The bodybuilding community usually knows 76-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger as the ever-encouraging, legendary fitness icon who loves to see people sweat it out at the gym. However, in his recent newsletter, Arnold takes the tough route to push his community to be better. In a detailed note about an important update on his fitness application called ‘The Pump’, he admitted his true feelings about it.
Schwarzenegger has never been a fan of achieving goals with shortcuts or the easy way. Instead, he firmly believed that one needs to struggle, at least at the beginning of their journey, to taste victory. The subject arose when he talked about a feature on his fitness app that locked people into a set schedule. Not many found it easy to follow it to the T and struggled to finish their program. This triggered him to address the matter.
Schwarzenegger started by acknowledging that the schedule shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. He was also aware that not everyone could follow it at all times. However, he also believed that a missed day or two shouldn’t overshadow their other victories throughout the week.
Striving to be the best version of oneself was good. However, Schwarzenegger firmly asserted that pretending to be perfect, snatched away the joy of small victories. In terms of the workout plan from the app, it almost invalidates weekly progress and the feeling of satisfaction that came from it.
“That’s why I oppose so many of the things we do with our kids. Making everyone a winner means nobody has to learn from losing. And let me tell you, losing is what makes winning fantastic.”
Success and struggles are two ends of a binary where one doesn’t hold value without the other. Even during physical training, it is important to put muscles through extreme resistance, to ensure that they grow in size. Schwarzenegger revealed how his mentor, Fredi Gerstl, taught him the importance of training his body and mind. It helped him develop a mindset recognizing the role of struggles in his success.
He understood how his community felt about seeing a red ‘X’ on their schedules, marking a failure of their daily workout. But he reiterated his point about recognizing small victories and looking at the larger picture. While seeing a glaring dip in an otherwise consistent schedule might be uncomfortable, Schwarzenegger believed accepting it was the only key to overcoming it.
“Discomfort will find you. My mission is to prepare you for it. You can either choose to make yourself uncomfortable and do those reps of stuff that doesn’t feel great, or you let it sneak up on you.”
However, the Pump App wasn’t the only route the former bodybuilder resorted to, to get his village going. He recently attempted to uplift his community with a challenge.
Arnold Schwarzenegger posed a challenge to ‘get moving’
Schwarzenegger often likes to present little competitions or tasks for his newsletter readers. This keeps them motivated throughout their fitness journey. Recently, he talked about how his intense workouts have taken a backseat due to his heart surgery.
However, that didn’t stop him from exercising or attempting to stay fit. He further revealed he has resorted to walking and counting his steps at the end of the day along with his training partner, Lynn.
This task led him to pose a challenge for his village – progressive walking and increasing the distance. He set the target to increase the number of steps by 1000 daily, so his community could experience some struggle while competing against their numbers. This would provide small yet consistent progress, transforming their health and fitness levels under the guise of a daily task.
