Mitchell Hooper Tackles Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Brutal Back and Biceps Workout

World’s Strongest Man places himself via robust pull day session.

Written by Stephen Sheehan, CPT Final up to date on Nov 28, 2023

As if making an attempt to match Ronnie Coleman’s best lifts wasn’t difficult sufficient, Mitchell Hooper additionally tried to maintain tempo with one other all-time nice’s signature exercise. Though the reigning World’s Strongest Man sometimes doesn’t concentrate on getting a pump throughout his coaching, he had no alternative however to embrace that satisfying feeling Arnold Schwarzenegger strived for throughout his legendary fitness center periods.

In a video posted on his YouTube web page on Nov. 13, 2023, Hooper tried the seven-time Mr. Olympia winner’s iconic again and biceps exercise. For sure, the high-volume type of coaching gave the Canadian strongman an excellent deeper appreciation for Schwarzenegger’s accomplishments.

At all times up for a problem, Hooper examined his upper-body power and stamina by way of a collection of again and biceps exercises that left his muscle tissues totally taxed. Paying homage to arguably the preferred bodybuilder ever to stay, it didn’t take lengthy for the gifted strongman to grasp the variations between how athletes from every sport profit from their particular coaching modalities.

Hooper kicked off the session with 4 again workout routines earlier than ending up with a number of curl variations. The exercise begins about 40 seconds into the video.

Huge-Grip Pull-Up

Tipping the scales at about 6-foot-3, 320 kilos, Hooper recruited his lats to carry his sizable body to the highest of the assisted pull-up machine. Going with a large grip led to enhanced lat engagement and allowed the Ontario native to raised make the most of his rhomboids and trapezius muscle tissues.

After finishing his second set, Hooper took a take a look at a few of Schwarzenegger’s finest lifts, which included a 498-pound (226-kilogram) bench press and a 709.9-pound (322-kilogram) deadlift. Regardless of not being overly impressed by these numbers, Hooper acknowledged that bodybuilders have a definite benefit in a single key space.

“Higher physique power is disproportionally good in bodybuilders as a result of their muscle mass is so excessive up there,” he defined. “I don’t know what that’s. Perhaps strongmen ought to do much more higher physique accent work than we do as a result of bodybuilders are so robust comparatively.

Following that temporary relaxation interval, Hooper wrapped up the primary portion of the exercise by finishing three extra units of wide-grip pull-ups.

T-Bar Row

Subsequent, Hooper went with a variation of certainly one of Schwarzenegger’s favourite workout routines: the T-bar row. Beginning with three 45-pound (20.4-kilogram) plates, the massive man explosively pulled and squeezed every rep, noting that his upper-body strength isn’t on the identical stage as his decrease physique.

“Like 80 p.c of every thing we do is quad, hamstring, glute,” Hooper mentioned about strongmen. “Leg drive, in case you’ve obtained that, you’re going to do very effectively.”

Subsequent units of T-bar rows included heavier hundreds, which pressured the Canadian athlete to make use of his core and legs to keep up stability all through the motion.

Single-Arm Dumbbell Row

Hooper then went over to the dumbbell part to carry out single-arm rows. A basic again train that’s nice for constructing thickness, he made fast work of 130-pound (59-kilogram) dumbbells for his first two units. Nevertheless, simply because it seemed straightforward doesn’t imply Hooper loved this a part of the exercise.

“I feel this is perhaps my least favourite train,” he defined. “The problem is so much in your core, not so much within the precise pulling. So it’s like a core exercise with an arbitrary dumbbell motion.”

Nonetheless, Hooper pushed (or on this case, pulled) on to complete two extra units with the identical weight, ensuring to keep up a impartial backbone as he accomplished the heavy dumbbell rows.

Shut-Grip Lat Pulldown

The ultimate again train of the exercise put Hooper’s lats to the final word take a look at. Having already accepted the fact that he could be “sore as hell” the subsequent day, he mustered up the power to finish 4 units of close-grip lat pulldowns. Hooper leaned again barely in the course of the motion, pulling the deal with down to simply above chest stage.

As soon as he completed on the cable machine, he moved on to the second half of his session.