Arnold says he overtrained?

[yungfaceb3]

I continuosly hear the claim that Arnold Schwaarzenegger himslef claimed he knew nothing of overtrain gback in the 1970s, admits he had overtrained, and concludes that he would have obtained the same results from lower set training and hitting each muscle once a week. I hear so many people claim this as their argument that old school training is wrong, but I am unable to find any duplication of these statements or articles on the world wide web. It seems almost as if this is a myth...sometimes it is in muscle and fitness....other times it is an article coming personally from arnold. I am not calling anyone or liar or accussing anyone of not telling the truth, but too fully believe this I would like to these claims in print. Surely of all the people that have claimed to have read this...at least one has a scanner or a link to this article....please send it to me!

[MuscleScience]

Send me a pm I have something you can read.

[Johny-too-small]

How long have you worked out? Sooner or later we all find whats best for us.

[Kennedy]

Im interested in this as well....bump

[boogieman1]

Yeah I felt like I had great results from 2 days lifting, 1 day off style of lifting when I was trying to get big. Im doing a muscle once a week lift right now so I guess Ill see what results I get

[Atomini]

It's true. Back then they didn't know ANYTHING about what caused and triggered muscle growth. All they knew was if they pushed themselves hard in the gym and ate alot, they built muscle. And if they ate less, they burned fat. They really knew nothing save for a handfull of bodybuilding pioneers back in the 70s such as Arthur Jones, Mike Mentzer, Casey Viator, etc. who were years ahead of everyone else in terms of training theory.

From what I have read about Arnold's routines, he overtrained in the extreme doing 20 sets per bodypart, 7 days a week in the gym for like 3 hours a day sometimes training each muscle more than 2 times a week. The only reason why he was able to make such amazing progress is due primarily to his superior genetics and in part to his steroid use. Otherwise, for the natural athlete with average genetics, you would never ever make ANY progress on a training routine that Arnold used.

Then Dorian Yates came along in the 90s and adopted a low volume high intensity routine (and was coached by Mike Mentzer) and Yates really changed everyone's thinking about how training should really be done, because up until then the vast majority of bodybuilders were still doing the old high volume high frequency routines. When Yates came along, it showed everyone that you don't need to spend rediculous amounts of time in the gym to make great gains - and risk overtraining doing so.

[reconforce4]

bodybuilding as a sience has evovled , with all these new studies reports

[yungfaceb3]

First off Atomini let me give you props on your Snake Plisken avatar, lol, I thought I was the olny plisken fan still around. OKay, but now too the good stuff. Your right about the high volume stuff of the 70s and how yates redifiend the training concensus, but at the same time it can be said that Yates' sometimes "extrmemely" LOW volume training worked well for him because it fit his genetics. You soiund like you know your stuff but alas you make claims you cannot backup. You say arnold and them knew nothing at all of overtraining and were juts training and eating...hmm...riiiiiight. Why does NOBODY on this forum look as good as they did back then when they were in thier 20s and so "stupid" and the people on here have been training for 20 years will all this "new" and "superior" knowledge of muscle growth and the addition of steroids and supplements and diet don't look near as good? Damn, guess they were just lucky huh? And you said you read up on arnolds training..? then why did you have his training all wrong? Yes he did 20 sets for each bodypart sometimes more. He only worked out six days a week however, and where your facts failed you the most was the statement "sometimes he trained each bodypart twice a week." ..lol...do you know anything about arnold? Of course he did! FRom his teen years through his olympia runs he had a 2 day split in which every two days he hit every body part and this means in six days he worked out every muscle group 3 times! That is common knowledge, so please, with all due respect don't throw shiit on people's names and attempt to join a debate on a tpic you have nothing but below average knowledge on and an argument basd solely on what others have said.

[39+1]

I look back at when i trained and there is no doubt i over trained my upper body parts and did the lower part just about right i developed huge legs and not so huge upper body and now i look back and think i can put my finger on that.
A leg day was about an hr long with vomit at the end of each work out and i dint like to repat that more than once a week. I also feel that my gains were more stable or solid depending how you look at it.
These days I do quick work out again about 40 minutes intense and hard one muscle group it more like a bionic cardio work out, and another the next and at 40 IMO this is working out wonderful. So that my two cents. Get in get out and rest cause that when ya grow

[39+1]

