Arnold’s Tips to Build a Bigger Back, Arms and Shoulders

By Ron Harris

While the book Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding will always be both a classic and a valuable resource, the fact remains that it was written by Bill Dobbins. As such, we will never know how much of the information and advice actually came from Arnold himself, and how much may have been contributed by Dobbins. That’s why it was so refreshing to see the release of the “Arnold Schwarzenegger Blueprint” videos online in 2014. Featuring plenty of footage from “Pumping Iron,” both from the film as well as unused extra competition and workout scenes, these are extensive interviews with Arnold on all things bodybuilding: motivation, training, posing, nutrition and more. Since many of us were inspired to become bodybuilders by this man, it’s exciting to get training advice straight from him. It’s been decades since he ruled the bodybuilding universe as Mr. Olympia, but he still speaks with clear passion and authority.

Thicker Back

Here Arnold discusses the best exercises for back thickness, a critical component of a champion’s physique:

“Bent-over rowing with a barbell, and the T-bar row, any kind of rowing exercise, gives you the thickness. Those are the exercises I always relied on from the beginning to the end. There’s a lot of bodybuilders that have a deficiency when it comes to the lower back and the striations of the lower back, which you only get from stiff-leg deadlifts and from regular deadlifts, and bent-over rowing, and all that stuff without supporting your chest. You have to let your body be free and let your lower back hold up your body while you’re doing the bent-over rowing. We liked to do them off the bench, balancing on the bench, up to 315 pounds bent-over rowing. Because that’s what gave you that strength in the back, because remember, when you train the back, you need the width and you need the thickness. You need the thickness in the lower part of your back, the top part of your back and the outer back, the center back. You need to find and train exercises for all those different things.”

Bigger Biceps

Next up, here is how Arnold built what many still feel were the best biceps the world has ever known:

“I was up to doing reps with 275 in the barbell curl. Many times you would start out with a heavy weight and do just one rep, and then have them pull off plates in the curl. But just enough that I can now do two reps, then pull off plates and do three reps, then pull off more plates and do four reps after that. And this is how we would go and build without ever putting the bar down, to really let the biceps know ‘you don’t know what’s coming.’ You’re not going to get used to my training methods. I’m gonna have all kinds of tricks up my sleeve. It’s absolutely essential to do barbell curls to create the thickness of the biceps, the dumbbell curl on an incline bench, and do the concentration curl. Because the concentration curl isolated the biceps. We did heavy weights to isolate, to concentrate, and really create that peak on the outside of the biceps that you need when you do your back shots.”

Biceps were forged with nothing more than raw iron, and Schwarzenegger used the same simple recipe to craft his tremendous triceps:

“The triceps was narrow bench press, a lot of narrow bench press in the early days, and then triceps extensions lying down, and then overhead triceps extensions with one arm and both arms. And then also triceps extensions with a bar, where you let your head go under a bar and press out, using your own bodyweight.”

Boulder Shoulders

Finally, here are some basics that Arnold used to build boulder shoulders, long before gyms became stocked to the gills with fancy machines:

“For shoulders … dumbbell presses, barbell presses in the front and in the back. We always did the behind-neck presses, then military presses and the dumbbell press, which is now called the Arnold Press because there was a certain way in which it was done to create a stretch in the front deltoid. You came down more with the elbow, and rotate out and up to get the full flex. And then lateral raises, especially bent-over lateral raises on a 45-degree bench. This is a specialty that I learned at Vince Gironda’s gym. He had this bench that was cut out in the face so you could still breathe without having to turn your head. The bench was at 45 degrees, and you turn your wrists outward as you raise the dumbbells. It’s a fantastic rear delt exercise.”

This is just a glimpse of Arnold’s entire workout program, of course, but it’s enough to get a sense that he relied almost entirely on very basic free-weight movements to build what still remains one of the most aesthetic and powerful physiques of all time.

Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989. He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area. Facebook Instagram

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