I just watched Arnold Schwarzenegger on Jocko's podcast. I still can't forgive the "screw your freedom" post that he made and never will, but I have always been a huge fan of Arnold's as well as Mentzer and Platz. Arnold started it all and brought bodybuilding and lifting weights into the minds of millions. I dare say that without Arnold, there would not be all of the gyms and emphasis on resistance training that there is now. No "normal' people lifted weights back in the 70's. There were some college football teams lifting weights, but not many regular folks were training with weights. I swear , people used to think that it would make one dumb if they lifted weights, or muscle bound or would enlarge their hearts and make them explode. Crazy talk, but not back then.
Hell, Alan Alda was how women liked their men back then. He was about 137 pounds soaking wet, and had 12 inch arms maximum. He was sensitive and smart but couldn't lift a newspaper without breaking a sweat. spindly with a capital "S". I am always so glad that I grew up when I did, because I was around to see the genesis of pumping iron in the world, basically. And Arnold started it all. And I'm glad that I was around when Arnold and Stallone were all ripped up and they were on the Muscle and Fitness covers and Clint was lifting weights too. Men were men's men back in that time. There was no toxic masculinity, there was just bad ass dudes that made movies, guys that we all wanted to look like. Hell, I watch movies today and I never think, "I want to look like that guy." As soon as Arnold or Stallone made an appearance with their arms showing or their shirts off on the big screen, my friends and I were like, "Arms are looking good" or "Shit, Stallone looks much more ripped up than he did in Rocky 2." But we all wanted to look like them, and I would have loved to look like Arnold the most. These guys were like superheroes without wearing costumes. There were thousands and thousands of kids all over the world that were inspired to train by Arnold and Stallone.
It was a cool time to be alive and to be a teenager. I read muscle magazines from cover to cover and when Arnold was on the cover I got extra excited. Inside there were the same old articles regarding their training but the pics were what was really cool. I'd scan through the old Muscle Builder Power mags (the forerunner of Muscle and Fitness) and those black and white Artie Zeller pictures from the old Gold's were so inspiring. The guys were training hard or cutting up with each other. It looked like they were having a blast.
It seemed like a dream, California back then. The sunshine and the beach and Gold's. I thought about that all the time, going out there and training when Arnold was in the gym, squatting with Platz, hanging out with the Barbarian Brothers. C'mon man! That stuff was so cool. That Gold's picture where everyone is standing out front? They were all in that picture, all the big guys of the day.
We all waited in line whenever his movies came out. I can remember somebody talking shit about Arnold one time and I got pissed. Funny, huh? But Arnold was ours, we knew the Pumping Iron Arnold and we were overjoyed by his success as he rose in the ranks to become the number 1 actor in the world. I read Education of a Bodybuilder over and over and stared at the pictures for hours.
He still loves bodybuilding and talking about training, you could hear it in his voice when he was talking about it with Jocko. Except for a few hiccups here and there, Arnold has done our world right. Hell, he started our world.