Arnold Schwarzenegger "The Austrian Oak"
Who in the bodybuilding world has never heard of Arnold, the gold standard in our sport? Of course, he is not the biggest bodybuilder, he has long been surpassed by athletes like Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, Sergio Oliva, Joe Weider, or Ronnie Coleman. But Arnold has left his mark on our sport by bringing it to the world through his acting career.
The Governor of California was and still is today an inspiration to many practitioners who see him as an example of the rigor, intensity, and one of the most aesthetic physiques.
History and biography of Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born in Thal in Austria on July 30, 1947. His father Gustav Schwarzenegger was a former soldier in the Austrian army who would later become a police officer. His mother Aurélia is a stay-at-home mom. Arnold has a brother, Meinhard, whom his mother had before meeting Gustav. Arnold's upbringing is strict and his father is sometimes violent with him.
In 1963, after meeting Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic swimming champion, Arnold Schwarzenegger decided that he would be a champion himself. He was then 6 years old. It was at the age of 13 that he discovered bodybuilding with his football coach and that he decided sometime later that it would be his future life.
In 1961, Arnold met Kurt Marnul, former Mr. Austria, who invited him to train in his gym. In 1963, he finished 2nd in a minor bodybuilding competition in Austria, to become two years later Mr. Europe Junior. In 1966 he won the title of Mr. Europe. Thanks to this victory, he won the right to participate in the Mr. Universe of the NABBA, an event in which he will take second place behind Chet Yorton. In 1967, having improved his muscular definition, he won the Mr. Universe NABBA in London and became the youngest winner of this bodybuilding competition at the age of twenty.
It was in 1968, by winning the first professional Mr. Universe NABBA title, that Schwarzenegger was spotted by Joe WEIDER and was invited to participate in bodybuilding competitions in the USA.
At the age of 21, the future governor and actor, therefore, moved to the USA and participated in his first Mr. Univers IFBB, during which he took second place behind Franck ZANE.
Joe WEIDER will agree to sponsor Arnold for a year and ask him to train at Gold's Gym with the best American bodybuilders.
In 1969 Arnold won the Mr. Univers IFBB amateur, then the Mr. Univers NABBA Pro, and finished second in his first Mr. Olympia behind Sergio OLIVA in New York.
The following year in 1970, he won the Mr. Universe NABBA Pro again, then beat Sergio OLIVA at the Mr. World in Columbus and won his first MR OLYMPIA in New York.
He won the supreme bodybuilding title until 1975 before retiring from sports. Then he will return to win the last title in 1980 and will put an end to his bodybuilding career to devote himself to his acting career in Hollywood and Los Angeles.
The film Pumping Iron will trace his bodybuilding training to competition and the title of Mr. Olympia 1975 and will make Arnold known outside the bodybuilding world. It is the film Conan the Barbarian, released in 1982, which will take off the cinematographic career of Arnold.
Even at today's standard, Arnold Schwarzenegger's guns were, at their peak, impressive. With arms that stretched the tape measure to nearly 57cm, it was two tap dancing to eight-year-old Mr. Olympia- wins and accentuated a body well ahead of its time from head to toe.
ARNOLD ARM PREPARATION AND TRAINING
In his prime in bodybuilding, Arnold employed the routine we chose as competition preparation (rather than an off-season program). His arm training can be separated into macro-principles (sets, reps, and other non-exercise-oriented applications) and micro-principles (individual exercises) (specific movement techniques). The macros come first.
SUPERSETS
Supersets for the biceps and triceps were a favorite of Arnold's, just as they were for the chest and back. When preparing for a competition, he wanted to get the most out of every workout and "focus on cutting all potential lines and shapes," as he once explained. He was able to do so because of the supersets. Even though he did them in the same session, he often trained his biceps and triceps independently with single sets during the off-season.
LESS SERIES, MORE REHEARSALS, LESS REST
Arnold conducted a few fewer sets and reps for his arms in preparation for the match. Off-season biceps and triceps training might consist of four exercises, each with five to six sets of six to eight reps. He did the same four workouts in training for the competition but four sets of eight to ten repetitions. As a result, he kept relaxation periods to a bare minimum. He didn't take breaks during supersets, and he didn't take breaks between supersets too often.
HIGHER FREQUENCY
Arnold used to train his arms twice a week during the off-season when he was aiming for maximum height. He extended it to three days a week in preparation for the tournament, with the goal of pumping and defining his arms. This compensated for the lower volume of each workout.
DON'T FORGET THE FOREARMS
Arnold didn't just work on his biceps and back to strengthen his forearms. In the off-season and during match preparation, he conducted wrist curls and reverse curls daily. He once said, "You have to bomb your forearms with the largest load you can carry." "Muscular hypertrophy laws apply to the forearms in the same way they do to other muscle groups."
EVERYTHING IS IN THE DETAILS
As you might expect, the Oak was meticulous in its execution of each exercise in its routine. Great attention was given to strict implementation. As a result, he applied the following micro-principles in his biceps and triceps routines.
