An exception amongst the exceptions, Arnold Schwarzenegger – Bodybuilding
In the world of bodybuilding the name that everyone has known as a great sportsman is none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He was born on July 30, 1947 in the town of Thal, Austria and from a young age he had an interest in the physical fitness and bodybuilding for which he is now known all over the globe.
Among the various nicknames he has earned for himself, one was the Austrian Oak, as he gave a new concept of bodybuilding to almost everyone living in different corners of the world. Before the 1970’s bodybuilding was counted in the odd sports but
he changed it all and the memberships for the gyms swelled all over the globe by thousands and people started doing it in a different way with a different motivational level.
Arnold Schwarzenegger served the mandatory one-year training in the Austrian military in 1965. He took part in various small European contests until he immigrated to United States in 1968 and made people arguably say about him as the ‘greatest bodybuilder
who ever lived’, who also holds the record of winning the most major bodybuilding awards at 13. They include 1 Mr. Junior Western Europe, 7 Mr. Olympia’s, and 5 Mr. Universe titles.
There was a time when he realised that his lower body is not coming up with the upper body. He had cut almost all of his pants in shorts so that people could see him that way, some people used to laugh or even at times used to pass on comments after
seeing a man with a huge upper body and chicken legs. His idea exactly worked out for him and gave him a lot of motivation to build the lower part of his body too.
At the peak of his bodybuilding career his chest was 57in, waist 34in, biceps 22in, thighs 28.5in, calves 20in and his competition weight was 235lb.
He was termed as the most perfectly developed man in the history of the world as per the Guinness Book of World Records.
When he solidified his position in the field of bodybuilding, he went into the movies and became one of the biggest Hollywood stars. Among many of his famous movies a few were Conan “The Barbarian” (1982), “Commando” (1985), “True lies” (1994) etc.
Conan was a movie in which for the first time he came up as a true performer on his own and was a real kick to his movie career.
Arnold got married to a TV journalist “Maria Shriver” in April, 1986 who is a niece of the late President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy.
Success eluded him for many years in these fields but his landscape was not finished yet and was even broader, as he effectively suspended his film career for the foreseeable future and went into politics where he got selected as the Governor of California,
yet another celebrity to be elected.
His childhood friends were asked about his goals that he used to tell them. They told he always had said that his goals in the life are three, go to United States, become an actor and marry a Kennedy and he achieved all three.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is still a source of inspiration and motivation for many bodybuilders all over the world.
Tags: