Arnold Schwarzenegger On Steroid Abuse, Rich Piana, Calum Von Moger and Finding Your Motivation

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a recent interview with Men’s Health talks about his new film Killing Gunther, and a number of issues affecting the bodybuilding community, supplement use and where today’s bodybuilders should find motivation. Schwarzenegger also gave advice to Calum Von Moger who will portray him in the new bodybuilding movie “Bigger”.

First, he addressed Calum Von Moger for his role as young Arnold:

“I met him. He’s a terrific fellow, very talented. He’s talented in bodybuilding, too; he’s got a very symmetrical physique, a good looking face and a good spirit. I think he’s a very good person. I hope that he does well with his acting. I haven’t seen [anything he’s acted in], but that doesn’t mean he won’t be good. I think he’s smart enough to take it seriously and to take acting classes and he will be pulling off a good performance…. “

“He could really carve out a nice niche for himself as the younger version of me.”

When asked a question about the recent deaths in the bodybuilding community and Some, like Rich Piana, have admitted to using insulin, while others were using common supplements, like kratom.

“You can say it’s because of the drug usage or being out of control with what they use, or not doing research and using things they don’t know; I cannot tell you what is true and what is not. I think that when anyone [doing a sport] dies, it’s always sad, because this is not their intention and I just hope that we figure out ways of how to guide people through a dangerous, uneducated phase in life where they make these mistakes. We have to make sure this is bodybuilding and not body destroying.”

“I’m the first person to advocate that we have drug tests in every competition. That’s the only way to get rid of some of [the illicit drug use]. Drug companies feel strongly that for every drug test, they will figure out a way to get around it, to cheat it. But that should not discourage us from testing athletes. If we do, we will get better results and they will be healthier. Now, this does not solve the problem for those who don’t compete. There is still an enormous amount of people taking the wrong stuff but not competing.

Arnold believes steroid use has expanded to extreme levels since his day, and emphasis has been removed from discipline:

“You cannot compare what we took in the Seventies with what they’re taking now. We were taking 15mg then and they take 1000mg of the same thing now. It’s really outrageous. It’s just huge amounts of dosages. It’s only because of a lack of education that they don’t know that it will kill them. What they need to do is rely more on the work. One of my six principles of success is work your ass off. There is no shortcut. If you think there is, you’re wrong. Everything I’ve ever accomplished in my life was because I worked my butt off, not because I found some shortcut.”

Arnold as always gives a fantastic advice.

“[Drugs] aren’t the answer. You have to pose and pose and pose. Work your ass off in training. That’s what makes you better.”

His new film Killing Gunther was released October 20, 2017.