Arnold Split 6-Day Workout Plan: What Is It? Complete Guide

Of all the training programs I’ve used over the years, the Arnold Split is one of my favorites.

It’s ideal for intermediate trainees who prefer shorter, more frequent workouts, as well as advanced lifters wanting to spur new growth.

First thing I want to do is explain briefly what the Arnold Split is, and who should use it.

Then I’ll lay out the routine in full, so you can see which exercises you’ll be doing on which days, as well as how many sets and reps to do.

Finally, I’ll look at the pros and cons of the Arnold Split, so you can decide if it’s the right program for you.

What is the Arnold Split?

The Arnold split is a 6-day workout split that involves three different workouts — one for your chest and back, one for your shoulders and arms, and one for your legs. Each workout is done twice a week.

It’s one of a number of routines that Arnold Schwarzenegger lays out in his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, first published back in the 1980s.

The traditional way to do the Arnold Split involves training Monday through Saturday, then taking Sunday off.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Monday: Chest/Back
• Tuesday: Shoulders/Arms
• Wednesday: Legs
• Thursday: Chest/Back
• Friday: Shoulders/Arms
• Saturday: Legs
• Sunday: Off

Schwarzenegger’s original workout split also has you training the abs six days a week. Forearms are worked alongside the biceps and triceps.

However, there’s no rule that says your training routine has to fit neatly into a 7-day week. Most training programs are set up that way, more out of convention and convenience than anything else.

Personally, I much prefer to take a day off after training my legs, which is typically the hardest and most demanding workout of the week.

This means the routine doesn’t match perfectly with a 7-day week and runs over an 8-day period instead.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Day 1: Chest & Back
• Day 2: Shoulders & Arms
• Day 3: Legs
• Day 4: Rest
• Day 5: Chest & Back
• Day 6: Shoulders & Arms
• Day 7: Legs
• Day 8: Rest

One week you might be able to train six days straight before taking a day off. The following week you might train three days in a row, take a day off, then train for another three days.

Some weeks you might only have the time to do five workouts, other weeks you might manage six.

But the basic workout schedule remains the same – you train chest and back, followed by shoulders and arms, followed by legs, then rinse and repeat.

Other than the way the workouts are organized, the routine outlined below isn’t one that Arnold Schwarzenegger actually used.

The term “Arnold Split” refers to the way the workout schedule is set up (which muscle groups are trained with which other muscle groups, and how often those muscle groups are trained), rather than the specific exercises, sets and reps.

Is the Arnold Split Workout Plan Effective?

The Arnold split workout plan is certainly an effective way to gain muscle. Each muscle group is trained at least twice a week, which tends to work better than a training frequency of once a week.

And because you’re only training 2-3 muscle groups in a single workout, you also get the opportunity to hit each muscle with a sufficient level of volume to stimulate growth.

However, the high frequency of training means that it’s not going to be suitable for everyone, and you will need to make sure your nutrition and recovery are on point in order to make the most of any 6-day workout split.

Who Should Use the Arnold Workout Split?

The Arnold workout split is an advanced routine suitable for late intermediate and advanced lifters who want to gain muscle as fast as humanly possible.

Let’s assume you’re on a mission to gain as much muscle as you can in the shortest time possible, and you’ve decided that an increase in training volume is necessary.

You’ve moved beyond the beginner stages of training, there’s no great drama or stress going on in your life, your diet is sufficient in both calories and protein, and you’re getting plenty of sound, restful sleep each night. 

You also have the discipline, time and dedication required to eat right and train hard for months at a time.

If so, the Arnold Split program is definitely a viable option.

If you’re someone who prefers shorter, more frequent workouts, and you’re able to train on a consistent basis 5-6 days a week, the Arnold Split can work very well.

Distributing your weekly training volume across 5 or 6 workouts, rather than 3 or 4, allows for shorter training sessions, making them easier to fit into your day.

Training more often can also make your workouts feel less exhausting, which in turn makes it more likely that you’ll actually do them.

