Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger Legend Bodybuilder was born in Thal, Austria (German: Thal bei Graz), a small village bordering the Styrian capital Graz, and was christened Arnold Alois. His parents were the local police chief Gustav (1907 - 1972), and his wife, Aurelia Jadrny (1922 - 1998). They were married on October 20, 1945 - Gustav was 38, and Aurelia was a 23-year-old widow with a son named Meinhard. According to Arnold, both of his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world, if we did something bad or our parents, the cane was not spared." He grew up in a Roman Catholic family who attended church service every Sunday.

Arnold Schwarzenegger trained his mind

“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.”

" The mind and body are so closely connected that you'll never be able to achieve your desired fitness goals without harnessing the power of your mental energies. We've all heard the story of the mother who was able to lift a car off of her injured child in a moment of dire emergency.

Once the mind is sufficiently stimulated, there's no telling what feats the body is capable of. But just as you train your body to be bigger and stronger, it's equally necessary to train your mind to attain a bigger bench press, a leaner midsection or a better functioning cardiovascular system.

Here are a few ideas on how to do just that.

Where the mind goes, the body will follow,has always been a saying I've believed in. You have to have a clear idea of what you're trying to achieve if you want to generate the degree of willpower it takes to overcome difficult obstacles.

Vision gives you purpose, and that purpose generates faith and confidence. Imagination can move mountains. Visualizatio is the key to bodybuilding.

When training arms, I used to feel as if my pumped-up biceps were huge peaks. Some bodybuilders walk around the gym imagining that they're Ghengis Khan or Conan the Barbarian. Focusing on such images creates increased levels of mental and emotional energy to help power you through difficult workouts at a greater intensity"

