Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most successful bodybuilders in history and is a bodybuilder that puts bodybuilding in the interest of the general public.
With his fantastic physique and personality, Arnold managed to make bodybuilding mainstream; back when Arnold was competing, bodybuilding was about symmetry, proportions, and aesthetics.
Bodybuilding had changed significantly since the 70s, back when Arnold was competing, and Arnold has openly criticized modern bodybuilding to the point that bodybuilders such as Phil Heath responded.
Arnold said that bodybuilding today is all about mass, and we get many guys with tremendous guts on stage, and it doesn’t look appealing; he also talked about how no pro bodybuilder can do a vacuum pose anymore, which was pretty standard back in the 70s
Mr. Olympia champion Phil Heath even responded to Arnold’s criticism stating that Arnold didn’t have any legs.
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I guess it’s true that Arnold did not have as big legs as modern bodybuilders, but he had a more desirable physique.
The seven-time Mr. Olympia champion Arnold Schwarzenegger ate on a low-carb, high-fat, high-protein diet.
He aimed at 1 gram of protein per 1 gram of body weight; his method worked and delivered one of the most celebrated physiques to date.
Once a week, he had a cheat day where he ate everything he wanted, from pizza to cake.
The taboo subject in bodybuilding is steroid use, with many bodybuilders shying away from the questions due to sponsorships with supplement companies or don’t want to get criticized.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger talked openly about steroids when he was asked the question and said steroids weren’t looked down on back when competing.
Here’s what Arnold had to say about steroid use when he was a bodybuilding champion:
Also, other big names in bodybuilding talked about steroids in this clip
The common question I used to get is : did we take steroids? Because now drugs are such a big issue in sports, the answer is yes it was just in the beginning stage because bodybuilders in those days just experimented with it but it was not illegal. We talked about it very openly, I mean anyone that was asked do you take steroids, yeah, It was not an illegal thing. Now after it became a big problem then our Federation said okay bodybuilders ought not to take steroids and there will be testing done, surprise testing done, you could be called at any given time and within two days you have to do a test so he can’t get rid of the sit the whole thing out of your system or anything like that so that’s what’s going on right now. The bodybuilders are tested continuously.