The Arnold Split Workout Schedule

Workout 1: Chest & Back A

• Flat Bench Press 4 sets x 5-8 reps
• Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown 4 sets x 8-12 reps
• Push Ups 3 sets x As Many Reps As Possible
• Single-Arm Dumbbell Row 4 sets of 5-8 reps
• Dumbbell Flyes 4 sets x 12-15 reps

Workout 2: Shoulders & Arms A

• Dumbbell Shoulder Press 4 sets x 8-12 reps
• Lateral Raise 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• V-Bar Triceps Pressdown 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Standing Dumbbell Curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Overhead Triceps Extension 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Hammer Curl 3 sets x 12-15 reps

Workout 3: Legs A

• Barbell Squat 4 sets x 5-8 reps
• Leg Press 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Leg Extension 2 sets x 12-15 reps
• Seated Leg Curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Romanian Deadlift 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Standing Calf Raise 4 sets x 5-8 reps

Workout 4: Chest & Back B

• Neutral Grip Pull-ups 4 sets x As Many Reps As Possible
• Incline Dumbbell Press 4 sets x 8-12 reps
• Seated Cable Row 4 sets of 8-12 reps
• Cable Crossover 4 sets x 12-15 reps
• Wide Grip Front Lat Pulldown 3 sets x 8-12 reps

Workout 5: Shoulders & Arms B

• Barbell Press 4 sets x 5-8 reps
• Face Pulls 3 sets x 15-20 reps
• Rope Triceps Pressdown 3 sets x 10-15 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Lying EZ Bar Triceps Extension 3 sets x 12-15 reps
• Dumbbell Preacher Curl 3 sets x 12-15 reps

Workout 6: Legs B

• Deadlift 4 sets x 5-8 reps
• Leg Press 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Bulgarian Split Squat 2 sets 8-12 reps
• Glute Ham Raise 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Seated Leg Curl 3 sets x 12-15 reps
• Standing Calf Raise 4 sets x 15-20 reps

You can throw in some work for your abs as and when you have the time.

Arnold Split Program: The Pros

1. Allows For a Higher Volume Of Training

The Arnold.Split is useful if you’ve got several years of serious training behind you, and you’re finding it hard to put on muscle mass.

For advanced lifters, increasing your weekly training volume (the number of hard sets you do for a muscle group) is sometimes all the stimulus your muscles need to start growing again.

There’s a link between the number of hard sets you do for a muscle and the speed at which that muscle grows. Put differently, a higher volume of training, up to a point at least, will typically lead to a faster rate of muscle growth.

Training 5-6 days a week allows for a relatively high volume of training while still keeping the workouts down to a reasonable length.

2. Allows for an Effective Training Frequency

On the Arnold.Split, the major muscle groups are worked directly twice a week, which is an effective frequency for growth.

Research shows that when you hit a muscle twice a week, it tends to grow faster compared to training it once a week.

Some of the smaller muscle groups are trained more often. The biceps and triceps, for example, are worked four times a week. 

That is, you work your arms directly on shoulders and arms day. But they’re also worked indirectly when you train your chest and back.

It’s the same story with the deltoids, which are trained directly twice a week on shoulders and arms day. However, they also get some indirect work when you train your chest and back.

3. Easy to Incorporate Supersets

The Arnold Split also makes it relatively easy to incorporate agonist-antagonist supersets in your workouts. 

On chest and back day, for example, you do a set for the chest, then a set for the back, followed by a set for the chest, and so on. One group of muscles has a chance to rest while you do a set for the opposing muscles.

Supersets have several benefits.

For one, they cut down on the amount of dead time you might spend sitting around resting between sets. This allows you to condense the same amount of training into a shorter period of time.

As well as saving time, supersets do have the potential to enhance your performance in the gym. 

In one study, a group of trained men was able to do significantly more reps on the leg extension when they did the leg curl beforehand [1].

In fact, the men were able to crank out, on average, three additional reps on the leg extension machine when they did leg curls immediately, 30 seconds or 60 seconds earlier.

It’s the same story with shoulders and arms day, where you can do a set for your biceps, followed by a set for your triceps, and so on.

You get a great pump in your arms while simultaneously cutting down on the amount of time you’d otherwise spend resting between sets.

Arnold Split: The Cons

1. Big Time Commitment

One of the main downsides with the Arnold Split is that it requires you to be in the gym 5-6 days a week.

