My Arnold Split + Training Tips

[RealNinja]

CHEST/BACK
Incline dumbbell bench press - 3x6-8
Barbell bent over row - 3x6-8
Hammer strength press (flat) - 3x8-10
Neutral grip lat pulldown - 3x10
Pec deck/cable fly - 3x10-12
DB row - 3x10
Rear delt fly - 5x11-13

SHOULDERS/ARMS
Seated DB shoulder press - 4x6-8
V-bar/Rope pushdowns - 3x11-13
EZ bar JM press - 3x6-8
Overhead rope extension - 3x11-13
DB curl - 4x11-13
Rope/DB hammer curl - 4x11-13
Cable lateral raise - 5x11-13

LEGS
Hack squat - 4x5-8
Barbell RDL - 4x6-8
Leg press - 2x8-10
Leg extension, myo-rep sets - 2x25
Seated hamstring curl - 2x10-12
Machine crunch - 3x10-12
Hanging leg raise- 3x15

Switched to this split after a long time doing PPL. It’s a lot of fun, if you haven’t tried it I would recommend giving it a shot. In my mind, this split allows each muscle group to get the proper amount of attention they deserve. You can focus completely on chest and back, without having to throw in shoulders/arms/delts as an afterthought. The pump after shoulder and arm day is awesome as well. You will notice I have more volume on certain body parts, like delts and quads- with these particular muscles, more volume is generally beneficial and conducive to growth. Personally I can handle this amount of volume, if you can’t, you can drop a few sets.

Chest training tips:

• Try making a heavy dumbbell bench press your primary compound movement for chest. Dumbbells are great for actually making your pecs bigger, they stretch your chest fibers and require more stability and strength than barbell does.
• Machine press and pec deck, go higher rep on these. Really make your pecs burn. You have to keep scapula tightly retracted, don’t cheat with shoulders.

Back training tips:

• For a long time I was a pussy and messed around on machines. Stop avoiding the hard stuff, if you want a big back you have to get strong with heavy rows- barbell, Tbar, and dumbbell.
• Lat pulldown machine, focus on getting a proper contraction and stretch. Use neutral grip. Wide grip is ass in my opinion, you can contract your lats better when your elbows and hands are closer to your body.

Bicep training:

• With biceps, you need to have proper form on your curls and not ego lift. You really need to make them burn. Keep your curl form always strict. I primarily use dumbbells now because it’s less stable and harder to use momentum. Seated curls are also great for this reason.
• Control the eccentric, let it down slow. Always keep your palm up, don’t do half hammer curls.
• Drop setting is also great for arms. On my last set of curls, I curl the 40s until my arms fail, then the 30s, then the 20s, then the 15s.

Tricep training

• They are a powerful muscle and you will see good growth by loading them up heavy. You need to incorporate a heavy pressing movement into your tricep training, such as close grip bench or JM press. 6-8 reps. If you get your triceps really strong they won’t be small.
• Go higher rep on other tricep accessories. French press or overhead extensions, sit at the bottom of the movement and let them stretch out. Pushdowns, always pause and contract as hard as possible. Rope pushdowns are good for true isolation, it’s harder to swing the weight around with momentum.

Leg training

• Myo-reps on leg machines. I learned this from John meadows. Usually I do it on leg extension or calf raise- quads and calves really benefit from this. On leg extension, take a heavy weight you which you can only do 6 reps with good form. Bang out 6 reps, hop off the machine for 5-10 sec and stretch your legs. Get back on, immediately do more reps until your form breaks down. Repeat until you get 25 reps. This is incredibly hard but your quads will get massive with this technique.
• RDLs. This is how you add slabs of meat onto your hamstrings. Get strong on barbell RDLs, add in a few sets of high rep hamstring curls. That’s all you need

Shoulder training

• Get your shoulders strong with heavy DB press/barbell press. You don’t need to do front delt isolation work
• Always train rear delts with flys. Again, make them burn. Don’t ego lift and do cheat reps. Hammer down your technique, because it’s very easy to let your traps/side delts take over. Have a partner put a finger on your rear delt while you do the movement. Rear and side delts, high volume training, 5 sets per session.
• Cables over all else for side lateral raises. Constant tension on the muscle. Drop cable to the ground.

 

[Mio]

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