Arnold Schwarzenegger Bodybuilding Workout Routine

Arnold Schwarzenegger Bodybuilding Workout Routine

Monotonous training by no means leads to the desired goal but rather to frustration. Constantly doing the same exercises, weights, intensity, speed, etc. doesn’t just bore you. 

Your body and therefore your muscles get used to a certain training pattern relatively quickly; they usually only need between 3-6 weeks to adapt.

And whoever is adapted becomes lazy and no longer develops, the muscle growth or the increase in strength stagnates. Look at it this way: your muscles only want to do what is absolutely necessary (they prefer to lie on the beach and sip a cocktail), but if you use them heavily and put them into a state of stress they have to adapt to the new load so that they can be on the next time are prepared.

So how can you present your body with new challenges?

In principle it is very easy. Change one of the following variables:

  • burden
  • speed
  • intensity
  • Number of repetitions

With the load is meant the resistance or the weight. Exercising with the same dumbbells is unlikely to get you anywhere. But there are different approaches which one should consider.Pyramid training With each set of an exercise, the weight is increased and the number of repetitions is reduced at the same time. So choose a weight with which you can just do 12 repetitions.

  1. Set of 20kg x 12 reps
  2. Set of 22.5kg x 10 reps
  3. Set of 25kg x 8 reps
  4. 27.5kg set x 6 reps

Reverse pyramid trainingWith each set of an exercise, the weight is reduced and the number of repetitions increased at the same time. So choose a weight with which you can just do 6 repetitions.

  1. 30kg set x 6 reps
  2. Set of 27.5kg x 8 reps
  3. Set of 25kg x 10 reps
  4. Set of 22.5kg x 12 reps

Reduction rates

Do as many reps as possible, then for the next set reduce the weight by 20-30% and do as many reps as possible. This variant is very suitable for the final phase of a training session. To make it even harder, you could continue straight away without a break, so reduce the weight briefly and go straight back to the fight.

  1. Set 100kg x as many reps as possible
  2. Set 80kg x as many reps as possible
  3. Set 60kg x as many reps as possible
  4. Set 40kg x as many reps as possible

Try playing around with the variations just mentioned and get ready for sore muscles

Now that we’ve done a few types of training, I want to go into more detail about training speed. Firstly, the total duration of the strength training should not exceed the 45 minute limit,

As afterwards there is a steep drop in (natural) anabolic hormones.
This may sound like little to some, but in this relatively short amount of time you can torture your body sufficiently.

As a result of the training, the body increasingly releases the anabolic (anabolic) hormones testosterone and growth hormone (hgH – human growth hormone). The peak of the distribution is reached after about 30 minutes of training. 

The hormone concentrations then drop until they return to their original values ​​after about 45 minutes. If the training lasts longer than 45 minutes, the body releases more and more degrading and thus catabolic cortisol. 

Under the influence of cortisol there is a significant decrease in testosterone concentration and an overall catabolic metabolism.

So far so good … But
now there is more. Of course, you can also change the duration of a sentence or a repetition.

But first I would like to explain a small scheme.
The speed of movement is expressed as follows -> 1x1x
This means 1 second negative (eccentric) movement, no pause, 1 second positive (concentric) movement, no pause

To clarify, I would like to give a second example -> 2121
2 seconds negative movement, 1 second pause, 2 seconds positive movement, 1 second pause

The pause refers to the point in time after the completed positive or negative movement. In bench presses, the negative movement would be lowering the barbell towards your chest, then you could keep the weight down for a second, but without supporting it on your chest. A break does not mean to relieve the muscle but only to delay the movement, the muscle remains under tension / stress.

And now we come to the interesting part … the manipulation of the various variables and their effects.

Hypertrophy is produced at 6-12 reps and means muscle growth, which most people want to achieve.
Let’s say you do 8 repetitions, does it make a difference whether you need 16 seconds or 40 seconds for a set?

Naturally!!

In the first variant (16 sec), a movement would be structured as follows -> 1x1x
The speed of the movement would only put little strain on the muscle, as there is momentum with such jerky movements. You only use strength in the beginning to get the weight moving. The effective duration of tension in the muscles is only about 8 seconds, if at all. Similar to a pendulum, you only initiate the movement, the rest goes by itself.

The second variant (40 sec) could look like this -> 212x
The entire sequence of movements is carried out in a much more controlled manner, which also significantly minimizes the risk of injury. Due to the slower and more controlled movement, the muscle is under tension for the entire 40 seconds (8 x 5 seconds) and is thus much more exhausted. And then we have come to another important point. Time under tension is another tool to bring the muscle into new stimulation zones and thus to grow.

The duration of tension should not be confused with strength endurance training, with significantly more than 12 repetitions being performed. Muscles with a lot of stamina do not really get bigger, as you can easily see in marathon runners. It would be a disadvantage for them if they had to carry more weight with them.

The best thing to do is to take a stopwatch with you to the fitness center and measure your sentence duration, I’m sure you will be amazed at how little time you spend on it. The transition is not that difficult, you just have to focus on the movement and muscle tension and avoid the momentum.