My article this week is not directly about the mechanics of fitness, but rather a book that explains, among other things, the mindset needed to make yourself fit. The Education of a Bodybuilder is at its core an autobiography of Arnold Schwarzenegger from birth to about 1980. Let’s get something out of the way at the beginning of this review: this cover is horrendous. Needless to say, this a book that risks everybody in a 100-foot radius trying and failing to restrain their laughter at how you’re reading a book about a glistening muscleman in a black speedo.
However, this is a minor setback that shouldn’t stop you from reading an excellent book, written by a highly accomplished human being, that primarily seeks to answer the age-old question of why men bother to lift weights, as well as having relevant advice for anyone interested in fitness, from the total novice to the seasoned veteran, or anybody interested in improving their life at all:
1. Try a lot of things before something “pops”
Arnold states that he was always athletic, and thus cottoned to various sports in his childhood and adolescence. He played team sports for a few years, before deciding that he “disliked winning a game and not receiving recognition for [his] labors” (a somewhat arrogant attitude that he freely admits to, and is explored in depth in the book). He does individual sports such as swimming, track, boxing, but none really “clicked.”
It was only when he started to lift weights for the other sports that he had something click, that he knew what he wanted to dedicate himself to:
I still remember that first visit, I had never seen such things. The men were huge and brutal. And there it was before me-my life. It seemed I suddenly reached out and found something…I had found the thing I wanted to devote myself to (pg. 12)
2. Find inspiration anywhere—positive or negative feedback
Arnold’s childhood film of choice
As this book is a biography of Arnold from birth until his late 20s, the readers gets an in-depth view of what inspired him before and immediately after he starts formally training-and, speaking personally, it’s an eclectic mix that resembles my own catalysts for getting into fitness, and likely many others’ as well:
In his early teen years, when his decision to start bodybuilding “pops,” he is initiated into this strange world of brutality and vigor by his older peers, who essentially teach him the basics and serve as immediate mentors for him. Concurrently with this, he discusses his love of B-Movies starring sportmen-turned-actors, one in particular serving as a different sort of mentor figure-a tantalizing ideal that he fanatically strove for:
[Reg Park] looked so magnificent in the role of Hercules I was transfixed. I studied every move he made, every gesture. Sitting there watching…he was always in front of me. The more I focused on his idealized image and worked, the more I saw it was possible for me to be like him.” (pg. 15).
The aforementioned British bodybuilder becomes something of a figure half paternal, half mythological hero to the young Schwarzenegger, and Arnie freely admits that he was a hero worshipper as a youth. Indeed, his relationship with Park, as a sort of modernized Campbellian “deity father” who must be struck down and then atoned with, seems to be better than his relationship with his actual biological father.
And there lies another aspect of Arnold’s inspiration, one he is not afraid to admit: his youthful anger towards others served as a sort of “negative feedback motivator,” and it was just as strong as the positive role models: His own parents disparaged his desires well after he started to make a living from bodybuilding (“He felt I wasn’t normal-and he was right.”, page 20), by his estimate about half of his fellow youths mock him and express incredulity towards the pursuit, and, as he reveals in a later chapter, a homosexual owner of a Munich gym franchise and sponsor of several international bodybuilders seeks to sexually extort him, a request which is declined.
Rather than succumbing to any of this, he instead uses his anger and feelings of disrespect to train harder and thus earn accolades without losing self-respect. These coarse feelings, as powerful as they are, have a bit of a drawback:
3. Fitness, or anything else that requires dedication, can drive you to madness and isolation
An aspect of the book that is sure to trigger SJW termagants is Arnold discussing how the training and lifestyle affected him mentally, as well as physically: fanatic dedication to his task and the older men at the gym bringing girls back to the gym for the boys to share gave the young man a decidedly… animalistic view of women:
Women were sex objects, I saw the others using them in this way and I thought it was okay. We talked about the pitfalls of romance and how it hurt your training. They were my idols so of course I agreed… I was convinced a girl couldn’t understand what I was doing, and that we could never communicate equally. I needed to be in the gym, not with them-so I’d pick them up, fuck them, and never see them again. It wasn’t until four years of training had gone by that I was capable of meaningfully communicating with a girl (p. 25)
Indeed, Arnold just…stops showing emotions at all for a period of several years, which further fractures his relationship with his family: “I couldn’t afford to have hurt feelings before competitions, I needed tranquility. I missed out on the emotional teen thing, I feel I benefited in other ways, so it all balances.” (pg. 28). The book was published in 1980, and he states that, since retiring from bodybuilding competition, he has essentially had to train himself to express emotions again, using the same discipline he learned from physical training.
