Arnold Schwarzenegger's Old School Bodybuilding Workout

Arnold is probably the most famous bodybuilder of all time, he won Mr.
Olympia seven times (1970-1975, 1980) and brought bodybuilding into the
national spotlight in the movie "Pumpin Iron".

Arnold's Top Form Measurements

Arms 22 inches
Chest 57 inches
Waist 34 inches
Thighes 28.5 inches
Calves 20 inches
Weight 235 pounds
Height 6'2"

Arnold was from the old "No Pain No Gain" school of bodybuilding and his
routines consisted of high sets and reps, mostly not to failure. He
trained each muscle group three times each week (except calves, forearms &
abs which he trained every day), using a six day split routine.

There was very little rest between sets, and he usually increased weight
each and every set. Although he experimented with high reps at times, he
usually preferred a rep range of about 6 to 10.

The following is a typical Arnold routine, but be aware that Arnold's
routine changed constantly. At times he trained twice a day, while at
other times once a day was enough. There were periods when he did lots
supersets and giant sets. Arnold tried every thing, and picked what worked
best for him at that particular time. By mixing things up he challenged
his strength and endurance and the training variety helped keep him fresh
and motivated!

Remember this is a very advanced bodybuilding routine and should not be
used by beginners or intermediates, and even advanced bodybuilder's should
only take what they think will work best for them and adapt it to their
own bodybuilding philosophy.

Arnold's Routine

Mon, Wed, Fri

Chest:
Bench press 5 x 6-10
Flat bench flyes 5 x 6-10
Incline bench press 6 x 6-10
Cable crossovers 6 x 10-12
Dips (body weight) 5 x failure
Dumbell pullovers 5 x 10-12.

Back:
Wide-grip chins (to front) 6 x failure
T-bar rows 5 x 6-10
Seated pulley rows 6 x 6-10
One-arm dumbell rows 5 x 6-10
Straight-leg deadlifts 6 x 15

Legs:
Squats 6 x 8-12
Leg press 6 x 8-12
Leg extensions 6 x 12-15
Leg curls 6 x 10-12
Barbell lunges 5 x 15

Calves:
Standing calf raises 10 x 10
Seated calf raises 8 x 15
Oneplegged calf raises (holding dumbells) 6x12

Forearms:
Wrist curls (forearms on knees) - 4 sets, 10 reps
Reverse barbell curls - 4 sets, 8 reps
Wright roller machine - to failure

Abs:
½ hour of a variety of nonspecific abdominal exercises, done virtually
nonstop.

Tues, Thurs, Sat

Biceps:
Barbell curls 6 x 6-10
Seated dumbell curls 6 x 6-10
Dumbell concentration curls 6 x 6-10

Triceps:
Close-grip bench presses 6 x 6-10
Pushdowns 6 x 6-10
French press (barbell) 6 x 6-10
One-arm triceps extensions (dumbell) 6 x 6-10

Shoulders:
Seated barbell presses 6 x 6-10
Lateral raises (standing) 6 x 6-10
Rear-delt lateral raises 5 x 6-10
Cable lateral raises 5 x 10-12

Calves , Forearms & Abs:
Same as Monday, Wednesday, Friday workout
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
CREDIT: trulyhuge.com

Don't forget the whole chicken and a pitcher of beer after every workout

How long would it take to complete one of those workouts? 3 Hrs? I say skip the workout.... skip the chicken too and go straight for the beer

I wonder what he would have looked like if his training style was more like Mentzers or Yates...

Don't forget to throw in flawless genetics and Dianabol for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Originally Posted by MaDmaN

I wonder what he would have looked like if his training style was more like Mentzers or Yates...

I wonder what he would have looked like without Dianabol.

Originally Posted by CDB

I wonder what he would have looked like without Dianabol.

You'd be overtrained in a week after this.

Originally Posted by CDB

I wonder what he would have looked like without Dianabol.

A skinny little Austrian guy.

haha

He said an a book or interview that steroids only helped a few percent, and the rest was diet/exercise.

Originally Posted by darius

A skinny little Austrian guy.

haha

He said an a book or interview that steroids only helped a few percent, and the rest was diet/exercise.

I don't believe that for a second, more like his ego is getting in the way of reality. I admire the guy, but he's got his quirks. You see pictures of him at his peak, no one gets that big and that cut without some serious pharmacological help. I also don't appreciate the way he says he and his bb friends just experimented with steroids. If there were no guys in white lab coats taking notes they didn't experiment with ****, they used, just like body builders today. No way he could just be experiementing innocently with Dianabol and not grow a set of tits unless he knew about SERMs use and PCT.

Originally Posted by CDB

I don't believe that for a second, more like his ego is getting in the way of reality. I admire the guy, but he's got his quirks. You see pictures of him at his peak, no one gets that big and that cut without some serious pharmacological help. I also don't appreciate the way he says he and his bb friends just experimented with steroids. If there were no guys in white lab coats taking notes they didn't experiment with ****, they used, just like body builders today. No way he could just be experiementing innocently with Dianabol and not grow a set of tits unless he knew about SERMs use and PCT.

It's very much political as well. He can't come out and admit to using huge amounts of steroids. I would like to see what he would look like if he was a modern day body builder. I wonder if he could compete w/coleman? This is accepting the fact that he would be using much more advanced drugs ie. HGH, slin, heavier doses of anabolics.

Personally I would take Arnold's look any day over today's body builders. I just watched colemans video, and his gut hung over his belt about 3-4 inches. You never see body builders today doing a vaccuum pose, because they can't.

There was a show about bodybuilers running on FitTv. They talked about natural and pros. Titus admited to using. Even Joe Weider admitted to juiced up BB.

" You never see body builders today doing a vaccuum pose, because they can't."

This is true...at least of the heavyweights.

My favorite Arnold shots are the ones from the side where he's half turning in a double-bicep pose, and his stomach/waist area just disappears to nothing...such a dramatic change from stacked upper body. You don't see guys with this sort of shape very often. Frank Zane had that slender waist/wide soulder/back going on, too. I prefer it, aesthetically.

That said...I just watched Cost of Redemption, too (available on Suprnova right now, along with LevorneM3). Damn...Ronnie is insanely large. After pumping up, we pulls off his shirt and does some posing. It doesn't even look possible. That dude is so huge...as long as that is the deciding factor at the O, he will keep winning until he retires. By comparison, Cutler looks silly in his poses that attempt to make him look larger...Coleman is just a monster. The massive amoutns of muslce fit his frame well. OTOH, Cutler looks like a Cromagnum Man now.

(If 'hugeness' is all that matters, I'd love to see Markus Ruhl place higher-->he looks like a tiny head on a giant muscle suit, like something from a comic book)

Not to change the thread topic, but I think Ruhl is badly misproportioned.

As in wide-waisted? Explain...or let's start a new thread?!

I'll admit, I haven't seen him in a lot of contests, but in terms of mass I've seen from photos and his video, it's scary...and so his his man/woman training partner...wow...she'd beat most lower-weight class men...and that's only in the beard-judging competition.

Originally Posted by Beelzebub

Not to change the thread topic, but I think Ruhl is badly misproportioned.

I agree.

Originally Posted by CDB

I don't believe that for a second, more like his ego is getting in the way of reality. I admire the guy, but he's got his quirks. You see pictures of him at his peak, no one gets that big and that cut without some serious pharmacological help. I also don't appreciate the way he says he and his bb friends just experimented with steroids. If there were no guys in white lab coats taking notes they didn't experiment with ****, they used, just like body builders today. No way he could just be experiementing innocently with Dianabol and not grow a set of tits unless he knew about SERMs use and PCT.

Everyone within that circle knows his favorites were Primo and Dbol.

As for SERMS and PCT, it was hardly ever used and NOTHING compared to today. Many of those guys would go into contest getting bigger, unlike today where they get huge during the offseason then cut down. Back then Arnold actually put ON weight before several of his contests (especially when he came back for 1980). It was compeltely differen back then.

And cardio was almost nonexistant to most of these guys. Instead they lifted for 3+ hours.

Originally Posted by Bobo

As for SERMS and PCT, it was hardly ever used and NOTHING compared to today. Many of those guys would go into contest getting bigger, unlike today where they get huge during the offseason then cut down. Back then Arnold actually put ON weight before several of his contests (especially when he came back for 1980). It was compeltely differen back then.

Then why haven't we seen more of them with gyno?

They used half of what most people use today. A high dose of Dbol back then was 25mg and they certainly weren't taking grams of testosterone.

i have to agree with sticks and say that arnolds look was alot better than colemans look is now. hes to big and personally i thought he looked better 3 years back. and i also think that if arnold would be competing today and using AAS like pros are now, he would be the best, the guys gentics were just sick.

The latest I've seen of Coleman, he seems as if he's getting that "my organs are shutting down" look about him. Quite scary, IMHO.

Arnold did have the best physique ever IMHO, as in combination of aesthetics and mass. I only wish that they would have emphasized quads, glutes, and hams more back them. It would have been nice to see what he could have pulled off. (Arnold seriously lacked when it came to his upper legs. In that era, I believe Segio Oliva had the legs to beat.)

As for this routine of arnolds...how did he ever get that big? I'd look like a raisin if I started to work out that much...

[QUOTE=kwyckemynd00] (Arnold seriously lacked when it came to his upper legs. In that era, I believe Segio Oliva had the legs to beat.)

what about tom platz?

I think this routine shows just how great arnold's genetics really are. He could have been a real monster if he had access to today's information regarding training/diet. I'm actually glad that Arnold competed when he did b/c if not he would probably have the same weird looking physique that is common among heavy weights today. Although coleman is MUCH bigger Arnold is still the greatest.

1979 was Platz' first Olympia, Oliva's career ended almost a decade earlier (not counting his attempted comback in the 80's), so I didn't really count him in that era. 1979 is damn close to 1980 and I pretty much keep those folks separated from the 1960's and 1970's ppl. Yes, Arnold did take an Olympia in 1980, but his career, IMHO, was ended in 75. But, if you do consider Platz to be of the same era, yeah...platz had "the legs".

Oh, and maybe I exaggerated when I said "seriously lacking" when referring to arnold's legs, but I think they definatley could have been bigger.

arnold is definitely my favorite no doubt about it serge nubret deserves some props too fantastic physique just phenomenal genetics

my favorite today is definitely dexter jackson not a mass freak by any standard but great lines and looks awesome

Serge Nubret was freggin' great! I think it's a crime he never was able to take an Olympia title. He has my 2nd favorite physique, and still, I wonder whether or not Arnolds really was better than his...

DAMN...I hadn't seen a picture of Nubret in a long time. Incredible, proportional physique. Those are my bodybuilding ideals as well...I'd love to have Arnold's proportion and symmetry at about 220. I still want to be able to play sports and stuff! Ronnie can hardly run at his 300+ weight.

I wonder if all the GH and new drugs are part of the reason the midsections on the current mass monsters are so bloated...I mean, even when they are ripped down, if you measured from their back to the front of their abs, they're WAY thicker than any of those photos posted above.

Originally Posted by Bobo

And cardio was almost nonexistant to most of these guys. Instead they lifted for 3+ hours.

They walked the stairs in venice beach.

Ruhl is a FREAK

Yeah they walked the stairs to get to the beach so they could lay down all day.

Originally Posted by Bobo

Yeah they walked the stairs to get to the beach so they could lay down all day.

What a nice life.