mirek.ee
25.11.06, 22:27
oui: You've spent most of your life turning your body into a model of
excellence. Why? What does having the world's greatest body mean to you?
SCHWARZENEGGER: It means that I'm somebody special. What drove me to become
the world's greatest bodybuilder is no different from what drives other
athletes to become great tennis players or boxers or jockeys. I didn't get
into body building until I was 15, and, at the time, my parents thought I was
crazy to get deeply involved with something for which there was so little
precedent in Austria. They even thought of sending me to a psychiatrist. They
couldn't see any future in the sport; but there I was, lifting weights two or
three hours every day.
oui: Did you have any idea then that body building would eventually bring you
fame and fortune?
SCHWARZENEGGER: No, not really. I was just locked into the idea of winning
the world championship in body building. As time passed, I began to see it as
a way out of Austria, an escape from the everyday life around me. I'd look
out my parents' window and see people talking over a cup of coffee for two
hours or more, and I knew it wasn't for me. My father was the local police
chief and he led a very regular life. I became determined to make it without
working from nine to five. Sports, I thought, was the only way to act out.
oui: But, at the time, were there really any bodybuilders who were making a
living from the sport?
SCHWARZENEGGER: There was a guy named Reg Park. He's an Englishman who now
lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, and he was my idol. He was publicized in
the muscle magazines as a businessman and movie star, and the combination of
the two so impressed me that all I could think of was winning the Mr.
Universe title the fastest way possible. The basic problem, though, was that
the Americans had an enormous advantage. Every Mr. Universe had come from
America and, as it later turned out, I was the first one to break that
pattern.
oui: Why were the Americans so successful? Was it a question of having more
money?
SCHWARZENEGGER: No, it was because the Americans had all the confidence.
Theirs was a mental superiority, the feeling that they owned the title. But
in Austria, the mentality was the reverse; winning against the Americans was
unthinkable. By the time I was 15, though, I had a vision of absolutely
wiping everybody off the stage. I had no idea, really, of what a stage even
looked like, but I saw myself standing there, posing and winning.
oui: An epiphany, a dream?
SCHWARZENEGGER: A dream, yes, though not at night. It was just like having a
vision-you know, like when you hear a person say, "I saw Jesus and he talked
to me, and now I'm so happy with life because I know I'm going to be taken
care of," and all of a sudden he's relaxed, he's not haunted anymore-well, it
was like that.
oui: When was this visionary sense of yourself confirmed?
SCHWARZENEGGER: When I was 18 and still in the army, I entered the European
body-building championship and won. It was my first competition and, even
though it was the junior division, I instantly felt like King Kong, as if I'd
already won the Mr. Universe title-which, in fact, I did win a year later.
The title itself wasn't so important to me as the lifestyle it brought with
it. I was living in Munich at the time, hanging out with night people-
entertainers, hookers and bar owners-and I had a girlfriend who was a
stripper. I was an innocent boy from a farm town, but I grew up fast in
Munich. Then an American promoter wired me to come and compete in the States.
oui: Was your training affected by the drinking and screwing around?
SCHWARZENEGGER: No, because having a good time is not nearly so damaging as
people think. I'm constantly amazed when people ask me about discipline.
Discipline is what you use when you don't want to do something, when you have
to force yourself.
oui: You lift five and six tons daily because you enjoy it?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Yes, because I want to. Do you have to discipline yourself to
have breakfast, lunch or dinner? Of course not; and so discipline-the usual
concept of it-doesn't apply here. I had to discipline myself to learn
English, but never to train.
oui: You never had to push yourself?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Absolutely not; at least, not the way most people think. I
love body building. I positively get off on it. When you lift weights,
there's a certain point in the repetitions at which it really starts aching-
where you can't go on any further, and the body starts shaking, and you know
you have to press one more time. That's where the satisfaction is: in going
that one step further. That's why it gets painful. It's also what makes a
champion. If you can't go through that pain period, that dead point, then
competitively you won't make it.
oui: How do you deal with the pain?
SCHWARZENEGGER: I look forward to it, and when it starts, I tell myself that
I have to go through this because damn few people can. It's like any other
sport: You have to do what nobody else can do, and the only way is to push
yourself past the limit.
oui: Do you have a training partner?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Yes. He helps push you through the pain periods. The
relationship between the two of you is very close-closer than most marriages,
in fact-and he has to understand when you're trying to chicken out, as well
as when you really have to put the weights down, when you absolutely can't go
on. He's looking after your body as if it were his own. Sometimes your body
really gets bombed out: You try to go through this pain thing, but your body
won't push the weight, and your partner will help you with his fingers just
enough so that you can handle it. He'll stand behind you and lift with his
fingers and make it possible-but just barely possible-for you to make the
lift, and then on the next repetition, maybe he'll help a little bit more.
oui: With just his fingers on the bar?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Just with the fingers, yes. Maybe he's lifting five pounds,
maybe only a single pound, but it can make all the difference. What it means
is that somebody is helping, paying attention and really giving you his
energy. It's all vibes: The two of you are out to conquer, to win. The two of
you become a unit. You're working and nobody can get into your territory-it's
that type of thing.
oui: It sounds as if your relationship with your training partner is so close
that you wouldn't have much energy left for other relationships.
SCHWARZENEGGER: No. My training. belongs to the gym, period. When I walk out,
it's an absolutely different thing. I lived with a woman for five years, a
very smart lady who teaches English at a college in California. She finally
split when I went into the film business, not because of the training.
oui: Still, you talk about the workouts as if they were taking place in a
temple.
SCHWARZENEGGER: Yes and no. There's often a point where you say, "It's
getting too intense here." Your partner might be a little scared of the next
set because you've been pushing him too hard, so you'll crack a joke and go
over to somebody else and bullshit a little. Then you talk him into it. The
best example I can think of was one day when Franco Columbu walked into the
gym, went down into a squat with 500 pounds on his shoulders and couldn't
come back up. Someone had to lift the weight off. I reminded Franco that four
people from New York were watching the great Franco Columbu, the world's
strongest bodybuilder, crashing down under a mere 500 pounds. "Franco," I
told him, "this is very embarrassing. There are a lot of people here watching
and they think that the muscle magazines are all bullshitting." He looked
around and started breathing heavily, so I pushed it further. I bet him $20