Arnold Schwarzenegger who is possibly the greatest bodybuilder of all time and made bodybuilding mainstream sported an aesthetic physique because aesthetics and not just size were important back then. An important part of aesthetics was having a small waist and wide broad shoulders and upper body. Having a ripped abs was part of creating this image because how one looked was an art form and by design to try and reach perfection (if you have watched pumping iron you will understand what I mean, if you haven’t you should watch it soon). Arnold was huge and yet he still managed to maintain a 34inch waist in competition shape. Having a small waist help exaggerate his v taper making him appear even bigger.

Below I will share how Arnold was able to get ripped 6 pack abs at his size.

Arnold Schwarzeneggers favourite ab exercises

When training abs Arnold would focus on doing high reps and make sure to do atleast 25 reps per set of an exercise often going for 10 minutes continuously on some exercises (he was obsessed with training and pushing beyond the gym pain).

The abs are made up of 3 different regions, the abs exercises that Arnold favoured focus on the whole ab region as you will see. Arnold revealed the exercises he used to build his ripped 6 pack abs In The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding:

• Roman chair sit-ups
• Hanging Knee Raises
• Lying leg raises
• Broomstick twists
• Cable Crunches
• Reverse crunches

You do not have to do 25 sets of all these exercises during the same workout, you can start off by alternating between exercises that focus on the upper abs and lower abs. As you get used to the exercises you would then begin doing more advanced abs exercises in higher reps and sets for example if you start with normal crunches and reverse crunches at first doing 5 sets of 25 reps at first, you will get used to it and start doing 2 abs exercises for 3-5 sets each for 25 or more reps per set, and you would increase it to 3 exercises with time until you are hitting about 300-500 reps during every ab workout session.

Abdominal workouts alone will not give you abs unless you are a teenager with a hyperactive metabolism (ectomorph), you often have to eat healthy and watch your calories and in the case of endomorphs (people who gain weight easily and find it hard to lose fat) you may need to do cardio as well to get ripped 6 pack abs.