Some of Arnolds life and history

Gustav had a preference for Meinhard, the elder of the two sons. His favoritism was "strong and blatant," which stemmed from unfounded suspicion "that Arnold wasn't his child." he has said his father had "no patience for listening or understanding your problems… there was a wall; a real wall." He had a good relationship with his mother, and kept in touch with her until her death. In later life, he commissioned the Simon Wiesenthal Center to research his father's war record, which came up with no evidence of atrocities despite Gustav's membership in the Nazi Party and SA. At school, he was apparently in the middle, but stood out for his "cheerful, good-humored and exuberant" character. Money was a problem in the household; he has recalled that one of the highlights of his youth was when the family bought a fridge.
Arnold played many sports-heavily influenced by his father. He picked up his first weights in 1960, when his football coach took his team to a local gym. At the age of 14, he chose bodybuilding over football (soccer) as a career. He has responded to a question asking if he was age 13 when he started weight-lifting: "I actually started weight training when I was fifteen, but I'd been participating in sports, like soccer, for years, so I felt that although I was slim, I was well-developed, at least enough so that I could start going to the gym and start Olympic lifting." However, his official website biography says: "At 14, he started an intensive training program with Kurt Marnul, studied psychology at 15 (to learn more about the power of mind over body) and at 17, officially started his competitive career." During a speech in 2001, he said, "My own plan formed when I was 14 years old. My father had wanted me to be a police officer like he was. My mother wanted me to go to trade school." Arnold took to visiting a gym in Graz, where he also frequented the local theaters to see bodybuilding idols such as Reg Park, Steve Reeves, and Johnny Weissmuller on the big screen. Steve Reeves has been part of everything I've ever been fortunate enough to achieve." In 1961, he met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who invited him to train at the gym in Graz. He was so dedicated as a youngster that he was known to break into the local gym on weekends, when it was usually closed, so that he could train. "It would make me sick to miss a workout … I knew I couldn't look at myself in the mirror the next morning if I didn't do it "I was inspired by individuals like Reg Park and Steve Reeves." When Reeves passed away in 2000, He fondly remembered him: "As a teenager, I grew up with Steve Reeves. "When he was asked about his first movie experience as a boy, he replied, "I was very young, but I remember my father taking me to the Austrian theaters and seeing some newsreels. The first real movie I saw, that I distinctly remember, was a John Wayne movie."
In 1971, his brother Meinhard died in a car accident. Meinhard had been drinking and was killed instantly, and Arnold did not attend his funeral. Meinhard was due to marry Erika Knapp, and the couple shared a three-year-old son Patrick. Schwarzenegger would pay for Patrick's education and a life in the United States. Gustav died the following year from a stroke. In Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger claimed that he did not attend his father's funeral because he was training for a bodybuilding contest. Later, he and the producer both stated that this story was taken from another bodybuilder for the purpose of showing the extremes that some would go to for their sport, and to make his image more machine-like to fan controversy for the film. Barbara Baker, his first serious girlfriend, has said he informed her of his father's death without emotion and that he never spoke of his brother. Over time, he has given at least three versions of why he did not attend his father's funeral.
In an interview with Fortune magazine in 2004, He told how he suffered what "would now be called child abuse" at the hands of his father. "My hair was pulled. I was hit with belts. So was the kid next door. It was just the way it was. Many of the children I've seen were broken by their parents, which was the German-Austrian mentality. They didn't want to create an individual. It was all about conforming. I was one who did not conform, and whose will could not be broken. Therefore, I became a rebel. Every time I got hit, and every time someone said, 'you can't do this,' I said, 'this is not going to be for much longer, because I'm going to move out of here. I want to be rich. I want to be somebody.' "The Mr. Universe title was my ticket to the land of opportunity, where I could become a star and get rich." Schwarzenegger made his first plane trip in 1966, attending the NABBA Mr. Universe competition in London. He would come in second in the Mr. Universe competition, not having the muscle definition of American winner Chester Yorton.
Charles "Wag" Bennett, one of the judges at the 1966 competition, was impressed with Schwarzenegger and offered to coach him. As he had little money, Bennett invited him to stay in his crowded family home above one of his two gyms in Forest Gate. Yorton's leg definition had been judged superior, and Schwarzenegger, under a training program devised by Bennett, concentrated on improving the muscle definition and power in his legs. Staying in the East End of London helped Arnold improve his rudimentary grasp of the English language.training paid off and in 1967 Schwarzenegger won the title for the first time in 1967, becoming the youngest ever Mr. Universe at the age of 20. He would go on to win the title a further four times. Arnold then flew back to Munich, training for six hours daily, attending business school and working in a health club (Rolf Putzinger's gym where he worked and trained from 1966-1968), returning in 1968 to London to win his next Mr. Universe title. He frequently told Roger Field, "I'm going to become the greatest actor!"
Arnold moved to the United States in September 1969 at the age of 22, speaking little English. "Naturally, when I came to this country, my accent was very bad, and my accent was also very strong, which was an obstacle as I began to pursue acting." There he trained at Gold's Gym in Santa Monica, California, with Joe Weider. From 1970 to 1974, one of his weight training partners was Ric Drasin, a professional wrestler who designed the original Gold's Gym logo in 1973.he also became good friends with professional wrestler "Superstar" Billy Graham. In 1970, at age 23, he captured his first Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition title in New York, and would go on to win the title a total of seven times.
