The Arnold split pairs chest with back, shoulders with arms, and gives legs a day of their own, run twice a week over six sessions. It is a high-volume plan for lifters who already train four or more days a week and recover well. Here is the schedule, every exercise with sets and reps, and how to keep the load climbing.
What is the Arnold split?
The Arnold split is a six-day body-part 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. Antagonist pairing is the idea behind the first day — pressing and pulling in the same session keeps the shoulder working through both patterns and lets you superset if you want the session shorter.
It is a lot of volume. Six sessions a week with chest, back, shoulders and arms hit twice is more than most lifters recover from in a normal week of work and sleep. Run it when your training is already consistent, your sleep is decent and you are eating enough. If it is your first year of lifting, a full-body beginner plan will build more strength in less time.
The Arnold split weekly schedule
| 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 full workout
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, lead with the incline press and the pulldown so the week is not two identical sessions.
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 two to three minutes after the heavy compounds and 60 to 90 seconds on the isolation work. If a session runs past 75 minutes, cut a set from the last two exercises rather than rushing the first ones.
How to progress
Use double progression on every lift: stay inside the rep range, and when you hit the top of it for all sets with clean form, add the smallest jump available next session and work back up. On upper-body lifts that is 2.5 to 5 pounds; on squats and deadlifts, 5 to 10.
The risk on this plan is not the load, it is the accumulation. Six sessions a week with this much direct arm and shoulder work stacks fatigue quietly. Keep one to three reps in reserve on most sets, and if your main lifts drop for two weeks in a row, take a week at about 90 percent of your loads with two-thirds of the sets before pushing again. Our guide to how many sets and reps build muscle covers the weekly volume this plan lands in.
Run this split in Trackist
Trackist writes a block around your answers rather than handing you a template: your goal, your experience, the equipment you can reach, anything that hurts, and the days you can train. Tell it six days and a hypertrophy goal and you get a plan in this shape, with every exercise, set, rep target and rest already set, and a deload in the last week when the block runs six weeks or more.
At the gym the day is one screen: last session's numbers under every cell, one line above each exercise saying what to try today, and a rest countdown that keeps running when you lock the phone. If the Friday session keeps landing too hard, say so once and Trackist rewrites it. If a shoulder starts complaining on the overhead press, report it and you get a movement that trains the same muscle, remembered for every plan after it.
More on the volume question 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 twice adds up quickly. Keep one to three 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 six days and hit each muscle twice. PPL groups by movement pattern, so pressing and pulling never share a day. The Arnold split pairs chest with back and shoulders with arms, which makes supersets natural and puts more arm work in one session.
Can I run the Arnold split on four days?
Yes. Run chest and back, shoulders and arms, legs, then repeat the first day the following week so the cycle rotates. Each muscle group then gets hit about every four to five days instead of twice a week.
Can Trackist build this split for me?
Yes. Answer the six questions with six training days and a muscle-building goal and the block comes back in this shape. You can reorder, swap, add or remove any exercise in the editor, and the plan changes from your feedback as the block runs.
5.0 ON THE APP STORE · FREE TO DOWNLOAD
Run this plan in Trackist
Six questions, and the block is written around your gym and your week. Log every set and the load climbs from what you lifted last time. Free on the App Store, Android coming soon.
