Arnold Schwarzenegger's Diet Plan

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YouTuber MattDoesFitness tackles new diets or workouts and documents the experience on his popular channel. In his latest video, Matt researches how Arnold Schwarzenegger trained and ate during his bodybuilding days. Then, Matt sets out to try Schwarzenegger's former meal and fitness routine for 24 hours himself.

According to Matt's research, Schwarzenegger followed a high-protein diet and consumed roughly one gram of protein per pound of body weight. For the YouTube star, this means ingesting 207 grams of protein a day.

"That's quite a lot of food," he says when looking at his breakfast.

He begins the day by eating four sunny side up eggs, two strips of bacon, oatmeal with honey, home made bread with peanut butter, and black coffee.

"This is way more than I typically eat in the morning," says Matt. Then, he downs a protein shake before heading to the gym, where he trains shoulders and arms. According to the YouTuber's research, the former Mr. Olympia trained twice per day while he was in his prime.

Matt begins with shoulders and completes the following exercises, which he says mimics Schwarzenegger's routine:

• Seated barbell press and lateral raise: 6 sets of 6 to 10 reps each
• Rear deltoid lateral raise: 5 sets of 6 to 10 reps each
• Cable lateral raise: 5 sets of 10 to 12 reps each

Admittedly, Matt lifts much lighter than he normally would.

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"There's no way I'm doing that [workout] with any substantial amount of weight," he says.

He ends the session with a calf, forearm, and ab routine that he believes follows Schwarzenegger's split.

"That's the longest I've been in the gym probably ever," says Matt. "I've been in the gym for probably about six hours."

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He heads home and downs sweet potatoes, salad, and steak. Then, he rests for a while—but before long, he heads back to the gym to complete his arm workout:

• Biceps - barbell curl, seated dumbbell curl, dumbbell concentration curl: 6 sets of 6 to 10 reps each
• Triceps - close grip bench press, tricep push down, barbell french press, one arm dumbbell, tricep extension: 6 sets of 6 to 10 reps each

After, Matt heads to the grocery store and picks up beer and rotisserie chicken, which he read was one of Schwarzenegger's favorite post-workout meals.

It's safe to say that Matt has reached his target protein goal since an entire rotisserie chicken contains roughly 164 grams of protein. But he begrudgingly snacks on cottage cheese just to be safe.

"If you love cottage cheese you're an absolute freak," he says. "Just look at it, how is that going to be nice?"

Living like Arnold just isn't easy, or realistic for the average man, according to Matt.

"The volume [of reps] was stupid obscene," he says. "Ninety-nine percent of the population cannot maintain that because you're going to get injured. You wouldn't want to be doing that long term."

Take Matt's advice, and leave Arnold's routine alone.

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Melissa Matthews Health Writer Melissa Matthews is the Health Writer at Men's Health, covering the latest in food, nutrition, and health.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger's Diet Plan

Source: https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a30497856/arnold-schwarzenegger-workout-diet-video/