monkey work. I wanted to compete in bodybuilding. Small competitions with Karl were repeated every day. But my immediate goal was to win the Mr. Austria (after all, I didn't even compete in that competition, but the circumstances were such that I was already competing in larger competitions.) This initial goal inspired me to increase the training program and to really hard workout. Daily training reached two hours. I still continued to increase the weights, increase the number of repetitions and pump the muscles furiously.

From the very beginning, I believed in basic exercises, because Reg Park preferred them. At a time when Reg wasn't speeding up his workouts for some big competition, he was working with basic exercises: bench press, pull-ups, squats, pull-ups. in the slope, lifting the barbell for biceps, forearms, pullover, worked on the leg biceps, worked on the calf machine. These basic movements most directly affect various parts of the body, I literally followed his example in everything. And as the future showed, I couldn't have made a smarter choice. These basic exercises allowed me to create a powerful foundation, a muscular foundation, on which I later built the body of a winner. Reg Park's theory was to first build the mass and then cut and grind quality out of it; you work on your body as a sculptor works on a piece of clay or wood or steel. At first there is a rough processing, and then more and more subtle, up to polishing. And at this stage, all errors in the foundation are revealed. Then the shortcomings of the initial training become noticeable, they appear in the form of hopeless or even irreparable flaws.

I was building a body, growing, striving for a mass that I thought should be about two hundred and fifty pounds. At the time, I didn't care about the waist or proportion. I just wanted to build a huge 250 pound body by dragging around a huge amount of iron. I thought that it should look huge and powerful. I knew, I saw that everything worked out. Muscles began to grow in me from all sides. And I realized that I was on the right track.

CHAPTER TWO

Soon people began to treat me in a special way. This was partly the result of a change in my own attitude towards myself. I grew, got bigger, gained confidence. And they began to respect me like never before; as if I were the son of a millionaire. When I entered the classroom, my schoolmates treated me or offered to help me with my homework. Even the teachers began to treat me differently, especially when I started winning prizes in weight lifting competitions. This new special attitude of people towards me had a surprising effect on my "I". It turned out to be something I was looking for. I'm not sure I needed that much special attention. Maybe it happened because I had an older brother and my father paid more attention to him. Perhaps this was the reason for my desire to be noticed. I plunged into this new stream of attention. Even the backlash I turned to my satisfaction.

I'm sure most of the people I've known for real didn't understand what I was doing. They looked at me like I was a curiosity. Not everyone accepted me. There were certain social groups of people who were embarrassed by bodybuilding and felt they should talk to me. They tried to stick out the negative points in the sport and to convince why a person should not do it. I've heard these conversations all my life. There is always a certain sort of people who say “my doctor tells me that lifting weights is not healthy…” At first, I had a hard time listening to this. I was young and impressionable. I knew that I wanted to do this so badly that no one would stop me, and certainly people who could not even be considered my friends. But, nevertheless, such questions arose in me. I asked myself why I am arranged differently, why I want to do what a huge number of people find unpleasant and even laugh at it. If you want to play football, everyone loves you; you are a hero. And they are ready to do anything for you.

People recognized in me the talent of an athlete; but my choice of sport confused them. They shook their heads: "Why did you choose the most unrecognized sport in Austria?" That's what they usually ask me. It was true. We were only twenty or thirty bodybuilders in the whole country.

I couldn't find an answer. I didn't know him. It was subconscious. I just fell in love with BODYBUILDING. I loved the feeling of being in the gym, I loved the workout, I loved feeling the muscles.

Now looking back, I can analyze it all more clearly. In the world around me there was a lot of discipline, a lot of individuality and the pristine purity of bodybuilding. But at the time it was a mystery to me. Bodybuilding already had regalia, but relatively strict ones. I haven't competed yet, so my rewards were of a different nature. In the summer on the lake, I could surprise people by the fact that my body was different from theirs. It happened that they said “My God, Arnold! You have grown up again. When will you stop?"

And I answered them: "Never." And we all laughed together. They thought it was a joke, but I really meant it.

Not only my schoolmates and friends on the lake were impressed. Neighbors also began to pay special attention to me. "If you want fresh milk, just tell us." Or eggs or vegetables. Suddenly it turned out that everyone around was looking at me differently. It doesn't matter if they like it or not - but they could not help but notice all this.

by the most what was interesting was how my new body affects the girls. There was a certain part of the girls who were impressed by it, but there were a certain number who found it repulsive. There was absolutely no middle ground here. The border was sharp and clear. Never have I heard indifferent comments in between, whether in the dining room, on the street, or on the lake. "I do not like it. He's kind of strange - all these muscles make me twitch." Or: “I like the way Arnold looks. As big and powerful as a sculpture. This is what a real man should look like.

Such reactions gave me an additional incentive to continue bodybuilding. I wanted to get bigger so that I could impress even more girls who liked me and others didn't like me even more. But girls were not my main motivation for training. Far from it. But since such an additional stimulus arose, I reasoned that as long as this attention was there, it was necessary to use it. Yes, and it was fun. I felt if my size acted repulsively on a girl.

Catching her incredulous gaze on me, I could raise my arm, flex my biceps, and watch her cringe. At least you could see it as a reason to laugh.

I remember there was one of those negative girls that I would like to date. HER name was Hertha and I knew she said out loud that she didn't like how complicated I was. I wanted to try to change her mood. For a while I pursued her and gradually we became friends. In the end, I tried to make a date. She replied that in a million years she would not date me. You are too in love with yourself, with your own body. You look at yourself all the time, posing in front of the mirror.

Her statement is like a punch in the face. At first I got angry. Why doesn't she want to understand? Why was she so upset? But this could have been foreseen. Then I put it all out of my head. I don't think she forgot. The last time I visited Graz, she called me several times and said that she was now divorced and it would be nice if we could meet.

Nobody seems to understand what bodybuilding is. You look in the mirror not because of narcissistic tendencies, but because you are trying to control your progress. It has nothing to do with selfishness. Hertha would never say famous auto racer that he is narcissistic because he controls his speed with a stopwatch. It just sometimes turns out that a mirror, a centimeter and scales are the only tools a bodybuilder has to control his progress.

Hertha was not a typical case. I didn't have any problems with girls. I was introduced to sex almost without problems. Senior bodybuilders from the gym invited me to their parties. For me, everything was simple. These guys always made sure there was a girl for me. "Well, Arnold, there's that one, this is for you,"

Girls have become an object for sex. I've seen other bodybuilders use them for this and thought that's the way it should be. We discussed the pitfalls of serious romantic adventures as a distraction from training. Naturally, I agreed with the opinion of the senior bodybuilders - they were my idols.

My attitude towards this has changed radically. I used to feel that a woman was only for one thing, sex was just another kind of exercise, another function of the body. I was convinced that I could not talk to a girl on the basis of common views, I was sure that she would not