Did Arnold Do 5×5?

One of the selling points of the 5×5 workout is that Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly used it when he was starting out.

Some claim that it’s “well documented that Arnold Schwarzenegger built his foundation” using a 5×5 routine.

It is indeed well documented that the Austrian Oak used 5×5 when he was getting started.

But only if your definition of “well documented” includes somebody saying so on the Internet.

Did Arnold Follow a 5×5 Program?

If Arnold did use a 5×5 workout, or recommends it to beginners, he doesn’t mention it in his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding or Arnold: Education of a Bodybuilder, both of which I’ve read from cover to cover.

Arnold didn’t write the books himself, but had help from his ghostwriter Bill Dobbins.

However, I’m going to assume that he gave the thumbs up to everything that was in there, and that the contents are an accurate reflection of his views at the time the books were written.

First, nowhere in either book does he lay out – exercise by exercise, set by set and rep by rep – exactly what program he used when he first started training.

What’s more, if he believed that the 5×5 workout was such a good way to put on muscle, you’d expect him to recommend it to everyone who sets foot in the gym for the first time.

But he doesn’t.

In Arnold: Education of a Bodybuilder, he says that beginners should start out with a bodyweight program consisting of high-rep sets of:

• Squats
• Push-ups
• Chin-ups
• Rows
• Sit-ups
• Bent-leg raises
• Bent-over twists
• Calf raises

“You should lay a foundation by stimulating the muscles, tuning the whole body in to resistance training using your own body weight,” he writes.

“And after you’ve accomplished that and feel good about it – which should take from two to six months, depending on your initial condition and your rate of progress – you can safely go into weight training in the gym.”

What Arnold Recommends for Beginners

Arnold’s love for 5×5 is also conspicuous by its absence in his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. Here’s what he had to say on the subject on page 149 of the 1992 edition:

“The first task facing the beginning bodybuilder is to build up a solid foundation of muscle mass – genuine muscular weight, not bulky fat. Later, you will try to shape this muscle into a balanced, quality physique.

“You do this by basic, hard training using heavy weights – grinding it out week after week until your body begins to respond. And what I mean by ‘basic training’ is not just a few exercises like bench presses, bent-over rows, and squats, but thirty to forty exercises all designed to stimulate and develop the major muscle groups of the body.”

In other words, Schwarzenegger says that anyone wanting to put on muscle should do a lot more than the small number of compound lifts found in most 5×5 programs.

I could go on, so I will.

On a Reddit Ask Me Anything, Schwarzenegger was asked his opinion of the 5×5 workout.

His reply?

“You probably won’t like this… When I was gaining strength, I liked to warm up with 10,8,6,4 and then stay at 2 reps for five sets, and then back to 4, then 6, and then use the stripping method and just drop plates and keep doing 4 reps until I couldn’t.”

The bottom line is this:

There is no evidence to be found in Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding or Arnold: Education of a Bodybuilder that he ever used a 5×5 routine, or that he recommends the program to beginners.

In fact, not one of the beginner exercise programs in either book involves doing ANY exercise for 5 sets of 5 reps.