Arnold vs. fat personal trainer

[cman81]

So for the past few months, things have been lagging in the gym, nothing seemed to be changing(weight, strength.....) So I blew the dust off my trusty "arnold bodybuilding encyclopedia" and read it all over again. And from it, I decided to throw in some of his program into mine. Mainly doing more sets than I have been originally....switching from 3 excersies per body part to 4-5 exercises and going from 3 sets, to 4. I have only been on this new program for 2 weeks, and obviously my workouts are more intense. And from it I have been feeling like I accomplishing things once again, and feel that after time this could work.....for ME. Tonight at the gym, ONe of the trainers who work there came up to me because he was counting the amount of sets and excersises I was doing. And then had the nerve to argue with me that Arnold does not know what he is talking about. Keep in mind that this trainer is about 45, supposedly been training for 20 years, but is basicly a fat slob, who I have never seen once lift a weight. I AM NOT STEREOTYPING all trainers, I have a met a few....well a couple who I would take advice from. Anyway back on topic. He talked about how I am taxing my central nervous sytem too much and by doing so I am overtraining with Arnold's training suggestions. Keeping in mind that everyone is different....respond to different things, Do you guys think I should should switch back to my old routine....the one that I plateau'd on? Any suggetions would be great.

 

[Insane_Man]

Don't mean to be a jerk here, but the workouts in his book are bullshit. Either he has the most insane genetics ever or he is lying.


Dorian Yates, who was much bigger than Arnold ever was, claims to have never dones more than 2 work sets per exercise.

 

[Firehawk734]

Don't mean to be a jerk here, but the workouts in his book are bullshit. Either he has the most insane genetics ever or he is lying.


Dorian Yates, who was much bigger than Arnold ever was, claims to have never dones more than 2 work sets per exercise.

Funny, I think Pullinbig claimed the same thing

 

[cman81]

But do you not agree...what works for someone might not work for someone else? and vice versa.

 

[hornedfrogs07]

But do you not agree...what works for someone might not work for someone else? and vice versa.

Exactly. What works for someone else won't always work for another......and you'll probably see some good results quickly just from the change of pace, but after a little while most people will begin overtraining on a workout like that.

 

[BigRonWannabee]

Arnold was one of a kind. Id overtrain on a fraction of the volume.

 

[Insane_Man]

But do you not agree...what works for someone might not work for someone else? and vice versa.

Yes. I obtained massive arms from jerking off 6 times a day in highschool. Most other pubescent boys didn't sport killer guns.

 

[Mudge]

Arnold was lucky he didn't fuck himself up with all that volume, that is simply amazing. I do relatively low volume training and I feel obliterated for days.

If you can't get the shit done in an hour or so, you are doing something wrong. You dont need 20 sets for biceps if you are training correctly.

 

[gottabadrash]

dude i used to do 40-50 sets per exercise and i did get bigger and more defined doing this i was constantly fatigued but i kept growing cause i had to take naps... but less is best i have gotten so much stronger to what i was just doing like 7-12 sets for big bodyparts and 6 sets for smaller ones

 

[Mudge]

When I was 18 I used a program doing up to 36 sets per bodypart per week. This was done by training the body 3x a week in 6 workouts, it was one of the Leo Costa "I gots yo money now ho" books. I grew, I still have the stretch marks over 10 years later, but it doesn't mean its the best or SAFEST way to do things.

Tattered tendons and blown out joints are not a neccessity.

 

[blackbeard]

arnold was arnold and i really dont think anyone should train like he did..most wouldnt run out and copy jay culter or colema's routine so why would you copy arnold's..lets not forget they too were fully loaded with AAS

 

[gottabadrash]

i got a guy near me who is like in his 60's who trained and met arnold and franco bill pearl etc... those guys are so full of shit with what they write down as to what they did.. the old man says that heavy basics were the staple of the workouts.. not to much emphasis on legs or cardio and splits were usually chest/back shoulders/arms
but thats what i heard through the grapevine so dont rely on it

 

[gottabadrash]

trained with

 

[Mudge]

Seems to be a lot of that, like an ego thing. "We look like this because we do 50 sets per bodypart."

Most people wont ever look like that anyway, so why try to duplicate anyway? This whole game is about finding what works for you. And when you look at different guys there are a variety of favorite movements, for Ferrigno his biceps routine was shaped around seated dumbell curls - yet others have built 23" arms without them, there are 1001 ways to skin a cat.

 

[Rules]

I did arnold's beginers level workout...

I lasted all of 3 weeks till my numbers started to fall. I will say though my numbers did go up initialy untill overtraining kicked in. It was at the 3 week point that I realized

1) Arnold is not Human
2) Arnold was on steroids
3) Arnold will always be bigger than me

 

[apex]

I tend to do always do 12 sets per body part even arms. 4 sets of 3 exercises. Each set increasing the weight and having the last two as work sets. Some days I do feel tired in the gym and I feel I cant lift the same weights but I do not let that stop me from lifting. I just do more reps and less weight. I get the same feeling the next couple days and I leave feeling like I have good workouts. I lift 3 days one week and 4 days the next due to my work schedule. The week I do 3 days I just start the 4th body part the first day of the next week.

 

[mike1107]

Don't mean to be a jerk here, but the workouts in his book are bullshit. Either he has the most insane genetics ever or he is lying.


Dorian Yates, who was much bigger than Arnold ever was, claims to have never dones more than 2 work sets per exercise.

amen to that
that may be BS, or maybe he did what he saiod
but we must keep in mind that the guy was gifted genetically !

 

[Bimmer]

there is a good chance youll overtrain like that, but you dont know until you try. If you like the routine drop some sets and adjust your load accordingly till your not overtraining.

 

[DADAWG]

almost any new program will spark growth by shocking your muscles/system but that much volume will eventually lead to overtraining for 99% of us , dont stay on it too long . as for the trainer i understand what your saying to a point but just because he likes to eat doesnt mean he doesnt know what hes talking about ,hell i saw some pics of arnold just before he got ready to shoot t3 and he looked AWFULL but your useing his advice now .