In 1969, Arnold met Barbara Baker, an English teacher he lived with until 1974. He talked about Barbara in his memoir in 1977: "Basically it came down to this: she was a well-balanced woman who wanted an ordinary, solid life, and I was not a well-balanced man, and hated the very idea of ordinary life."Baker has described him as "a joyful personality, charismatic, adventurous, and athletic" but claims towards the end of the relationship he became "insufferable - classically conceited - the world revolved around him."Baker published her memoir in 2006, entitled Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak.Although Baker, at times, paints an unflattering portrait of her former lover - he actually contributed to the book with a foreword, and also met with Baker for three hours. Baker claims, for example, that she only learned of his being unfaithful after they split, and talks of a turbulent and passionate love life. He has made it clear that their respective recollection of events can differ.The couple first met six to eight months after his arrival in the U.S. -Although Baker claims that when she first met him, he had "little understanding of polite society" and she found him a turn-off, she says, "He's as much a self-made man as it's possible to be - he never got encouragement from his parents, his family, his brother. He just had this huge determination to prove himself, and that was very attractive. Schwarzenegger met his next love, Sue Moray, a Beverly Hills hairdresser's assistant, on Venice Beach in July 1977. According to Moray, the couple led an open relationship: "We were faithful when we were both in LA...but when he was out of town, we were free to do whatever we wanted." Arnold Schwarzenegger Legend Bodybuilder met Maria Shriver at the Robert F. Kennedy Tennis Tournament in August 1977, and went on to have a relationship with both women until August 1978, when Moray (who knew of his relationship with Shriver) issued an ultimatum.
Arnold has said his big dream from the age of 10 was to move to the U.S. He questioned what he was doing "on the farm" in Austria, and believed bodybuilding was his "ticket to America": "I'm sure I can go to America if I win Mr. Universe." LA Weekly said in 2002 that he is the most famous immigrant in America, who "overcame a thick Austrian accent and transcended the unlikely background of bodybuilding to become the biggest movie star in the world in the 1990s. He is considered among the most important figures in the history of bodybuilding, and his legacy is commemorated in the Arnold Classic annual bodybuilding competition. He Legend Bodybuilder has remained a prominent face in the bodybuilding sport long after his retirement, in part because of his ownership of gyms and fitness magazines. He has presided over numerous contests and awards. For many years, he wrote a monthly column for the bodybuilding magazines Muscle & Fitness and Flex. Shortly after being elected Governor, he was appointed executive editor of both magazines, in a largely symbolic capacity. The magazines agreed to donate $240,000 a year to the Governor's various physical fitness initiatives. The magazine MuscleMag International has a monthly two-page article on him, and refers to him as "The King."
One of the first competitions he won was the Junior Mr. Europe contest in 1965. He won Mr. Europe the following year, at age 19. He would go on to compete in and win many bodybuilding contests, as well as some powerlifting contests, including five Mr. Universe wins, and seven Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition wins, a record which would stand until Lee Haney won his eighth consecutive Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition title in 1991.
Strongman. In 1967, Arnold Schwarzenegger Legend Bodybuilder competed in and won the Munich stone-lifting contest, in which a stone weighing 508 German pounds (254 kg/560 lbs.) is lifted between the legs while standing on two foot rests. He Legend Bodybuilder has said the following on his size: "During the peak of my career, my calves were 20 inches, thighs 28.5 inches, waist 34 inches, chest 57 inches, and 23-inch arms." In a full squat (buttocks close to ground) Schwarzenegger had a personal record of 181 kg/400lbs, for twelve repetitions. Mr. Olympia. His goal was to become the greatest bodybuilder in the world, which meant becoming Mr. Olympia. His first attempt was in 1969, when he lost to three-time champion Sergio Oliva. However, He came back in 1970 and won the competition making him the youngest ever Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition at the age of 23, a record he holds to this day. He continued his winning streak in the 1971 - 1974 competitions. In 1975, He was once again in top form, and won the title for the sixth consecutive time, beating Franco Columbu. After the 1975 Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition contest, He announced his retirement from professional bodybuilding.
Months before the 1975 Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition contest, filmmakers George Butler and Robert Fiore persuaded Schwarzenegger to compete, in order to film his training workouts in the bodybuilding documentary called Pumping Iron. Schwarzenegger had only three months to prepare for the competition, after losing significant weight to appear in the film Stay Hungry with Jeff Bridges. Lou Ferrigno proved not to be a threat, and a lighter-than-usual Schwarzenegger convincingly won the 1975 Mr. Olympia. After being declared Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition for a 6th consecutive time, He retired from competition.
He came out of retirement, however, to compete in the 1980 Mr. Olympia. He was training for his role in Conan, and he got into such good shape because of the running, and sword training, that he decided he wanted to win the Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition contest one last time. He kept this plan a secret, in the event that a training accident would prevent his entry and cause him to lose face. He had been hired to provide color commentary for network television, when he announced at the eleventh hour that while he was there: "Why not compete?" He ended up winning the event with only seven weeks of preparation. After being declared Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Competition for a seventh time, He officially retired from competition.
Anabolic Steroids. Schwarzenegger has admitted to using performance-enhancing anabolic steroids while they were legal, writing in 1967 that "steroids were helpful to me in maintaining muscle size while on a strict diet in preparation for a contest. I did not use them for muscle growth, but rather for muscle maintenance when cutting up." He has called his drugs "tissue building.