Strengthen your muscles efficiently with Arnold Schwarzenegger's endorsed strength training method, speeding up your progress
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mechanical Drop-Set Workout
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the iconic bodybuilder and actor, is renowned for his innovative approach to muscle-building techniques. One such technique is the mechanical drop-set workout, a method he has popularised and even published himself.
In this workout, instead of changing weights when reaching failure, the exercise selection is regressed, allowing for continuous progression. Each block in Arnold's mechanical drop-set workout involves three back-to-back variations of an exercise.
The workout begins with Drop Set 1, which targets the lower body. It includes the dumbbell front foot elevated lunge, dumbbell reverse lunge, and dumbbell goblet squat. After completing each drop set, rest as little as possible before moving onto the next exercise within the set.
Drop Set 2 focuses on upper-body push and includes decline push-up, regular push-up, and incline push-up (or three variations of push-ups if decline push-ups are too advanced). As with the lower body exercises, rest periods between exercises in a set are kept minimal.
Drop Set 3 targets the glutes and core with dumbbell single-leg hip thrust, single-leg hip thrust, and hip thrust. Each drop set is to be repeated 2-3 times with 2-3 minutes rest between each set. A rest period of 60-90 seconds is suggested before moving onto the next block.
Drop Set 4 focuses on upper-body pull and includes renegade row, bent-over row, and single-arm row. The workout concludes with an optional upper-body pulling-focused block to balance the push-heavy workout.
Arnold's mechanical drop-set workout demands a high volume of work, and expect mild to moderate delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) over the next 48 hours. Post-session recovery can be sped up by avoiding repetition of earlier exercises.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has released a workout drawing on the principle of mechanical drop sets, and his team has written about it in the latest edition of Arnold's Pump Club. If you're looking for a challenging workout that pushes you to your limits, Arnold's mechanical drop-set workout is definitely worth trying.
