Why Did Arnold Schwarzenegger Train 12 Months a Year?

David Senra, reading The Education of a Bodybuilder, says Arnold Schwarzenegger trained 12 months a year because he wanted to win more than anything and would not pause. Most other bodybuilders then took a month or two off. He went straight through with no let-up and gave up things they would not. Whatever it took, he did it.

Senra then reads Total Recall, the autobiography Schwarzenegger wrote as an older man. The other bodybuilders could not handle working every day. Schwarzenegger wanted to be rich very quickly, and for him work meant discovery and fun. Someone complaining about 10-hour and 12-hour days got a blunt reply: the day is 24 hours. Every rep and every set got him one step closer to the goal. Missing a workout made him sick, because he could not look at himself in the mirror the next morning.

He had a need to be the best in the world. The drive was not normal, the vision of where he wanted to go was not normal, and a conventional existence was like kryptonite. The training was intense and time-consuming, and he took to it completely.