Did Arnold have the best chest of all time?
Chest Master: How Arnold Schwarzenegger Built The Best Chest Of All Time. Stretching the tape at an incredible 58″, Arnold Schwarzenegger's chest had it all: size, shape, balance and definition. When he hit a side chest pose, his pecs arched so high that a glass of water could rest atop them.
Arnold pecs were truly impressive, even as teenager. It was always one of his strong body parts. Arnold prioritized chest training; he did it first in his training when fatigue levels were low so he could train it with maximum intensity. "I seemed to train my chest hard and correctly from the beginning," he wrote.
At his bodybuilding peak and on his way to becoming a seven-time Mr Olympia, the Austrian Oak could bench press 500 pounds (226kg), deadlift loads more while showing feats of strengths that saw him hold numerous lifting records all over Europe.
Largest chest measurement 📏 In February 1958, shortly before his death at the age of 32, Robert Earl Hughes from Illinois, USA weighed 484 kg (1,067 lb / 76 st 3lb) and had a chest measurement of 3.15 metres (10 ft 4in).
Arnold Schwarzenegger had 22 inches at his peak.
In the early days Arnold's most glaring weakness was undoubtedly his undeveloped calves. They were virtually nonexistent. The Austrian neglected the body part as it was a muscle group that wasn't deemed a priority in the European circuit at the time.
These days, he writes, he trains 6 days a week, focusing on chest and back one day; then biceps, triceps, and shoulders; and finally legs. Then he repeats the sequence. A typical chest and back day, he says, would include five sets of the following exercises: Machine Bench Press x 20 reps.
Arnold trained hard, and there were no secrets to his gains other than pounding out the sets and reps with good heavy weights. Of course we all eventually had injuries to deal with that changed the game, but in the early days, there was nothing more fun than intense, heavy training with classic movements.
Arnold Schwarzenegger had the biggest chest in the history of professional bodybuilding. In his prime, Arnold's chest measured a mind-blowing 57 inches. Even the legendary bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman couldn't match Arnold's chest development!
Cheat Curls. If you've read anything about his biceps training, you know that cheat curls were one of his favorite size builders. No, he didn't invent them, but he sure made them popular. He used to start his biceps program with them, heaving up massive poundage's.
Who has bigger chest than Arnold?
Lou Ferrigno's chest size
His chest was full and dense. Stands 59 inches that's an inch larger than Arnold.
- Obliques. Pretty much everyone does the standard ab crunches, but crunches aren't going to develop your obliques. ...
- Calves. ...
- Forearms. ...
- Triceps. ...
- Lower stomach.

Anyway, the chest – which mainly consists of the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor – is a notoriously difficult muscle to build.
Troy Aikman | Gym and Fridge
Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked off his birthday this morning by reflecting on some of his fondest bodybuilding memories. In his monthly newsletter, he looked back on his days working out with Italian bodybuilder Franco Columbo, and revealed his career max bench press: 525 pounds.
He is known for lifting insane weights even while training for bodybuilding and aesthetics. In his training program “blueprint to size” Arnold reveals his unofficial gym records to be a 247 Kg Squat, 226 Kg Bench Press and 322 Kg Deadlift.
Schwarzenegger used to workout for five hours a day
Even though Schwarzenegger is still very active by most people's standards, his current regime isn't a patch on how the former Mr. Olympia used to train — as a competitive bodybuilder, he would lift weights for five hours a day, he said.
1. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Between his Olympia winning physique in the 70's and his movie star muscles he carried in the 80's, Schwarzenegger was responsible for inspiring many people to start training for more than two generations now.
- Nasser El Sonbaty. ...
- Ronnie Coleman. ...
- Dennis Wolf. ...
- Jay Cutler. ...
- Flex Lewis. ...
- Steve Kuclo. ...
- Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay. ...
- Margie Martin. Andrea Shaw has been considered the face of women's bodybuilding since the Ms.
Bodybuilding Hall of Famer Shawn Ray ranks the best arms to ever hit the Olympia Stage.
His blend of mass, symmetry, and definition was absolutely perfect. His arms were thick, his already legendary biceps fully peaked. Even Ferrigno, at 6'5″, couldn't outmuscle him. At the same time, Arnold hadn't sacrificed any of the definition he'd shown the year before.
Did Arnold train biceps everyday?
In the off-season, when maximum size was his goal, Arnold would typ- ically train arms twice a week. Precontest, this was bumped up to three days a week, again to fully pump and define the arms. This essentially negated the lower volume he used in each workout.
Arnold (above) sports an 8 to 9% body fat percentile in this photo from back in the Pumping Iron days.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of many strength athletes who regularly performed calisthenics along with his weight training. He was known to perform a variety of pushups, pull-ups, dips, and more.