To an extent, I feel that being truly great at anything requires a little bit of madness, a little bit of abnormal behavior, and oftentimes it is something that the people around this great person cannot understand. One doesn’t even have to be a world-beater to get this reaction. When a skinnyfat 14-year-old me started to get into fitness, though obviously not being involved in teenage gym orgies as Arnold was, it nonetheless alienated me from my peers as well, who were content to drink and smoke themselves into a stupor and let their youthful fitness waste away. And much like Arnold, I channeled my feelings of teenage angst into working harder
Just as the author had to train himself to feel emotions, I had to train myself to be capable of speaking to women, and, though difficult, it was successful, as I managed to lose my virginity at the age of 20 (this was a couple of years before ROK existed). Both Arnold’s great successes and my smaller successes reflect a theme of the book, related to this one, that was most certainly unintended by its author:
4. The “Riddle of Steel” is relevant to all men
As a longtime fan of Schwarzenegger’s oeuvre, I’ve always felt that his breakout role, Conan the Barbarian is still his best work. “The Riddle of Steel” is a philosophical concept that I have held in my life, and conveyed to others when I train them-as I understand it, the film’s position on the riddle of steel is that steel alone is not the alpha and omega of strength, nor is strength of muscle. Instead, strength comes from within, and from inner strength comes strength of arm and strength of steel.
To that, both Arnold and myself would add a corollary: that through any sort of hard physical training, you will also inadvertently discipline yourself both mentally and emotionally (in other words, the types of strength all feed off each other). And with mental and emotional stability, you will be capable of doing something that most find very difficult: honestly assessing your abilities and failures: “I was always honest with weak points; I feel the key to success is to be honest about your weaknesses”. (pg. 67)
More specifically related to Conan, compare this quote from Education: “Helmut insisted that since I had achieved things, I shouldn’t thank God, I should thank myself, and if bad things happened, I would have to get myself out of it” (pg. 28) with this scene from Conan the Barbarian.
The parallels are striking for a man that had never heard of Conan the Barbarian until he was cast in the film adaptation. Beyond the philosophical insights, there is of course much advice on the practical side of training and business. About 40% of the book is advice on training, with the slight majority going to his life story.
5. Keep it simple
After explaining why people should train, he goes into his training routine. As the title of this section would imply, it is relatively simple, starting with bodyweight exercises, or “freehand” as he calls them, and moving into a weight program of heavy, compound lifts. As a lark, Arnold entered the German national Olympic style weightlifting competition in 1966 and won it), with a small amount of isolation exercises-due to a bodybuilder’s goal of having bodily symmetry and proportion.
I too have always felt that, when learning any sort of skill, physical or otherwise, one should train hard, but oftentimes the best recourse is to keep it simple. Rather than doing a million exercises, just do a few important ones, and do many repetitions.
6. Take opportunities, leave your comfort zone, and always be competing
Or, to quote a Russian proverb, “he who is afraid of bad luck will never have good luck.” It sounds simple enough, but it bears repeating: Arnold took a series of enormous chances-going AWOL from the army to enter Mr. Europe, leaving Austria to live in Munich, going to London and then America to enter Mr. Universe, starting a business venture with Joe Weider, getting into films, und so weiter. Of course, merely taking chances alone doesn’t guarantee success, effort and training are a requirement, but the fact remains if you want to succeed, you have to leave your comfort zone. Again, looking to myself, if I hadn’t conquered my own fears and taken risks in my life I’d be a morbidly obese virgin living with my parents.
