Arm training for Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't simply about hitting the gym and doing a few finishing sets. Not Arnold.
He hit every body part with mind-numbing intensity and developed every muscle group to its maximum. To build the massive upper appendages that allowed him to win seven Olympia titles, Arnold employed every trick in the bodybuilding book.
What follows is a detailed look at what arm-training techniques Arnold employed, as well as two programs, one basic and one advanced, based on the Oak's methods. Use them to develop your own massive guns, if you're up to the task!
Arnold's Arm Training Principles.
When aiming to build his arms, Arnold would use his brain and instincts as much as sheer strength. He advised all who aim for similar development to do the same. The following are some of the major principals he applied to arm training.
“When I was 15-years-old, I took off my clothes and looked in the mirror. When I stared at myself naked, I realized that to be perfectly proportioned I would need twenty-inch arms to match the rest of me.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger
I have talked about the procedure I used to help build up my pinnacles so often that it doesn't feel like a mystery any longer: supination, the outward curving of the lower arm while doing free weight twists (you can't physically accomplish this movement with a standard hand weight).
Supination makes the external leader of the biceps buckle down, raising a pinnacle and slapping on an additional lump of muscle that you could see particularly well when I did a back doublebiceps present.
While doing any free weight twist, regardless of whether it's standing, situated, slope, or fixation twists, start with your turn in a nonpartisan position and afterward pivot it as you play out the rep so your palm faces upward. Two inches or so from the highest point of the twist, contort your hand more remote so your pinkie finger is higher than your thumb and coercively tense the biceps.
