“Arnold Schwarzenegger Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dougals Kent Hall
From the very beginning I believed in the necessity and effectiveness of fundamental exercises, because Reg Park favored them too. When Reg wasn’t preparing for some major competition, his training consisted of exactly such classic exercises as bench presses, pull-ups, squats, barbell curls, wrist curls, pullovers, calf raises and so on. These well-known exercises helped me build a fundamental base of muscle that I could later bring into contest shape. Reg’s theory called for working on mass first and only later on quality and separation. You work on your body the way a sculptor works with clay, wood or steel. You start with fairly general outlines, and gradually you move toward ever more precise and detailed refinement. It’s the same in bodybuilding.
I was chasing mass, which for me meant 250 pounds of body weight (113kg). At that time I paid no particular attention to my waist or anything else that might have given me a symmetrical look. My only goal was to get a 250-pound body, monstrous, powerful and fearsome.
People had long since started to see me as a special personality. In part this was the result of my own changed outlook and attitude. I was developing, getting bigger and becoming someone to be reckoned with. I was getting attention I had never felt before. It was something like being the son of some millionaire. I’d walk around school and my classmates would come up and offer me something to eat, or ask whether they could help me with my homework. Even my teachers treated me specially, especially after I started winning prizes at powerlifting competitions.
This new and unfamiliar attitude toward me had an incredible effect on my ego. It gave me something I had craved. I don’t even know exactly why I needed attention so much. Maybe it was because I had an older brother who got more recognition and praise from our father than I did. Whatever the reason, I had a firm desire to be a noticed and appreciated person. I absolutely enjoyed myself in that flood of attention.
I’m convinced that most of the people I knew then had no idea what it was that I was actually doing. They looked at me as something new and odd. My real following was quite small.
There was always a certain circle of people who were frightened by bodybuilding and now felt the need to share their thoughts with me too. They tried to draw my attention to all sorts of shortcomings of the sport and debated why a person should bother with such a pointless thing at all. There were also those who claimed, “My doctor told me that lifting weights is bad for my health … ” It used to be hard to listen to this, because I was young and susceptible to such talk. For the rest of my life I have tried not to take notice of such foolishness.
I even wondered why I was so different, why I wanted to do something that most people didn’t like and that even made them laugh. If you played football, everybody loved you, you were a hero, but if you started bodybuilding …
People did recognize my talent, but my choice of sport amazed them. In the whole country at that time there were at most 30 people doing bodybuilding. Truly, I don’t even know why I chose such a sport. It was something instinctive; I simply loved bodybuilding.
Looking back now, I can analyze it all much more clearly. My dedication to the sport was probably largely shaped by my individualism. But at the time it was a mystery even to me.
It wasn’t only my schoolmates and closer friends who started treating me with attention, but the neighbors too. If you need fresh milk, just tell us. We know you need milk for lifting weights. I was also offered eggs and root vegetables. It didn’t even matter whether people liked what I was doing or not; the special treatment and attention followed me everywhere.
(To be continued)
Author: joker
Come and train! ArtGym