In a related note, the two of us agree that placing yourself in competition with others is the best way to force yourself to “go the extra mile”-an interesting method of doing so that he suggests is to compete in lifting with your training partner, and make little wagers to make it interesting. Try it for yourself.
Conclusion
In the end, this book gives worthwhile advice to any man, not just “gym rats.” Indeed, the only bit of advice I questioned at all was Arnold’s advocacy for eating six meals a day—while it is indeed an efficient way for a bodybuilder to add mass to his frame, I find the concept of grazing like a fat cow impractical for anybody that isn’t in a bulking program.
Regardless, this is a book you can, and should, buy cheap. It’s 30 years old, only about 200 pages, and it’s still better than the vast majority of self-help books you’ll find.
…Plato said man should strive for a balance of mind and body, without a well conditioned body, the mind would suffer. I believe that in myself. Strength, confidence, a firsthand knowledge of the rewards of hard work and persistence, can help you attain a new and better life. Regards, Arnold
Read More: The Education Of A Bodybuilder By Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold’s book is a good read, but bear in mind that he also was on gear which enabled him to get so big. His excercize regiment is a good one to follow, (I agree with the author though that 6 meals a day is overkill) .
If you want a great bodybuilding book for steroid free guys, look into “Bodybuliding, Our Way”, written by a russian bodybuiling trainer from the 80’s, Dr. Lyuber. It’s an amazing book. Unfortunately it’s available only in russian, though I know that there is an excerpt in english.
http://athlete.ru/books/sekrety_kachalki_luber/
Here is an exercept in English :
beyondstrong.typepad.com/shafsblog/2009/02/dr-lyubers-bodybuilding-our-way-or-the-secrets-of-the-basement.html
Back then they didn’t have access to any good steroids, so most trained naturally, and they specifically created a program for guys like that. It takes 2 to 3 years to hit your genetic ceiling, and then you may need to look into gear.
His last third of the book deals with gear, and it’s outdated since it’s from the early 2000’s and talks about the gear on the russian market, but the first 2 thirds are gold.
There was a great documentary about his trainees. One trainer married an 18 year old woman at 50 + and had a kid with her, talk of alpha.
(min 1:43)
He also really doesn’t love fags. Great guy overall.
Do you read Russian?
Het.
In Russia, weights lift you.
The bodybuilding exercises have an average to low effect without gear. For a full-proof natural method, one needs the ancient warrior exercises, of which the results are seen in the ancient statues. ‘The warrior physique’ by Vincent Exertus is a book that explains the ancient warrior exercises
A stone cold classic. I read this years ago in my late teens. I still have my original paperback copy somewhere. Great advice about bodybuilding, but the lessons here apply to life far beyond and outside just the gym. Arnold had the ZFG attitude from the jump.
Another book by a roids user for people that don’t use
7. Enjoy the process, don’t focus on the destination. This alone will make you successful.
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As Nixon said : “… What makes life mean something is purpose.
A goal. The battle. The struggle. Even if you don’t win it.”
The author is the same “Larsen Halleck” who disparages our Fascist Martyrs? He gets his opinions from the Israelis. If this is the same guy, ROK should not allow him to publish anything here.
Which Fascist Martyrs ? I don’t know anything about what you’re saying.
Someone with that same disqus username “Larsen Halleck”, visited TheRightStuff.biz and started spewing Israeli / Holocaustianity talking points.
Matt Forney has rightly pointed out that some Feminists are causing mischief in the “Alt-Right”, yet I would go a step further and say the jews and their proxies are doing disruptive social engineering, i.e. sabotage by deception.
Time for ROK to stand by their bold new editorial direction and name the jews again, as they have before, pointing out jewish role in Feminism. If Ted Nugent can name the jews for 2nd Amendment rights, ROK can name the jews and then stand their ground.
