Arnold's workout programs

[BicepsCurls]

Has anyone here tried the programs that Arnold suggests in his encyclopedia? specifically the one for beginners? And had success with it? It just seems like a bit much to start out right away lifting 6 days a week for a beginner.

[rocco421]

Has anyone here tried the programs that Arnold suggests in his encyclopedia? specifically the one for beginners? And had success with it? It just seems like a bit much to start out right away lifting 6 days a week for a beginner.

i think the volume is a bit much for beginners. arnold used to spend 45 min to an hour on his triceps alone, several times a week...crazy. there is still a ton of usefull information in the encyclopedia.

[Phaze0]

i use the one for beginners but i substitute a lot of the exercises and do more exercises per muscle...

[qualitywah]

yea arnolds workouts are long as hell here is one of his *advanced only*

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 deadlifts - 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-delt 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.

[imasavage]

3x a week for a bodypart? Too much in my opinion.

[PimpedHerOut]

He must have been spending 5 hours in the gym every day to do that many sets for each muscle.

32 sets for chest, 28 sets for back, 53 sets for legs and calves, 9 sets for forearms, and 30 mins of abs work all in 1 session?

No wonder he had the best phisique of all time. These days if sum1 trains a split that works each body part twice a week it is categorically called overtraining...

[Kelei]

A lot of people bag Arnolds routine, but I have seen it work great providing it is tailored for the individual, simply cut the total number of sets back to an amount that is more reasonable for a natural lifter, cut sets back from 5-6 to 2-3 and allow a deloading week every 3 or 4 weeks to prevent burnout. Use it as a high frequency dual factor style routine, I personally get better gains by purposely overtraining (excessive frequency and volume) for 3 weeks then backing off for a full week.

[Kelei]

He must have been spending 5 hours in the gym every day to do that many sets for each muscle.

32 sets for chest, 28 sets for back, 53 sets for legs and calves, 9 sets for forearms, and 30 mins of abs work all in 1 session?

No wonder he had the best phisique of all time. These days if sum1 trains a split that works each body part twice a week it is categorically called overtraining...

The truth is that 90% of people undertrain and/or undereat, very few people actually overtrain. Also when people do overtrain it is most likely CNS overtraining and not actual muscular overtraining, if you keep intensity around 70-80% and avoid training to failure then you may be surprised just how much volume you can tolerate.

Take a look at someone in a heavy manual labor job, they perform more volume of work in a single day than most bodybuilders perform in an entire week, but yet they don't overtrain because intensity is kept relatively low-moderate and they use a wide variety of movement patterns to avoid CNS burnout.

Hypertrophy is best achieved by using a high/progressive volume of work with a large variety of movement patterns while avoiding excessive CNS stress.

[Chuck_Melrose]

Has anyone here tried the programs that Arnold suggests in his encyclopedia? specifically the one for beginners? And had success with it? It just seems like a bit much to start out right away lifting 6 days a week for a beginner.

Arnold had great genetics and juiced. There are some things you should listen to him about but others such as what's the best way for a beginner to train that you should avoid. This is all assuming you have average genetics and don't have a needle hanging out of your ass.

The set up isn't that bad. But as suggested you need to tweak it.

[LightCrow]

Has anyone here tried the programs that Arnold suggests in his encyclopedia? specifically the one for beginners? And had success with it? It just seems like a bit much to start out right away lifting 6 days a week for a beginner.

I've always made my best results following Arnold's routines, either ones from his Encyclopedia or his autobiography. When I start to veer away from his principles, my results start to slow down.

[Tactics33]

a powerlifter trainer told me he didn't even do the routine he has in his book lol. And that he was off about a lot of ****

[killerbee_zor]

Arnold already juiced when he was only 14 years old so these workouts are worthless for most of us!

[MikeDS]

Arnold already juiced when he was only 14 years old so these workouts are worthless for most of us!

Wow- great time for me to start

[Justin-27]

yea arnolds workouts are long as hell here is one of his *advanced only*

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 deadlifts - 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-delt 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.

That has got to be the most comically terrible routine I've ever seen. What would that take?! 3 hours?! Did Arnold pack a few meals to eat while trying to get that done?

[pensfan2006]

I'm pretty sure he suggests working out twice per day. Once in the morning and in the evening. For advanced lifters anyways. Did he have a regular job? It doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day to get all that done plus have a job. I guess he had to have worked to get his "juice"

[LightCrow]

I'm pretty sure he suggests working out twice per day. Once in the morning and in the evening. For advanced lifters anyways. Did he have a regular job? It doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day to get all that done plus have a job. I guess he had to have worked to get his "juice"

There was an article I read some time ago where Arnold detailed his typical daily routine when he first came to the US. He not only worked a full time job as a brick layer and worked out on the double split, but he also went to school at the same time. Arnold literally woke up at like 5 am and did not stop until 10 that night. Of course after the first Olympia win, he was a paid Weider employee and his job was to train and go to the beach inbetween workouts every day. But a lot of the guys in the 70s followed the double split and worked full time.

[Kelei]

I'm pretty sure he suggests working out twice per day. Once in the morning and in the evening. For advanced lifters anyways. Did he have a regular job? It doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day to get all that done plus have a job. I guess he had to have worked to get his "juice"

The beginner/intermediate workouts that Arnold suggests are perfectly fine for a natural lifter providing you eat and sleep in a way that supports such training, I agree that the advanced routine may be borderline overtraining for a natural lifter but it takes self experimentation to find your own limit. I personally was using around 40 sets per bodypart and training each bodypart twice per week before I ever touched anabolics.

Arnolds beginner/intermediate routines are perfectly fine for a natural lifter, if you overtrain then most likely it's because,

1. Your diet sux
2. You don't get enough QUALITY sleep
3. You have the genetics and recovery ability of a 90 year old woman and have no purpose doing bodybuilding in the first place.

People can draw the overtraining card as much as they like, personally I think it's simply an excuse for pure laziness.

[Orlando1234977]

A lot of people bag Arnolds routine, but I have seen it work great providing it is tailored for the individual, simply cut the total number of sets back to an amount that is more reasonable for a natural lifter, cut sets back from 5-6 to 2-3 and allow a deloading week every 3 or 4 weeks to prevent burnout. Use it as a high frequency dual factor style routine, I personally get better gains by purposely overtraining (excessive frequency and volume) for 3 weeks then backing off for a full week.

Agreed. A gradual buildup of high volume/high frequency can be reconciled with a deload week.