Arnold's preferred training principles

"Every day I hear someone say 'I'm too fat. I need to lose 10 kilos, but I can't do it. I never seem to improve.' I would hate myself if I had an attitude like that. I can lose 5 to 20 kilos quickly, easily and painlessly by simply focusing on it. By following these principles of strict discipline that bodybuilding has taught me, I can prepare myself for anything."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Education of a Bodybuilder

Arnold Schwarzenegger did many things wrong. He did endless sets of leg extensions because he thought it would define his thighs. He believed that pull-ups would widen the chest and that chin-ups would widen the shoulder girdle by spreading the shoulder blades. He used upper body twists with a broomstick to narrow his waist. He even performed curls with deflections. Early in his career, his post-workout meal consisted of a whole chicken with a pint of beer. Oak would sometimes train for two hours in the morning and another two hours in the evening. And doesn't everyone know how unproductive such training is? Yep, Arnold didn't know what he was doing half the time, did he? With that backward mindset and those archaic training philosophies, it's no wonder he never built an impressive body.

Wait...wait. What the hell did I just say? Schwarzenegger undoubtedly had the best body of his time. If you look at the steroid bloated, unhealthy look of today's "champions", Arnold may very well have had the most impressive body in the history of bodybuilding! But what about all those "mistakes" he made in his training?

This reminds me of the day I was deadlifting in the gym. This little runt came out of his advanced step aerobics class and informed me (during my set) that I should put on a belt before I hurt myself. This prince of atrophy actually wanted to tell me how to exercise. I told him to get his spandex-wearing ass back to the juice bar. And then I thought of Arnold. All these experts love to talk about what he did wrong. In most cases, they're even right. But did those wrong views make any difference to the build of his 57 centimeter upper arms?

Sure, Arnold had the genetics of a Hercules. Yes, he also used steroids. And yes, he made the movie "Red Sonja". But despite all these things and despite all the misguided ideas about training, what Arnold did worked. Today, bodybuilders require dozens of double-blind studies, university-tested scientific analysis and magnetic resonance analysis before trying a new training program. Arnold did it quite simply. And if it wasn't painful enough, he did it another way until it was. Today's guys can't do squats because of their back problems. Arnold knew back in the seventies that those who look for excuses and cite studies are basically just afraid of hard work. One of my favorite pictures shows Arnold doing insanely heavy squats barefoot and without bandages or belts. Poor guy probably hasn't read all those scientific studies!

One of Arnold's favorite methods was to incorporate advanced training principles into his workouts. In his classic "Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" he describes several methods for increasing training intensity. Many of these strategies, which were designed to shock your muscles into new growth, have been forgotten and ignored by modern exercisers. Maybe these modern guys have read so much about the science of training that they see these techniques as old fashioned and maybe even dangerous...or maybe they're just a bunch of wimpy little girls!

Don't think about it. Just revive some of these training gems and incorporate a few into your next training session.

The 1-10 system

Use this Austrian torture method with barbell curls and bench presses. Load the bar with a weight with which you can perform a maximum repetition. Perform one repetition of curls or presses and then immediately remove enough weight to perform two repetitions. Immediately reduce the weight so that you can do three repetitions. Continue doing this until you have completed a final set of 10 repetitions. That's a total of 55 repetitions. And now look for your left testicle. It will have rolled out of the leg of your shorts halfway through this set.

I Go, You Go

Another 'crafty' way to perform curls that requires a SZ bar and a training partner. Perform a set of curls and pass the bar to your training partner. They will try to exceed your number of repetitions. He then hands the bar back to you and the process continues until you are both performing single repetitions. The bar never touches the floor during the entire set.

The platoon system

This classic is also known as "21s" or "21-ers". When we talk about Arnold, we're talking about biceps, which is why we'll use curls as an example for once more. Perform a series of partial repetitions at the bottom of the range of motion, basically moving the weight up just enough to keep your forearms parallel to the floor. Perform 7 repetitions. Then, without pausing, perform seven more repetitions using only the upper half of the range of motion. Then perform seven repetitions over the full range of motion - again without resting. Don't notice the blood coming out of your ears. Arnold, of course, performed 10 repetitions in each of the three ranges - the old show-off!

