Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes On

Bodybuilding, Motivation And Success

64 amazing and inspiring quotes from the Austrian Oak Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mr. Olympia
shares his opinions on bodybuilding, life, success and happiness.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Training and Bodybuilding Quotes
"Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit
just as exercise conditions the body."
"The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the
champion from someone else who is not a champion. That's what most people lack, having the
guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no matter what happens."
"Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100%
to your training, diet and mental approach."
Not many people understand what a pump is. It must be experienced to be understood. It is the
greatest feeling that I get. I search for this pump because it means that that my muscles will grow
when I get it. I get a pump when the blood is running into my muscles. They become really tight
with blood. Like the skin is going to explode any minute. Its like someone putting air in my
muscles. It blows up. It feels fantastic.
"What we face may look insurmountable. But I
learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all
those sets and reps when I didn't think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that
we are always stronger than we know."
"The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can
only build a strong character."
"Bodybuilding should be fun because you get a feeling of satisfaction which is very hard to
explain. A bodybuilder knows when he pumps up his muscles it means growth. The muscles
grow. So therefore he knows when he pumps up well, that is progress. And that satisfies him
because he feels the progress in his body. Therefore the pump feels good. Its actually the best
feeling a body builder can have. Its a difficult thing to explain. Like sometimes we joke around
and we get a good pump and we say you have to admit that a good pump is better than coming.
Somebody off the street wouldnt understand that, but sometimes a pump is the best feeling you
can have."
"The best activities for your health are pumping and humping."
"A beginner does eight repetitions of a certain exercise with his maximum weight on the barbell.
As soon as it hurts, he thinks about stopping. I work beyond this point, which means I tell my
mind that as soon as it starts aching it is growing. Growing is something unusual for the body
when you are over eighteen. The body isnt used to ten, eleven, or twelve reps with a maximum
weight. Then I do ten or fifteen sets of this in a row. No human body was ever prepared for this
and suddenly it is making itself grow to handle this new challenge, growing through this pain
area. Experiencing this pain in my muscles and aching and going on is my challenge. The last
three or four reps is what makes the muscles grow. This area of pain divides a champion from
someone who is not a champion. Thats what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just
say theyll go through the pain no matter what happens. I have no fear of fainting. I do squats
until I fall over and pass out. So what? Its not going to kill me. I wake up five minutes later and
Im OK. A lot of other athletes are afraid of this. So they dont pass out. They dont go on."
"I just use my muscles as a conversation piece, like someone walking a cheetah down 42nd
Street."
There are no shortcutseverything is reps, reps, reps.
"I'm addicted to exercising and I have to do something every day."
"I do the same exercises I did 50 years ago and they still work. I eat the same food I ate 50 years
ago and it still works."
"What Im doing is the thing I want to do. I dont care what other people think. If the rest of
disagrees and says I shouldnt waste my time, I still will be a bodybuilder. I love it. I love the
feeling in my muscles, I love the competition, and I love the things it gives me. I have never
really had to work in my whole life. Ive never had an eight to six job. Ive always made good
money. Ive traveled all over the world competing and giving exhibitions. Ive made a profession
out of a pastime, which perhaps only five percent of the population can do. The other ninety-five
percent are frustrated office workers, working for someone else. Im totally independent. So,
I..feelif I would live again or if I would be born again, I would do exactly the same thing."

When I was 15-years-old, I took off my clothes and looked in the mirror. When I stared at
myself naked, I realized that to be perfectly proportioned I would need twenty-inch arms to
match the rest of me.
Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for
if we're never tested to our limits, how will we know how strong we really are? How will we
ever grow?
"I have a good sense of my body in a bathing suit around people who appreciate what Im doing,
like a contest. Then Im proud. On television I am proud. But on a beach most people are not
experts. The general public doesnt know how to look. How proud can you be when they dont
even know what theyre looking at?"
The better you get, the less you run around showing off as a muscle guy. You know, you wear
regular shirts-not always trying to show off what you have. You talk less about it. It's like you
have a little BMW - you want to race the hell out of this car, because you know it's just going
110. But if you see guys driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, they slide around at 60 on the
freeway because they know if they press on that accelerator they are going to go 170. These
things are the same in every field.
The only way to be a champion is by going through these forced reps and the torture and pain.
