No one is better qualified to provide muscle-building advice than the Austrian Oak himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. That’s why we enlisted the bodybuilding champion, action star, former Governator—you name it, he’s done it—to give us his favorite strengthening and mass-building tips. Take it from Arnold, these simple, but important tweaks will do wonders for your gains. 

I talk so much about the many common ways to add intensity to your workouts—techniques like drop sets, forced reps, rest-pauses, and holding peak contractions—that I sometimes forget the not-so-obvious ones. Recently, I thought back to some of the innovative ways my fellow bodybuilders and I achieved that extra bit of intensity, as we were always looking to add another 5-10 lbs of new muscle growth. Here are three of the more creative measures we took.