Arnold's philosophy on pumping and spin can be summed up by the principle of "pairing." And it worked.
Behind his public successes (and failures), loud speeches and campaigns, fame and fortune, it is very easy to lose sight of the fact that at his core, Arnold Schwarzenegger is, first and foremost, a man obsessed with bodybuilding.
Long before he became famous, and long before his battles with state legislators, the five-time Mr. Universe and seven-time Mr. Olympia spent countless hours in small gyms around the country, pushing, squeezing and moving iron. The goal of his efforts was to become the best bodybuilder in the world. And in 1960-70. he achieved this goal by winning one competition after another.
During his school years, Arnold devoted himself entirely to his studies. Later, he worked with the same diligence in the gym, and many years later - on the set and in the governor’s chair. Equally important, he had no fear in the training (another famous Schwarzenegger quality). While his gym mates were conservative in the bodybuilding world for decades, Arnold was always looking for ways to increase intensity.
In the early and mid-60s, at the dawn of his professional career, the future champion trained according to a regular program compiled for him by more experienced comrades from a gym in Austria (his first gym). It was a basic and fairly well-thought-out program, but not so effective as to turn a provincial Austrian guy into a world-class star. When the student's achievements began to surpass those of his mentors, Arnold began to realize that without finding new ways to increase the intensity of training, he risked ending his career as the owner of the title "Mr. Europe."
Arnold begins to study Muscle Builder magazine (its current name is Muscle & Fitness) in search of solutions to “shake up” his training and eventually comes across “” - a set of methodological techniques for increasing the intensity of training.
By the end of the 60s, he developed his own formula, which consisted of six training days a week, two workouts a day, and included a number of Weider principles, incl. his favorite is .
Ready… attention… superset!
“One of the main explanations for the effectiveness of the chest-back program is that almost all chest exercises are pushing exercises, and back exercises are pulling exercises. In rows that load the lats, the chest rests, and vice versa - the lats rest in chest exercises. This alternation of rest and exercise ensures a constant flow of blood to the muscles... When working on the chest and back at the same time, there is an incredible feeling of muscle growth and an increase in their volume” (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Using supersets involves grouping two or more exercises, which are performed without interruption. There are two types of supersets: when exercises are grouped on one part of the body and when exercises on different parts of the body are combined. Arnold liked both options. He especially often used supersets to train the chest muscles.
“There are several advantages of alternating the load on the chest and back muscles,” Arnold said more than once:
- Time saving; training goes much faster.
- Ability to lift heavier weights to gain mass and develop strength.
- Effect and high-quality pumping of muscles (both chest and) for their complex load; the muscles are filled with blood for a longer time.
- High muscle density due to working with extreme weights.
In his seminal work, The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, Arnold explains in detail the benefits of using chest-back supersets.
Training program
Few bodybuilders use double splits these days. It has been argued that a program with two workouts per day is too taxing on the body. Apparently, this technique did not harm Arnold at all. In the 1970s, double splits were considered normal for most professional athletes training at Gold's Gym in Venice, California.
Arnold's chest/back workout consists of nine exercises: four for the chest and four for the back, plus a dumbbell pullover (a compound exercise that targets the lats and targets the pecs). In total it includes 45 approaches. There are no breaks between sets in a superset (you should rest for one minute or a little more between supersets). At the end of the workout, it is necessary to perform intensive exercises on the muscles on which the load was applied.
The duration of the workout is about 45 minutes. During this time, Austrian Oak was so exhausted that he could barely breathe, and the sweat poured from him like a stream. They say that in the Gold’s Gym there was a special oxygen cylinder, with the help of which Arnold and his partners recovered from such difficult training.
Obviously, all these efforts were not in vain; When measuring Arnold's chest, the tape measure stretched to an incredible 145 cm. His pectoral muscles looked impressive. His back is still considered a model in the world of bodybuilding.
Perhaps using Arnold's chest-back training program will not turn the average gym goer into an epic hero. However, this tough, effective technique is sure to result in increased muscle mass in your upper body.
