Authoritative Arnold

The No-fuss Guide to Some of the Oak’s Best Sandow-winning Methodologies, All in One Convenient Place

- Eric Velazquez

Since 1983, we have had the honor and privilege of providing you with the industry-best access to the workout routines of the most prominent bodybuilders in the world. From complete-package Sandow winners to freakishly built also-rans, we pride ourselves on giving you the rep-by-rep blueprint to their success for your own training ambitions. Yet, for all the hardcore red meat we provide, there is none more satiating—and perhaps none more effective—than that from the training archives of the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A bodybuilder with no equal, the seven-time Olympia winner (1970–1975, 1980) remains the most revered athlete to ever don a set of posing trunks. His in-the trenches style of training, at the time considered unconventional, is now just “the way.” Rare is the bodybuilder of this generation whose training hasn’t been influenced in some way, shape, or form by Arnold. And perhaps that is the way it should be. Even when measured against the mass monsters that followed in the decades after his retirement, Arnold’s Olympia physique is still uniquely muscled—exquisitely balanced, adorned with impossibly perfect lines, and shredded to the bone.

So in lieu of some “cutting edge,” guru-crafted routine or presenting the ABCs of a workout that likely already draws from Arnold, we decided to feed you exactly what you need, directly from the source. What follows is a substantial helping of the Oak’s favorite physique-minting routines for back, chest, and legs—the muscle groups that win shows— and the no-nonsense rationale that drives them.

Chest

The original “freaky” body part, Arnold’s chest—with its tremendous north-to-south mass and perfectly chiseled lower pecs—remains the elusive gold standard of pectoral development. So what was his secret?