The Arnold Schwarzenegger workout is not for the faint of heart. Is it a bit much? Yeah, but that’s old-school bodybuilding. It’s what makes it great.
Calling Arnold a bodybuilding legend severely understates his contribution to the sport. He is bodybuilding. Arnold is MJ, Lebron, Gretzky, Brady, and more. He not only has the championships, but he made lifting weights cool. Without Arnold, you probably wouldn’t even be reading this article.
That said, this article is not about Arnold’s impact or his unique rags-to-riches story. It’s about his physique, what he was able to build, and why there is a poster of him in nearly every gym in America.
How did he do it? What did it take to create one of the best physiques of all time? Find out here.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Workout During the Golden Era of Bodybuilding
Bodybuilding between the 1960s and 1980s is considered the Golden Era.
It was a time when the sport focused on balanced, aesthetic physiques rather than just size. Bodybuilders like Arnold, Frank Zane, and Serge Nubret had impressive yet classic, well-proportioned bodies that still inspire today.
During most of the 1970s and 80s, bodybuilders followed Arnold’s lead. High-volume training was the blueprint. Other than Mike Mentzer, nearly every top-level pro trained this way. The workouts involved an endless number of sets and often training twice a day.
In his prime, this was Arnold’s weekly training schedule.
- Monday: AM: Chest and back. PM: Legs, calves, and abs.
- Tuesday: Shoulders, arms, calves, and abs.
- Wednesday: AM: Chest and back. PM: Legs, calves, and abs.
- Thursday: Shoulders, arms, calves, and abs.
- Friday: AM: Chest and back. PM: Legs, calves, and abs.
- Saturday: Shoulders, arms, calves, and abs.
- Sunday: Rest
Other than crazy high volume, the training relied on heavy barbells and dumbbells. Remember, there were not as many machines available back then. Arnold’s training is a definition of old-school, but you can’t argue the results. Who wouldn’t want Arnold’s physique?
Let’s dig into what his staple workouts looked like.
Chest and Back
Arnold trained his chest and back at Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings during his Olympia reign. You can probably find him there doing the same thing today.
The Chest and back routine is the quintessential Arnold workout. It’s what I picture when I think of Arnie training. The push-pull nature of the movements fit in perfectly as supersets, which is one of Arnold’s favorite techniques. Since the chest and back are agonist and antagonist muscles, you can perform exercises for each back to back without much decrease in performance.
Arnold started the workout with two old-school staples: the bench press and the wide-grip pullup. After five sets of each, Arnold’s entire upper body was engorged in blood.
Next is the incline dumbbell or barbell press for the upper chest with close-grip pullups. You could balance a cup of water on Arnold’s upper pecs. He attributes his chest development to hammering the basics.
After the first two supersets, Arnold did four exercises in a row as straight sets—two movements for the chest and two for the back. Then, he finished the workout with one more superset of a cable back exercise and a dumbbell pullover.
The chest and back workout lasted two to three hours. Then, it was time to eat and rest before returning to the gym to train the legs 8 to 10 hours later.
The Workout
- Bench Press: 5 sets x 4-10 reps superset with
- Wide Grip Pullups: 5 sets x 10 reps
- Incline Dumbbell or Barbell Press: 4 sets x 6-10 reps superset with
- Close Grip Pullups: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Dumbbell Flys or Cable Crossover: 4 sets x 6-10 reps
- Weighted Dips: 4 sets x 8-15 reps
- T-Bar Row: 4 sets 8-15 reps
- Barbell Row: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Seated Cable Row or Lat Pulldown: 4 sets x 10 reps superset with
- Dumbbell Pullovers: 4 sets x 15 reps
Legs, Calves, and Abs
After a grueling morning workout, Arnold returned to the gym for an evening leg session on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
How do ten sets of squats sound to start your leg workout? Well, that’s on the schedule – six sets of back squats and four sets of front squats. And, if that’s not enough, Arnold would finish the quad portion of the leg workout with four more sets of either hack squats or leg presses.
By then, the quads had nothing left to give, and it was time to move on to hamstrings. The hamstring workout consisted of four sets of lying leg curls, standing leg curls, and stiff leg deadlifts.
Calves were a weak point early in Arnold’s bodybuilding career. He famously cut all his sweatpants off at the knee to always keep the calves visible. For a time, he even started every workout with calves to prioritize them. However, Arnold’s calves did not look out of place in his prime, so he trained them after quads and hamstrings. The calf workout was simple: four sets of ten reps of donkey, standing, and seated calf raises.
The last part of the workout was abs. For abs, Arnold did 100 reps of hanging leg raises, seated leg tucks on a bench, and seated broomstick twists.
The Workout
- Back Squat: 6 sets x 4-15 reps
- Front Squat: 4 sets x 6-10 reps
- Hack Squat or Leg Press: 4 sets x 8-10 reps superset with
- Lying Leg Curls: 4 sets x 8-10 reps
- Standing Leg Curls: 4 sets x 10 reps superset with
- Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Donkey Calf Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Standing Calf Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Seated Calf Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Hanging Leg Raises: 4 sets x 25 reps
- Seated Leg Tucks: 4 sets x 25 reps
- Broom Stick Twists: 100 reps on each side
Shoulders, Arms, Calves, and Abs
At first glance, Arnold’s Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays seem mild. He only trains once on those three days. However, when you see the workout, you will understand why. It’s 19 exercises. That’s a lot, even for Arnold. So much so that he sometimes moves this workout’s calves and abs portion to an evening session. However, the entire workout consists of supersets, so you can hustle through it quicker than you might think.
The session starts with an exercise few people do anymore: the behind-the-neck barbell press. Old-school bodybuilders swear by it, but it is a little more risky than a traditional barbell overhead press to the front. But hey, no risk it, no biscuit. He combined those with dumbbell lateral raises.