Superset No. 1
The first superset in the training program begins with a warm-up of 30-45 reps on the bench press with a weight of 60 kg, followed by 15 pull-ups. For the next five sets, Arnold alternated bench presses and pull-ups, increasing the weights in a pyramid pattern on the press and decreasing the number of repetitions on both exercises. Typically, he followed the following pattern for these two exercises: 15, 15, 12, 8, and 6 reps. It should be noted that Arnold paid close attention to his breathing and tried to breathe deeply in this superset.
Superset No. 2
After resting for two to three minutes before the next superset, Arnold continued his workout. The T-bar row was one of the champion's favorite exercises. It thickens and widens the lat muscles and provides them with a good stretch.
Again, Arnold performed this superset in a pyramid fashion, starting with 15 reps and moving to 12, 12, 10, and 10.
Superset No. 3
Arnold was a great expert in exercise techniques. This was most obvious in the lying dumbbell exercises.
Guys in gyms doing this exercise lower the dumbbells, usually to chest level, and bring them together at the top of the movement (before impact). Arnold used a completely different technique - he tried to lower his elbows as low as possible so that the dumbbells were approximately at the level of the bench. In the positive phase, he moved his arms strictly in an arc, stopping the movement at the point at which the distance between the dumbbells was about 30 cm (when the tension in the pectoral muscles began to decrease).
For the bent-over barbell row, Arnold stood on a bench or high platform for maximum muscle stretch at the bottom. His torso was almost parallel to the floor. All repetitions were performed with perfect technique. No jerking; the entire load went to the back muscles.
For both exercises, Arnold did pyramid sets of 15, 12, 10, 10, and 10 reps.
Superset #4
At this stage, Arnold was already beginning to breathe quite intensely. Half an hour of double pumping on the pectoral and back muscles noticeably expanded the upper body.
However, you cannot give up.
Our body consists of many muscle groups. In the training process they are divided into main and auxiliary. The main ones are the chest, back, shoulders, legs, arms and abs. Each of them contains a large number of auxiliary muscles, which are included in the work along with the large muscles.
Professional bodybuilders can afford to devote one day to training one main group in order to work it out and achieve maximum proportionality in order to show themselves in all their glory in competitions. As you understand, the pros train almost every day. For beginners or gym enthusiasts, daily training will not bring any benefit, since the body of an ordinary person will not have time to recover after training, which can lead to negative results. In addition, people who engage in bodybuilding at an amateur level have many everyday worries, such as work, study, etc. Because of this, a person is simply not able to fully devote himself to training. While the pros live from bodybuilding, this is their main income and because of this, athletes go to the gym as if they were going to work.
So you understand, professional bodybuilders resort to the use of pharmacological support in order to recover faster, improve anabolic processes in the body, etc. Therefore, they go to the gym every day, without harm to themselves.
In order to achieve the maximum effect from training, you need to divide the training of the main muscle groups into separate days. However, this raises the question - which muscles should be trained together and how to combine them? Today, the three-day split is the most common among beginners and experienced athletes. That is, you divide the training into three days, say Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This is an ideal option to build muscle mass as quickly as possible and completely restore the muscle. A little later, when you are more experienced, you can break the training into four days, dedicating one day, for example, to training your arms or shoulders. For more information on how to properly create a training program, see here.
There are several options, based on which you can understand which muscles to train together. Here is one of the most common examples today:
Example No. 1
This is a fairly widely used option, in which everything is quite simple and logical. Look, we take the main muscle groups and break them down into three days: day 1 – chest; day 2 – back; day 3 – legs. After that, we add smaller muscles that are directly involved in training the main muscle, with the exception of the leg and shoulder combination. For example, take the same chest workout, which is based on repelling exercises. That is, take the same bench press or dumbbell press and so on. All of them involve pushing (squeezing) weight away from the chest, and as we know, the triceps are responsible for this function in the arm muscles. So he takes direct part in chest training.
The same goes for the back and biceps. If in chest training, we push (squeeze) the weight away from ourselves, then in back training, we pull the weight towards ourselves, and, as you know, not only the back muscles are responsible for this movement, but also the biceps, which helps to pull the weight and increase the amplitude movements.
As for the third day of training, the shoulders are not involved in leg training, but this is the only day that can be allocated for high-quality pumping of the deltoids. As you know, the deltoids consist of the front, middle and rear beams; if you want to pump up your shoulders, you need to train them together, in one day.