And don’t coddle these anti-Fascist subversives like “Larsen Halleck”. He is one of them, not one of us.
“The author is the same ‘Larsen Halleck’ who disparages our Fascist Martyrs? He gets his opinions from the Israelis. If this is the same guy, ROK should not allow him to publish anything here.”
Fascism was just a socialist tool to destroy what remained of the old European order and establish Israel. You’re either a Orthodox monarchist, or you’re a lefty, and that goes double for fascists who are just tools of “Jewish” billionaires for attacking Russia as seen in the Ukraine.
Right, because the phony phascists in Ukraine represent what Hitler and Mussolini and their men died for.
“Right, because the phony phascists in Ukraine represent what Hitler and Mussolini and their men died for.”
Totalitarian socialist losers who lost.
Meanwhile the rest of us are in the 21st century where Putin so far has outperformed them without the wars and genocide.
Why yes, I am the same guy.
At no point did I say anything about the Holocaust or Israel on that website, merely my opinion that being supportive of white people does not mean you have to support Nazism-my main reason that I cited was that the Nazis predominantly killed white gentiles and invaded other countries full of white gentiles.
Please demonstrate where I even said the word “Jew” or “Israel” on TRS.
I don’t even know why I’m responding to you considering you’re probably an FBI agent trying to stir up trouble.
Scanned his blog– he’s pretty solidly anti-immigration, anti-Cultural Marxism, anti-blank slate, etc. Names a lot of the culprits without actually bringing up the JQ. No real obvious lies or entryist narrative twisting– just leaving things out. Probably a bad idea to abuse people taking those stances.
Example (parentheses mine, of course):
“All of the educational theories that are currently cherished by the left (((critical theory, identity politics, stereotype threat, white guilt, historical guilt, historical revisionism, feminism, and the like))), all come from the (((US))), as well as the creators of those theories. Even modern anti-Americanism comes from the (((USA))), which makes for a very amusing scenario in which people will cluck and chastise perceived American boorishness and savagery, all the while holding books by (((Susan Sontag, Howard Zinn, Tim Wise, Noam Chomsky))), or any of the other myriad (((left-wing American))) writers, and quoting directly from them.”
from:
http://thebarbaricgentleman.com/2015/10/09/debunking-cultmarx-3-guilt/
2 possibilities:
1. He’s chosen, in which case he’s gone as far as he’s going to go, and farther than the vast majority of the tribe. Asking a Jew to give up the standard holycaust narrative is like asking a Mormon to give up their magic underwear– ain’t gonna happen.
If that’s the case, as long as he’s not actually out there agitating to arrest more 95 year olds for “war crimes”, or to imprison people for thought crimes, or to use it to get more money for Israel, I would leave it alone. What, next you’re going to abuse Norman Finkelstein because he still believes the narrative; he’s just opposed to using it as a cash machine? Worst case, you push him into “My bubbe was right, these goyim are always planning the next pogrom, I’d better get on board with the rest
of the tribe.”
If you want to beat up on a Jew on the internet, go troll John Pozdhoretz on the Kosher Review or something more productive. Attacking this guy over a lifting article makes you look stupid and paranoid.
2. He’s a goy, in which case he’s got to come to the truth in his own time, and being too aggressive is just going to make him defensive, and feed into the “dumb redneck white supremacist” frame.
You can’t assault one of the founding myths of the modern progressive religion directly, even with people who are partially there. People have internalized it since childhood, and it’s very threatening to have it contradicted directly. You have to work around the edges, ask questions, use Kaganovitch or Yagoda or Trotsky as examples of evil rather than Hitler, etc. Sure, if people are obvious Zionist or SJW shills, then mockery is the answer, but if there’s any hope, go easy. He may have just been triggered by TRS/ not ready for it.
Hell, the mpc goys are Holycaust believers.
