Arnold Shoulder Workout: How He Built His Boulder Shoulders

With such overpowering chest and bicep development, it is simple to forget how impressive Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shoulders were. The reality is that Arnie had huge delts, with equal development through the front, medial, and rear portions.

Arnold’s shoulder mass was built on an influence training foundation involving many pressing movements. The striations and detail got here from a number of isolation moves for every of the deltoid heads. In this text, I’ll lay out Arnold Schwarzenegger’s shoulder workout within the lead-up to the 1975 Olympia – the 12 months his Mr. O prep was famously filmed for the classic docu-drama Pumping Iron.

Arnold’s Shoulder Workout

In his 1975 Mr. Olympia prep, Arnold trained his shoulders in a dedicated session by themselves. This allowed him to provide them total dedication without his energy being diverted to a different body part. He and Franco Columbu, his training partner, would typically train their legs at Gold’s Gym in Santa Monica at 10 am on Tuesday and Friday after which be back at six to work their shoulders.

Here’s Arnold’s 1975 Mr Olympia-winning shoulder workout:

• Barbell Clean and Press: 1 set of 30 reps
• Arnold Press: 5 sets of 6 reps
• superset with Bentover Lateral Raise: 5 sets of 12-15 reps
• Lying Lateral Raise: 5 sets of 12 reps
• Cable Lateral Raise: 5 sets of 12 reps
• Alternate Dumbbell Front Raise: 3 sets of 12 reps

Exercise Descriptions

1. Barbell Clean and Press

Back within the mid-60s, before coming to America, Arnold did lots of powerlifting. In addition to making him incredibly strong, it also helped construct the mass foundation of his physique, including his shoulders. By 1975, he didn’t need any more mass, so he used the clean and press as a general warm-up move. Here’s how he did it:

1. Stand in front of a loaded barbell.
2. Hinge on the hips to lower to the bar with an overhand grip just barely wider than shoulder width.
3. Drive along with your legs to bring the bar as much as shoulder height, tucking your elbows under the bar. You’ll now be within the starting position for the military press.
4. Press the bar overhead.
5. Reverse the clean motion to return the bar to the ground.

2. Arnold Press

The Arnold Press is the one exercise named in Arnie’s honor, which says loads about his dedication to shoulder training. He believed it was the perfect shoulder move in existence since it worked the front and medial delts at the identical time.

1. Stand along with your feet hip-width apart and a pair of dumbbells held at shoulder level along with your palms facing inward.
2. Press the dumbbells overhead, rotating your hands in order that the palms face outward in the highest position. Stop just before lockout to maintain tension on the delts.
3. Pause for a second after which lower, reversing the palm position in order that the palms are again facing inward in the underside position.

3. Bent-over Lateral Raise

The bent-over lateral raise targets the rear delts, making it an excellent superset partner for the Arnold Press, which hits the opposite two heads.

1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and a pair of dumbbells at your sides.
2. Bend forward so your torso is at a 45-degree angle. Allow the weights to hold at arm’s length along with your arms barely bent and locked in that position.
3. Pivot out of your shoulder to bring the weights out and as much as shoulder level. Turn your wrists as your arms come up in order that your thumbs are lower than your little fingers in the highest position.
4. Lower under control.

4. Lying Lateral Raise

The lying lateral raise was a favourite side delt exercise for Arnold and Franco since it was super strict, forcing the medial delts to do all of the work. This was certainly one of Arnold’s favorite lateral raise variations.

1. Set a decline bench to a 30-degree angle and lie on the bench in your side with a dumbbell in your upper hand.
2. Along with your arm barely bent and locked in position, lower the dumbbell in front of you below the extent of your body.
3. Pivot from the shoulder to bring the dumbbell up until it’s perpendicular to your torso.
4. Lower under control and repeat.

5. Cable Lateral Raise

The cable lateral raise is one other strict version of the side lateral movement to isolate the medial delts. Arnold included two dedicated side lateral movements because he knew how impressive wide, striated side delts are. This can also be certainly one of my favorite cable shoulder exercises to do.

