Arnold Split
Arnold Schwarzenegger's classic 6-day hypertrophy split — a high-volume, advanced routine. Three muscle pairings — Chest & Back, Shoulders & Arms, Legs — each trained twice per week, with Chest & Back built on antagonist supersets. Every lift runs double progression: work inside a rep range, and once you top the range on every set the weight goes up. Big compounds sit at the heavy end (bench, squat and press at 6-10); isolation work lives higher, up to 15-20 on the calves.
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What is Arnold Split?
The Arnold Split is the six-day routine Arnold Schwarzenegger laid out in The Education of a Bodybuilder, and it is organised around an idea most modern splits abandoned: pairing antagonist muscles in the same session. Chest and Back share Monday and Thursday, so bench presses and bent rows alternate and one muscle rests while the other works. Shoulders, Arms and Forearms take Tuesday and Friday. Legs get Wednesday and Saturday. Every pairing is trained twice a week, and abs are trained every single day with five sets of 25 crunches.
Loading follows Arnold's pyramid on nearly every exercise: four sets running 15, then 10–12, then 8–10, then a heavy 6 — warming into the weight and finishing near a max effort. The grinding pulls and presses (deadlift, upright row, push press, Romanian deadlift, good morning) use a steeper three-set pyramid of 10, 6 and 4. Add 50 total reps of chin-ups on chest-and-back days and five 15–20 rep sets of calf raises on leg days, and you have the golden-era workout as written, not a modernised remix.
Is Arnold Split right for you?
Run this if you want classic bodybuilding volume and can actually give it six days a week — the split has no rest built in except Sunday, and the sessions are not short. You should already handle the barbell lifts competently, because pyramiding to a heavy 6 on bench, squat and clean and press is no place to learn technique. Lifters chasing a bigger powerlifting total will find the fixed pyramid too diluted for pure strength; lifters who can only train three or four days should pick a split that fits the calendar instead of skipping half of this one.
How progression works
There is no percentage math here — the pyramid itself is the regulator. Each week, your final set of 6 (or 4 on the heavy movements) is the benchmark: when it moves cleanly, add weight to the whole pyramid next session, usually 2.5 kg for upper-body lifts and 5 kg for lower. When the top set turns into a grind, hold the weight and win the rep quality back first. Chin-ups and daily crunches simply accumulate reps. The calf raises run double progression toward 20 reps a set before the weight goes up — Durata tracks that alongside the pyramid weights, and its rest timers help keep these long golden-era sessions from sprawling past 90 minutes.
Durata runs this progression for you — there are no percentages to work out, so each session's target carries over from what you logged last time and the weight moves when you hit or miss the prescribed reps.
Arnold Split — every set, every session
Chest & Back
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Bench Press (Barbell)superset A | 4×6–10 | 3:00 |
| Pull Upsuperset A | 4×8–10 | 3:00 |
| Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell)superset B | 3×8–12 | 1:30 |
| Bent Over Row (Barbell)superset B | 4×8–10 | 1:30 |
| Cable Fly Crossovers | 3×10–15 | 1:00 |
| Seated Cable Row - V Grip (Cable) | 3×10–12 | 1:00 |
| Pullover (Dumbbell) | 3×10–12 | 1:00 |
Chest & Back
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Bench Press (Barbell)superset A | 4×6–10 | 3:00 |
| Pull Upsuperset A | 4×8–10 | 3:00 |
| Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell)superset B | 3×8–12 | 1:30 |
| Bent Over Row (Barbell)superset B | 4×8–10 | 1:30 |
| Cable Fly Crossovers | 3×10–15 | 1:00 |
| Seated Cable Row - V Grip (Cable) | 3×10–12 | 1:00 |
| Pullover (Dumbbell) | 3×10–12 | 1:00 |
Shoulders & Arms
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Overhead Press (Barbell) | 4×6–10 | 3:00 |
| Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) | 4×10–15 | 1:00 |
| Arnold Press (Dumbbell) | 3×8–12 | 1:30 |
| Bicep Curl (Barbell) | 4×8–12 | 1:00 |
| Bench Press - Close Grip (Barbell) | 4×8–12 | 1:30 |
| Seated Incline Curl (Dumbbell) | 3×10–12 | 1:00 |
| Triceps Extension (Cable) | 3×10–15 | 1:00 |
| Seated Palms Up Wrist Curl | 3×15–20 | 1:00 |
Shoulders & Arms
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Overhead Press (Barbell) | 4×6–10 | 3:00 |
| Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) | 4×10–15 | 1:00 |
| Arnold Press (Dumbbell) | 3×8–12 | 1:30 |
| Bicep Curl (Barbell) | 4×8–12 | 1:00 |
| Bench Press - Close Grip (Barbell) | 4×8–12 | 1:30 |
| Seated Incline Curl (Dumbbell) | 3×10–12 | 1:00 |
| Triceps Extension (Cable) | 3×10–15 | 1:00 |
| Seated Palms Up Wrist Curl | 3×15–20 | 1:00 |
Legs
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Squat (Barbell) | 4×6–10 | 3:00 |
| Romanian Deadlift (Barbell) | 4×8–12 | 3:00 |
| Leg Press (Machine) | 4×10–15 | 1:30 |
| Lying Leg Curl (Machine) | 4×10–15 | 1:00 |
| Leg Extension (Machine) | 3×12–15 | 1:00 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 4×15–20 | 1:00 |
| Seated Calf Raise | 3×15–20 | 1:00 |
Legs
| Exercise | Sets × Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Squat (Barbell) | 4×6–10 | 3:00 |
| Romanian Deadlift (Barbell) | 4×8–12 | 3:00 |
| Leg Press (Machine) | 4×10–15 | 1:30 |
| Lying Leg Curl (Machine) | 4×10–15 | 1:00 |
| Leg Extension (Machine) | 3×12–15 | 1:00 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 4×15–20 | 1:00 |
| Seated Calf Raise | 3×15–20 | 1:00 |
Arnold Split — common questions
Is this the same as the Arnold Blueprint?
No. Arnold's Blueprint is a modern branded trainer; this is the older split from The Education of a Bodybuilder — Chest/Back, Shoulders/Arms, Legs, each twice a week, with pyramid loading. If you searched for the classic Arnold workout routine, this is the primary source version.
How long does each session take?
Plan for 75–90 minutes. Chest-and-back days carry seven exercises including 50 chin-up reps and a deadlift pyramid; shoulder-and-arm days run eleven movements down to the wrist curls. Superset the antagonist pairs — Arnold usually did — and you can pull sessions under 70 minutes; Durata logs supersets as paired sets so the timing stays honest.
Why train chest and back together?
They are antagonists: while your chest presses, your back rests, and vice versa. That lets you alternate heavy bench and heavy rows with less downtime, keeps a pump in the whole torso, and — Arnold's real argument — teaches you to fight for poundages while the opposite muscle is still fresh.
Six days is too much. Can I do it three days a week?
Halve it: run Chest/Back, Shoulders/Arms and Legs once each and you have a solid 3-day version with every muscle hit weekly. You lose the twice-a-week frequency that drives the original, so expect slower progress — it is a compromise, not the program.
Do I really do abs every day?
As written, yes — five sets of 25 crunches (or reverse crunches) close every workout, 750 reps a week. Arnold treated ab work like brushing his teeth. If your hip flexors complain, drop to three sets before you drop days.
Source: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Durata is not affiliated with or endorsed by the program's author. The program structure (sets, reps, exercise selection) is presented as published methodology.
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