Thats way I call it the torture routine. Because its like forced torture. Torturing my body. What
helps me is to think of this pain as pleasure. Pain makes me grow. Growing is what I want.
Therefore, for me pain is pleasure. And so when I am experiencing pain Im in heaven. Its great.
People suggest this is masochistic. But theyre wrong. I like pain for a particular reason. I dont
like needles stuck in my arm. But I do like the pain that is necessary to be a champion.
"What I'm doing is the thing I want to do. I don't care what other people think. Even if they
disagree and say I shouldn't I will still be a bodybuilder. I love it. I love the feelings in my
muscles, I love the competition, and i love the things it gives me, I have never really had to work
in my whole life. I have never had an eight to six job. I've always made good money. I've
traveled all over the world competing and giving exhibitions. I've made a profession out of a past
time, which perhaps only five percent of the population can do. The other ninety-five percent are
frustrated workers, working for someone else. I'm totally in dependent. So i feel if I would live
again or if I would be born again, I would do exactly the same thing."
"Most bodybuilders only have a hazy notion of what
they want to look like. They do not say, 'I am going to be a winner.' The negative impulses
around the gym can be incredible. I would hear bodybuilders complaining, 'Oh,no! Not another
set!' That destroyed them. I have always believed that if you're training for nothing, you're
wasting your effort!"
"My definition of a sport is that it's a physical activity that involves competition. Since
bodybuilders certainly train and then compete, we are certainly a sport."
"The unique thing about bodybuilding is that when I compete it is just me on a stage alone. There
is no field, no bat, no ball, no skis, no skates. All other athletes have to use equipment, like a
football. But I don't use anything in competition except myself. It's just me up there. Me alone.
No coach. No nothing."
"I think the public thinks I am narcissistic because I look in the mirror. What they dont
understand is that is the only way I can check my progress. How do I know that my muscles
grow the way that I want? By flexing them and checking them in the mirror, by measuring them
with a tape or possibly by stepping on a scale. The mirror is by far the best because I can see
each muscles definition. That is very subtle. Sometimes even another bodybuilder cannot see
what I can. A swimmer uses a stopwatch like a mirror. A jumpers tape is his mirror. But the
public is weirdly afraid of themselves. They are guilty about the mirror. They think by looking in
it theres something wrong. How many mirrors are there in America?"
"You dont really see a muscle as a part of you, in a way. You see it as a thing. You look at it as
a thing and you say well this thing has to be built a little longer, the bicep has to be longer; or the
tricep has to be thicker here in the elbow area. And you look at it and it doesnt even seem to
belong to you. Like a sculpture. Then after looking at it a sculptor goes in with his thing and
works a little bit, and you do maybe then some extra forced reps to get this lower part out. You
form it. Just like a sculpture."
"I find out which poses they really like. Thats why I dont have a specific posing routine,
because you never know what they like and what they dont. Sometimes you think a routine is
good but the applause is going down. Like Franco explained, he did one shot coming up
for triceps from the side and the sound went down, so he cut the shot. You have to be very
flexible in these things. You have to listen. When you hit the most muscular and they start
screaming, you know they like the more freaky poses, so you keep hitting it again and maybe
hold it longer to get the cuts out more. You know then they like drama shots and you can forget
the symmetrical stuff."
A lot of things go through my mind while I am posing. When I pose, a very good pose lets ay
the most muscular pose. The audience starts screaming. In my mind I say to them, kind of like
Well, here it is here is the best body look at it and just freak out because your only going to see
one of them. Thats it. I let them know that what they get is mind-blowing. They are not going to
get it tomorrow, not the next day. Maybe never again. Its a once in a life time experience.
Especially since my career as a bodybuilder is almost over. I just hope they appreciate my body.
Obviously they do. I hear the applause.
Onstage Im always different than offstage. I can be very friendly offstage, but onstage I will
pull one trick after another on my competition to wipe him out, you know-because its my living
and I have to win. Franco is my best friend, but I will do as much as I can to make him look bad
and make me look good.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Motivational Quotes
"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go
through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
"Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed."
"The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you
can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent."
"For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive,
but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer."
As a kid I always idolized the winning athletes. It is one thing to idolize heroes. It is quite
another to visualize yourself in their place. When I saw great people, I said to myself: I can be
there.