First off Atomini let me give you props on your Snake Plisken avatar, lol, I thought I was the olny plisken fan still around. OKay, but now too the good stuff. Your right about the high volume stuff of the 70s and how yates redifiend the training concensus, but at the same time it can be said that Yates' sometimes "extrmemely" LOW volume training worked well for him because it fit his genetics. You soiund like you know your stuff but alas you make claims you cannot backup. You say arnold and them knew nothing at all of overtraining and were juts training and eating...hmm...riiiiiight. Why does NOBODY on this forum look as good as they did back then when they were in thier 20s and so "stupid" and the people on here have been training for 20 years will all this "new" and "superior" knowledge of muscle growth and the addition of steroids and supplements and diet don't look near as good? Damn, guess they were just lucky huh? And you said you read up on arnolds training..? then why did you have his training all wrong? Yes he did 20 sets for each bodypart sometimes more. He only worked out six days a week however, and where your facts failed you the most was the statement "sometimes he trained each bodypart twice a week." ..lol...do you know anything about arnold? Of course he did! FRom his teen years through his olympia runs he had a 2 day split in which every two days he hit every body part and this means in six days he worked out every muscle group 3 times! That is common knowledge, so please, with all due respect don't throw shiit on people's names and attempt to join a debate on a tpic you have nothing but below average knowledge on and an argument basd solely on what others have said.

wow i just read this your pretty tough on the guy. YOU nailed it IMO the big variable is gnentics and you have to figure out what works for you and adjust,
I think that the reason there may be so much controversy. is just because low volumne worked for you or myself this year the body is gonna adjust and then youll once again have ot modify your routine. Honestly the body is resilant and will andjust and in order to grow a person is gonna have to number one acknowlege his routine is stagnant and then adjust high reps low reps heavy light super sets etc.

[Panzerfaust]

How long have you worked out? Sooner or later we all find whats best for us.

Exactly! IMO, most use that as an excuse to puss out. "I don't want to overtrain".

[green22]

I think it takes years to know what your limit is. When I was younger I would go to the gym everyday and just hammer away. I would get sick and still go, sore as hell and still go. Now I just listen to my body. If Im tired or sore or have a lil nagging injury Ill shut it down. Also colds, sore throats, sinius infections and Im not going. Back in the day I would drag myself in there now Im wiser and just take time off. Just keep your nutrition up to par and listen to your body.

[DSM4Life]

He might have been overtraining but you have to remember he was using gear at the same time which was a critial part in recovering faster then the "normal" person.

[Ronnie Rowland]

yungfaceb3, I like the way you take up for Arnie. He's defintely the greatest!

IMO Arnold did not grow because of the super high volume, he grew in spite of it! In the same article that Arnold admits they over-trained he also said he does not think he woud have been any bigger if he had done less. Notice he says he doesn't "think" he would have. If that be true, then over-training does not hamper gains!

I am of the belief that over-training does hamper strength gains but I also believe some are so paranoid about over-training they will never max out their potential.

[UberSteroids]

yungfaceb3, I like the way you take up for Arnie. He's defintely the greatest!

IMO Arnold did not grow because of the super high volume, he grew in spite of it! In the same article that Arnold admits they over-trained he also said he does not think he woud have been any bigger if he had done less. Notice he says he doesn't "think" he would have. If that be true, then over-training does not hamper gains!

I am of the belief that over-training does hamper strength gains but I also believe some are so paranoid about over-training they will never max out their potential.

Thank the Lord I am not one of these paranoid guys.

I would break my bones lifting before anything else.

But then again, I would not be able to lift and I would be smaller than the guys beeing paranoid about lifting too much

Anyways, Arnold is on top of my list, whatever he did - worked. All I know I am not Arnold, so I won't spend hours talking about what he did and what he didn't. As a HUGE fan I sure like to know how he accomplished everything, but in the end.. I really have to focus on Uber to accomplish my goals.

Take care fellas!

-Uber

[Ronnie Rowland]

Thank the Lord I am not one of these paranoid guys.

I would break my bones lifting before anything else.

But then again, I would not be able to lift and I would be smaller than the guys beeing paranoid about lifting too much

Anyways, Arnold is on top of my list, whatever he did - worked. All I know I am not Arnold, so I won't spend hours talking about what he did and what he didn't. As a HUGE fan I sure like to know how he accomplished everything, but in the end.. I really have to focus on Uber to accomplish my goals.

Take care fellas!

-Uber

Uber, another thing some do not realize is that Arnold gained a large percentage of his muscle mass training only 3 days per week using a full body routine. It was five sets for each exercise. I know this because I bought his bulking training manual in the latter part of the 70's and followed it for a while.