“The biggest mistake being made in bodybuilding today is that people aren’t covering basic exercises,” says the Austrian Oak. And by basic, Arnold doesn’t mean easy. Many contemporary fitness centers are full of people on machines, not in squat racks, and big-box gyms often lack even a single platform. Arnold disapproves: “Today, when I go in the gymnasium, I don’t see any of the kids learning about the clean and press, or the snatch, or the upright row from the floor.”
Schwarzenegger’s insistence on the essential lifts is not due to some grandfatherly desire to live in the past. It comes from decades of continued interest and expertise in the industry, and from the hard-earned knowledge that it doesn’t take fancy machines or off-the-wall programming to become arguably the best bodybuilder in history. Get back to your bodybuilding roots and experience unbelievable growth.