Forced negative repetitions

Safety fanatics will wince at this technique. Most of today's exercisers know the importance of eccentric or negative training. Arnie instinctively knew this too, but he took it a step further. Next time you perform curls, bench presses or shoulder presses, have your training partner apply extra pressure to the bar during the negative phase of the movement. Fight the weight throughout the entire downward movement. When you fatigue, the original weight itself will already provide enough resistance, so in a sense you are performing a descending set. Since negative repetitions are the main cause of muscle soreness, forced negative repetitions in the bench press will give you pleasure for days after the workout.

Running the Rack

This is something like the 1-10 method with dumbbells. Arnold used this technique for dumbbell presses. He started with 45 kilos and pressed them until muscle failure. He then switched to 40 kilo dumbbells without a break and trained again until muscle failure. He continued this with all gradations of dumbbells. You can also go in the opposite direction and perform fewer repetitions using heavier weights and then work your way back down.

Rest/pause

Perform a given exercise to muscle failure, pause for a few seconds and then force one or two more repetitions. Pause again for a few seconds to recover and then perform another repetition. Do not put the weight down during the entire set. Arnold also used this technique for pull-ups. He let go of the bar, took a few deep breaths and then continued.

The "flushing" method

Remember when Schwarzenegger told Johnny Carson "having a pump is like having sex - I feel like I've been cumming all day"? Well, neither do I. Hell, I was only 9 years old at the time. However, I was told that this happened. One way to achieve an orgasmic pump involves using a light weight and holding that weight at different points in the movement. For example, Arnold used this technique in the side lift by lifting the weight only about 10 centimeters away from his thighs and holding it there for 10 seconds. You'll know you're doing it right when the build-up of lactic acid makes the pain almost unbearable. A similar method is to pause at several points in the movement during the eccentric phase of pull-ups. By the end of the movement, you'll be shaking like a Parkinson's patient after a roller coaster ride.

The Arnold-style "One Day Arm Cure"

"This was the first time I realized that pain can become pleasure. We benefited from the pain and broke through the pain barrier. We saw this pain as something positive because we were growing. It was a fantastic feeling to grow through pain. The whole idea of pain became a fun trip."

Arnold talks about the results of his training sessions at the weekend near Munich. He and a few training partners loaded up a car with weights and drove into the forest to train. They limited themselves to one exercise, such as squats, and did them all day long. Arnold once trained squats for three hours and performed 55 sets during this period.

Soon these trips to the countryside became a regular habit. He started taking girls with him to cook for him. They trained outdoors, swam naked in the lakes, had sex and then trained some more (you might be wondering what you've done with your life...).

The next weekend, they trained bench press or rowing all day long. The idea was to surprise the body and shock it into new growth. In Arnold's mind, if ten sets of bench presses are good, twenty sets are even better. (Pssst! Hey you! Yeah you, sitting in front of the computer with a copy of "Heavy Duty II" on the shelf. Don't even say it! Is this workout scientific? No. Logical? Not a bit. Has it helped build the most admirable body in the history of bodybuilding? Yes.)

Double split training

"We slept in the trenches under the tanks until we were woken up at six in the morning. But I had another idea - my buddy and I got up at five, opened the tool compartment of the tank where we kept our barbells and trained for an hour before the others woke up. After we finished the day's maneuvers, we trained for another hour. Finding time for your training sessions is simply a matter of motivation and imagination."

So much for the old, worn-out excuse of not having time for training. Arnold came up with the idea of double split training while he was doing his military service in the Austrian army and later attributed much of his success to this system. Today, almost without exception, experts are of the opinion that you should only train for one hour or less per day. At the height of his success, Arnold trained three hours a day, twice a day! Sure, he had godlike genetics and the steroids helped too, but maybe - and only maybe - it was his hunger for growth that set him apart.

