Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Weekly Weight Training Routines

Arnold Schwarzenegger, like all successful bodybuilders, varied his workout throughout his lifting career, to ensure that his muscles were always being driven to grow and not stagnate. We have already looked at Arnold Schwarzernegger’s full workouts for each body part. Here we can reveal one of his weekly training routines.

To work all muscles effectively, it is essential to split a weight lifting routine up into parts. At the most simple level is the push / pull split, which is aimed at people training twice per week at a high intensity. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger trained far more frequently than the average lifter, he was really a real “gym rat”, meaning that he was always down in his gym working on one part or another. In a way, this reminds us of Bruce Lee, as Linda Hamilton once described him as always having a dumbbell close at hand, and always doing something.

This Arnold routine is a 6 day per week routine. Like the full body workout we discussed before, it is typical Arnold style, in that there are a lot of sets and reps. To do such a routine effectively it is essential that you warm up well, eat very well, take supplements, and get lots of sleep. It is very easy to suffer from over training if you do not rest, so fuel and limber up before working out. Arnold generally performed 5 sets of 8 to 12 reps for each movement. For abdominal exercises, he did 5 sets of 25 reps each.

Arnold’s weekly routine was split into three groups:

1. Chest, Upper Back and Abs
2. Shoulders, Arms and Forearms
3. Thighs, Calves and Lower Back

Monday & Thursday

• Chest: Bench Presses, Inclines Presses and Pullovers
• Back: Chinups (fours sets to failure), Bent-over Rows and Deadlifts
• Abs: Leg Raises

Tuesday & Friday

• Shoulders: Clean & Press, Lateral Raises, Push Presses and Heavy Upright Rows
• Arms: Barbell Curls, Seated Dumbbell Curls, Barbell Triceps Extension and Narrow-grip Press
• Forearms: Wrist Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls
• Abs: Incline Sit ups

Wednesday & Saturday

• Thighs: Squats, Lunges and Leg Curls
• Calves: Standing Calf Raises
• Lower Back: Straight Leg Deadlifts
• Abs: Leg Raises

Really only professional bodybuilders have the time and resources required to workout six full days a week. Professional athletes manage it, and amateur athletes can only manage similar workouts with sponsorship (think Michael Phelps and Rebecca Adlington).

This workout is not for the light hearted. However, if you fuel your muscles and rest well, then it is possible. It can be reduced for those with a busier lifestyle, either by reducing the number of sets per exercise, or simply splitting the routine out over a 2 week period.

Learn why Arnold Schwarzenegger is Good for California. You may also be interested in looking at Barack Obama’s fitness workouts, which are very different from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s strength training approach.

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Recommended Reading

• Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Bodybuilding Workout
• Arnold Schwarzenegger 3 Day Split Bodybuilding Routine
• Weight Training Push & Pull Split Routine
• High Intensity Weight Training Routines (HIT)
• Split Routines for Bodybuilding and Weight Lifting

Tags: 1 week routine, Arnold Schwarzernegger workout, arnold workout, bodybuilding book, New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Bodybuilding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.