Arnold's Encyclopedia Training

Training Bodybuilding
21

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Oldfart wrote:
Yeesh even with being able to workout 2x’s a day (minus the weekends) I’d be hosed doing that…

Getup at 5am b4 work/kids and during lunch at work, but thats a long workout and you’d really need that partner…

I think you’d see some good gains if you can do it with enough calories and good rest though…

I think it be a pretty decent program if you could split it up into a 3 day split working each muscle group twice per week. To follow through with this program you’d basically have to eat breath and sleep bodybuilding for the duration of the time you stay on. Sometimes that’s just not practical.[/quote]

Guess that’s why Arnold is Arnold and we…are not :slight_smile:

22

That schedule worked for him cause he(Arnold) didn’t work…he used to get a stipend from Weider and had some endorsement deals to support himself, so he was able to live bodybuilding 24/7

24

[quote]bmitch wrote:
I’m pretty sure Spadek was talking about the beginners program 1, not the advanced one[/quote]

Begginers level 1 is nothing special so I figured advanced if it’s taking 1.5 hours to complete it. I guess he’ll have to answer for himself.

25

Arnolds idea of progression was also just to add more volume and exercises on top of whatever you were already doing. His competition programs were amazingly high in volume… But I think CT said that this was how they used to do it instead of adding cardio on top of their weight training program. Instead of 30 minutes of cardio, they would just do another 30 minutes of weights.

26

When I did the program I was in college and my classes were grouped together. I would take two back-to-back with a one class period break for lunch and then two more. I made the most of class and studying at night was generally minimal (couple of hours). My best gains were when I lived alone. So beyond school it was bodybuilding.

Good guess above on the calories, I averaged around 4500 a day with one cheat meal a week on tuesday (consisting of a double bacon cheese burger and another cheese burger with tatter tots and a huge Dr. Pepper.) I went from 120 to 170. So, if you have the time I say go for it. But it is too much if you have a job/family/need to walk normally most days, etc.

27

I used his program for awhile and got decent gains. I actually liked how it was set up. Supersetting chest and back felt awesome. I just did the beginner version and ended up modifying it to workout 5 days a week instead of 6. Something like this:

Monday:

Bench
Incline Bench
Flies
Deadlifts
Chin ups
Rows
Abs

Tuesday:

Hang, clean, & press
Laterals
Heavy upright rows
Push press
Close grip bench
Standing tri ext
BB curls
Incline curls
Abs

Wedsnesday:

Squat
Lunge
Leg Curl
Leg ext.

Thursday:

Same as Monday

Friday:

Same as Tuesday

Every week I would rotate the bodypart that I was only doing once a week. So the next week It would look more like:

Monday: Shoulders & Arms
Tuesday: Legs
Weds: Chest & Back
Thurs: Shoulders & Arms
Fri: Legs

Next week I would only do shoulder’s and arms once, and so on. If I was working a bodypart twice in a week, I would do more sets and less reps with a higher weight and stop short of failure. If I was training a bodypart once on that week, I would do higher reps and go to failure if possible.

Doing it this way seemed to keep fatigue in check. If I didn’t feel like working out, I’d take the day off and pick up where I left off the next day. I really enjoyed it and I plan on going back to that soon.

28

I followed his beginners program and it was way to much for me so I just simply stripped it down to a level I could handle.
For instance on shoulder and arm day you can remove the push press and replace the clean and press with just regular shoulder press.
When Arnold was doing this program he was already in extremely good shape.

29

[quote]mill_z wrote:
I used his program for awhile and got decent gains. I actually liked how it was set up. Supersetting chest and back felt awesome. I just did the beginner version and ended up modifying it to workout 5 days a week instead of 6. Something like this:
[/quote]

Your not supposed to super set anything in that program. He specifically states that super sets are an advanced shocking method.

30

[quote]DanErickson wrote:
I followed his beginners program and it was way to much for me so I just simply stripped it down to a level I could handle.
For instance on shoulder and arm day you can remove the push press and replace the clean and press with just regular shoulder press.
When Arnold was doing this program he was already in extremely good shape.[/quote]

I would do the same thing on some days. It was sort of instinctual. I did like the clean and press because I felt it really help my trap developement.

