How did Arnold Schwarzenegger train?

Whoever is now the best athlete in the world, no matter how magnificent muscles he has, the most famous and greatest bodybuilder will always be only Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was he who made this sport universally recognized and directly participated in its formation.

It is not necessary to blindly copy his system, but every self-respecting athlete needs to know the beginning, to know how Arnold Schwarzenegger trained.

Arnie only accepted strength training with huge weights and full concentration and dedication. I liked to repeat that if you are not ready to give your all, then it is better to skip class than to work at less than full capacity.

Arnold put into practice 2 training schemes:

As for the duration of the training cycle, Schwarzenegger preferred a five-day cycle with a sixth day of rest, considering this training schedule to be optimal. Pumping up one muscle group per session, he used the following basic exercises:

Arnold sometimes mixed his workouts with movements from the arsenal of weightlifters and powerlifters, such as barbell cleans, clean and jerk, and deadlifts. But I never chased results in them, using such elements of training solely for “pumping up”. Often the athlete used the principle of partial repetitions of half the amplitude, especially for squats.

Periodically, the athlete monitored the effectiveness of his activities by calculating their intensity. I divided the total training tonnage by its duration, and based on the calculation results, I either reduced the training time or added weight. Schwarzenegger trained, constantly striving to increase the intensity of his activities.

It’s clear that each athlete has his own tricks that are ideal only for him, and using his methods by simply copying is, to say the least, stupid. However, it is definitely worth having this knowledge for a competent example and an excellent guide. So, keep your head up, maybe someday you will become a six-time Mr. Olympia...