"Well, you know, I'm the forever optimist."
We all have great inner power. The power is self-faith. There's really an attitude to winning.
You have to see yourself winning before you win. And you have to be hungry. You have to want
to conquer.
"My instinct was to win, eliminate anyone who is in competition, destroy my enemy, and move
on without any kind of hesitation at all."
When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.
Stop whining.
"Stay hungry, stay healthy, be a gentleman, believe strongly in yourself and go beyond
limitations."
Good things dont happen by coincidence. Every dream carries with it certain risks, especially
the risk of failure. But I am not stopped by risks. Supposed a great person takes the risk and fails.
Then the person must try again. You cannot fail forever. If you try ten times, you have a better
chance of making it on the eleventh try than if you didnt try at all.
Arnold Schwarzenegger General Quotes
"Money doesn't make you happy. I now have $50
million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million."
"Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service
improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new
meaning it will bring your own life."
"The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that."
"Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer."
"I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with Guess on it. I said, Thyroid problem?"
"I welcome and seek your ideas, but do not bring me small ideas; bring me big ideas to match
our future."
"Start wide, expand further, and never look back."
"It's simple, if it jiggles, it's fat."
"I can hide my feelings under my muscles. Definitely. I can hide them as long as necessary. And
when I feel they can come out, I let them out. I think this is fantastic. Its great to have control
over my mind. Other people get mixed up. They cant control themselves. They cant go to work
for a week or they cant talk on the phone because theyre crying. I can switch myself back and
forth. When Im training for a competition, I can be what some people call inhuman, but really I
think its more like being superhuman. Then after the competition, I can switch off again be
human and very emotional and so on."
"I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People
will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to
me in any way - I hope it never will."
"Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief
that whatever you do doesn't matter."
"I am the most helpful and open up doors for everyone and I like to share."
"I'll be back always sounded a little girly to me."
"I know a lot of athletes and models are written off as just bodies. I never felt used for my body."
"If my life was a movie, no one would believe it."
You can't tell a kid that it's time to exercise; that's a turn-off...you have to say 'Let's go to the
park and have some fun.' Then you get them to do some running, play on the swings, practice on
the balance beam, basically get a full workout disguised as play.
You have to remember something: Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.
What is the point of being on this Earth if you are going to be like everyone else?
It's not what you get out of life that counts. Break your mirrors! In our society that is so self-
absorbed, begin to look less at yourself and more at each other. you'll get more satisfaction from
having improved your neighborhood, your town, your state, your country, and your fellow
human beings than you'll ever get from your muscles, your figure, your automobile, your house,
or your credit rating.
"You'll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior.
"If you want to be a champion you cant have any kind of outside negative coming in to affect
you. So I trained myself for that. To be totally cold and not have things going through my mind.
And it was a sad story when my father died. Because me mother called me on the phone and she
said, You know, your dad died. And this was exactly two months before a contest. Are you
coming home for the funeral? She said. I said: No. Its too late. Hes dead and nothing can be
done. Im sorry I cant come. And I didnt explain the reasons why, because how do you
explain to a mother whose husband died, you just cant be bothered now because of a contest?"
I was always dreaming about very powerful people. Dictators and things like that. I was always
impressed by people who could be remembered for hundreds of years. Even like Jesus, being
remembered for thousands of years.
When I was ten years old I got this thing that I wanted to be the best in something, so I started
swimming. I won championships, but I felt I couldnt be the best. I tried skiing, but there I felt I
didnt have potential. I played soccer, but I didnt like that to well because there I didnt get the
credit alone if I did something special. I just avoided team sports from then on. Then I started
lifting through the other sports and I enjoyed it the most. I won the Austrian championship in
1964 but found out I was too tall. So I quit that and went into body building. Two years later I
found out that thats it-thats what I can be the best in.
I admire America because it is a powerful country. I admire its economic system, its freedom
and its money. It is a rich country. Its people are open-minded. But I didnt understand all of this
when I was ten years old. There was something else. A subconscious drive to come here. When I
came here, I had come from Munich where I had been training. I gave myself no choice. I almost
made myself thrown out. I got in trouble with the police. Little troubles. I created a situation that
forced me to leave. Somebody told me-Split. Now you have to go to America.