I Watched Arnold Train

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Arnold Schwarzenegger
I Watched
Arnold
Train
The Bodybuilding Philosophy of Arnold
Schwarzenegger
Story and
photography
by John Balik
Balik
T
164 NOVEMBER 2004 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
his feature appeared in the July

1975 Iron Man.
Although my friendship with
Arnold Schwarzenegger stretches
back to his first months in this country,
these observations are based on the 12
months of training leading to the 74
Mr. Olympia. During that time I made
four business trips to Los Angeles at approximate three-month intervals. On
Balik
two of the trips I availed myself of Arnolds

hospitality and stayed at his home, a very
informal setting that allowed me to observe
Arnolds diet and training routines.
The date is December 1, 1973. Arnold is
in stage one of his preparation for the Mr.
Olympia of 1974. Lets call this the basic
building stage. At this point in his training
he is using relatively few exercises but
working them very hard.
www.ironmanmagazine.com \ NOVEMBER 2004 165
I Watched Arnold Train
In general, those key basic exercises work the major muscle groups
and are the foundation for longterm progress. Quality muscle
growth is the result of using heavy
weights in good form on the basic
exercises. What is a heavy weight?
According to Arnold, its a weight
that allows him to just complete a
repetition goal. If he can surpass his
rep goal, he does so.
A repetition goal should be just
that: a goal, not a set number that
you do and quit. Many times I have
seen Arnold grind out what appeared to be his final rep, yet somehow, impossibly, he would get
another rep or two. In short, every
set is the set; 100 percent effort is a
must. The only exception to that is
the first set, which he prefers to do
at 70 to 80 percent of maximum. He
feels a warm muscle performs better and is less likely to be injured.
The basic building stage
demands a dietary approach much
different from the precontest regimen. The type of exercise and system of performance create a
situation where growth and muscle
weight gain are possible if the diet
is correct. To quote Arnold, It is my
opinion that diet is the basis of all
muscle gains. It is impossible to
build massive size and gain muscular weight if your diet is inadequate.
The diet must be just as well
planned as the training program if
you want maximum progress.
Even though Arnold is in the
building stage, he does not allow
himself to get fat. The goal here is to
gain muscle size, not just weight.
Now, dont get me wrong; he does
not stay in rock-hard contest shape
year-aroundthat would be impossible for someone with his
metabolism and would inhibit his
growth in stage one. As his early
photos show, he is not the natural
muscular type like Franco Columbu, so his problem is to gain size
without smoothing out too much.
That takes a lot of dietary discipline.
As a general rule, Arnolds diet
revolves around natural food. As
much as possible the foods are
fresh and unprocessed. Food supplements are definitely secondary
in his overall approach to diet.
Protein supplements are used as
much for convenience as anything
July 75 cover vs. January 04.

The man has still got it!
During the winter he

focused on getting
stronger on the big
basics.
Squats
Arnold often
picked out a weak
bodypart and
specialized on it
for up to five
months to bring
up its development.
Wrist Curls
Arnolds Mr. Olympia
Arm Workout
Dumbbell curls
Incline curls
Concentration curls
Close-grip bench
presses
Pushdowns
French presses
One-arm extensions
6x8
6x8
6 x 10
Arnold knew that biceps

impress, but triceps make up
most of the upper-arm mass.
6x8
6 x 10
6x8
6 x 10
else. He spaces his meals and seldom gorges, relying on more frequent smaller meals. He uses
protein as the basis for every meal,
with fat second and carbohydrates
a distant third. The only real restriction at this point is on carbohydrates, which are kept at
approximately 125 grams per day
from fruits, vegetables and whole
grains. Some of you may have heard
of Arnolds prodigious appetite for
pie, cake and ice cream. The incidences of these carbohydrate insanities are relatively infrequent
and the exception rather than the
rule. As Arnolds knowledge of his
body has matured, he has come to
acknowledge the fact that these
dietary excursions are incompatible
with his overall goals, and he has
relegated them to the area of celebration.
Arnold uses no steroids during
the building stage. He feels their
usefulness is limited to just
beforesix to eight weeksthe big
contest. He uses them not to add
but only to retain size gained in
stage one while stripping his body
of all fat.
Stage one actually lasts five
months (November through March)
and has two levels of training intensity; however, this article covers the
first three months: November, December and January. The workouts
Arnolds Mr. Olympia

Shoulder Workout
Seated machine front
presses
6 x 8-10
Lateral raises
6 x 10
Dumbbell presses
6x8
Bent-over laterals
5 x 10
Cable laterals
5 x 12
Overhead Extensions
Arnolds Mr. Olympia
Calves and Forearms
Workout
Machine calf raises 10 x 10
Seated calf raises
8 x 15
One-leg calf raises
6 x 12
Wrist roller
4 x max
Reverse curls
4x8
Wrist curls
4 x 10
are split so that he works each
bodypart twice per week. Arnold
feels he needs the recuperation
time to grow. Many bodybuilders
work out too long but not hard
enough. Arnold always uses maximum effortforced repsand
trains almost without rest. As he
says, If you do one set of an exercise and five sets of yacking, dont
expect gains.
The Monday and Thursday workout consists of bench presses supersetted with wide-grip chins and
dumbbell flyes supersetted with
low-cable rows. I asked Arnold why
he supersetted bench presses and
wide chins, whereas most trainers
would probably superset bench
presses and flyes. He feels that by
working a pulling muscle immediately after a pushing movement, he
gets fuller overall development of
the areas. It also allows him to work
very fast, which he feels is essential
to progress. Arnold seems to have
his own special way of doing every
exercise; little changes of hand
position or arc of movement that
personalize the exercises and apparently make them much more
productive. Not only is Arnold a
champion bodybuilder, but he also
knows how he got there. He has
refined bodybuilding with knowledge, logic and instinct.
Arnold does the bench presses
Arnold never neglected

his forearms.
Reverse Curls
Curls done on an
incline gave his
biceps unique
stimulation.
Arnolds Mr. Olympia