Thus, by combining training in this way, we tire out the secondary muscles quite well beforehand, and then work them out efficiently.
Example No. 2
The second option is less common, however, also has its fans. Many people believe that training the main muscle and the secondary one, which is directly involved in the movement, such as the chest and triceps, back and biceps, is at least stupid, since having first tired the secondary muscle (biceps or triceps), we will no longer be able to pump them properly . In principle, for some people this is quite relevant. Remember that everyone's body is different, and everyone may react differently to one or another type of training, so you can experiment and try both complexes to determine for yourself which one is right for you. In addition, the program still needs to be changed at least once every 1-2 months.
MUSCLE TRAININGANTAGONISTS
Many people believe that antagonist training is the most effective for building muscle mass, and this is true. Such training involves working out two antagonist muscles in one day. These are the muscles that are located parallel to each other, that is, back - chest, biceps - triceps, hamstrings - quadriceps. You can read more about training antagonist muscles here.
An example of such a training plan
Having trained according to this plan, I can say that this is a pretty good solution if you need to change the program, try something new. This complex is suitable for fairly experienced athletes, as it requires a lot of energy and strength to recover, but for a beginner it is better to train according to the first or second example.
Personally, I recommend training according to the plan presented below. He absorbed a little from the training of the antagonists and from the first standard plan. It can be used by experienced athletes with at least 1 year of experience.
Gym workout plan
FULL BODY WORKOUT
In this embodiment, you can combine all the muscles at the same time, only in a certain sequence. If you are a beginner athlete, you can use a workout that includes working all major muscle groups in one session. As you remember, at the beginning of the article we said that for beginning athletes the best option is to break the workout into splits, that is, train each major muscle group separately. As for a full-body workout, this is a fairly energy-intensive plan, but if you approach the process wisely, you can balance your activities.
Whole body training is needed in order to prepare a novice athlete, namely his muscles, for a further increase in loads, that is, to improve his overall physical fitness. The workout itself does not consist of twenty exercises, as you might think, it includes basic exercises, thanks to which we can pump up and use the main, secondary and various auxiliary muscle groups in the process. Training does not take much time if you train intensively, without half an hour of rest and hack work. You can look in more detail about training the whole body here, and you can find a vivid example of such a plan in this article -.
CONCLUSION
Now you know which muscle groups can be combined and trained together. If you are a beginner athlete, the three-day split workout we discussed at the beginning of the article is suitable for you, as well as the full body training program. If you are a fairly experienced athlete, you can combine training of antagonist muscles; this will sufficiently diversify your training plan.
6 shares
Breast:
The dumbbell press is perfect for pumping up this muscle group. It is important not to repeat everything that you do when bench pressing. The more sets you do with dumbbells, the less effective they will be.
An improved system will help you here. How it's done:
First of all, choose a dumbbell weight so that you can hardly do 12 repetitions. Do the approach to failure. Next, carefully place the dumbbells on your chest and rest for about 15 seconds. Then do it again to failure and rest again. You need to do 5 of these sets with breaks.
Ideally there will be about 25 repetitions. If the times do not coincide greatly, then adjust the weight of the dumbbells up or down. Once you have mastered it, finish everything off with push-ups. Aim to do 50 times. Remember that you need to do push-ups until failure, then take a short break and do push-ups again. Until you reach 50 times. Congratulations! If you succeed, then the most powerful pumping is guaranteed!
Back:
The same training method can be applied to the latissimus dorsi muscles. Using the rest-pause method, do 25 repetitions of barbell rows. Then do horizontal pull-ups in Smith. You need to do 50 pull-ups from the floor.
For a powerful back, use a barbell, not a pulley row. Here you're better off replacing the bent-over row with a T-bar row. This exercise will make it easier for you to maintain your balance. Because of the neutral grip, you fully engage your lats.
Most beginners start training their back and chest on separate days, but professional athletes are convinced that they need to train on the same day, building their training splits accordingly. For example, biceps need to be pumped together with triceps, and quadriceps with hamstrings. Following this logic, it can be assumed that the chest should be pumped in conjunction with the back, since their physiological functions are opposite to each other.
