As we know, before appearing in movies, Arnie was one of the greatest bodybuilders the world has ever seen.
Five days ago Redditor GnashBrowns posted a rather sad update about his gym routine.
He said he was a 19-year-old guy, who's 6'5" and weighs 130lbs (59kg).
He'd often gone to the gym with his friend, but he doesn't go alone because he's "not confident" enough to do so.
However, a few days before he writing the post on Reddit, he realised he'd have to go on his own if he "wanted this to work". He started doing sets of squats, but on the last set he "took a nasty spill and landed on his right knee". Some people apparently laughed at him, which he said "hurt more than falling down."
He then moved on to dead lift. But once again it went wrong. He wrote:
My right knee kept buckling and gave out on the fourth rep, causing me to fall once more. Same people laughed and got many looks in my direction because of the loud noise. Feeling completely embarrassed at this point, I put the bar and the weights in their places, and left with my head hanging low.
People on the thread were actually really nice to him (who says the internet's always terrible?) but nevertheless, he said the failure, coupled with people laughing at him, "just destroyed my confidence".
Whereupon Arnie decided to step in.
Two days later, he posted this:
Someone told me about this. I hope I'm not too late here, I'm travelling, but I wanted to chime in.
I always say don't be afraid of failure, because how far can you really fall? You found out – to the ground. It's right there. Now you know it isn't anything that should scare you. You should be proud that you weren't afraid – not embarrassed that you failed. You could have made excuses not to walk into the door, but you didn't. You knew it would be hard, and it would be uncomfortable, and it might be awkward – and you did it anyway. That's courage.
I'm proud of you.
The last guy I rooted for broke a world record in the deadlift. You have more in common with him than you think.
First, he started out lifting just the bar, too (when you look at him, he may have been 3 months old at that point). Second, imagine his courage. He walked up to that bar in front of a big audience and television cameras, knowing that not only had he never lifted that much before – NO ONE on earth had – and it was highly likely he would completely fail. You may not think about it this way, but you showed that courage, on a smaller level.
Finally, I'm rooting for you, too. You took the first step and you fell, but at least you fell in the right direction, so get back up and take the next step. Keep moving forward.
The original poster said Arnie's support was "something else" and "the tiny weights that I can pick up won't know what lifted them".