Back Workout
Wide-grip chins
6 x max
T-bar rows
5x8
Cable rows
6x8
Bent-over rows
6 x 12
Deadlifts (on box)
6 x 15
One-arm dumbbell
rows
5x8
Incline Curls
Arnold usually
started his
biceps workout with
dumbbell
curls.
Detail work
for the
triceps.
Dumbbell Curls
smoothly but only about threefourths of the way to lockout, therefore placing constant tension on
the pectorals. He does the wide
chins smoothly from the extreme
stretch to where his chest touches
the bar. He does this superset for
five sets, with 10 to 12 reps as the
goal. He does the flyes and seated
pulley rows with the same five su-
Arnolds Mr. Olympia

Chest Workout
Bench presses
5 x 8-10
Flat-bench flyes
5x8
Machine incline
presses
6 x 8-10
Parallel-bar dips
(bodyweight)
5 x max
Cable crossovers
6 x 12
Dumbbell pullovers 5 x 10
persets of 10 to 12 reps as the

goal. The flyes are very strict,
with his arms slightly bent
and his elbows well back
toward his ears so that he
feels the tension diagonally
across his pecs. Again, theres
no lockout; he does only the
bottom two-thirds of the
movement so he gets constant tension.
Another secret of great pec
development is to keep your
chest high and your back
arched throughout the
movement. Dont let your rib
cage collapse at any time.
You can breathe with your
chest expanded, and you
should during all chest
movements.
On Tuesday and Friday
Arnolds workout covers
shoulders and arms. He
Pushdowns
The Olympia
is close. Absand-serratus
check.
John Balik (right) focuses on
the big man, circa 1974.
alternates seated presses behind

the neck with single-pulley delt
raisesboth with rep goals of 10 to
12for five supersets.
Arnold does not superset biceps
with triceps but prefers to do biceps
first, starting with dumbbell curls.
He likes to curl with dumbbells
because they allow him to rotate his
hand as he raises them, thereby
more closely approximating the
actual function of the arm. The
exercise starts with the dumbbells
at the sides of the thighs. As the
dumbbells clear the thighs, he
rotates them outward until theyre
at the top position. If he does that
correctly, the low biceps
brachialiswill be intensely
worked, as well as the biceps in the
exercises fully contracted position.
Its a great variation on the dumb-
Arnolds Mr. Olympia

Leg Workout
Parallel squats
Leg extensions
Leg presses
Leg curls
Barbell lunges
6 x 10-12
6 x 15
6 x 8-10
6 x 12
5 x 15
bell curl. The rep goal here is eight

to 10 for five sets. Next is Larry
Scotts favorite, barbell preacher
bench curls. Eight reps is the goal,
with four additional half movements at the top for peak. Arnold
does five sets.
He works triceps in the same
style as he works the bench press;
that is, no lockout for constant
tension. He does the standing
French press with a barbell for five
sets with a rep goal of 12 to 15 and
uses the same combination for
triceps pushdowns on the lat machine.
Forearms are next, and he uses
reverse barbell curls on the preacher bench supersetted with barbell
wrist curls with his palms up. He
does five of these supersets, with a
rep goal of 12 to 15.
The Wednesday and Saturday
workout starts with leg extensions
for five sets of 15 reps followed by
five sets of full squats, starting with
225 pounds for approximately 20
reps and then sets of 12 reps. When
he gets to 405 pounds, where he
usually can get only eight reps, he
has his workout partners take off
some weight so he can grind out
the four reps to get to his goal of 12.
He also did five sets of leg curls for

12 to 15 reps and a variety of calf
work on the day I observed him.
During this five-month period
Arnold also picks out one bodypart
that he feels needs extra work. He
feels that by specializing for five
months on a single bodypart, he
doesnt have to worry about his
asymmetrical muscle group in final
preparation for the Mr. Olympia.
Hes specializing on abs during this
period. The work consists of crunch
situps alternated with leg raises, and
he does a total of 300 to 400 reps
after each of his six workouts per
week. In the past he has specialized
on calves, deltoids and, in 1975,
forearms.
Trying to fully analyze every
movement Arnold does would take a
book. My aim here has been to give
some insight into a few of the many
refinements of training Arnold has
evolved.
Editors note: The bodypart
routines that appear in boxes in this
feature are samples of how Arnold
trained for the 10 to 12 weeks leading up to an Olympia competition.
The rest of the year his bodypart
routines consisted of much less
volume. IM

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his feature appeared in the July

two of the trips I availed myself of Arnolds

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE

July 75 cover vs. January 04.

During the winter he

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