Arnold Schwarzenegger’s two-move workout builds full-body strength, fast

A man doing a dumbbell chest press.

If you feel that you don’t have enough time to get a ‘decent’ workout in and were thinking of sacking off training for the day – don’t. You don’t need a shopping list of exercises and endless hours. In fact, Arnold Schwarzenegger has shared a full-body workout made up of just two exercises that he says will help you get “instantly stronger”.

In the latest edition of Arnold’s Pump Club newsletter, Arnold shares a two-move ‘wave cluster’ workout that blends two powerful strength training techniques: wave loading and cluster sets. Wave loading involves gradually increasing or decreasing the weight and reps in a pattern that mimics a wave, while cluster sets break a set into smaller groups of reps – called clusters – with short rest periods in between.

Arnold says that wave clusters – like 5-3-4-2 – “build strength by overloading your body with sets that are seemingly less than you can handle. But as the reps pile up in a wave, you end up doing significantly more work.”

The workout

(Image credit: Getty Images)

You’ll do two exercises – the deadlift and bench press – and you can use either a barbell, dumbbell or a mixture of both, and you want to use a weight that you can perform 7-8 reps. The wave cluster you’ll be performing is 5-3-4-2. This means you’ll do five reps of deadlifts followed by five reps of bench press, rest 60 seconds, then three reps of each, rest 60 seconds, then four reps, then two. Once you’ve completed an entire cluster wave, rest for three to four minutes, then repeat it one or two more times. Here's a breakdown:

Exercise 1: Deadlift

• Wave Cluster: 5–3–4–2
• Load: Choose a weight you could lift for 7 to 8 reps max
• Rest: 60 seconds between reps in the wave

Exercise 2: Bench press

• Wave Cluster: 5–3–4–2
• Load: Same as above, use 6–7 rep max
• Rest: 60 seconds between reps in the wave, 3 to 4 minutes between waves

Need more speedy strength workouts to complete throughout the week? Here’s another one from Arnold; it focuses on four low rep, heavy dumbbell exercises which you’ll cycle through in 30 minutes to help build strength, power and muscle in minimal time.