you can be sure that you are using the correct training technique and will learn more about how your body responds and recovers from training.
the lifestyle approach
Finally, the last thing you must keep in mind is that if you are looking to make extraordinary gains the way Arnold did, you are going to have to make building muscle a priority in all aspects of your life -- this includes the way you think, the way you eat, the way you sleep, and the people you socialize with. What you do outside of the gym is going to be just as, if not more, important than what you are doing inside the gym.
Nutrition, in particular, is of great importance and is what Arnold believes is responsible for some of the big improvements we see in the bodybuilding world today.
He recommends at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight and found himself eating a diet comprised of about 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 20% fat. At 240 pounds and doing intense training, Arnold's total caloric requirements were phenomenally high, therefore at these values he was getting more than he needed to support basic nutritional requirements.
So, be sure you do not overlook this part of the equation. Even if you follow the Arnold Schwarzenegger workout principles, you still won't get optimal gains unless you take into account everything else you are doing that can impact your training progress.
Arnold took his training very seriously -- he made it a way of life. So, if you want to get yourself even close to resembling him, you should aim to do the same.
