The Arnold split workout plan pairs chest with back and shoulders with arms, and gives legs a day of their own. You run the 3 sessions twice a week. It is a lot of work, so it suits lifters who already train 4 or more days a week and recover well. Here is the week, every exercise with sets and reps, and how to keep the weight climbing.
What the Arnold split is
The Arnold split is a 6-day plan named after the training Arnold Schwarzenegger described in the 1970s. Three sessions repeat twice a week: chest and back together, shoulders and arms together, and legs on their own.
Chest and back share a day because they do opposite jobs. You press, then you pull, so the shoulder works in both directions in one session. You can also run the exercises as supersets, 2 exercises back to back with no rest between them, if you want a shorter session.
Who should run it
Run it only if you recover well. Volume, the number of hard sets per muscle each week, is high here. Six sessions, with chest, back, shoulders and arms each trained twice, is more than most people recover from alongside a normal week of work and sleep.
Start it when your training is already consistent, you sleep decently and you eat enough. In your first year of lifting, a full-body beginner plan builds more strength in less time.
How the week looks
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| Monday | Chest and back |
| Tuesday | Shoulders and arms |
| Wednesday | Legs |
| Thursday | Chest and back |
| Friday | Shoulders and arms |
| Saturday | Legs |
| Sunday | Rest |
The workouts
Chest and back
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell bench press | 4 | 6-8 |
| Barbell row | 4 | 6-8 |
| Incline dumbbell press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Pull-up or lat pulldown | 3 | 8-12 |
| Cable fly | 3 | 12-15 |
| Seated cable row | 3 | 10-12 |
On the second chest and back day, start with the incline press and the pulldown, so the 2 sessions are not identical.
Shoulders and arms
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Overhead press | 4 | 6-8 |
| Lateral raise | 4 | 12-15 |
| Rear delt fly or face pull | 3 | 15-20 |
| Barbell or dumbbell curl | 3 | 8-12 |
| Cable triceps pushdown | 3 | 10-12 |
| Hammer curl | 2 | 10-12 |
| Overhead triceps extension | 2 | 12-15 |
Legs
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell back squat | 4 | 6-8 |
| Romanian deadlift | 3 | 8-10 |
| Leg press | 3 | 10-12 |
| Leg curl | 3 | 10-15 |
| Standing calf raise | 4 | 12-15 |
Rest 2 to 3 minutes after the heavy compound lifts and 60 to 90 seconds on the isolation work. If a session runs past 75 minutes, cut a set from the last 2 exercises. Do not rush the first ones to save time.
How to add weight
Use double progression on every lift. Stay inside the rep range, and when you hit the top of it on every set with clean form, add the smallest jump available next session. Then work back up from the bottom of the range.
On upper-body lifts that jump is 1 to 2.5 kg. On squats and deadlifts it is 2.5 to 5 kg. Bench 70 kg for 4 sets of 8, and next Monday it is 72.5 kg for 6s.
What to do when you stall
On this plan the risk is fatigue, not the weight on the bar. Six sessions a week with this much direct arm and shoulder work build fatigue quietly.
Leave 1 to 3 reps in reserve on most sets. Reps in reserve means how many more clean reps you could have done. If your main lifts drop 2 weeks in a row, take a deload week before you push again. A deload is a lighter week: the same weights with about 60% of the sets. Our guide to how many sets and reps build muscle explains the weekly volume this plan lands in.
Run this split in Trackist
Trackist writes a plan from your answers instead of handing you a template. It asks 14 questions about your goal, experience, equipment, joints, schedule, session length and age. Ask for 6 days and a muscle-building goal, and every exercise, set, rep target and rest comes already chosen. A plan of 6 weeks or more ends with a deload week at 60% of the sets.
At the gym, last session’s numbers sit under every field, a line above each exercise suggests today’s weight, and the rest timer keeps counting on the Lock Screen. If Friday’s session keeps landing too hard, say so. Trackist notes the first report, and if you report it again, Trackist rewrites the day. If your shoulder hurts on the overhead press, Trackist swaps in an exercise that trains the same muscle and remembers the limitation on your profile.
More on training volume is on the Trackist blog.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is the Arnold split good for natural lifters?
It can work, but the volume is the problem, not the split. Six sessions a week with chest, back, shoulders and arms trained twice adds up fast. Leave 1 to 3 reps in reserve, watch your main lifts week to week, and drop a session if they start falling.
How is the Arnold split different from push pull legs?
Both run 6 days and train each muscle twice. Push pull legs groups exercises by what the muscles do, so pressing and pulling never share a day. The Arnold split pairs chest with back and shoulders with arms, which makes supersets easy and puts more arm work in one session.
Can I run the Arnold split on 4 days?
Yes. Run chest and back, shoulders and arms, legs, then chest and back again. The next week picks up where the cycle left off, so the order rotates. Each muscle then gets trained about every 5 days instead of twice a week.
Can Trackist build this split for me?
Yes. Answer the 14 questions with 6 training days and a muscle-building goal, and Trackist writes the plan. In the plan editor you can reorder, swap, add or remove any exercise, so you can shape it into this split. The coach changes the plan when a problem you report keeps coming back.
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Let Trackist write your plan
Answer 14 questions and Trackist writes a plan around your gym and your week. Log every set, and the next session shows the weight to lift. On the App Store now. Android is coming.
