![]() (In one notorious scene, he describes the feeling he gets from each pump of his muscle as akin to orgasm.) Years before his Hollywood career, his celebrity seems predetermined: he radiates an almost terrifying confidence, and it’s clear that he experiences every aspect of his labor as unfettered joy. Olympia, seven times, through some combination of his immaculate physique and the spectacularly ruthless mind games he plays with the other contestants. But even the most intimidating among them become deferential in the presence of the film’s charismatic breakout star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won the sport’s highest competition, Mr. Butler, who died in October, 2021, worked with Gaines to make the case for bodybuilding as an underappreciated art form-one that incorporates elements of classical sculpture and dance.īutler and Gaines’s journalistic coverage of the world of bodybuilding led to the 1974 photo book “ Pumping Iron” and a 1977 documentary of the same name, both of which document the sport’s strange and endearing main characters: among others, there is Mike Katz, a gentle teacher and father with an air of diffident sadness that bullies find irresistible Franco Columbu, a docile, but self-assured, former boxing champion from a tiny Italian village and the best bodybuilder under two hundred pounds and Lou Ferrigno, who would go on to play the Incredible Hulk on TV-a massive and slightly bewildered up-and-comer, shepherded through training and competitions by his overbearing father. At the time, the sport was widely denigrated, considered an extreme and unsavory activity for homosexuals and freaks. And as long as I see those mountains, I keep my enthusiasm, and I keep my excitement, and that fire in my belly to keep climbing and climbing and climbing.In the seventies, the photographer George Butler and a collaborator, the journalist Charles Gaines, looking for as yet uncovered subcultures to document for the magazine-reading public, began hanging around with bodybuilders. "I just see mountains in front of me to be climbed. ![]() "The bottom line is, I'm 76 years old, I'm full of energy, I'm full of enthusiasm I'm as enthusiastic and excited as I was when I was 30 years old," he concluded. The conversation ended with Schwarzenegger outlining the proactive, positive mindset he has cultivated to help him overcome any challenge. I just feel like as those challenges come my way, I take them on. Because there's nothing that I can do about it. "Now all of a sudden you have to think about these things, to warm up for this, warm up for that," he said. This, he told Stern, was the first time he felt truly vulnerable, and was having limits placed on him physically. He reflected on going through his first heart surgery before the age of 50-he has since had a heart valve replacement operation at 74-and how he came to see himself as "damaged goods" afterwards. In addition to aesthetic changes, Schwarzenegger has also grappled with what it means to get older in terms of his health. "It still looks better than the majority of bodies," he added, "but I mean, it just sucks." I never, ever thought about that when I was 30 years old or 40 years old, that this is going to happen." ![]() Cut, and you roll the clock forward 50 years, and now you're standing there and you don't see that any more. It's just when you've been hailed for years as the supreme body, and you have the definition, and you see the veins coming down your abs, and you see veins on top of your chest. So therefore it gets shittier as time goes on. ![]() "So what does it mean, getting out of shape? They've always looked at the shitty body. "It's sad, also, because as I say to people, it's one thing to see yourself get older and more and more out of shape, but most of the people have never been in shape," he said. While this is a relatable problem for most people, Schwarzenegger added that his experience is complicated by the fact that he was so well-known for his physical prowess and performance. Look at those pectoral muscles that used to be firm and perky and kind of like really powerful with a striation in there, now they're just hanging there. "I kind of smile, because every day I do look in a mirror and I say yeah, you suck," he joked. In a recent conversation with Howard Stern and Robin Quivers, Schwarzenegger opened up about his journey with body image. Now in his mid-70s, he has had to come to terms with the fact that his body is no longer that of a professional bodybuilder, and that his belly-or as he puts it, his "boodle"-is more prominent these days. Olympia competition, then a frequently shirtless, oiled-up star of action movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger built his career and reputation on his famous physique. As a seven-time champion in the renowned Mr.
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