Arnold Schwarzenegger is now the epitome of fitness, muscle, and bodybuilding. Paving the way for bodybuilders into popular culture, the Austria-born superstar is an inspiration for hundreds of youth now for his amazing body back in the day. However, the celebrated actor-bodybuilder revealed in his new book, Be Useful, that his body wasn’t as great when he first came to America.
Instead, the actor named a fellow bodybuilder Frank Zane for his extremely chiseled abs and abdomen, which he majorly lacked. Admitting his defeat he revealed how he got back in the game.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Reveals Fellow Body Builder Had Better Abs Than Him
Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s recent new book, Be Useful, has revealed some major details about his life including his body-building career. Talking about his journey to the United States, he revealed some pretty interesting details and how he faced defeat at the hands of his fellow bodybuilder who had way better abs than him.
Talking about his very first bodybuilding competition in the US in 1968, in Miami, the actor revealed he lost it due to a lack of muscle definition (via Yahoo! News).
“The winner, a smaller guy named Frank Zane, was much more cut than I was. I was far too smooth. I’d missed a big thing.”
He added how he had to focus more on his midsection and calves as a result,
“The pros in America focused way more on the individual muscles of the midsection than we did in Europe. I have a normal six-pack (talking about his old pictures), which looks good, but Frank looked like each one of the muscles in his midsection was traced out of an anatomy textbook and chiseled from granite.”
And off he went strengthening his abdomen and calves, day and night, trying the best exercise to become the best bodybuilder in the world.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Focused On His Calves To Become GOAT Body Builder
Arnold Schwarzenegger knew he had to strengthen his abdominal and calf workouts to ultimately get his dream physique. Apart from his abs, the Terminator star knew he had to focus more on his calves, so he ended up cutting short all his other training so he could focus more on them.
“Calves are basically the biceps of the legs. I had 24-inch biceps. I did not have 24-inch calves. In my mind that threw my body out of proportion, which jeopardized my chances of winning Mr. Olympia and officially becoming the greatest bodybuilder in the world. I wasn’t going to be the kind of person who let that happen.”
And that is how, at the age of 23, in 1970, the star won his very first Mr Olympia title, and would eventually go on to win 6 more of them.