1. Stand side-on to a cable pulley machine with the pulley set at its lowest level. Grab the cable handle along with your outside arm.
2. Ranging from a straight arm position, pivot from the shoulder joint to bring the dumbbell out and as much as shoulder level (but no higher).
3. Lower under control and repeat.

6. Alternate Dumbbell Front Raise

The front raise is an efficient exercise to focus on the front deltoid. That is the a part of the muscle chargeable for the mass of the shoulders as viewed from the front.

1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and a dumbbell in each hand at your sides with plans facing inward.
2. Pivot from the proper shoulder to bring that arm directly as much as an overhead position.
3. Lower under control, resisting the force of gravity on the way in which down.
4. Repeat with the left side.
5. Alternate sides to finish your rep count.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Shoulder Training Suggestions

In a 1977 interview with Muscle Builder Power magazine, Arnold said, “A person who has developed wide, broader shoulders feels superior and has a greater sense of security and confidence about him.”

Yet, for the primary few years of his bodybuilding profession, Arnold’s delts were the least impressive a part of his upper body. He needed to work tirelessly to bring them as much as par together with his chest, back, and arms. Along the way in which, he collected plenty of invaluable training suggestions.

Listed below are seven of Arnold’s training suggestions for huge, wide, striated shoulders:

Tip #1:Keep barbell training to a minimum

Arnold preferred to work mostly with dumbbells and cables for his shoulder work. He knew that he was getting loads of front delt stimulation with barbell exercises during his chest workouts. He also appreciated the advantages of having the ability to rotate his palms on exercises just like the Arnold Press, which was named after him.

Tip #2: Don’t work shoulders with chest

Plenty of people pair their chest and shoulders of their split routine workouts. Nonetheless, Arnold advised against this since the heavy flat and incline bench pressing would pre-exhaust the front delts. It will prevent you from using maximum poundage on his front delt-specific exercises.

Arnold either worked delts by themselves or after hitting his arms.

Tip #3: Don’t neglect the traps

Arnold was well aware that the trapezius muscle needed to be evenly developed together with the delts and back to create an award-winning physique. He trained the traps individually to the shoulder but often did so straight afterward. He’d do exercises to focus on each the upper traps, like shrugs, and the center traps, like cable pull-ins.

Tip #4: Go light and strict for rear delts

The rear deltoids are very small muscles. You haven’t got to make use of very much weight to work them effectively. In the event you go too heavy, the encircling muscle groups will take over, and you may lose the advantage of the exercise. This muscle also responds best to relatively high reps, so train them with lighter weights within the 12-15 rep range.

Tip #5: Make use of drop sets

Arnold loved to do drop sets to burn out the front shoulders. He’d do that standing in front of the dumbbell rack. First, he would grab a pair of dumbbells that allowed him to smash out eight reps. Then he’d re-rack them and immediately grab the subsequent pair of weights down the rack. He’d go for one more eight reps with this weight.

Arnold would proceed down the rack, aiming for eight reps on each mini-set. He’d do as many 5 – 6 drops to finish the drop set.

Tip #6: Incorporate Isometric Laterals

After doing a set of lateral raises, Arnold would sometimes grab a heavier pair of dumbbells and lift them out to the perimeters as high as possible. He’d then hold this isometric contraction position for so long as possible until the extraordinary burn within the side delts was unbearable.

Tip #7: Superset Press with Raises

An intensity enhancer that Arnold sometimes employed was to superset a pressing movement, comparable to the Arnold Press, with an isolation raise exercise like dumbbell lateral raises. Five of those supersets would completely blitz his delts. To make things much more intense, Arnold would turn the superset right into a tri-set by adding upright rows for his upper trapezius.

Wrap Up

Arnold trained deltoids as hard as anyone. Actually, his shoulder workouts with Franco were legendary, with other gymgoers staring in awe on the intensity they were in a position to muster up. The outcomes were obvious, with each men becoming multiple Olympia winners.

In the event you’re up for it, give the Arnold deltoid workout a trial run. Then tell us within the comments section below the way you got on – provided you possibly can lift your shoulder to type on the keyboard!