Not everybody wants to train six days a week, mainly because it limits what you can do with your spare time. You don’t even get the weekends free. 

Working out three or four times a week still leaves you with plenty of time to do other things.

2. A Lot to Recover From

Lifting weights 5-6 days a week, especially if your overall training volume is on the high side, is going to be too much for some people to recover from.

And by recovery, I’m not just talking about individual muscle groups. As long as your overall volume isn’t excessive, individual muscles should have no problem recovering from one workout to the next.

Rather, what I’m talking about is systemic recovery.

What does that mean exactly?

Every exercise you do has an effect on the muscle or muscles involved in that exercise. A compound exercise like the bench press, for example, is going to stimulate the muscles in your chest, shoulders and triceps.

This is known as a local effect. 

However, training also has what’s known as a systemic effect, which refers to the impact a given workout has on your entire body.

When you’re deciding how to set up your training program, you need to consider the recovery requirements of your body as a whole, not just the individual muscles.

In one study, for example, 60 minutes of downhill running led to a reduction in muscle strength in the quads when it was measured 24 and 48 hours after exercise [2].

However, the researchers also found that the biceps were significantly weaker when strength levels were measured immediately as well as 24 hours after the run. 

In fact, the biceps were, on average, 17% weaker the day after the run. That’s despite the fact that the biceps are not heavily involved in downhill running.

Recovery is about more than allowing enough time between training sessions for the same muscle group. Your body as a whole, from connective tissue to your central nervous system, also needs a break.

The ability of your body to recover is affected not just by the amount of training you do, but your diet, the amount of sleep you’re getting, as well as what else is going on in your life.

Anything causing you an undue amount of anxiety, worry or some other form of psychological stress that you don’t want to feel has the potential to impair your gains.

Physical and psychological stress make withdrawals from the same account. Too much of the latter can make it harder to recover from and adapt to the former.

Is the Arnold Split Suitable for Beginners?

Believe it or not, Arnold actually designed this training split for beginners.

However, the overall volume is way more than most beginners need, or can even recover from.

As an example, the shoulders and arms workout in his Level I Exercise Program, which he claims is suitable for beginners, comprises a whopping 51 sets.

That’s not 51 sets per week. That’s 51 sets in a single workout.

For the average beginner, that’s going to be too much. Lack of time and issues with recovery mean that many beginners who start off with the intention of going to the gym six days a week will fall off the wagon before too long.

If you’re a complete beginner who wants to focus on hypertrophy, you’re better off with a training program that involves lifting weights 3 or 4 times a week, such as a 3-day full-body workout, a 4-day upper/lower split or a 4-day push/pull routine.

Once you’ve built a solid foundation of strength and size, then you can think about adding a fifth or even a sixth training day.

If you are just starting out, and you’re adamant about wanting to train 6 times a week, do 3 or 4 main lifting sessions, combined with some low-intensity cardio on the other 2 or 3 days.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Workout Routine

As one of the most famous bodybuilders of all time, there are always lots of questions about what Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout routine looked like back in the day. 

But if you Google around for information about how Arnold trained in his prime, you’ll often find contradictory information. One article says Arnold did one thing, while another claims that he did something else entirely.

So I want to show you some of the workout routines laid out in Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, which I consider a more reliable guide as to what he actually did than most of the material I found online.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting you should follow these workout routines yourself. Arnold Schwarzenegger was an outlier. He had superb muscle-building genetics, a superhuman work ethic, and also benefited from more than a little pharmaceutical assistance.

However, I do think it’s interesting to take a look at the sheer amount of work Schwarzenegger was willing to put in to achieve his goals.

First up, we have his Basic Training Level I Exercise Program, which (believe it or not) he designed for beginners.

