- Arnold Schwarzenegger broke down a recent arm and shoulder workout he did.
- The bodybuilding icon, 75, still works out every day for half an hour.
Arnold Schwarzenegger broke down one of his recent upper body workouts, and there wasn't a dumbbell in sight.
Speaking in a video for Men's Health, the bodybuilding icon and actor talked viewers through one of his workouts.
Schwarzenegger, 75, trains every day at legendary Los Angeles gym Gold's, cycling there and back, he previously said.
In 2022, Schwarzenegger told Insider that he trains for up to 1.5 hours daily in total: cycling for 45 to 60 minutes, and lifting weights for 30 minutes.
The former Mr. Olympia told Insider he does 25-30 sets in each half-hour gym session.
In the workout filmed by Men's Health, it was arms and shoulders day. Schwarzenegger does the whole thing using resistance machines rather than free weights like dumbbells, barbells, and kettlebells.
It's surprising given the Arnold press — an exercise performed with dumbbells — was created by Schwarzenegger and is widely performed across the world.
First he hits his biceps with machine preacher curls: Schwarzenegger does one set of 30 reps then four sets of 10-12 reps.
He starts with high reps (and a lower weight) to warm up the muscles and protect vulnerable areas, in his case the elbows, he says.
"It's always important to warm up and then cool down," Schwarzenegger says. "For me, it's not about working out with the heaviest weights, it's just I try to move as fast as I can from one exercise to the next."
Second, he does machine dip tricep extensions, again doing one set of 30 reps then four sets of 10-12 reps.
Moving on to shoulders, Schwarzenegger hits the overhead press machine, performing five sets of 10-12 reps and holding on the final one for five seconds (known as an isometric hold) and slowly lowering down for a deeper burn.
Next, Schwarzenegger performs machine lateral raises, again five sets of 10-12 reps.
Finally, he does machine rear delt flies: five sets of 10-12 reps.
"In the old days we did, like, 30 sets for shoulders, now I do 15 sets," Schwarzenegger said.
If you want to go to the gym every day, the most important thing is not to think about it, just do it, he said.
"So you roll out of bed, you put your clothes on, and you go," Schwarzenegger said.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's arm and shoulder workout
- Machine preacher curls: 1 x 30, 4 x 10-12
- Machine dips: 1 x 30, 4 x 10-12
- Overhead press machine: 5 x 10-12
- Machine lateral raises: 5 x 10-12
- Machine rear delt flies: 5 x 10-12