Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most well-known bodybuilder in the world, having come to fame in his 20’s and becoming the youngest ever Mr Universe title holder. Fun fact: He emigrated to North America with $20 in his pocket and a will to win! In his career, he’s acted in dozens of epic movies and eventually became the much-loved Governor of California.
Here are Arnie’s 52 quotes for the gym:
1. While you’re out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that.
2. Positive thinking can be contagious. Being surrounded by winners helps you develop into a winner.
3. There are no shortcuts—everything is reps, reps, reps.
4. You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.
5. If my life was a movie, no one would believe it.
6. Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for if we’re never tested to our limits, how will we know how strong we really are? How will we ever grow?
7. The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.
8. You'll get more from being a peacemaker than a warrior.
9. What is the point of being on this Earth if you are going to be like everyone else
10. If you want to turn a vision into reality, you have to give 100% and never stop believing in your dream.
11. Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.
12. My definition of living is to have excitement always; there’s a difference between living and existing.
13. The difference between those who adapted and those who didn’t, Gorton said, was a willingness to totally commit.
14. All I know is that the first step is to create a vision, because when you see the vision – the beautiful vision – that creates the want power.
15. The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.
16. The last 3 or 4 reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion.
17. None of my rules of success will work unless you do.
18. You can have the greatest movie in the world, but if you don’t get it out there, if people don’t know about it, you have nothing.
19. Start wide, expand further, and never look back.
20. Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others.
21. If you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.
22. If I can see it and believe it, then I can achieve it.
23. The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100%.
24. I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way - I hope it never will.
25. From the bodybuilding days on, I learnedthat everything is reps and mileage. The more miles you ski, the better a skier you become; the more reps you do, the better your body.
26. Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach.
27. But I was wild only when I was wild. When it was time to train, I never missed a session.
28. When you think you can’t, you better convince yourself you can and push harder.
29. I like the color red because it’s a fire. And I see myself as always being on fire.
30. I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way. I hope it never will.
31. If you don’t find the time, if you don’t do the work, you don’t get the results.
32. Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn't matter.
33. To be successful, however, you must be brutal with yourself and focus on the flaws.
34. Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.
35. My own dreams fortunately came true in this great state. I became Mr. Universe; I became a successful businessman. And even though some people say I still speak with a slight accent, I have reached the top of the acting profession.
36. The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.
37. You have to remember something: Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.
38. Well, you know, I'm the forever optimist.
39. I never listen that you can’t.
40. Don’t go where it’s crowded. Go where it’s empty. Even though it’s harder to get there, that’s where you belong and where there’s less competition.
41. Stay hungry, stay healthy, be a gentleman, believe strongly in yourself and go beyond limitations.
42. What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.
43. None of my rules of success will work unless you do.
44. Stay hungry, stay healthy, be a gentleman, believe strongly in yourself and go beyond limitations.
45. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.
46. For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.
47. The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.
48. Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.
49. Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.
50. I didn’t mind basic training. It taught me that something that seems impossible at the start can be achieved.
51. I welcome and seek your ideas, but do not bring me small ideas; bring me big ideas to match our future.
52. Don’t listen to the naysayers.