The rest of the shoulder workout consists of two supersets. Standing Arnold presses combined with bent-over dumbbell rear raises and barbell upright rows combined with cable lateral raises.
The arm portion of this workout is my favorite part. It is an excellent workout on its own for us, mere mortals. One thing that stands out when watching videos of Arnold train is that he used good technique but aggressively attacked the weights. He wasn’t afraid to loosen his form a little toward the end of the set to grind out a couple of extra reps. For example, he would use momentum to get 2 or 3 extra reps at the end of the set when doing barbell curls. He called these cheat curls.
After arms, Arnold finishes the workout with abs and calves, both muscle groups he trained six days a week.
The Workout:
- Behind the Neck Barbell Press: 4 sets x 6-10 reps superset with
- Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 4 sets x 8-10 reps
- Dumbbell Arnold Press: 4 sets x 8-10 reps superset with
- Dumbbell Rear Raise: 4 sets x 10-12 reps
- Barbell Upright Row: 4 sets x 10 reps superset with
- Cable Lateral Raise: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Barbell Curl: 4 sets x 4-15 reps superset with
- Skull Crushers: 4 sets x 4-15 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Curl: 4 sets x 8-10 reps superset with
- Cable Triceps Pressdown: 4 sets x 8-10 reps
- Barbell Preacher Curl: 4 sets x 10-12 reps superset with
- One Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extension: 4 sets x 10-12 reps
- EZ Bar Reverse Curls: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Standing Calf Raises: 4 sets x 8-15 reps
- Leg Press Calf Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Decline Sit Up: 4 sets x 25 reps
- Broom Stick Twists: 100 reps on each side
- Cable Crunches: 4 sets x 25 reps
- Weighted Back Extensions: 3 sets x 10 reps
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Old School Bodybuilding Diet
Arnold was more relaxed about nutrition than bodybuilders today. No Golden Era bodybuilder was overly strict about their diet. They just focused on training hard and eating lots of protein. That said, Arnold still followed a structured meal plan most of the time.
One thing you will notice about Arnold’s meal plan is that there are not many carbs for a 240-pound guy. It’s by design. Golden Era bodybuilders typically ate low carb. Outside of protein, the majority of the calories came from fat. They consumed lots of eggs, whole milk, red meat, butter, and cheese.
Here is what an average day of eating could have looked like for Arnold in his prime.
Breakfast
- 4-6 eggs
- 1 cup of cottage cheese
- 1 or 2 slices of whole-grain bread with butter
- 1 piece of fruit
Snack
- 20oz whole milk
- 1/4 cup protein powder
- 4oz cream
- 2 eggs
- 2tsp lecithin granules
Lunch
- 8-16oz red meat, fish, chicken, or turkey
- 1 or 2 slices of whole-grain bread with butter
- 1 piece of fruit
Snack
- 20oz whole milk
- 1/4 cup protein powder
- 4oz cream
- 2 eggs
- 2tsp lecithin granules
Dinner
- 8-16oz red meat, fish, chicken, or turkey
- Baked potato
- Steamed veggies or green salad
How You Can Train Like Arnold
I get it. Arnold’s workout is nuts. Even if you have the desire, it’s unlikely you have the time to train 25 or more hours per week. That said, we can still learn a lot from how Arnold trained. Here are six Schwarzenegger staples we can add to our training today.
- Emphasis strength first: This might seem counterintuitive, but get strong before focusing on size. Many Golden Era bodybuilders, including Arnold, competed in powerlifting, Olympic Weightlifting, or both before bodybuilding.
- When in doubt, add more volume: If you want to train like Arnold, there is no way around it; you must do marathon workouts. There is a time and place for intensity (see Mike Mentzer), but volume workouts are highly effective, too. That said, don’t just jump right into Arnold’s routine. Start by adding 3-5 extra sets per week for a muscle group or two and go from there.
- Use supersets: How can you do marathon workouts without being in the gym all day? One word: Supersets. Arnold made supersets famous. They are an excellent way to jack up the intensity but also allow you to get through more work in a shorter period.
- Prioritize weak body parts: If you have a body part lagging behind the rest of your body, prioritize it. Early in Arnold’s career, his calves were tiny. To circumvent this issue, he started every workout with calves for a few years until they caught up with the rest of his body. You don’t have to go to that extreme, but if you have a weak body part, train it early in your workouts when you are fresh.
- Get a training partner: Arnold always believed in having great training partners. Modern-day lifters often neglect this area, opting to train by themselves. Get yourself a Franco Columbu and watch your training intensity naturally increase.
The GOAT
Well, there you have it—the Arnold Schwarzenegger workout and diet plan. Of course, much more than what’s included in this article went into building one of the best physiques of all time, but I always love digging into how the greats did it. Success leaves clues.
I don’t expect you to follow this program to a T—you probably shouldn’t—but I challenge you to find some things you can incorporate into your routine. Maybe it’s a specific superset or exercise sequence. The key is not in the details but in the implementation. If nothing else, I hope this article inspires you to look up some old Arnold training footage. It’s worth your time. If you aren’t motivated to go to the gym and train after watching Pumping Iron, this might not be your cup of tea.
PS- If you enjoyed this article, here is a breakdown of how the modern-day Arnold, Chris Bumstead trains: https://kylehuntfitness.com/chris-bumstead-workout-and-diet-program-for-2024/
Author: Kyle Hunt
Email: KyleHuntFitness@gmail.com
Hire Kyle as your coach: http://www.kylehuntfitness.com/services/
If you want a complete step-by-step bodybuilding program, check out my ebook, Absolute Muscle.
