Chasing Arnold Schwarzenegger
Mention “bodybuilding” and the first person to come to mind (well, my mind at least) is Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Born in Austria in 1947 he is leading an incredible life. He won the Mr. Universe title at age 20 and won the Mr. Olympic contest seven times.
The docudrama Pumping Iron by Charles Gaines and George Butler follows Arnold (among others like Lou Ferringo) in the 100 days leading up to the Mr. Olympia competition of 1975. The movie was released in 1977 and made bodybuilding popular and influenced the fitness craze of the 1980’s.
Most people know him for his movies, like Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator.
I got to meet him when he was know as “The Governator” for being the Governor of California between 2003-2011. This picture was taken at his birthday party fundraiser in 2008. (As you can tell by my oh-so-sexy double chin I was between pregnancies and had not lost my baby fat.) We kept the plate from the dinner – it’s on my office desk.
Anyway, his namesake bodybuilding competition is the Arnold Classic and to compete in it is considered an honor. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the competition and it will be held in Columbus, Ohio.
To qualify you have to have placed in the Top 5 at a national qualifying NPC competition. I know it’s a big (huge, enormous, colossal) stretch, but one day I would like to compete in the Arnold Classic. You have to aim high, right?
It would also be pretty thrilling to interview him for the blog one day, especially since I’m bodybuilding now.
How about you? Do you have any super-sized fitness goals?
Lisa
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