Arnold Schwarzenegger's Secrets For Building Mind-Blowing Arms

So how did Arnold build his own mini versions of Mt. Olympus? If you look at very early photos of Arnold flexing his arms, you can see that, although they did have reasonable shape and size for his age, they were far from perfect or what one might call genetically gifted.
To build the massive upper appendages that allowed him to win seven Olympia titles, Arnold had to employ every trick in the bodybuilding book. And there is one thing we all know about Arnold: he would move mountains, and occasionally envision his arms as such, as he sought to develop his body to perfection.
Training arms Arnold-style was not simply about hitting the gym and doing a few finishing sets, or limiting the intensity applied to them so as to not overdevelop this area and potentially throw his proportion off. Not Arnold.
He hit every body part with mind-numbing intensity and developed every muscle group to its maximum. Arms were no exception. As with all body parts, Arnold used a number of effective techniques to adequately stimulate his biceps, triceps and forearms.
What follows is a detailed look at exactly what arm-training techniques Arnold employed, what exercises he favored and why, a program based on the Oak's methods and one he himself used along with principals that you can use to develop your own massive guns. 
                        Arnold's Arm Training Principals

           Aim For Equal Development:  

Arnold always believed that since the arms can be seen from all poses and from every conceivable angle, they should be trained from all angles.
"You don't develop championship-winning arms simply by throwing around a heavy barbell doing curls or blasting out some reps for triceps," says the Oak ¹. Clear visible development between all muscle of the arms with equally full muscle bellies and perfect balance is what Arnold constantly sought. And history shows us that is exactly what he achieved.
To achieve balance, proportion, size and shape in the arms, work all arm muscles with equal intensity. Break the individual "muscles of the arms down into separate categories" advised Arnold ¹. And this is where planning your arm training routine is all-important. 

 Not to worry, that part of the equation is in place for you, with the two complete programs, featured soon. Just be sure to never neglect any aspect of either of these programs. Do not become complacent and Arnold-style arms will be yours.

 Keep Things In Perspective:


Although Arnold advocates training biceps, triceps and forearms with equal intensity, he also recommends that you consider the fact that the triceps are the "larger, more complex muscle group" ¹. After all, the biceps have two heads and the triceps have three and are a larger and therefore a stronger grouping by comparison.
As such, Arnold suggests viewing your arm as being one-third biceps and two-thirds triceps ¹. In fact, Arnold says that while it is possible to hide your biceps in some poses, it is almost impossible to hide your triceps at any time ¹. Therefore, he says, the triceps "need training from more angles" ¹. When training the triceps, use a wider variety of exercises to hit all three heads to adequately target their larger size. 


 Focus:
  
Concentrating on each and every rep of every set is something Arnold did religiously. It is often said that once Arnold began to focus on his set, nothing could distract him, not even a bomb detonating in the next room.

After training Arnold was a light-hearted guy but once in the gym he was all business. And this was no more evident than when he trained his arms. Arnold would often take is mind-power to the next level and visualize what he wanted to achieve, and this would actually force gains in muscle size.
Says Arnold: "I also used a lot of visualization in biceps training. In my mind I saw my biceps as mountains, enormously huge, and I pictured myself lifting tremendous amounts of weight with these superhuman masses of muscle ¹.  For anyone who wishes to gain boundless muscle size and shape, the power of the mind cannot be underestimated. It was Arnold's secret weapon in the fight for huge arms. 


                                  Shock The Muscles Into Change: 

Arnold always believed that the body was amazingly adaptable and could "accustom itself to workloads that would fell a horse" ¹. The primary variable Arnold used to shock his arms into new growth was change. Since they are one of the smaller body parts, are used often and are involved in almost everything we do, the arms, and especially the forearms, can be very stubborn and resistant to growth.
Even continuing to train at a very high intensity will likely elicit no new gains if that is all that is done in the same manner, during the same routine, day in and out.
Arnold advises shocking the arms by "training with more weight than usual, doing more reps and/or sets, speeding up your training (lifting becomes more forceful as a result), decreasing the rest between sets, doing unfamiliar exercises, doing your exercises in an unfamiliar order or using intensity techniques" ¹.
For the workouts outlined in this article, it is suggested that each session is approached differently. Whether an additional set is done one workout, the tempo is increased for all sets for another, the exercises are switched around or the rest between sets is decreased one workout and increased the next, the overarching goal for each session is to avoid muscular resistance to growth and that means keeping the muscles constantly guessing as to what each new training stimulus will bring.
In this regard, the programs featured here are to be used as a foundation to be manipulated accordingly. It is suggested that each program be used "as is" one week with several of the aforementioned changes made over three subsequent weeks, before once again resuming the program in its basic state.
The intensity methods Arnold mentions, also to be used periodically over your three-week 'change' period are:




Forced Reps:
To be used very occasionally, forced reps are employed by having a training partner assist you with a final rep that would otherwise be impossible to achieve on your own. Again, a very high intensity way to shock the muscles that is to be used sparingly: perhaps once every second workout for one set per exercise.

