Back in Arnold's day there was no conception of rest. The more is better idea is what he and many others lived by. He trained each body part 3x/wk and he didn't just train each body part 3x/wk but he annihilated each body part 3x/wk. Look at his encyclopedia...it's a great book but the training routines are outrageous. Squats, balls to the wall 3x/wk, dead lifts balls to the wall 3x/wk, etc. I was at an Arnold Q&A 4 years ago and someone asked him about shoulder training. They wanted to know what the best was to build shoulders was and what they needed to be doing. Arnold said every time you trained shoulders if you didn't complete at least 20 sets you were wasting your time. He said 30 sets would be more like it and that you should do this several times a week. Guys back in Arnold's day also didn't have their BF quite as low as many do now. Yes they were ripped and in fabulous shape but they didn't manipulate their nutrient intake during contest diets like many do today...there was more of an idea that calories are equal to some extent. We now know this just isn't true.
I haven't read that book (and Arnold didn't write anything so who knows if it's factual ) but I was under the impression that he trained each bodypart 2x weekly (double split)? If he did train like that the intensity would be quite low by necessity too. You do not do 30 all out sets for each bodypart 3x a week, no one can do that. I'm sure it was real playful type of training most of the time, with intensity increasing just before shows.
you said yourself youve never used anything more than 1250mg test. you said yourself you know for a fact that most pros maitain on 2g test and use 3.5 grams test to build. and theyr on all year.
arnold didnt have great genetics..looka t him when he came off...shrank to nothing at all immidetly... and look at pictures of him as a child....skinny, skinny, skinny..and look at his parents...neither of them have good bodies. arnolds physique when he looked his best = years and years aof HARD training, lots of protein, LOTS of AAS.
as far as the nutrition and training... arnold trains as hard or harder than any bodybuilder...dorian ronnie..whatever. you can only train so hard, and arnold did so. so the training point is moot. as far as the diet, arnold dieted on steak and eggs with a rotating carb up up... which isnt that prety much exactly the diet you love so much? and that palumbo loves so much?
Are you talking about now that he is 60? Or simply the post competition days? Hard to say he didn't look great all through the 80's and 90's Arnold trained harder then any bodybuilder ever, I agree. As for his diet, he would eat a lot of carbs throughout, carbs that most wouldn't touch in a diet today...but he had the genetics to get away with it.
he looks healthy but he was 170 - 180 pounds between contests/acting classes.
Didnt he say he purposefully dieted down at one point in an attempt to become more "mainstream"? He didnt' like it/couldn't deal being that skinny so he let his weight come back up and struggled until Conan.
