Arnold Schwarzenegger the legend bodybuilder has succeeded in many things in his life. There are many bodybuilding quotes after Arnold that lifters can use to fuel their motivation and inspiration. Here are the best

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•“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.”

•“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.”

•“Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach.”

•“Not many people understand what a pump is. It must be experienced to be understood. It is the greatest feeling that I get. I search for this pump because it means that that my muscles will grow when I get it. I get a pump when the blood is running into my muscles. They become really tight with blood. Like the skin is going to explode any minute. It’s like someone putting air in my muscles. It blows up. It feels fantastic.”

•“What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.”

•“The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.”

•“Bodybuilding should be fun because you get a feeling of satisfaction which is very hard to explain. A bodybuilder knows when he pumps up his muscles it means growth. The muscles grow. So therefore he knows when he pumps up well, that is progress. And that satisfies him because he feels the progress in his body. Therefore the pump feels good. It’s actually the best feeling a body builder can have. It’s a difficult thing to explain. Like sometimes we joke around and we get a good pump and we say you have to admit that a good pump is better than coming. Somebody off the street wouldn’t understand that, but sometimes a pump is the best feeling you can have.”

•“The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.”

•“A beginner does eight repetitions of a certain exercise with his maximum weight on the barbell. As soon as it hurts, he thinks about stopping. I work beyond this point, which means I tell my mind that as soon as it starts aching it is growing. Growing is something unusual for the body when you are over eighteen. The body isn’t used to ten, eleven, or twelve reps with a maximum weight. Then I do ten or fifteen sets of this in a row. No human body was ever prepared for this and suddenly it is making itself grow to handle this new challenge, growing through this pain area. Experiencing this pain in my muscles and aching and going on is my challenge. The last three or four reps is what makes the muscles grow. This area of pain divides a champion from someone who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens. I have no fear of fainting. I do squats until I fall over and pass out. So what? It’s not going to kill me. I wake up five minutes later and I’m OK. A lot of other athletes are afraid of this. So they don’t pass out. They don’t go on.”

•“I just use my muscles as a conversation piece, like someone walking a cheetah down 42nd Street.”

•“There are no shortcuts—everything is reps, reps, reps.”

•“I’m addicted to exercising and I have to do something every day.”

•“I do the same exercises I did 50 years ago and they still work. I eat the same food I ate 50 years ago and it still works.”

•“What I’m doing is the thing I want to do. I don’t care what other people think. If the rest of disagrees and says I shouldn’t waste my time, I still will be a bodybuilder. I love it. I love the feeling in my muscles, I love the competition, and I love the things it gives me. I have never really had to work in my whole life. I’ve never had an eight to six job. I’ve always made good money. I’ve traveled all over the world competing and giving exhibitions. I‘ve made a profession out of a pastime, which perhaps only five percent of the population can do. The other ninety-five percent are frustrated office workers, working for someone else. I’m totally independent. So, I…..feel…if I would live again or if I would be born again, I would do exactly the same thing.”

•“When I was 15-years-old, I took off my clothes and looked in the mirror. When I stared at myself naked, I realized that to be perfectly proportioned I would need twenty-inch arms to match the rest of me.”

•“Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for if we’re never tested to our limits, how will we know how strong we really are? How will we ever grow?”

•“I have a good sense of my body in a bathing suit around people who appreciate what I’m doing, like a contest. Then I’m proud. On television I am proud. But on a beach most people are not experts. The general public doesn’t know how to look. How proud can you be when they don’t even know what they’re looking at?”

•“The better you get, the less you run around showing off as a muscle guy. You know, you wear regular shirts-not always trying to show off what you have. You talk less about it. It’s like you have a little BMW – you want to race the hell out of this car, because you know it’s just going 110. But if you see guys driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, they slide around at 60 on the freeway because they know if they press on that accelerator they are going to go 170. These things are the same in every field.”

•“The only way to be a champion is by going through these forced reps and the torture and pain. That’s way I call it the torture routine. Because it’s like forced torture. Torturing my body. What helps me is to think of this pain as pleasure. Pain makes me grow. Growing is what I want. Therefore, for me pain is pleasure. And so when I am experiencing pain I’m in heaven. It’s great. People suggest this is masochistic. But they’re wrong. I like pain for a particular reason. I don’t like needle’s stuck in my arm. But I do like the pain that is necessary to be a champion.”

•“What I’m doing is the thing I want to do. I don’t care what other people think. Even if they disagree and say I shouldn’t I will still be a bodybuilder. I love it. I love the feelings in my muscles, I love the competition, and i love the things it gives me, I have never really had to work in my whole life. I have never had an eight to six job. I’ve always made good money. I’ve traveled all over the world competing and giving exhibitions. I’ve made a profession out of a past time, which perhaps only five percent of the population can do. The other ninety-five percent are frustrated workers, working for someone else. I’m totally in dependent. So i feel if I would live again or if I would be born again, I would do exactly the same thing.”

•“Most bodybuilders only have a hazy notion of what they want to look like. They do not say, ‘I am going to be a winner.’ The negative impulses around the gym can be incredible. I would hear bodybuilders complaining, ‘Oh,no! Not another set!’ That destroyed them. I have always believed that if you’re training for nothing, you’re wasting your effort!”

•“My definition of a sport is that it’s a physical activity that involves competition. Since bodybuilders certainly train and then compete, we are certainly a sport.”