When you write fascism are you referring to the merger of corporation and state or something else? In other words precisely how are you defining “fascism”?
Anyone who whines about “facist martyrs” is a fucking idiot. Regardless of where you stand on Nazis, only a cretin sees the world in absolutes.
Oh and Siths too.
Fascism is essentially Socialism.
Love it. Victory is fleeting, battles can be forever.
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When i woke up today i didn’t think i’d be upvoting a nixon quote, but there you go.
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This alone? I’m dubious.
For an updated version, read his book “Total Recall” which goes through his entire life, including his term as governor, and which has similar good lessons for men of all ages.
Great read. Also “The Poliquin Principles: Successful Methods for Strength and Mass Development” one of the best strength book I’ve read by one of the world’s greatest strength coach, Charles Poliquin. Helped me gain strength and look hard, and I was skinny fat!
http://www.amazon.com/Poliquin-Principles-Successful-Strength-Development/dp/0966275209/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455505952&sr=1-3&refinements=p_27%3ACharles+Poliquin
There are a many great points to this article, like the phrase ,,he who
is afraid of bad luck will never have good luck.”. Even though that
Christian Ortodox teachings reveal the fact that LUCK should not be
worshipped, It can be used as a Living Under Correct Knowledge kind of the theory.
It is of utmost importance to DO !
GET OFF YOUR ASS AND DO ! Whatever it is, cooking, cleaning, learning a new language, a new skill, learning game, learning history, publicizing ROK articles for fellow men to walk in the path of God > Truth > The Red pill.
And there’s the point with Crush your enemies !
Nice article !
http://www.chud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/arnold.jpg
#7 Always have a supply of steroids readily at hand.
Haha, good one.
Isn’t it ironic how the manosphere endorses steroids and looking like a homo in front of the mirror?
To be fair there is nothing bad about steroids as long as you are careful and know what you are doing.
As for looking in the mirror. Depends how much, a few glances are ok. Too much though, no.
Yep. I loathe PEDs. It’s like riding a bike with training wheels for your whole life.
He still looks good for an old man.
He’s 96
http://terriphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/1a_Charles_bud_final_POT_5298_copy.jpg
Impressive. But he’s still working out. If i’m not mistaken this picture of Schwarzie was taken while he was governor, (so no time for training) and just after his heart surgery.
Stan Lee wearing superman underoos? Sacrilege!
who is that?
and the girl on the left? [trashy would bang material]
Public Service Announcement: steroids can cause premature aging.
How about this, as more accurate?:
Given the amount of juicing that Arnold must have done to have attained that physique, is there anything he says in which you can really put any trust?
No, he’s even a bad actor. How can anyone believe him is beyond me.
This little fela has got it right.
Could have sworn I read Bruce took roids as well…
Prove it.
Not sure how I could prove it to you. I think we are on the same side anyway.
He did mild cycles compared to what is taken today. Even so pushing beyond ones genetic limitations take an extreme amount of dedication. I couldn’t give a fuck if he juiced.
I’ve gotten out of my comfort zones many times in my life. Yes there’s a trepidation of the unknown but it has always paid off.
A life of weekly paychecks wasn’t for me. Today, I like to consider myself one of the best at what I do in the world and it never would have happened staying comfortable.
And while tomorrow is promised to no one, God willing, I’m not done yet.
Or just take Kratom…
Very nice job framing the quotes and giving a glimpse at this excellent book. I read it several years ago and feel I need to re-read now. Thank’s for the reminder. Great job!
Arnie did 4 lifetimes of work in his life.
First alpha at bodybuilding
Second alpha at business (real estate)
Third alpha at movies (best selling blockbusters)
Fourth alpha at politics (republican Governor of a democrat state)
He has to hide some of his alpha traits now which is a shame (recent biography by him is a total whitewash regarding importance of steroids, intimidation, manipulation and the many things he did to win) because i think he is still somehow pushing for the law to change so he can have a crack at the whitehouse.
I just ejaculated all over that picture of Arnold.