Arnold Schwarzenegger's Workout Routine

This routine is a typical Arnold routine, but Arnold's routine did changed constantly. Sometimes he trained twice a day, and other times, once a day. There were periods when he did lots of forced reps. There were times when he did supersets and giant sets. Arnold tried every thing, and picked what worked best for him at that particular time.

Arnold rested little between sets, and usually increased pound ages wile each subsequent set. Although he experimented with high reps at times, he usually preferred a rep range in the neighborhood of 6 to 10. If he could only do five he would cheat to get past thay sticking point. However, Arnold's cheating wasn't the same as the average person's. If he did a cheat curl, it wasn't the same as an average bodybuilder swinging a weight from top lo bottom. It was controlled, deliberate cheating.

His concentration was complete. As far as the philosophy or his workouts is concerned, he was almost an existentialist. Nothing existed outside the set at hand. To illustrate this, one of his workout partners remembered the time when he and Arnold were doing 20 sets of biceps curls. The training partner said, "Boy, Arnold, we have fourteen sets to go." Arnold replied: "No, we have only one. The one we are working on".

Arnold's Top Measurement
Arms 22 inches
Chest 57 inches
Waist 34 inches
Thighs 28.5 inches
Calves 20 inches
Weight 235 pounds
Height 6'2"

Mon, Wed, Fri

Chest:
Bench press - 5 sets, 6-10 reps
Flat bench flies - 5 sets, 6-10 reps
Incline bench press - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Cable crossovers - 6 sets, 10-12 reps
Dips - 5 sets, to failure
Dumbbell pullovers - 5 sets, 10-12 reps

Back:
Front wide-grip chin-ups - 6 sets, to failure
T-bar rows - 5 sets, 6-10 reps
Seated pulley rows - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
One-arm dumbbell rows - 5 sets, 6-10 reps
Straight-leg deadlift - 6 sets, 15 reps

Legs:
Squats - 6 sets, 8-12 reps
Leg presses - 6 sets, 8-12 reps
Leg extensions - 6 sets, 12-15 reps
Leg curls - 6 sets, 10-12 reps
Barbell lunges - 5 sets, 15 reps

Calves:
Standing calf raises -10 sets, 10 reps
Seated calf raises - 8 sets, 15 reps
One-legged calf raises (holding dumbbells) - 6 sets,12 reps

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

Abs:
Nonstop instinct training for 30 minutes


Tues, Thurs, Sat

Biceps:
Barbell curls - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Seated dumbbell curls - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Dumbbell concentration curls - 6 sets, 6-10 reps

Triceps:
Close-grip bench presses (for the all three heads) - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Pushdowns (exterior head) - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Barbell French presses (interior head) - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
One-arm dumbbell triceps extensions (exterior head) - 6 sets, 6-10 reps

Shoulders:
Seated barbell presses - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Lateral raises (standing) - 6 sets, 6-10 reps
Rear-deltoid lateral raises - 5 sets, 6-10 reps
Cable lateral raises - 5 sets, 10-12 reps

Calves and Forearms:
Same as Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Abs:
Same as Monday, Wednesday and Friday.