BICEPS
Arnold wasn't simply concerned with increasing the size of his biceps; he was also concerned with highlighting the top of the biceps. He used dumbbells and dumbbells to do this. “No number of dumbbell curls could elicit the same acute contraction and consequent muscle pain as rotating my palm as far as possible at the apex of a dumbbell curl motion could,” Arnold remarked. Muscle Builder published an article about it in one of their issues.
Supination, or the twisting of the palm, was what Arnold believed helped him elevate his biceps the most. It's easy to do, but it hurts. Turn your hand so that your pinky is closer to you than the rest of your hand at the peak of each dumbbell curve repetition, then squeeze as hard as you can. “This contraction is excruciatingly painful! Remember, you can't get any taller without suffering.
LEAVE HAND BEHIND
Arnold also used a different technique to increase the size of his biceps peak. It had something to do with your hand being left behind. The majority of people keep their wrists straight and only turn them up when lifting dumbbells. Arnold held the dumbbells between his fingers and curled the weight with his wrists bent back. He believed that this provided him with additional leverage, allowing him to achieve a harder contraction.
Calm down with the rehearsals
Arnold was obsessed with strictly doing all bicep workouts, utilizing a moderate, slow pace in his repetitions "so the biceps felt up and down every inch," if forms and spikes were the aims.
TRICEPS
Every muscle area benefits from using a moderate weight, but Arnold has been particularly vocal about the triceps. Many bodybuilders, he believed, were overweight in this muscle region. “A lot of men have so much weight that they rely a lot more on the chest, front of the shoulders, intercostals than on the triceps,” he once stated of cable presses. This indicates that the exercise's effectiveness is dispersed across too many muscles.
INSULATE THE HEADS
Take a look at Arnold's triceps exercises: an overhead action, an inverted grip movement, a horizontal movement, and then regular support. De Eik mastered the art of varying his routines to target certain triceps heads. “To adequately train all three heads, you must isolate the triceps exercises,” he stated. "That is why you must understand which workouts have the greatest impact on each head." The long head is targeted in overhead triceps movements, while the side head is targeted in presses and the medial head is targeted in reverse grip variations.
DO NOT CONTRABAND!
When it came to triceps exercises, Arnold saw that many guys ignored their form. “You shouldn't take the principle of smuggling too far,” he cautioned. “Each exercise is meant to target a certain muscle group and train it in a specific way. "Pay complete attention to each repeat."
UNDERARM
Arnold used to work out his forearms every day during his career. We don't expect you to accomplish this, but it can be done in its entirety from training to training. He was aiming for a minimum of 10 sets for his forearms after his biceps and triceps.
DISTRIBUTE BENDERS AND STRAIGHTENERS
Arnold's off-season forearm workouts were split into two categories: flexion (wrist curls) and stretching (reverse curls, reverse wrist curls). His superset featured flexion and stretching exercises, as you can see from the training because his competition preparation training was not supposed to create bigger forearms, but to make them look amazing. more specific
BARBELL WRIST CURL
Arnold used to do wrist curls while sitting on a flat sofa with the backs of his forearms on a pillow and his hands dangling over the side, palms up, grasping a bar. He began with his wrists extended to the floor, stretching them as far as they could go before squeezing them.
LYING TRICEPS EXTENSION
Arnold would frequently notice that this exercise was not being done correctly. People would frequently lower the dumbbell over their heads and then push it back over their chest, rather than over their forehead, as he saw. "Slowly lower the bar to a point just above the eyes, then cast arm length in a straight line to keep tension on the triceps solely," says the author.
USE WITH POLICY
Sure, this arm workout worked for Arnold, but doing it three times a week is a bit much for the rest of us. Here are some pointers on how to make training more relevant.
Beginners: Do half as many sets as Arnold did once or twice a week (six to eight for biceps, six to eight for triceps, and four to six for forearms). For each session, choose two exercises for the biceps and triceps, as well as one for the forearms, and master them with standard sets before going on to supersets.
Slightly advanced: By adding one more exercise per muscle group, those who have been exercising for at least a year can boost the volume per workout to twelve sets each for the biceps and triceps, and six to eight for the forearms. Once or twice a week, do this. These individuals can also begin to fine-tune the activities.
Advanced: Veterans may be able to manage the volume of this exercise, but just once or twice a week is recommended. If you want to punish your arms, do it three times a week for four to six weeks, then switch to a lower-volume program.
BARBELL CURL
Before Arnold began to prepare for competition (focusing on shaping and defining his arms) he needed to build mass in his biceps and the standing dumbbell curve was his favorite exercise to achieve this. objective. He often called this exercise the "contraband curve" because it rocked his body a bit to increase the weight.
BARBELL PREACHER CURL
With this stand-alone dumbbell exercise in his training, Arnold couldn't turn his arms upward as he did with dumbbells. But what made it a great exercise in preparing for competition was the degree of isolation it created. With his arms on the pillow, and therefore still, he couldn't get help from any other muscle group. "The biceps feel it with every inch of the movement," Arnold said, recommending a moderate and slow repetition rate.
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