Some Arnold For You

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“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.

21 thoughts on “Some Arnold For You”

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  4. Arnold is awesome. His work ethic is impeccable. I remember him saying that his father died or something while he was getting ready for a MR. Olympia comp. and he didn’t fly home to go to the funeral bc he didn’t want to be distracted… Some may say thats heartless but to me it shows how dedicated he was to achieving his goals.

    Anywho, I was going to comment on the 5/3/1 discussion that I inadvertently started yesterday on the old post but i wasn’t sure if anyone would see it so…

    I am going to follow Wendler’s recommendation and not change anything for right now, the squatting once a week is ok to me for now since my knee is still retarded from LAST November. I know something is probably fucked up in there but i can still play lacrosse, do hill/”prowler” sprints and squat some weight, so until i have insurance or more money I probably won’t be going to the doctor about it. I am only 1 month into this but I like it so far, and I know i have gotten stronger by the fact that I have been setting Rep PRs on all the lifts, including squats. I am expecting to use this plan to get to get my DL to 500, so we’ll see what happens.

    I agree with your decision, especially if you are throwing in some sport conditioning or sprints in there. You’ll make solid progress. The type of person that may want to add more squatting is a newer lifter who is wanting to compete. If someone is competing in a non-lifting event, has years of experience, or is really strong, then 5/3/1 is fantastic.

    –Justin

    In the directors cut of “Pumping Iron” Arnold states that the comments about his Fathers funeral were actually staged to give him more of a “Cold-Hearted” appearance. Even though it is still a documentary film, there still has to be Heroes/Villians

    –A.C.

  7. My college diploma bears his signature :D

    What school?

    My girlfriend had to get a sponsorship (or something) from a Congressman to apply for the AF Academy. She got several, but when she was accepted, Governor Schwarzenegger sent her a letter congratulating her. That’s the proudest I’ve been as I stood there, holding that letter in my hand. To have someone of his caliber congratulating you and wishing you well in your future — that’s quite an honor.

    –Justin

  8. I read his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, Education of a Bodybuilder, and an unauthorized biography of him back when I first got interested in lifting. I loved the style those guys had back then — him and Franco and the rest of the golden age guys.

    That unauthorized biography said that he and Franco ran that brick laying company together, and not surprisingly Arnold was the promoter/ad guy and Franco was the hands on brick layer.

  11. Stonewall – just want to clarify. Did you hear Arnold say that about missing his father’s funeral in the movie Pumping Iron?

    If yes, it’s a fabrication designed to make his character more interesting and a stronger antagonist. He borrowed that story from a French bodybuilder.

  15. @RP

    Ha, no way. I had no idea that was a stolen story… I just remembered hearing that when i saw the movie and thought, “Holy Shit, thats insane!”

  16. Considering Arnold was a taller guy, the discrepancy between his squat and DL sound about right.

    I’m 6’6, long limbed and have always had a horrendous time trying to improve my squat, while all my pulling movements just keep on gliding up. My knees make all sorts of crackly noises when squatting, and maintaining a proper arch when deep in the hole is near impossible.

    Sometimes I wonder whether I should be doing only 1 heavy work set on squats, instead of 3, in the same manner that some of you only do 1 work set on DL’s. I can DL all day and never seem to have any recovery issues from it, but I do notice recovery issues after squating.

    Can anyone else relate to this?

    I feel like I could drag my squat up just by continuing to drive improvements on my DL.

    This could be a delicious smorgasbord of variables that inhibit your squat and it sucks balls that you are 6’6 and trying to squat, but Arnold was only 6’1.

    –A.C.

  19. @gurner

    I can relate totally. I am 6’2″-ish and find the same thing with my knees popping and crunching. My Deadlift is significantly higher than my squat, I just seem naturally better suited for heavy DLs.

  20. hi justin what do you think about james harrison?

    Good player getting dicked over a lot this year because of the hitting hysteria. I don’t like the Steelers but I agree with the things Hines Ward is saying in response to the fines this year.

    –Justin

  21. I’m wondering if Arnold only got his opener and that’s why he only squatted 440. That 616 at age 19 is impressive, though, especially since he apparently stiff-legged it! That 710 raw is even more impressive.

    I would assume that’s what he did so he could go for a big pull, but who knows.

    –Justin

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