Exercise scientist Mike Israetel gave critiques to Arnold’s workouts during his career.
Dr. Mike Israetel knows a thing or two about building quality muscle. Holding a PhD in sports physiology, Israetel is well-versed in what it takes to produce elite strength and build elite muscle. With all his knowledge, as well as his sarcastic wit, Israetel has made it his mission in recent years to investigate the training regimes of anyone from actors to athletes and take them to task.
During a recent video, Israetel decided to watch workout clips of bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger from Pumping Iron.
Chest Training
The chest portion of the video included flyes and Israetel liked the movement that Arnold was doing to begin.
“This is a really good flying technique. Go all the way down but then when you come up, just stop like three quarters of the way then come down.”
He continued to explain what movement and position will help grow the muscle in a better way.
“The best part of that whole thing is we know now that lengthened contractile positions grow more than shortened ones and that there’s very little force in the shortened position anyway.”
Back Training
While training back in the video, Arnold hit cable rows to really gain that width and thickness that he was known for. Israetel approved of the technique used when performing the movement.
“This is actually a really good technique. It’s just that Arnold could do more the way back slower.”
“I cannot get within eight or nine reps of my best cable row with just me hands and that means every set I would be doing would be like eight or nine reps in reserve.”
Bicep Training
Finally, Schwarzenegger did bent over bicep curls. Israetel was most critical about this exercise, claiming that Arnold might be swinging too much.
“Unfortunately, this position maximizes tension at the very top because that’s where the vector to gravity is the highest and we know now from a considerable amount of research and experience that you actually want most of the tension to be at the lengthened position.”
When bent over, it is important for there to be tension at the lengthened position. That was not the case here.
“Here, because of the way Arnold is bent over, the bicep experiences almost no tension at the lengthened position.”
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