This rule was followed by , who was convinced that joint training of the back and chest was the shortest way to building up enormous muscle mass in the core. This training method may seem very subjective at first glance, if not for one very important point. When, after performing chest exercises, you start training your back, you will certainly find that repetitions and sets are much easier than when training these muscle groups separately. Moreover, it is possible that even the working weight in back exercises will increase by a couple of kilograms. The same result will await you when you change the order of exercises. For example, if you start your workout with exercises for the back muscles and then start training your chest, you will notice that now the working weight in chest exercises can also be increased.
Why is this happening? The thing is that contraction of any muscle leads to simultaneous stretching of the antagonist muscle. In addition, during contraction of the working muscle, its antagonist struggles to resist stretching, preventing it from fully expressing its strength. A similar process applies to the back and chest. However, there is one important feature here: if you first tire the antagonist muscle, then the resistance to stretching will not be so strong. This means that the working muscle will be able to more fully realize its strength potential, while increasing the working weight. And we know that the heavier the bar, the more fibers are involved in the work. Which will ultimately result in faster and better muscle growth.
Thus, joint training of the back and chest is really the very tool that allows you to build massive muscles in the shoulder girdle in a short time. However, do not try to use super-sets. The method of training the chest and back is such that first you perform working approaches for one muscle and only then move on to approaches for the other. Start your workout with an exercise for the chest, then move on to the back. Then again for the chest and after that again on the back. Practice this split no more than once a week.
Below I present an approximate training split scheme for training the chest and back in one day. In basic exercises, be sure to perform a warm-up approach. In all working sets, strictly adhere to the number of repetitions.
| Exercises | Approaches | Repetitions |
|---|---|---|
| Dumbbell bench press | 4 | 6, 6, 8, 10 |
| Wide grip pull-ups | 4 | 8, 8, 10, 10 |
| Smith Incline Press | 3 | 8, 8, 10 |
| Belt Deadlift at Smith | 3 | 6, 6, 10 |
| Dips | 3 | 10, 9, 8 |
| T-bar row | 3 | 8, 8, 10 |
| Inclined crossovers | 3 | 12 |
| Reverse Grip Upper Row | 3 | 10 |
This program focuses on the back and chest. Biceps and triceps are less loaded, deltoids and abs are even less loaded.
This program is prohibited for beginners due to the heavy load on the back (deadlift). It is recommended to be performed in order; the elements of the exercise are designed so that at the beginning of the workout you perform the most difficult elements that require a lot of effort and which later you will not have enough strength to perform. There is a nuance to the order of performing pull-ups and deadlifts; it is better to do pull-ups first, which will reduce the future load on the vertebrae, but if your back is fine and you are equipped with good equipment. You can initially perform deadlifts, then pull-ups.
Every day at the beginning of the workout we warm up our joints; it’s better to ride a bike to the gym, which warms up the muscles before the upcoming workout. At the end of the workout, hang for 20-30 seconds to straighten the vertebrae. When you exercise with heavy weights, your vertebrae move slightly toward each other, causing your height to decrease. Therefore, this point should be mandatory if you do not want to stop your growth yet. The weight should be calculated at your discretion, as they say “to each their own.”
The program looks like this:
The first day
Breast
1. Bench press with light weight. To warm up muscle fibers.
3-4 sets of 15-20 repetitions.
3-4 sets of 10-12 repetitions.
Triceps
3. Dips. For experienced ones - push-ups with a pronated grip, for greater load on the triceps. (We do this exercise at will, it is not strictly mandatory)
3-4 approaches to the maximum.
3-4 sets of 8-15 repetitions.
Legs
5 . (heavy weight).
4-5 sets of 8-15 reps.
Press
3-4 sets of 6-10 repetitions.
Biceps
4. Bicep pull-ups with a close grip to the chest.
3-4 approaches to the maximum.
2-4 sets of 8-10 repetitions.
Press
6. . It is advisable to perform this exercise with straight legs, but depending on your capabilities, you can perform it with your knees bent, but under no circumstances change the angle during execution.
3-4 sets of 15-25 repetitions.
As a result, we get a ligament BACK + BACK + BACK + BICEPS + BICEPS + PRESS.
