6-Day Muscle Mass Workout Plan

Arnold Schwarzenegger is considered one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time. Known for his incredible muscle mass and sculpted physique, it’s no wonder bodybuilders of all ages want to train like him. Fortunately, we have a good understanding of how Arnold trained and what helped him achieve his legendary status.

Throughout his career, Arnold followed a variety of workout routines, from the classic “bro split” to training twice a day. One of his favorite routines, often called “The Arnold Split,” is a six-day program designed to help break through plateaus and build lean muscle, just like Arnold himself.

Six-Day Arnold Split For Lean Muscle Mass

You might be surprised to see so many simple exercises listed below, but these are the exact workouts that helped Arnold Schwarzenegger reach the top. The key isn’t about making things complicated—it’s all about sticking to a routine and rotating through exercises consistently.

One mistake people often make with this split is focusing too much on isolation exercises. While Arnold did include isolation work, the Arnold split is built around basic compound exercises, like the barbell bench press and squats, which he relied on the most.

We won’t go over every exercise in detail, but here are some of the most popular ones for each muscle group.

Day One: Chest And Back 1

Chest exercises are a key part of any good workout routine. They mainly work the pectoral muscles, which are important for upper body strength and shaping your chest. Doing these exercises can improve your strength, help with better posture, give your chest a more defined look, and make everyday tasks easier.

Strengthening your back muscles is just as important. It helps with posture, lowers the chance of injuries, and can ease back pain. A strong back also keeps your spine aligned and boosts your stability. These exercises target muscles like the lats and rhomboids, helping you build a balanced and strong body.

Day Two: Shoulders And Arms 1

This workout is all about shaping and strengthening your shoulders and biceps, with a focus on muscle definition and endurance. It starts with the Military Press, a key exercise that works your whole shoulder area and triceps. This helps improve your strength and stability for overhead presses. Next, you move on to Lateral Raises, which target the middle part of your shoulders, helping you achieve that wider, well-defined look.

The workout then switches to your biceps, starting with Barbell Curls. This classic exercise is great for building mass and enhancing the peak of your biceps. After that, you’ll do Preacher Curls, which isolate your biceps to make sure you’re using proper form and really focusing on muscle growth and shape.

Day Three: Legs 1

These exercises help you stay stable, boost your athletic performance, and burn calories, which is great for managing weight. Strong legs also improve your posture and lower the risk of injuries in everyday activities.

Day Four: Chest And Back 2

On Day Four, you’ll hit your chest and back again, but with a fresh set of exercises to keep challenging these key muscle groups.

You’ll try new moves like the decline bench press and seated cable rows to hit different angles and boost muscle growth. Adding exercises like chest dips and deadlifts ramps up the intensity, working multiple muscle groups and strengthening your core. This day focuses on fine-tuning muscle definition and building on the strength you gained on Day 1. By mixing up the exercises, this workout keeps your muscles guessing, avoiding plateaus, and helping you keep progressing toward a well-defined upper body.

Day Five: Shoulders And Arms 2

On Day 5, you’ll focus on shoulders and arms again, but with some new exercises like the Arnold Press and reverse curls to further shape and strengthen these areas. This workout is all about refining your upper body, paying close attention to muscle separation and symmetry.

You’ll work all angles of your arms and shoulders, hitting both major and minor muscle groups. The goal is to enhance the look of your upper body, improving its proportion and definition for a strong, athletic appearance. By mixing isolation and compound movements, this session balances adding size with perfecting detail.

Day Six: Legs 2

The final day of the Arnold Split cycle, Day 6, is all about pushing through another tough leg workout with front squats, Romanian deadlifts, and Bulgarian split squats. This workout is designed to tackle any last weak spots in your lower body, helping you build balanced strength and muscle. By adding exercises like the Bulgarian split squat, which tests your stability and coordination, you’ll engage your muscles in a more functional way. This session not only builds on the progress from your first leg day but also introduces new moves to target your muscles from different angles, promoting even development and preventing imbalances. The goal is to wrap up the week on a high note, setting the stage for both a better-looking physique and improved performance.

What Is The Arnold Split? 

The Arnold Schwarzenegger split is a six-day workout routine that Arnold himself often used. While it wasn’t the only program he followed, it’s become the most famous and widely used by people today.

What Does Arnold’s Workout Split Look Like?

The Arnold split workout plan involves three training sessions repeated twice a week, making it a total of six sessions. Some people mistakenly compare it to a push-pull-leg (PPL) split, which is also a three-day routine. In a PPL split, muscles are grouped by function: one day focuses on upper body pushing muscles (chest, shoulders, triceps), another day on upper body pulling muscles (back, biceps), and the last day is for the lower body.

However, Arnold’s approach was different. He organized his workouts by grouping muscles into sections: one day for the lower body, another for the upper body, and a final day for shoulders and arms. This method worked opposing muscle groups, called agonist-antagonist muscles, on the same day—like training triceps and biceps or quads and hamstrings together.

