Workout of the Week #43

Welcome to Workout of the Week, number 43. So we needed to wait 43 weeks to finally get a modified Arnold workout.

So what’s the training goal? Well, we all know Arnold. It’s about building muscle mass.

The training variables: Training intensity is 60 to 80% of the one-rep max. Rep ranges are 6 to 15. Training exertion is near maximum to maximum. The training effort is a repeated effort.

What are the exercises? Well, it’s a combination of compound, multi-joint, and isolation, single-joint exercises. The exercise order goes from most complex to least complex.

If we look at more training variables, it’s a six-day-a-week program. It’s a station training. It’s a muscle group split. The training structure is: on day number one and number four, legs; on day number two and number five, chest and back; and on day number three and number six, shoulders and arms.

So how does that look? Here is our workout, and we’ll jump right into it.

Here we are inside our modified Arnold workout. You can download that PDF, you can read an overview, and you can also see the weekly structure here. Yeah, as I said: day one, legs; day two, chest and back; day three, shoulders and arms; day four, legs again; day five, chest and back; and then again, day number six, shoulders and arms.

Let’s have a look at Workout Number One: legs. Yeah, so we start with the back squats, and then we have a complex of leg press and RDL, followed by a complex of leg extension and leg curls. As you can see, the heaviest exercise—the back squats—is 80% of the one-rep max for three sets of six. For the next complex, the leg press and RDL, three sets of eight at 75%, and then for the isolation exercises—the leg extension and leg curls—two sets of 10 at 70%. Yeah, all exercises near maximum exertion, so an RPE of nine.

Workout Number Two: chest and back. So antagonistic complexes—one chest exercise followed by a back exercise. They’re complex together. We do bench press and bent-over row, then dumbbell incline bench press and pull-ups, and then we do dumbbell flyes and cable row.

What we saw in the previous workout: for the heaviest exercise, three sets of six at 80%. Then we do three sets of 8 at 75%, and then for the last complex, two sets of 10 at 70%.

If we go to Workout Number Three: shoulders and arms. We start with two shoulder exercises: the dumbbell shoulder press and the dumbbell lateral raises. So this is a station training—you do the shoulder presses, finish all your sets, go to the lateral raises. Then we have complexes for the arms. We do barbell biceps curls and the French press (the skull crusher), and we do dumbbell incline curls and the dumbbell single-arm overhead extension for the triceps.

Similarly here, the heaviest exercise is three sets of six at 80%. Then for the lateral raises, two sets of eight at 75%. For our arms, we do two sets of six at 80% for the curls (the barbell curls and the French press, the skull crusher), and then we do another two sets of eight at 75% for the incline curls and the overhead extension.

Basically, it’s not rinse and repeat. You can see there are slight differences in the workout structure. But Workout Number Four—you can see here we have the front squat. So there’s a change in the squat variation. We go from the back squat to the front squat. But then we also have the leg press combined with the leg curl. So now we combine a compound movement with an isolation movement. The same is true with the RDL and the leg extensions—yeah, still antagonistic but slightly different setup.

Also here, for the heavy exercise, three sets of six at 80%. Then we go for the lighter exercises: three sets of 10 at 70% or two sets of 10 at 70%. Yeah, so the way it works is you do leg press, leg curls, leg press, leg curls, one more set of leg press, and then you’re done with that complex. Then you go to the next complex, which is the RDL and the leg extension.

If we go to Workout Number Five: chest and back again. So again, we see the exercise structure reversed. Now we start with the back, and then we do the chest. In session number two, we did first the chest exercise and then the back. So now it’s reversed—slight, subtle differences anyway.

We do deadlift and incline bench press, followed by the dumbbell row and the dumbbell bench press. Then the last exercise—a standalone exercise—is the pullover because the pullover essentially is an exercise for the back and the chest. We do three sets of six for the heavy exercises and three sets of 10 for the lighter exercises.

If we go to the last workout, Workout Number Six: shoulders and arms again. So here we do again our dumbbell shoulder presses with the dumbbell lateral raises, and then we do our barbell curls, French press, and the dumbbell incline curls and the dumbbell single-arm overhead extension.

Now you say, “Well, that’s exactly the same as in the other workout.” Yes, same exercises. But you look at the sets, reps, and intensities—there is a slight distinction. So we have two sets of eight at 75% and two sets of 10 at 70%. Yeah, so we’re looking at targeting all areas of the hypertrophy continuum—from lower repetitions and higher intensities to higher repetitions at lower intensities.

Yeah, and if you download the full workout—if you download the full four-week program—you can see that the lighter exercises’ intensity goes down, repetitions go up, and the heavier exercises’ intensity goes up, repetitions go down over the course of four weeks.

Anyway, for now: download this PDF, you get the glossary explaining the terms, you can read a bit about myself, you can also read what other people have to say about me—former athletes of mine, former colleagues of mine, some of my mentees—and last but certainly not least, that’s what I alluded to: there’s the membership. You subscribe to the membership, and you get the full four-week periodized program.

So let’s move back and finish that presentation. What are the next steps?

Arnold says download that program. Arnold says join the membership. And Arnold says like and subscribe. Well, you can grab all previous workouts here. You can watch the previous workout, and if you haven’t already, you can subscribe again.

I see you next week with the next Workout of the Week. See you then.