Arnold Schwarzenegger has long been a source of motivation for people wanting that extra boost to get going on their workouts. However, he recently raised concerns over a common complaint that his fitness community had to talk about regarding his exercise app. While he began his recent newsletter by addressing those complaints, he quickly switched to a detailed pep talk about his opinions and advice.
The concerns of his fitness community were about the app’s feature of locking them in a fixed schedule and marking a failure when they couldn’t check off that day’s workout. Many complained that it felt demotivating and that they would want to have a flexible option for working out whenever they wanted to. Schwarzenegger justified his stance on why he thought a schedule was necessary and understood where the criticism came from.
He began by acknowledging people’s discomfort and admitting that he knew life often came in the way of some, and it presented an unfair situation. However, that didn’t have to keep fitness enthusiasts away from their consistent workouts.
His focus in the newsletter then shifted to how overthinking was the true nemesis of the best. Schwarzenegger’s motto has always been about how progress was progress, no matter how miniscule. But too much thinking about schedules, timing, and other irrelevant details could deter even the toughest from doing their workouts.
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“When you major in the minor, you are thinking too damn much to have enough energy to train.
Repeat this every time you find yourself analyzing the little details:
It doesn’t f*cking matter!”
According to Schwarzenegger, as long as one was training, eating well, sleeping on time, and actively moving, a fixed schedule didn’t matter. While the app could lock the user in a particular routine, they didn’t have to follow it strictly, as long as they tried their best to do the task. Focusing too much on the details gave way for our minds to hesitate.
“I don’t know the science, but the way I imagine it is our brains figure out we are going to exercise and then freak out that our body is taking the energy instead of them.”
While Schwarzenegger focused on not giving too much emphasis on details, he asked his community not to go too easy on themselves. While a break here and there was reasonable, he firmly believed that the path to success was only traversable through experiencing struggles.
Arnold Schwarzenegger highlights the importance of struggles to achieve goals
In the same newsletter, Schwarzenegger wanted his community to understand how crucial obstacles and downfalls were in the bigger picture. He believed it was difficult to highlight the small progressions and wins without struggling to achieve them.
Just like muscles need resistance training to get bigger, people need hurdles to become stronger. Furthermore, he revealed how his mentor taught him to train his mind and body to accept struggles and discomfort since it was a part of life. This technique guaranteed one’s way to success and made every achievement sweeter.