A traditional double split program looks something like this:

Morning and evening:

• Day 1: Back and chest
• Day 2: Quadriceps, hamstrings and calves
• Day 3: shoulders and arms

The following modifications are also possible:

• Train the same muscle group in the morning and afternoon
• Train heavy (4 to 6 repetitions until muscle failure) in one training session and light (12 to 15 repetitions) in the other
• Limit the duration of each training session to 40 minutes and train for 2 weeks with a double split program, followed by a week of "traditional training"
• There should be no less than 4 hours and no more than 6 hours between training sessions in a day
• Have a good post-workout shake after each training session

Arnold might have scoffed at short 40 minute workouts, but such a split will probably work better for exercisers with the genetics of a mere mortal and things like a job and the like.

Arnold's ideas on reps and sets

"I lived by my training program. I always wrote my programs down. I knew that once I put a program down on paper, the last thing I wanted to do was let myself down. I knew I had to look in the mirror every day and I knew I couldn't look in the mirror and say to myself, 'You know what? You're a fucking loser. You're not managing to do the kind of sets and exercises you've written down.' I didn't want to get into a situation like that." Although Arnold changed his program regularly, his basic set and repetition scheme consisted of five sets for nearly every exercise, with sets consisting of 15, 10, 8, 6 and 6 repetitions. In other words, the first set served as a warm-up set, while he increased the weight on each subsequent set, decreasing the number of repetitions.

Schwarzenegger believed that five sets were necessary to stimulate all available muscle fibers. But he also used three sets of what he called "power training" - a heavy powerlifting-style workout. For abs, he used sets of 100 repetitions, but before competitions he performed marathon training sessions of Roman chair sit-ups and mega sets consisting of ten different exercises totaling 500 repetitions with no rest. Arnold believed that abdominal training would reduce abdominal fat. We now know that it was probably his diet and the aerobic effect of his training that were responsible for this fat loss.

Priority training and staggered sets

"The resistance you physically fight against in the weight room and the resistance you struggle with in your daily life will build a strong character. Character can be strengthened just like your muscles. The more you struggle with resistance and the more obstacles you overcome, the stronger your character will become." Arnold began his bodybuilding career with weak calves. He ignored this for a while - he even had himself photographed standing in knee-deep water. But he soon tackled this weak point in his typical "all or nothing" way: he cut off the lower part of the legs of his training pants so that everyone could see his weak points. He then concentrated on correcting this weak point.

To achieve this, he used the priority principle, which states that you should train your weak points first during your training sessions (Ian King goes even further and says that you should train your weak points at the beginning of the week). Arnold also used staggered sets. Basically, he performed a set of calf raises after every other exercise he trained. In this way, he performed about 10 sets of calf raises and then only had to perform five more at the end of his training session.

Sets of several exercises

Instead of doing five sets of a particular exercise for one muscle group, do one set of each exercise you know for that muscle group. Don't worry, this is not a mega set or triple set, you will rest between exercises for that muscle group. For example, you could do a set of barbell curls, a set of incline bench curls, a set of Scott curls, a set of cable curls and finish with a set of concentration curls.

The basic idea is to use slightly different angles to train every possible muscle fiber of the biceps. You can also use this technique to prevent stagnation and boredom. Arnold has said that this type of training is not masochistic - it is simply a means to an end.

Final words

You may have noticed that some of these methods sound very familiar. It seems like every modern "expert" has reinvented these techniques and given them their own scientific-sounding names. Of course, most of these techniques can't be traced back to Arnold either, even though he was the first to popularize them. For more on these techniques, see Arnold's "Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding," chapter four.

And listen to Arnold:

"Never be satisfied with your progression, learn to love a challenge, and most importantly, stay hungry." Now enjoy your chicken and beer.

By Chris Shugart
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/resurrecting-the-oak-1, https://www.t-nation.com/training/resurrecting-the-oak-2