Here’s what an Arnold split looks like:

• Day One: Chest and Back (Pectorals, all back muscles)
• Day Two: Shoulders and Arms (Deltoids, biceps, triceps, forearms)
• Day Three: Legs (Quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, calves)

After completing Days One through Three, you’d repeat the cycle, with one day of rest after the six sessions.

Benefits Of The Arnold Split Workout

Besides the satisfaction of training like the legend himself, there are plenty of other perks to following this program. Here are our top three benefits of the Arnold split.

Training Volume For Muscle Growth

Arnold’s workouts were intense, and this plan is no different. The Arnold split is a high-volume training program with six sessions every week. “Volume” refers to the total amount of work you put on a muscle, which you can figure out by adding up all the sets or the total weight lifted (for example, 3 sets of 10 reps at 100 lbs = 3,000 lbs).

No matter how you measure it, the Arnold split helps you build a lot of volume, which is key for muscle growth. If your goal is to build muscle through resistance training, the Arnold split will get you the results you’re looking for.

Train Each Muscle Group Twice A Week

Let’s be clear—you can definitely build muscle by working out a body part once a week. However, recent sports research suggests that hitting each muscle twice a week is even better, even if you’re doing the same number of sets.

This approach aligns well with how your body recovers. When you work out, you break down your muscles, and they need two to three days to fully recover. If you only train a muscle once a week, you’ll end up waiting another three to four days before working on it again.

But when you train a muscle twice a week, you’re hitting it right after it’s recovered. This keeps your muscles in a constant cycle of training and recovery, maximizing their growth potential.

Plus, splitting your sets into two sessions allows for a more intense workout. For example, doing six exercises for your chest in one day can lead to “junk reps” because you’ll be tired by the fourth exercise, assuming you’re pushing yourself. Instead, try doing three exercises in each session (like on Monday and Thursday) for a more effective workout.

Easily Perform Advance Techniques

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout split is designed to train opposing muscle groups, known as agonist and antagonist muscles, on the same day. This setup allows you to use a technique called a superset.

A superset is when you do exercises for opposing muscles back-to-back without much rest in between. For example, you might do a barbell bench press, rest for about 15 seconds, and then jump into some chin-ups.

This approach offers some great benefits:

• Increases your workload.
• Saves time.
• Improves your conditioning.

Also Read: 10 Best Beginner Muscle-Building Exercises

How To Do The Arnold Split?

Now that we know what the Arnold split is, let’s talk about how to actually do it. The Arnold split doesn’t give you specific exercises to perform—it’s more about how you organize your workout routine.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the training methods Arnold used in his program.

Use Variety In Your Movements

Arnold was a big believer in adding small variations to your exercises. For instance, if you’re doing an incline bench press, try using different angles. During a back workout, mix things up by doing both bent-over barbell rows and dumbbell rows.

Choose Two To Three Exercises For Major Muscle Groups

Pick two to three exercises for each major muscle group, like your chest, back, and shoulders. For your legs, choose three exercises that target the front muscles (like quads) and three for the back muscles (like hamstrings).

Choose One To Three Exercises For Smaller Muscle Groups

For your biceps, triceps, calves, and abs, pick one to three exercises per session. How many you choose can depend on how much time you have and if you’re doing any special sets.

Use One To Two Exercises To Train Core

You can work your core during every training session, so just pick one or maybe two exercises each time. Try using different movement patterns, like:

• Flexion for your lower abs (such as leg raises or hanging knee raises)
• Flexion for your upper abs (like reverse crunches)
• Anti-rotation (such as Pallof presses or planks)
• Lateral movements
• Rotational movements

Use Max Effort 

If you’re going to follow the Arnold split, you need to train with intensity. Arnold always pushed himself to the limit with every set, aiming for muscle failure. So, treat each set like it’s your last and give it your all.

Use Four To Five Sets And Five To 20 Reps

One thing that sets this training program apart is the use of high sets. Unlike many other routines that stick to three sets, Arnold often did four or five sets, even for smaller muscles like his forearms.

When it comes to reps, Arnold used a wide range—anywhere from five to twenty. However, most of his workouts were in the 8-12 rep range. He reserved heavier weights for the main exercise of the day and used higher reps (15-20) for different leg exercises.

Use Supersets In Moderation

As we mentioned earlier, the Arnold split works great with supersets. But don’t go overboard with them.

Unless you’re short on time and need to speed up your workout, stick to using just one or two supersets. It’s best to save them for the end of your workout, especially for smaller exercises.

Deload Every Eight To 12 Weeks

One of the great things about the Arnold split is that it lets you do a lot of training volume, which is fantastic for muscle growth. However, it also makes taking a deload even more important.

A deload is a way to help your body fully recover. To do a deload, just follow your regular program but cut the weight in half.

For example, if you’re bench pressing with a weight of 200 lbs for 4 to 8 reps, during your deload, you would do the same number of reps but with 100 lbs instead.