31

[quote]
Your not supposed to super set anything in that program. He specifically states that super sets are an advanced shocking method.[/quote]

I didn’t start out supersetting. After about a month of consistent training I started to superset bench with rows and incline with chins. I also didn’t go directly to the next exercise, I would usually rest for 30 secs then go to the other body part. It helped with increasing the intensity and the upper body pump was phenomenol! I recommend trying it every once in awile.

32

I’m starting the program right now. I just got the book, and I love it. I consider myself a beginner despite my experience, especially when it comes to Arnold’s programs. I think some are over-stating the intensity. Sure, it seems like it will challenge most well trained individuals, but not to such an extent that it will burn them out. I find I recover at good rate, so I’ll “Risk” it (I find this notion funny, because what, truly, is at risk?).

Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes.

33

haha, no were not overstating the intensity. Good luck weighing the same in 8 weeks. I’m natural and gifted with above normal recovery times, and 6 days/week would drive me into the ground. I used to train like that and i looked the same for a full year. Then I backed off to 4 days a week with just some moderate activity on my days off to keep me occupied when i was getting gym antsy.

Put on 15 clean pounds in a year and look way better. Trust the vets, your too new to bodybuilding to take on that kind of intensity, you will end up burnt out, pissed off and worst: you’ll be no better then when you started. Good luck either way. Their are many many many phenomenal programs available here on T-Nation, take a look!

34

[quote]stealth2918 wrote:
ratm88 wrote:
It’s geared towards people who are very genetically gifted and/or taking vitamin S…you can get away with doing it for a couple weeks just as shock and to really switch things up for a bit but it is very demanding and will burn you out fast. I did it for one week once and it really takes a lot out of you if your pushing yourself every set.

Arnold was the epitomy of this…his genetics were amazing and yes, the “Vitamin-S” helped. His routines aren’t for everyone. You’ll end up burning out way before you make any gains.
[/quote]

Something i employ often with decent resuts is a period of 2 - 4 weeks of pure overtraining. So i train upto 8 - 9 times per 5 days and have 1 day off per 2 weeks. I record all lifts and wait until i lose strength and get a certain look to my physique that only i recognise when overtrained.
Then i go to a normal/maybe a little lower intensity or volume program for the next 8 weeks (Vol and Int climbing linearly) after 3 - 4 days off inbetween macrocycles. I get a good muscular boost after the off period from supercompensation and then i solidify it with more conventional means of bodybuilding.

It works ok for me, maybe if the program mentioned in the topic line is too hard, use it as an overcompensate/supercompensate method like i do.

Joe

35

I agree periodic over training coupled with planned extra recovery time is an excellent way to promote growth and break plateaus but 8 weeks over training is too much. You can’t recover from that in any beneficial way.

36

I must apologize for my previous arrogance. While I have been doing very well on this program for the last two weeks, and have gained five pounds (seeming to be entirely lean pounds), And have set several personal records, six days a week is too much, and the program has areas that are too overtaxing (the volume plus frequency being only one).

As a student, I am entering my highest stress period with finals and final papers, and trying to fit these long sessions into my already overloaded schedule is impossible.

On top of this, while I have been doing well, I can feel that if I continued Arnold’s program, I would burn out badly (and I mean badly). Six days a week of this kind of training seems to be more than is optimal (to put it lightly).

While I can handle HFT programs well (such as CW’s), generally they are adjusted for lower volume because of the higher frequency. This program, however, makes few adjustments (though this is not to suggest that this is an HFT program, only that it requires as much or more in-gym time as one).

In terms of signs of overtraining/overtaxing, they seem to be localized rather than systemic. For instance, with heavy deadlifts to failure twice a week, Squats twice a week, and Good mornings and stiff-leg deadlifts to failure twice a week, my lower back has been enduring localized pain, indicating over-stress.

I did love this program, but, alas, with my schedule and my limits as a still relatively new trainee, I cannot and will not continue.

So, again, my apologies for my blithe, fool-hardy words, and now I will gladly eat them.