“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.
When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”

– Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold is someone that I look to. I’ve read his autobiography and encyclopedia of bodybuilding while appreciating his physique and movies. The thing that I am most impressed with is his will to strive for success. Throughout his life he committed himself fully to whatever goal he had in mind, and he always achieved that goal and excelled. Not many people know that he was a millionaire before he even got into acting; he started a prosperous brick-laying business. This was after his acclaimed success in bodybuilding, winning the Mr. Olympia seven times. Then he had a successful acting career followed by his career in politics that included the governorship in California. Arnold is a doer, a producer, and this makes him a hero. I highly recommend reading his autobiography to learn how he bred the mindset of success as he got into bodybuilding. He is one of the most impressive men in modern history.

Not many people know that Arnold dabbled in some powerlifting and strongman when he was active in bodybuilding. It’s documented that Franco Columbo, Arnold’s close friend when he trained for the Olympia in the U.S., was an impressive deadlifter, but Arnold put up some solid weight himself. Observe.





The first picture shows that he had a puny squat at the time (if it was a true 1RM), but he was 19. He also never really had huge legs, and it probably helped his tapered appearance. A 616 deadlift at 19 is still awesome.