Arnold Schwarzenegger

Training approach

In his competitive years Schwarzenegger trained twice a day, six days a week: chest, back and abs in the morning, arms and shoulders in the evening, legs on separate days. The volume was enormous by any modern standard. He is also associated with the idea of "shocking" the muscle — changing exercises, order and tempo so the body never settles into a routine; in his own words, the body hits a wall and has to be surprised with new stimuli. How often he actually used that is disputed: some accounts call it a rare tool rather than a staple.

Compiled from public sources; accounts of the details differ.