“I’d missed a big thing”: One Underdeveloped Body Part Was Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Lost His First Bodybuilding Competition to ‘Smaller Guy’ Frank Zane
At an age when actors are busy planning their retirement retreat, Arnold Schwarzenegger is still shining bright in the entertainment industry. The Terminator star was last seen in the action-comedy television series Fubar, which premiered on Netflix in May 2023.
Despite being the face of bodybuilding, it is impossible to believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger had lost to a smaller guy named Frank Zane in his first bodybuilding competition. Apart from having a beefed-up body, the bodybuilder-turned-actor missed out due to an underdeveloped body part.
What led to Arnold Schwarzenegger Losing to a ‘Smaller Guy’?
Arnold Schwarzenegger is making headlines with his new book Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life. The book revolves around the seven important lessons by the actor that have helped him lead a great life. According to the book, the Expendables star had changed his fitness and bodybuilding routine after losing his first bodybuilding competition to a smaller-looking guy in 1968 due to an underdeveloped body part.
As mentioned in Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life, Arnold Schwarzenegger writes-
“The winner, a smaller guy named Frank Zane, was much more cut than I was. I was far too smooth. I’d missed a big thing,”
The excerpt further mentions-
“I have a normal six-pack, which looks good, but Frank looked like each one of the muscles in his midsection was traced out of an anatomy textbook and chiseled from granite,”
Arnold Schwarzenegger went on to change his workout regime as his loss altered his belief about the bodybuilding process. He mentions in the book-
“Calves are basically the biceps of the legs. I had 24-inch biceps. I did not have 24-inch calves. In my mind that threw my body out of proportion, which jeopardized my chances of winning Mr. Olympia and officially becoming the greatest bodybuilder in the world. I wasn’t going to be the kind of person who let that happen.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger has won 7 Mr. Olympia competitions, which include a total of six consecutive titles from 1970-1975.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Never Competed For Money
During an appearance on Nick Miller’s Strength and Power podcast, Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke about how much he made from winning the Mr. Olympia titles over the years. The actor mentioned that he had won $750 and never competed for the money. He said-
“The professional can make some extra money. Because remember that in my days there was no money. I mean, imagine, I win the Mr. Olympia competition, I remember in 1974, whenever it was, and we got like 750 dollars. But again, we didn’t do it for the money.”
He further continued-
“That’s why I started…to promote competitions in the first place. Because, I always wanted to kind of like increase the cash prizes. So we were the first ones I remember, uh, in 1976 to offer five thousand dollars in cash prizes. Then we went to ten thousand dollars. Then to twenty five thousand, fifty. And this is how we went up year after year.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love for bodybuilding needs no introduction as it goes beyond and above the monetary advantage. The reputed action hero of Hollywood was never into it for money, and fans know it well.
