Arnold Schwarzenegger Blueprint Trainer Day 37

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Arnold's two undeniably great books, "The Education of a Bodybuilder," and "The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" aren't just classic because they show how he and other great bodybuilder trained. They've stayed in print and in use because he's equally revealing about what he did wrong in his training for years, and how he had to change his approach in order to become the greatest of all time.

When it came to the stable shoulder movement of lateral raises, Arnold is insistent that we learn from the error of his ways. "For many years I was doing my lateral raises wrong—with the thumbs up—because I saw them done that way in pictures, in magazines," he writes in "The Education of a Bodybuilder. "I could never figure out why my rear deltoids didn't grow. Then once, I was experimenting at home and I found that by turning the wrist to the side and making it straight, like a horizontal fist, with the thumb pointed toward the front and the weight straight, I got sore in my rear deltoid area. The more I turned the little finger up, the more the strain would go into the rear deltoid."

He also advises staring in a slightly bent-over position so that you don't "borrow force from other muscles." If you see the way most lifters perform lateral raises, you know exactly what he means.

Are your shoulders built like a cannonball all the way around, or are they lopsided like a jack-o-lantern that's been sitting on the front porch for too long? Take a look in the mirror or ask someone you trust for a frank appraisal. You know that's what Arnold would do. Then he'd do something about it.

Shoulders, Arms and Abs

Standing Military Press

10 sets of 4 reps

Superset

Arnold Dumbbell Press

5 sets of 8 reps

Side Lateral Raise

5 sets of 8 reps

Superset

Standing Dumbbell Upright Row

5 sets of 6 reps

Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise

5 sets of 12 reps

Barbell Curl

5 sets of 8 reps then 3 sets of 5 reps

Superset

Concentration Curls

5 sets of 6 reps

Seated Dumbbell Curl

5 sets of 6 reps

Close-Grip Barbell Bench Press

Use the 1-10 method

1-10 method After 1-2 warm-up sets, choose a weight that you're only able to lift for 1 rep. After you perform that 1 rep, take just enough weight off to perform 2 reps. From there, do the same for 3 reps and 4 reps, going all the way up to 10 reps. This is brutal because you take no rest between sets. The only rest you get is when you're unloading the weights. I loved this technique, and it's a total shock to the muscle.