Arnold’s Chest Workout

• Flat Barbell Bench Press 5 sets x 8-12
• Incline Bench Press 5 sets x 8-12
• Dumbbell Pullovers 5 sets x 8-12

Arnold’s Back Workout

• Chin-Ups (do as many repetitions at a time as you can until you reach a total of 50)
• Bent-Over Rows 5 sets x 8-12
• Deadlifts 1 set x 10, 1 set x 6, 1 set x 4
• Leg Raises 5 sets x 25

Arnold’s Shoulder Workout

• Clean and Press 5 sets x 8-12
• Dumbbell Lateral Raise 5 sets x 8-12
• Upright Row 1 set x 10, 1 set x 6, 1 set x 4
• Push Press 1 set x 6, 1 set x 4, 1 set x 2

Arnold’s Arm Workout

• Barbell Curl 5 sets x 8-12
• Seated Dumbbell Curl 5 sets x 8-12
• Close-Grip Bench Press 5 sets x 8-12
• Standing Barbell Triceps Extension 5 sets x 8-12
• Wrist Curls 5 sets x 8-12
• Reverse Wrist Curls 5 sets x 8-12
• Incline Sit-Ups 5 sets x 15

Arnold’s Leg Workout

• Squats 5 sets x 8-12
• Lunges 5 sets x 8-12
• Leg Curls 5 sets x 8-12
• Standing Calf Raises 5 sets x 15
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift 1 set x 10, 1 set x 6, 1 set x 4
• Good Mornings 1 set x 10, 1 set x 8, 1 set x 6
• Leg Raises 5 sets x 25

Arnold Split Alternatives

Arnold Split vs PPL (Push Pull Legs)

A push/pull/legs routine is a training program that devotes one day to upper body pushing movements (chest, shoulders and triceps), a second day to upper body pulling movements (back and biceps), and a third day to leg exercises (quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves). 

Here’s what a 6-day PPL split looks like:

• Monday: Push
• Tuesday: Pull
• Wednesday: Legs
• Thursday: Push
• Friday: Pull
• Saturday: Legs
• Sunday: Off

Both an Arnold split and PPL routine are solid choices for intermediate and advanced lifters who want to build muscle.

You can expect identical results in terms of lower body gains, as both programs involve training the legs twice a week, on separate days to the upper body.

The Arnold split does have the advantage of training the shoulders and arms when they’re fresher, rather than at the end of a long upper body workout.

If I had to choose one routine over the other, the Arnold split would be the one I’d go for. However, both will produce good results if you train hard, eat right and stay consistent.

Arnold Split vs Bro Split

The bro split typically refers to a training schedule that involves training 5-6 times a week, with the major muscle groups being worked directly just once a week.

Here’s one example of what a 5-day bro split might look like:

• Monday: Chest
• Tuesday: Back 
• Wednesday: Off
• Thursday: Shoulders
• Friday: Legs
• Saturday: Arms
• Sunday: Off

Because each workout focuses on just one or two specific muscle groups, the number of sets you do for each muscle in any given workout is relatively high.

The main downside with most bro splits is that the major muscle groups (usually the legs, back and chest) are worked just once every seven days, which is less than ideal for growth.

In my experience, there are better options out there. If I had to rank the various training splits in order of effectiveness, the bro split would be near the bottom of the list.

Arnold Split vs Upper Lower

With an upper/lower split, you train the muscles in your lower body and upper body on separate days.

An upper body workout will normally hit your chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps, while the lower body workout works your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and calves.

Although there are 5- and 6-day variations, the default version of the upper/lower split involves training four days a week.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Monday: Upper Body
• Tuesday: Lower Body
• Wednesday: Off
• Thursday: Upper Body
• Friday: Lower Body
• Saturday: Off
• Sunday: Off

On a 4-day upper/lower split routine, you’ve got two upper days, and two lower days. This means each muscle group is hit twice every seven days, which tends to work well for muscle growth.

Working the upper and lower body separately also allows for a higher overall training volume than you’d typically get with a 3-day full body routine.

One of the few downsides of the upper/lower split is that the workouts can take a while to get through.

On a typical upper body day, for example, you’ll need to train your chest, back, shoulders, biceps and triceps. The muscles being worked later in that training session aren’t going to receive the same level of effort as the ones trained at the start.

If you only have four days a week to lift weights, the upper/lower split is one of the best routines out there. It’s also a solid choice for anyone making the transition from the beginner to early intermediate stages of training.

Other Workout Splits

• PPL Arnold Split Hybrid
• 6-Day Upper/Lower Split for Muscle Growth
• 6-Day Push/Pull/Legs Split
• Arnold x Upper Lower Split

Image Credit: Madison Square Garden Center, RMY Auctions, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons