Arnold Split: The Classic 6-Day Routine, Explained Honestly
The Arnold split is a 6-day routine: chest and back, shoulders and arms, then legs, repeated twice per week. Every muscle gets trained 2x weekly, the frequency a 2016 meta-analysis linked to roughly 63% more growth than once-weekly. The catch: at its original volume, it is an advanced-lifter program.
Maciej Glowacki
The Arnold split is a 6-day routine built from three workouts: chest and back, shoulders and arms, and legs, each run twice per week. It comes from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, and it remains one of the most searched training splits half a century later.
The structure holds up: every muscle trained twice weekly, the frequency a 2016 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld et al. linked to roughly 63% more growth than once-weekly training. The volume Arnold ran it with does not hold up for most people. This guide covers both the classic version and a version that fits recoverable modern volume targets.
Key takeaways:
- Three workouts (chest+back, shoulders+arms, legs), each twice per week: 6 training days, 1 rest day.
- Every muscle gets 2x weekly frequency, same as a 6-day push/pull/legs split.
- Arnold's original version used 25-30+ sets per session. Modern volume research supports 10-20 weekly sets per muscle, so scale sets down unless you are advanced with excellent recovery.
- The signature feature is antagonist pairing: chest and back in one session allows supersets and cuts session time.
- Not a beginner program. With less than 2 years of training, a 3 or 4-day split produces similar growth at a fraction of the recovery cost.
What is the Arnold split?
The weekly layout:
| Day | Session | Muscles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Chest and back | Chest, lats, upper back |
| Tuesday | Shoulders and arms | Delts, biceps, triceps, forearms |
| Wednesday | Legs | Quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves |
| Thursday | Chest and back | Chest, lats, upper back |
| Friday | Shoulders and arms | Delts, biceps, triceps, forearms |
| Saturday | Legs | Quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves |
| Sunday | Rest |
Two things distinguish it from push/pull/legs. First, chest and back land in the same session as antagonists: one pushes, one pulls. Arnold superset them (bench press into pull-ups), which keeps one muscle resting while the other works and shortens the session. Second, shoulders and arms get a full dedicated day, roughly double the direct delt and arm volume a typical PPL week provides.
The workouts (modern volume)
Arnold's original program ran 25-30+ sets per session. That worked for a genetically gifted professional. For everyone else, the version below keeps his structure and pairings but lands each muscle at 12-18 weekly sets, inside the 10-20 set range supported by the volume research (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).
Workout 1: chest and back
| Exercise | Sets x Reps |
|---|---|
| Barbell bench press | 4 x 6-10 |
| Pull-ups or lat pulldown | 4 x 6-10 |
| Incline dumbbell press | 3 x 8-12 |
| Bent-over row | 3 x 8-12 |
| Cable flyes | 2 x 12-15 |
| Seated cable row | 2 x 10-12 |
Workout 2: shoulders and arms
| Exercise | Sets x Reps |
|---|---|
| Seated barbell shoulder press | 4 x 6-10 |
| Lateral raises | 3 x 12-15 |
| Rear delt flyes | 3 x 12-15 |
| EZ-bar curls | 3 x 8-12 |
| Skull crushers | 3 x 8-12 |
| Hammer curls | 2 x 10-15 |
| Triceps pushdown | 2 x 10-15 |
Workout 3: legs
| Exercise | Sets x Reps |
|---|---|
| Barbell squats | 4 x 6-10 |
| Romanian deadlift | 3 x 8-12 |
| Leg press | 3 x 10-12 |
| Leg curls | 3 x 10-15 |
| Standing calf raises | 4 x 10-15 |
Superset the chest/back pairs (bench with pull-ups, incline press with rows) to keep that session under an hour. Take working sets within 1-3 reps of failure: a 2023 meta-analysis by Refalo et al. found training close to failure, not necessarily to failure, is what drives hypertrophy.
Arnold split vs PPL: which should you run?
Both are 6-day splits with every muscle at 2x weekly frequency. A 2024 meta-analysis of 14 studies found no hypertrophy difference between split types at equal volume, so the choice is structural, not scientific:
| Arnold split | Push/pull/legs | |
|---|---|---|
| Chest and back | Same day, supersets possible | Separate days |
| Shoulders and arms | Full dedicated day | Spread across push and pull days |
| Session balance | Day 2 is long without supersets | Even across all three days |
| Best for | Delt and arm priority | Balanced development |
Pick the Arnold split if shoulders and arms are your priority and you enjoy antagonist supersets. Pick PPL if you want simpler, more evenly balanced sessions. The best workout split guide compares both against every other schedule.
Who should not run the Arnold split
Honest answer: most lifters. Six training days with one rest day demands consistent 7+ hour sleep, adequate calories, and a training age of at least 2 years. When weekly volume is equated, a 2019 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Grgic, and Krieger found no growth advantage from higher frequency itself, which means a 4-day upper/lower split delivering the same sets produces similar growth with three rest days instead of one.
Run the Arnold split when you genuinely need to spread 16-20+ weekly sets per muscle across more sessions, not because it carries Arnold's name. And if performance drops across several lifts at once, that is fatigue talking: take a deload week rather than pushing through.
Hypro has 6-day plans pre-built with sets, reps, and Smart Progression targets, and tracks your weekly volume per muscle group as you log.
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Maciej Glowacki
Founder and CEO of Hypro. Built the platform from the ground up with years of hands-on lifting experience.