               
            

Partial Reps:
With arm training, with the exclusion of lying triceps work, partial reps can be completed without the assistance of a partner and require a continuance of reps despite the onset of muscular fatigue. For example, upon completion of a set of barbell curls continue with partial (half or quarter reps) until the bar can no longer be moved even an inch. Again, use this technique sparingly. 

  
Negative Repetitions:

To shock the arm muscles these can be done two ways: the negative (or lowering aspect of the repetition) can be emphasized in the normal course of the workout rather than just to set up the contracting (or concentric) part, or a partner can assist a forced negative at the end of a hard set.
For partner assisted negatives, have someone assist you on the upward phase of the movement and complete the negative on your own: do two to three such reps and then have your partner rack the weight.
While emphasizing the negative can, and should, be done often, the forced negatives can be done every second or third arm workout to really stretch out the muscle fibers and assist new growth. Negatives will also build ligaments and tendons faster compared to conventional reps and, in the long run, this will enable the muscle to lift heavier weight, which will translate into new growth.

 


 Use Perfect Technique:


Aside from his patented controlled cheating (a shocking technique he would employ to stimulate his arms to exhaustion), Arnold was a stickler for perfect technique. Robotic in his actions and transfixed on completing all sets in the same manner each and every time, Arnold's training form was predictably perfect and ultra-effective.
Although he advocated occasional cheating for bicep curls (as a specific method in itself, to be explained shortly), Arnold also stipulated perfect form as a rule. 



To fully isolate the biceps muscle when curling, Arnold would advise newcomers to perform this movement with their backs against a wall. When doing strict curls he believed that the arms, and only the arms, were to do the work. Any other muscular involvement would dilute the isolating effect the exercise aimed to achieve.
"You also need to find the right groove, and do any curl movement through the longest range of motion," says Arnold ¹. "When you do a curl you must bring your hand directly up to your shoulder. If you change that line an inch to the inside or the outside, you are taking the stress off the biceps and you won't get the same results ¹." And the same thing applies to triceps and forearm training. Engage each rep through its full range of motion in a controlled fashion for optimal results.
Still on the subject of curling (the secret to Arnold's phenomenal biceps development) Arnold believes that handgrip is all-important. "Another mistake I see all the time is starting off a curl movent with a wrist curl - bending the wrist back, then curling it up just before engaging the biceps," says Arnold ¹. "All this does is take stress away from the bicep by using forearm strength rather than biceps strength, and the result will be huge forearms and mediocre biceps ¹." 

                                       Cheating:    
                                A seeming contradiction to the previous principal stipulating perfect technique, cheating is nevertheless an effective way to fully tax the muscles and is especially efficacious when applied to arm training. In fact Arnold was one of the first advocates for cheating and his mentor, Joe Weider, standardized it as one of his Weider training principals
   

Arnold's specific brand of cheating was controlled and this "controlled cheating" term is far from oxymoronic. Says Arnold: "Cheating is used to make the exercise harder, not easier ¹." For barbell curls (featured in the programs outlined in this article) cheating is applied in the following manner, as explained by Arnold:
"Say you are doing a heavy barbell curl. You curl the weight up five or six times, and then find you are too tired to continue to do strict reps. At this point you begin to use you shoulders and back to help you in the lift slightly so that you can do another four or five reps. But you cheat just enough so that you can continue the set, and your biceps continue to work as hard as they can.
By cheating you have forced the biceps to do more work than they could have done without help from the other muscles, so you have to put more stress on them, not less ¹."
The cheating method can also be applied to dumbbell curls and other curling variations.



 Use Supersets:
                          

Always a big believer in maximizing his time in the most effective way possible, Arnold often employed supersets in his bodybuilding training ¹. He was especially noted for using this method to build his superior arms. In fact, the second of two arm workouts featured in this article (Arnold's advanced arm workout) is comprised primarily of supersets to maximally stimulate the biceps and triceps.
Supersets (for the purposes of this article and in keeping with Arnold's specific training methods, agonist/antagonist, or opposite muscle grouping sets (biceps/triceps)) work to shock the muscles by compounding the stress the entire muscle grouping receives therefore forcing as much blood as is humanly possible into target area for superior growth

                Change Hand Position:
                                                    

Further addressing Arnold's proclivity for changing his workouts around to continually stimulate the muscles is his concept of changing his hand spacing "to completely stimulate all the different areas ¹" of a muscle.
This can be applied to biceps, triceps and forearms training as a further way to shock the muscles into new growth. For example, biceps and wrist curls and pressdowns can be done with a wide, narrow, reverse or medium grip



                                     Arnold's Recommended Arm Exercises

                       Biceps:
For Height (Or Peak):