Arnold worked out five hours a day, six days a week. Most of us train 45 mins, and we're exhausted. All at the same time he was working on his mail order business, on his acting classes, going to college, training for three hours a day and doing construction.
20″ Wonders. By the time of his 1973 Mr. Olympia victory, Schwarzenegger's calves were stretching the tape at a prodigious 20″ and were considered the best of his day. Even today, his calves would stand out in an Olympia lineup.
It's always kind of the same thing, I'll do arms and deltoids one day, and then the next day I do chest and back, calves, abs... and then it repeats itself, that's the whole week." "What's also routine is at night, I do some extra cardiovascular work before I have dinner," he continued.
While preparing for bodybuilding contests, Arnold would frequently train six days a week, twice a day, with an aim to target each muscle group three times a week — a staggering amount of volume, even for professional bodybuilder standards.
I embraced cardio training when my Hollywood career took of. I didn't have time to train for hours as I used to, so I needed a way to burn extra calories and work my heart in shorter, more efficient workouts. These days, I combine cardio and weight training in the same session.
Arnold says his best gym powerlifts were: squat 545 lbs. (247 kg.), bench press 500 lbs. (227 kg.), and deadlift 710 (322 kg.).
Olympia title from 1977-1979, Zane is one of the few bodybuilders throughout history that actually defeated Arnold in a bodybuilding competition. While he never took down Arnold on the Olympia stage like Oliva did, Frank Zane did defeat Arnold at the 1968 Mr. Universe.
Did Arnold train triceps?
Keep Things In Perspective. Although Arnold advocated training biceps, triceps, and forearms with equal intensity, he also liked to draw attention to the fact that the triceps are the larger and more complex muscle group of the upper arm. The biceps have two heads, while the triceps have three.
Cory Gregory explains why Arnold loved chest flys, and how performing them properly can help you build a massive chest like Golden-Era Schwarzenegger! In search for the best possible exercises I can have in my arsenal, I always find myself going back to how Arnold Schwarzenegger performed a movement.
Arnold dominated the golden age of bodybuilding with real strength built from heavy lifts.
New footage has emerged of Schwarzenegger making a set of 52.5 kilogram bicep curls look easy.
They say Schwarzenegger told them that he began taking Dianabol, a popular steroid, at the age of 17 in Germany and routinely injected other testosterone-like substances after arriving in America in 1968. “I was in Munich in the 1960s, and Arnold gave me my first bottle of Dianabol,” said Rick Wayne, a former Mr.
Arnold was 6-foot-2, 235 pounds at his peak.
"I make a point of never doing less than 6 repetitions per set with most movements, and nothing higher than 12. The rule applies to most body parts, including calves," Arnold said.
The Stapedius, the smallest skeletal muscle in the human body, which is about 1 mm in length, is regarded to be the weakest muscle. It originates from a prominence known as the pyramidal eminence at the posterior edge of the tympanic cavity.
The strongest muscle based on its weight is the masseter. With all muscles of the jaw working together it can close the teeth with a force as great as 55 pounds (25 kilograms) on the incisors or 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms) on the molars.
- Lower Back Muscles. ...
- Latissimus Dorsi. ...
- Rhomboids. ...
- Abdominals. ...
- Hamstrings. ...
- Obliques. ...
- Calves. ...
- Forearm Muscles. This is more about grip strength than just your forearm muscles.
At what age is it easiest to gain muscle?
Late teens and early twenties are the perfect age to start bodybuilding. Puberty and bodybuilding are closely related because this is the fastest time for muscle growth. Between, 17-25, you will experience testosterone driven growth burst in your muscles.
As discussed, the pectoral muscles are much bigger and so can generate much more force than the triceps.
With that being said, different muscle groups tend to have different rates of recovery, with smaller muscles—biceps, triceps, calves—being able to recover more quickly than larger muscles—lats, quads, hamstrings, etc.
In his monthly newsletter, he looked back on his days working out with Italian bodybuilder Franco Columbo, and revealed his career max bench press: 525 pounds. “In those days, that was a big lift,” he says.
Like all high-level bodybuilders or strength athletes, Arnold possessed AMAZING muscle building genes. Although 99.999% of you who are reading this article do not have the rare muscle building genes of Arnold, you can still greatly improve your physique.
Update: In his July 30, 2021 email newsletter, Arnold claimed his best bench press was 525, but because he said 500 previously on multiple occasions we'll go with that. Arnold says his best gym powerlifts were: squat 545 lbs. (247 kg.), bench press 500 lbs. (227 kg.), and deadlift 710 (322 kg.).
Rohit Rajput has been gifted with the best of genetics which is proving helpful for him to represent India in the Olympia. But this does not mean he did not work hard for what he has achieved. Rohit started getting trained in an early age when he was in school.