There’s probably no one more well-known in the body-building world than the governor of California. Arnold Schwarzenegger made bodybuilding a household phenomenon with the release of his 1973 movie “Pumping Iron”. He has been granted the honor of single-handedly making bodybuilding an everyday term.
When Arnold first started his bodybuilding career, he was just a young man. He started as a “98-pound weakling” and grew into Mr. Universe. His transformation was an incredible display of bodybuilding along with some amazing dedication.
There is probably no better body-building story than that of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He worked a variety of jobs including that of street worker in Santa Monica, California. The entire time, he was also devoting all his off hours to honing and sculpting a beautiful body. In 1970, he was awarded the ultimate bodybuilding title of “Mr. Universe” and became a household name.
He kept on with his bodybuilding until he decided that a film career was the way to go. He found success as an actor in such films as “The Terminator”, “End of Days”, and “True Lies”. While he never won any type of award for his acting work, he still garnered the respect of many Hollywood elite for his strong performances in these films.
Arnold’s first approach to bodybuilding was fairly atypical. When he was 13, he played soccer but felt very dissatisfied with the team sport. “I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t be personally gratified” he declared. He tried other endeavors: track and field, boxing, javelin throw, and weightlifting. But only when his coach suggested he try working with weights (to strengthen his legs), Arnold found his true vocation.
When he first walked into a gym he was awed. “I found myself in a gym, in awe of muscles I had never seen before and of which I didn’t even know the correct name. The bodybuilders were powerful, Herculean. Before my very eyes, my true future opened up: I had found the answer I had been looking for.” Thus began, at 16, the career of the greatest bodybuilder of all times, the man who would be crowned Mr. Olympia for a record seven times.
As his physique started developing, so did his self-confidence. Very soon he discovered the thing somebody described as the “power of size”. And, as his muscles grew, so did the respect he was receiving from his peers. The growing of his muscular mass started influencing his relationships with other young men and, of course, with women too. He realized that some women were decidedly turned on by his physique, whereas others seemed to be disgusted by it. “I wanted to become even bigger so that I’d be able to impress the girls who dug muscles and… irritate even more the ones who disliked them.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger is quite possibly the epitome of the bodybuilding ideal. When you are serious about your body-building goals, you could do worse than following the advice of the great governor of California!