Bodybuilding is not just about getting big muscles. To be truly successful in bodybuilding and even in life in general it takes more than that. Having principles for your work outs is key and part of the reason Arnold Schwarzenegger is truly one of the most successful bodybuilders in history.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Workout Principles
By Chris G Pap
Before we step into the analysis of Arnold Schwarzenegger workout principles, we should try to take a look at his background and history.
Arnold is without a doubt the greatest bodybuilder of his time and one of the best of all times. Millions of people were inspired by his success, his physique but above all his unlimited will for continuous improvement. The first bodybuilder who entered the definition “mass” in professional bodybuilding was also famous for his perfect muscle definition. Arnold claimed for absolute muscle symmetry as all of his body parts were equally developed. Being an inspiration for a whole generation, back in the 70’s with bodybuilding and the following years with his movie career, Schwarzenegger certainly managed to become a society idol.
However, prior to his enormous success Schwarzenegger as a young boy from Austria who had to work his way up, was spending almost his entire day in the gym training hard. His philosophy was that bodybuilding should be connected with the mind. People who knew him well reported that Arnold’s enormous muscle development was a result of a combination of workout and spirit. Every time Arnold trained a specific body part he also focused with his mind on it, imagining it growing bigger and bigger after each rep. His total concentration and intensive workouts were unique and ultimately led Schwarzenegger to success.
One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout main principles was that you cannot apply any workout routine to every individual. We do have different genetic potentials. Some of us, will gain mass, quicker and harder than others that might have to be more patient. Nevertheless, gaining mass slowly is always better than not gaining any at all.
A second principle was that in order to grow you have always to keep in mind that weight must be added continuously. You cannot expect to improve your strength and mass volume, unless you are persistent and keep pushing your body to lift more weight.
Training until failure occurs is the third point. Adjust the reps and the weight so that after 8 to 12 reps you are not able to proceed until you rest first.
Muscle isolation is the fourth. Handle your weights in a certain way just to make sure that no other muscle part will get involved in the contraction process.
The last one is the full range motion. Arnold insisted that the only way to achieve optimal muscle growth is to perform the whole motion range while doing a rep.
Those were some of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout principles. You can understand of course that it was more than that. Ask yourself, how many of these principles you do actually follow?
Keep those muscles pumping!
