How is that relevant? I don’t think it’s because he trained less, which is the point. As I understand it, the Mentzer brothers had underlying conditions. Arnold is fortunate not have have had such health issues. Further, some people can get away with taking steroids better than others. Again, Schwarzenegger got off easy. Well, easier anyway, since he did have heart surgery when he was 50 and then again 2 years ago. As an aside, Mentzer stopped working out years before he died due to a back injury if I am not mistaken, and he was apparently quite the smoker. So, for the purposes of our comparison, I think we’re on apple and orange territory.
My point is that each individual has different responses to exercise stimuli, recovery and steroids. Comparing Mentzer (who was very good) to Arnold who was the greatest of the Golden Age of Bodybuilding is also apple to oranges. I say Arnold was the best, by a whisker, over Oliva who I had the amazing fortune of sharing a couple of workouts with. Mind blowing to me as a 17 year old at the time.
Sergio Oliva was really something. It’s hard to believe that a guy that size had such a small waist. That was one of Schwarzenegger’s weaknesses; he did not have narrow hips, so I think he focused most of his posing at an angle. And, yeah, it must have been memorable to have worked out with Oliva. I never worked out with one of the pros, but I did meet Roy Callender a few times in my neck of the woods. (He’s the guy at the top right in the 1980 Mr. Olympia contest photo I posted earlier.) He was a personal trainer for a number of years at a gym I frequented from the late ‘90s to the mid-2000s. He was then the “master trainer” at a Gold’s that has since closed, and presently has his own gym about 5 or 6 kilometres from me. Nice guy, and very friendly.
Yeah, I was very fortunate, a lot of the older gym guys really liked because I always used picture perfect form. At one point I had an 1,100+ pound powerlifting total at 148# so they respected that as well. I worked in with a few other when they came to town, Frank Zane, Dave Dupree and some lesser knowns who were also impressive as hell. Got to meet Arnold when he guest posed, heady times. Sergio didn't pull any ego trips on anyone in the gym. One Sunday afternoon he was in the gym, I was working out and maybe one other guy. Sergio goes into the heavy room and is going to bench. Puts on 135 does a set, 225 does a set, then 315. I'm in the other area and hear the plates jiggling and start counting. When he hit 25 reps, I had to go watch, and count. No spotter, 53 reps on a Fall Sunday afternoon. Mind blowing
Despite my disregard for Arnold's hard-core training methods, I do like the guy and think he's a fairly righteous dude: Arnold Schwarzenegger Just Shared His Iconic No-Gym Workout Plan https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a31818878/arnold-schwarzenegger-home-workout-plan/ "There are a lot of things we can’t control during this crisis, so we need to focus on what we can control." HULTON ARCHIVEGETTY IMAGES As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spreads, celebrity response has been uneven, to say the least. While some notable stars have done little more than sing a song, others, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, have used their large platforms to be advocate for people to focus on public health. Schwarzenegger has shared multiple Instagram posts about the current need for social distancing and self-isolation during the current moment. He's advocated from the hot tub to scold spring breakers for refusing orders to avoid large crowds and hung out with his beloved pets Lulu and Whiskey to remind his fans that they should stay home. But his latest post gives his followers more than just advice. The bodybuilding icon shared his go-to no-gym workout routine, with a message for fans to keep moving during these uncertain times. "There are a lot of things we can’t control during this crisis, so we need to focus on what we can control," he wrote in the post's caption. "I wrote up my old no-gym required workout for all of you, as promised, because we can control our fitness." Followers were directed to go to Reddit, where Schwarzenegger posted the full details of the bodyweight routine. "Even without a gym, we can also control our physical fitness during this pandemic," he wrote. "Body weight, or freehand, training is the oldest method in the world. Gladiators and Vikings didn’t have gymnasiums. I started my own fitness journey with chin-ups on a tree branch by a lake in Austria." Arnold Schwarzenegger's At-Home Workout For a look at how these exercises should be done, check out this link for some classic photos of Schwarzenegger in his prime demonstrating the moves. Pushups Beginner: 25 Reps Advanced: 50 Reps Dips Between Chairs Beginner: 20 Reps Advanced: 50 Reps Row Between Chairs Beginner: 30 Reps Advanced: 50 Reps Situps Beginner: 30 Reps Advanced: 100 Reps Bent-leg Raises Beginner: 25 Reps Advanced: 50 Reps Bent-Over Twists Beginner: 25 Reps Advanced: 50 Reps Knee Bends (Squats) Beginner: 25 Reps Advanced: 50 to 70 Reps Calf Raises Beginner: 25 Reps Advanced: 50 Reps Chinups Beginner: 10 Reps Advanced: 30 Reps
True. Presently, I do 22 reps on my first set and 17 on my second. This is with a couple of 15-lb dumbbells. Truth be told, I would topple over backwards were it not for the dumbbells, which act as a counterbalance. If I just wanted counterbalance, though, I could use only 5-lb dumbbells. I used to use 35-lb dumbbells well over a year ago, but the numbers were lower, the cadence was faster, and I occasionally tweaked my lower back when I inadvertently extended the dumbbells too far forward towards the bottom of the movement. So, I prefer a lower weight, slower rep speed and lower risk of a mishap. But, unlike what I had reported earlier in another thread, I do presently lock my knee very briefly at the top of the movement. For a while I was maintaining continuous tension with the lighter weight by not quite locking at the top. I may or may not go back to that.
Back to not locking out the knee at the top of the movement. Turns out, I prefer the continuous tension. I found that, with the light dumbbells, I was doing too many reps when I locked out at the top -- 24 reps on my second to last workout. Yesterday, by avoiding lockout, I hit failure at 14 reps (and I added about a second or so to the rep speed: about 6.5 seconds per rep). So, whereas it took me about 130 seconds to complete a set for one leg with lockout (with a slightly higher rep speed), I was able to max out at about 90 seconds yesterday. I like that the duration was shorter, that I reached the same level of failure, that I kept the leg under full tension throughout, and that I did not have to use heavier weight to do so, which would have increased the risk of pulling my back, as I had done occasionally in the past when I used heavier dumbbells for "breathing" pistol squats. Win-win.