• Dumbbell concentration curls
• Arnold (Dumbbell) Curls
  (to perform, begin movement with knuckles facing forward. Simultaneously curl the weight while turning hand into a supinated position - with little fingers facing outer arms - and end with a peak contraction). Performance key: Always supinate the wrist: with each rep on concentration or Arnold curls, turn the little finger outward (toward outer forearm) for a peak contraction.
•  
  For Overall Mass With An Emphasis On Outer Thickness:
  
  • Close-grip barbell curls
  For Overall Mass With An Emphasis On Inner Thickness:
  
  • Standing barbell curls
  • Hammer curls
  • Wide-grip preacher curls
  • Incline dumbbell curls
  • Alternate dumbbell curls
  
  Triceps:
  
  
  For Overall Mass
  
  • Close-grip barbell presses
  • Weighted dips
  • Lying triceps extensions
  • Bench dips (old school Arnold exercise: to perform, place hands (palms down) on one bench while balancing heels on a bench running parallel - dip down and use triceps strength to press back up. Weight can be placed on upper thighs to add resistance if needed).
  For Overall Mass With An Emphasis On Upper Triceps
  
  • Cable pressdowns (overhand and reverse grip)
  • Kneeling extensions
  • Kickbacks
  For Overall Mass With An Emphasis On Lower Triceps
  
  • Weighted dips
  • Behind back dips (performed by doing partial reps, going all the way down and only three quarters the way up - without locking out - to keep the lower aspect of the triceps under stress the entire time).
  
  Forearms:
  
  
  For Upper Forearms (Or Wrist Extensor Muscles)
  
  • Barbell reverse curls
  • Hammer curls
  • Reverse wrist curls
  For Inner Forearms (Or Wrist Flexor Muscles)
  
  • Barbell wrist curls
  • Behind the back wrist curls
  
  Putting It All Together The Arnold Arm Workouts
  
  
  Arnold's Basic Arm Workout:
  
  
  Basic arm routine based on Arnold's arm training methods and recommended exercises (to be completed on its own)
  The following basic routine is not as complex or extensive as Arnold's superset routine (to follow). It is intended to lay the foundation for the additional separation and refining (and further mass building) targeted in his advanced routine.
  Training Frequency
  
  • Once a week for non-drug assisted
  • Every five days for drug assisted
  Workout Duration
  
  • Around 30 minutes
  Training Objectives
  
  • To build muscle mass and address weak points (to address weak points follow guidelines set out in Arnold's training principals section).
  
  
  • Barbell cheat-curls - 2 sets, 8 to 12 reps
  • Incline dumbbell curls - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
  • Concentration curls - 2 sets of 8 to 12 reps
  • Close-grip barbell presses - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
  • Weighted dips - 3 sets of 8 to 10
  • Regular cable press-downs - 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
  • Barbell reverse curls - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
  • Barbell wrist curls - 3 sets of 8 to 12
  
  
  
  Arnold's Advanced Arm Workout (For Experienced Lifters)
  
  
  Training Frequency
  
  • Once a week for non-drug assisted.
  • Every five days for drug assisted and/or professional bodybuilder.
  Workout Duration
  
  • Around 30 minutes (depending on training tempo used and/or rest between sets duration)
  Training Objectives
  
  • Further build mass while refining shape and targeting muscle separation.
  The following workout is one that Arnold actually used during his peak years (early to mid-'70s). As mentioned earlier it is comprised primarily of supersets for maximum stimulation.
  Due to its intensity it will need to be completed by itself - as part of a training-split (first or second session of a daily split) or on a separate day by itself. Arnold's superset-routine encourages the ultimate in muscle separation while further building mass and enhancing shape. The basic routine targets the achievement of separation to a lesser extent while emphasizing mass development.
  This workout is prescribed on the assumption that forearm training is done, as Arnold suggests, on a separate training day to prioritize this stubborn grouping.
  If you so wish, forearms can be scheduled after this workout but due to its intense nature, not before. If they are trained on arms day, they must be attacked with an equal level of ferocity. If energy reserves are inadequate they can be trained on leg day (before legs), abs day or in their own separate workout. Forearm program to be used follows:
  Advanced Arnold Forearm Workout:
  
  
  
  • Barbell wrist curls - 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
  • Barbell reverse curls - 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
  • Behind the back wrist curls - 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
  
  
  Advanced Arnold Biceps And Triceps Workout ²
  
  
  
  • Superset one: Barbell curls superset with lying triceps extensions
    4 sets of 10 to 12 reps for each superset (combination of two exercises) without rest, or at the very least, minimal rest
  
  
  • Superset two: Alternate dumbbell curls superset with pushdowns (either variety)
    4 sets of 10 to 12 reps for each superset
  
  
  • Superset three: Seated incline curls superset with kneeling extensions
    4 sets of 10 to 12 reps for each superset
  
  
  • Superset four: Concentration curls superset with one-arm triceps extensions
    4 sets of 10 to 12 reps for each superset
  
  
  • Bench Dips - 2 sets of 26 reps