

Nowadays, few bodybuilders perform double-split routines, believing that two workouts per day will overtax the body. In his seminal training tome, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, Arnold explains in detail the benefits of chest-back supersetting. Greater muscle-density results because you can work to the absolute limit of your physical capacity. You get a greater pump and a continuous flushing effect of both areas for the entire workout, and you keep the pump longer. You can handle heavier poundage, for more mass and power. It saves time and the workout goes much faster. "There are several advantages to alternating chest and back exercises," he has said on multiple occasions: 1. Arnold was a fan of both variations, and he applied supersetting most faithfully to his chest-back workout. There are two ways of supersetting: one that groups exercises for the same body part, and another that pairs exercises for opposing body parts. When the chest and upper back are pumped simultaneously, there is an indescribable feeling of growth stimulation and massiveness." -Arnold Schwarzenegger Supersetting involves the grouping of two or more exercises performed in sequence without rest. While each muscle is alternately resting and working, it stays fully flushed and pumped up. The chest muscles are resting during the lats exercise and the lats are resting during the chest movement. "One of the most important reasons why a chestback superset program works so well is the fact that most chest exercises are pushing movements, while all back exercises are pulling exercises. By the end of the '60s, he hit upon a formula to his liking-one that involved six days of training twice a day and featured several Weider Principles, including his favorite: supersets. Arnold began scouring Muscle Builder (the forebear to Muscle & Fitness) for ways to amp up his workouts and eventually discovered the Weider Principles-a compendium of techniques designed to increase workout intensity. As his own development surpassed that of his mentors, Arnold realized that without finding ways to increase the intensity of his workouts he'd probably end his career being known only for having won the Mr. The routine was basic and sound enough, but not the kind that would turn a small-town Austrian kid into a world-class success. During the early to mid-1960s, at the start of his competitive career, he followed a rudimentary training plan that had been designed for him by the elder bodybuilders at the gym in Austria where he first trained. While many of his bodybuilding peers were content to follow the staid dictums that had been laid out decades earlier with blind obedience, Arnold always looked for ways to up the intensity. Just as important, he was fearless (another common Schwarzenegger theme) in his training. Ever the student, Arnold continually honed his skills, applying the same rigorous discipline to his gym work as he later would to his film and political careers. The aim of his efforts was to become the best bodybuilder on the planet, and it was a goal he achieved year after competitive year throughout the 1960s and '70s. Olympia spent untold hours toiling away in shoebox-size gyms across the globe, pushing, pulling, and pumping iron. Long before he ever uttered a one-liner or sparred with a hostile legislature, the five-time Mr. by Shawn Perine After all of the box-office successes (and failures), all of the State of the State speeches and ballot initiatives, all of the fame and fortune, it's easy to forget that at his very core Arnold Schwarzenegger is, first and foremost, a gym rat. Arnold A To Z: Superset Man When it comes to chest and back training, Arnold's philosophy could be described as 'pair and pair alike.' It worked.
