Arnold and Me

“Stop it! I need some of the weights!”

Arnold’s term as governor of California kind of removed him from the muscle beach scene where he is the rightful king. It removed him from us too, those of us who also call Venice Beach and the Mecca of bodybuilding home—the crew that trains at Gold’s every day. With his political career out of the way and with new Terminator and Conan films on the horizon, the world’s most famous bodybuilder is training at Gold’s Gym in Venice and everything is right with the world.

I see Arnold every morning at the gym. He seems like the happiest guy on Earth with a big smile and a wave and always cracking a joke. That’s one of the things that really stands out about him: his incredible sense of humour. Arnold is never alone; he’s always palling around with someone, usually Ralf Möller. It doesn’t matter where they are or who they’re with; Ralf and Arnold are always joking around.

In the gym, Arnold loves talking smack. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing; he’ll walk by and make a joke. Like if I’m training really heavy, he’ll walk by me and say, “Stop it! I need some of the weights!” He really has an incredible ability to keep his sense of humour and to keep his friends close—really close. He still keeps Ralf and his original crew with him. Arnold’s friends didn’t change; he just got more of them. That tells you a lot about a person.

If there’s one thing that impresses me the most about Arnold and that I take away from what I see of him, I try hard to emulate his incredible ability to focus. I don’t only mean like focusing on the prize and setting goals and striving to achieve them, doing whatever it takes, etc. Of course that kind of focus is very impressive. But I’m talking about focus in the sense that he has this certain ability to focus when he’s communicating with you. It’s this ability he has to make you feel like you’re the only person in the world. He makes deep eye contact when he talks to you. He’s focused on what you’re saying—intent—he wants to hear every word you say. Maybe this comes from having to focus so hard when he was learning English, or that’s just part of his genius, but Arnold is a breed all his own when he’s communicating.

I’ve watched him talk to people, and he’s respectful to everyone. Whether it’s a 300-pound fat guy or a hot young girl, he treats them just the same. And when he’s in the gym, he’s one of us. It’s like how we were in high school, playing ball, and we had that bond because we played on the same team. It’s like we got in the trenches together.

You can be deep into a heavy set, struggling to get your reps, and glance over and see Arnold Schwarzenegger eight feet away, doing the same thing. All of us have that bond with him. It’s something really, really cool.